k8 arts conversation

Barth Quenzer
Visual Arts Teacher

ADVICE TO A NEW TEACHER

It can be summed up in three deliberate words: Discipline with Dignity (which is actually the name of a classroom management book).

Students seem to be very concerned with equity in the classroom; what is fair and not fair. We are taught in the Teacher Ed. Programs to bring democratic principles into the classroom. Pure democracy in the classroom is an unattainable ideology. Once teaching the teacher becomes the dictator by deciding seating charts, rules and expectations, curriculum, and even the general attitude and classroom atmosphere. Students notice that each teacher’s classroom management strategies are different. Is it any wonder that some students push the limits of a teacher’s guidelines to find out where the limits actually exist?

A seasoned teacher would tell you to expect the unexpected. Under any circumstance, act on classroom management issues with dignity, or at least give it your best shot. The last thing students need is another explosive teacher. Students need to witness a teacher who can effectively apply reservation, care, and deliberation to issues as they arise. With this approach, a teacher can practice democratic principles in the classroom.

My perception about students changed for the better one momentous day. This came after reading an article about neurological research being done on the difference between the adult and adolescent brain. Specifically, they were looking for physiological differences. In conclusion, they found that the adult and adolescent brain were fundamentally the same, except for one, small area. This specific area of the brain had to do with a person’s ability to reserve oneself just long enough to consider the short-term or long-term consequences of an action about to be taken. The area of the brain responsible for moments of self-restraint long enough to consider the effects of an action in an adolescent’s brain was considerably smaller than that of the adult’s brain. Altogether, this is not too surprising. But its implications for a teacher are monumental. Now, the teacher can expect that students will make mistakes, and the teacher no longer needs to take personal offense by feeling that the student’s action is an attack on the teacher. Like an epiphany, I began to see the students in a new light, and I was less offended by their actions, and instead reminded them of their place, the expectations, and the consequences of their actions. I had to do this repetitively. I could almost see that little area of their brain growing with every mistake made and then corrected.

Try to give students the opportunity to correct their actions. They will appreciate it.

Do what it takes to learn the students’ names.

Make phone calls home to report the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful. Parents of problem students will be ecstatic when you deliver some positive news about their child. Opening a bridge of communication home can effective change a student’s attitude and performance in the class.

Make good with the secretaries and the facility managers in the school, as they can provide you with anything you would need. They are your best friends… always!