Paper Wads and a Substitute Teacher

A few weeks ago, my CT, Mrs. Bradley, informed me that she’d be gone for a few days; she told me that a substitute would be in the classroom, but that I’d be in charge of second hour.  I was excited and nervous, as Mrs. Bradley had not missed a day yet this school year.

Monday morning came soon enough.  When I walked in the classroom, a substitute teacher was sitting at Mrs. Bradley’s desk.  He introduced himself as Mr. Taylor. He was one of the creepy subs no one likes and I knew he was going to be entirely unhelpful.

On that rainy Monday morning, my students, usually angels, were unruly savages, screaming obscenities and throwing paper across the room.  What in the world have I done?  I thought this to myself and attempted to remain calm: “Zachary, please pick up the paper wads and sit down at your desk.” He looked over at me, saw that I was serious, and followed my instructions.

I turned my back for a mere second to discipline Zachary, but when I looked back, Jessica and Tammy, two of the best behaved students in the class, were out of their seats talking, laughing, and distracting others students.  Once again, I kept my cool: “Jessica? Tammy?”  They looked at me as I continued, “Please return to your seats and finish your assignment.” They rolled their eyes at me and stomped back to their seats.

 

However, the hour’s excitement was not quite over.  As I slowly paced through the classroom, monitoring the class several minutes before class ended, I overheard Samantha and Veronica:

“Hey, Sam? Can I borrow your assignment? I didn’t do mine. I’ll bring it back tomorrow.”
 

“Sure.”

Samantha passed the assignment over and Veronica gently slid it into her binder.  The bell was going to ring any second.  What should I do?  How do I handle this situation?

Rrrrriiiiinnngggg.

I had to do something.

“Samantha and Veronica, come see me, please.”  They reluctantly walked over to me.  “Did you give your assignment to Veronica, Samantha?”

“No, I didn’t.”  Samantha stared at me coldly.

“I saw you hand your assignment to Veronica when she asked to borrow it.”

“No, she did her assignment by herself.”

I studied her face for a few seconds: “I hope that when you two turn in your assignments tomorrow, you have completely different answers.”

They rolled their eyes at me and murmured, “Okay” as they entered the hallway. Mr. Taylor, the substitute who was completely useless during the hour’s events, stood their dumbfounded throughout the conversation.

Well, that could’ve gone better. I need some help.  What are some good classroom management ideas for first year teachers?  Well, I’m glad you asked.  After doing some research, I found an awesome non-print text (kudos for me!) that offered some great tips for first year teachers.  It’s a video called New Teacher Survival Guide: Classroom Management and highlights a first-year teacher, Ms. V.  Here are some classroom management tips I learned:

·         Develop individual strategies to redirect students who act out.  When I create individual ways to help students who tend to misbehave, this will help the entire class stay focused.

·         Use games and competitions to keep students engaged.  Believe it or not, high school students still get excited about classroom games.  If I create an assignment that allows student to compete, this will minimize the chance of misbehavior.

·         Break down lessons into their smallest component parts.  By breaking down lessons into the smallest piece possible, students will know exactly what’s expected of them and will be less likely to get off track.

·         Use whole class strategies like positive narration.  Highlighting students who are doing well will make the rest of the class want to be recognized too, increasing student attention and minimizing misbehavior.

What do you think of these strategies?  What are some you’d like to try in your classroom next fall?  What other classroom management strategies can you suggest?

By the way, after I graded the assignment Samantha gave to Veronica, I discovered that they decided not to cheat. :)

*As always, all names mentioned in this post are pseudonyms.

Works Cited

New Teacher Survival Guide: Classroom Management. Teaching Channel, 2011. Film. <http://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/new-teacher-survival-guide-classroom-management>.