Managing Classroom Behavior

Being outstanding at teaching disaffected learners is actually fairly straightforward - but so few teachers do it. You just need to continually test and adapt new teaching strategies on a small scale. It may be a new lesson starter, using a new resource, instigating collaborative working techniques, student-led projects, negotiation techniques. You test small, then you measure the results. How did it go? What response did it generate? Did all the class engage and work? If it was not successful, you've learnt an important lesson and move on. If it was successful, you roll it out and make it an integral part of your teaching armoury.

golden teacher I was also never into hot water. But now that I live in the Pacific Northwest I have an appreciation for tubs. I'm glad I am usually not shy. And am amazed how non-sexual I find the baths. Bodies are of so many sorts. If women went topless I bet men would be less fixated on sex and everyone would be more at peace. There is occasional beauty outward and often beauty inward found with people there and now here. We make sex overly important by our thoughts and conditioning and other societal games (make up, advertising, high heels -- my thought not Esalen's).

Unfortunately, the school system at that time didn't provide any career guidance and so I made my choice based on very superficial data. In fact, when I look back on this decision, I can laugh at myself wholeheartedly. After all, I decided to become a teacher because I liked my uncle Jack. He was a school superintendent in Manitoba when I was growing up and I admired him. And, I wanted to earn a university degree because no one in my family had taken that route.

golden teacher Nothing bugs these types of students more than unfair punishment and the sceptre of a 'teacher's pet'. Therefore, make sure you deal equally with all students committing the same 'offence'. Don't bring past history or reputation in to your dealings with students in a new class or year. Tell the class every student begins in your class with a 'clean sheet'. You will not remember or seek to find out their 'reputation' unless they give you cause to do that.

golden teacher growkit In one such story person from a very poor background, educationally or otherwise, came to city from the rural hinterland. In search of greener pastures, he had fled his village after passing junior high school (class 8th) examination. After coming to the city he worked as a water boy in a charitable college. He lived in miserable condition away from his home with no support whatsoever. He, however, continued his studies and passed his high school examination, and thereafter in the next two years finished his intermediate (class 12). For his effort he was offered to work as a lab assistant in the same college.

golden teacher growkit A last warning: Don't be fooled by the glitz. Often the best martial-arts schools are the plain ones ... even the classes taught out of a garage. It's the same with ezines -- more often than not, the better ezines are plain-text emails.

If I could have actually spoken to boys I think I would have had more to say to Adam, the golden poet than to the endearing but less complex John. Needless to say I could hold hands and even kiss but both relationships ultimately folded because I really didn't know what you said to boys when all that was done.

golden teacher growkit You are much more inclined to pay attention to an author whose writing style appeals to you. If you like the guy (or gal), you'll be more inclined to practice what you read. And practice is what's key.

golden teacher Everyone knows by the time they're in 3rd grade that it's teacher's pet who has the honor of cleaning the erasers, wiping down the blackboard, and replacing stubs with fresh, long white pieces of chock that felt amazingly smooth as your fingers slid lightly over their cool hardness as you placed them neatly in the chock tray. Mrs. Conroy smiled at me as she arranged the pages of each student's best cursive writing on the bulletin boards flanking both sides of the clean blackboard. We had everything in place for tomorrow. It would be a great day. And I was, indeed, a good girl who had learned the hard way to wiggle her toes a few months ago with the encouragement of the physical therapy heroes.

golden teacher growkit Like any experienced Jewish son, I quickly disregarded my mother's concern as paranoia. This is a woman who would triple-lock her bedroom door living in a convent (probably to ward off any lesbian nuns). When I became a lawyer, she suggested I change my last name and pretend to be gentile, because "law firms might not like the Jews." I informed her that in fact many of the most prominent law firms had Jewish names, but my mother wrote that off to an "attempt to be politically correct." According to her, those Jews were probably just figureheads. Apparently the Pope is the real mastermind behind the American legal system.

What was most remarkable though, was that it wasn't my class. I was their substitute teacher. The transformation they experienced took place in a two week period. For the two years I subbed, this ritual of establishing respect and mutual worth had the same results--regardless of were it was applied. So-called troubled, hyper, or violent kids all rose to the expectation that they too, were worthy of being addressed and treated with respect. Was I a super teacher or psychological genius? Not by any stretch. I simply worked a principle. That's the great thing about principles; they work regardless of who uses them. Later in my career, I saw a memorable illustration of the power of positive expectations. It came from the story of a legendary trader with a comic strip name.