As the day progressed, the knot in my stomach grew tighter and tighter.
The challenge
Addressing difficult classroom behaviour while maintaining a special bond with students.
Many of my French 20 students were my very first students. The day we met was their first of high school and my first as a new teacher. Our combined newness and nervousness likely helped us forge the special bond we created.
This class was great — they were kind and mutually respectful, they participated in their lessons and we shared a lot of laughter. This is why I was so shocked when I learned how they’d behaved during my first day away at a PD workshop.
The substitute teacher left me pages and pages of notes. My students had completely forgotten how to be good classroom citizens, switching names with one another for attendance, entering and exiting the classroom as they pleased and devoting not a single minute to on-task behaviour.
This was my first classroom discipline concern, and I felt that the students’ actions reflected who I was as their teacher. I didn’t know how I was ever going to find another substitute for this class or what I was going to say to my students. As the day progressed, the knot in my stomach grew tighter and tighter.
In the afternoon, as the students arrived for French 20, I did not offer a single hello or bonjour. Once the students were seated, I held up the sheets of looseleaf from the substitute teacher. I explained how sad I was to receive such a report, how I could not believe she was describing this class, and I provided very detailed instructions on how they should behave in the future.
On and on I lectured, for well over 15 minutes. I then informed the class that because their behaviour had broken my teacher heart and I was now going to have to beg the sub for forgiveness, French 20 was going to be a silent study period — no talking, no moving.
The next day I was still carrying doubts. Had I been too harsh? Would a different approach have been more effective? What if they hated being in my classroom now? But when I arrived, waiting for me on my desk were a box of chocolates, a dozen roses and a card. I felt warm inside as my teacher heart healed. I kept that card in a special place for many years.
| Got an idea? Maybe you created a lesson that totally flopped or was truly inspiring. Whatever your story, please sum it up in 300 words or less and email it to managing editor Cory Hare at cory.hare@ata.ab.ca. |
