Week Eleven: Carl Sandburg

I found this week at Carl Sandburg to be the most difficult. I have now taken over all the classes from my cooperating teacher. What was the most difficult was not the class load but my student’s behaviors. I think many of my students were showing their “other side” because of how close we were to spring break and they needed that week to defuse. On Monday, I had one of my most behaved students lose it because I started a unit on in Daily Living class on how to run a household. My student has a fear of growing older and he was outraged that he had to create a budget for how to live on your own and how to find an apartment. I lost him in the first five minutes of class. I took what I learned in Education classes that instead of feeding into the behavior, I should give him a choice in what he wants to do. I told him that he could finish the budget that we were working on, read through a “house and design magazine” or to lose his lunch and to work with me then. This way I am still having my student pick a choice that keeps them working but they have a say in the matter as well. Lucky for me he decided to do this when I was being observed so Professor Powell was not only able to see my lesson but my behavior management as well.

On Thursday I had another behavior problem during my functional science class. I have a student who will work hard until it comes to reading longer than a paragraph and he does not like to write at all. I try to call on him to read the shorter paragraphs or to keep the writing to small amounts but this day in particular was our test over our unit on Plants. He was allowed to use his study guide on both the vocabulary section as well as the multiple choice (I thought the multiple choice offered a better alternative than writing short answers). He ended up ripping up every copy I gave him and started breaking all his pencils. On top of that he was name calling and saying many things about me since I was making him take his test. I am glad that I was taught to stay cool and relaxed during this episode. I made sure to explain each of my reasons like “If you rip this paper up, I can always print you a new one,” so that he understands that by tearing it isn’t and will never get him out of doing a test. I also made a point to give him my pen since he wasn’t ready to use his pencils yet. Once he realized this wasn’t working he decided to throw his desk. At this point I realized that me talking me through the situation wasn’t making it better so I looked in my student’s folder on what was done in the past and I called one of our school cops to come and have a talk with my student. Once our officer talked to my student I was able to talk him into taking his test again. It was a long class period but I was happy to know that I stood my ground and showed that I wouldn’t waver from what I said.

I experienced the same issues with two other students on Friday. My teacher left school early and I was in charge of my class for only sixth period and then at our school assembly. I asked my aide to watch two of my students as I rounded up the rest of my class to make sure everyone was accounted for. When I came back I saw my aide in tears explaining how the students treated her and would not listen to her. My students decided they didn’t want to sit with our class (which is a rule at assemblies) and sit in the highest point in the bleacher. She was able to coax one student back down but I saw my second student at the very top. I knew that if left her alone to sit up there that I could lose my chance for her to see me as a teacher and authority figure. I went to the top and made all the students stand up until I could get my student out from the middle of the group. Once I did this she came out straight away and came to sit with our class. Since they were so disrespectful to their aide who was in charge of them we decided to give them both a write up. It was my first time dealing with this type of behavior and I was able to meet with their deans on what would be the consequences. By looking at Standard 10, it states that “the competent teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates how choices and actions affect students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community and actively seeks opportunities to grow professionally. “ This was important for me to do because I want to make sure that I handle my students in the correct way that is both respectful to them and myself. I made sure to call my teacher after school to see what steps she would have taken and then relate them to back to what I did. This helped show me how I am growing professionally and how to handle myself (or make things better) in the future when similar situations arise.