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In Defense of Classroom Rules


I've spent my lunch hours this semester with The New Guy. He's a first-year English teacher.. I enjoy a lot of things about our lunches. One is that he likes to eat well and cares about the environment. Case in point is this sushi lunch that he brought in a glass container yesterday.


The other thing I like about our lunches is that he is too young and new to complain. I'm sure that like me, you've experienced many teacher lunch groups that spend the whole time complaining about kids, the administration, colleagues, and the like. Those kinds of lunches are a real drag.


The New Guy (TNG) is fun to talk to because I get to learn about Millennials. They get a bad rap, and if TNG's lunches say anything, it's that the bad rap is unfounded. He rescues dogs, is rehabbing a house, eats kale, and dresses well. I'm a fan.


This post isn't about how much I'm enjoying my lunches with TNG. This post is about the important thing he learned this year.


At the beginning of the school year, his approach to classroom management was (in his words) "To let [students] suffer the natural consequences of their actions." He categorized his teaching style as "casual" and "laid back." He neither assigned his students' seats, nor banned phone use during class times. His management plan was to allow students to recognize the bad grades that resulted from their inattention, feel the pain of said bad grades, and then change for the better.


But those results didn't happen. Why?

The lesson is that casual and laid back rarely works, and that in order to maintain sanity and reach students in a meaningful way, you have to intentionally manage your classroom.

Why should teachers intentionally manage their classrooms?

  • Students do best in classes that are well-managed.

  • Students feel safest in classrooms where teachers are in control.

  • Students value their teachers' competency, and part of that competency is the type of environment that the teacher creates, and the types of behaviors the teacher allows.

  • Immature students cannot manage themselves.

TNG started the year with a natural consequences approach, and he ended the year with headaches, We talked about it, and we landed on three reasons why:


  • Reason #1: Many students are not mature enough to manage their phone use. Teachers can't compete with the dopamine-producing phone games and apps, even if they're dressed as Mario and teaching knife-throwing. It's just not biologically possible (in my un-scientifically proven opinion).


  • Reason #2: Many students are not mature enough to see the consequences of their choices because


  • Reason #3: the consequences don't happen fast enough. A student's choosing to not listen doesn't have a significant payoff in the moment. The payoff comes with a failing grade (and even then, failing grades often aren't a motivator), an angry parent, a summer-school enrollment payment, or a reflective moment in a dead-end job five years hence.


What can teachers do, then? How can TNG encourage more kids to pay attention? Should attention be incentivized or is it just expected? I love these questions, and they're hard to answer.


I think teachers have to manage with intention and be great teachers. Subcategories of those objectives are to lead with care, engage and inspire, and hold high but fair standards, and believe that every student can meet them. Our favorite teachers were never the ones who let chaos reign (unless it was Yearbook or Journalism, haha).


In order to do those things, TNG needs assigned seating. It's worth it to prevent students from being distracted by their friends. Next, TNG needs to ban phones and have a strict and consistent consequence for using them. Then, TNG needs to continue being and growing into the excellent teacher he is at his core. Some props to TNG: He loves teaching writing. He loves the thinking behind writing, the writing itself, and the analysis of writing. Isn't that great!? Three cheers for TNG! Those things are not at all my jam, so I have major respect for teachers for whom they are.


If my seating chart and phone ban seem harsh, hear me out:


Students might actually be relieved that you're coming down hard on phones. They may actually get a chance, because you have banned phones, to see that they CAN do well in school, that they DO have a natural curiosity that has lain dormant, and that they ARE valued class members with the potential to become something. Most students will not take that leap on their own; you cannot compete with dopamine rewards, but they will take the leap when you enforce the rule and then teach your heart out. How cool when the kids see how much unexpected joy they can get out of a class!


One thing that parents know that non-parent-teachers may not know: Even though your child may be rolling his eyes, breathing heavy sighs, or sitting with his arms crossed with a scowl on his face, you are still getting through despite the mask, some day he may appreciate it, it's still important to parent even though you think your parenting isn't working, and this is where faith comes in.


Plus, students want to enjoy school. No one wants to spend 175 days, 8 hours a day hating their environment. Do you? Of course not. In that time, you want to experience joy, acceptance, inspiration, guidance, energy, creativity, mastery, connection, and growth. (Writing that list, I realized those are same things that I want out of my job.) Just like you want to enjoy your job, your students want to enjoy your class.


I see myself writing several more posts on the topic of intentional classroom management, and since this one is getting long, I'll probably follow it up with a podcast episode and some more thinking. Visit me on Instagram to weigh in or accuse me of being too Old Skool, which may be true, idk. Does the fact that I just used "idk" serve as evidence that I'm not Old Skool?


Bye and XO,

Meredith

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