So you have a problem student and they continue to manifest negative behavior in the classroom. You try the gamut: detentions, calls home, ignoring, corrective behavior, behavior plan, etc. and finally you muster up the energy to go to the dean and ask for an intervention. This is typically done after a serious incident such as a physical altercation or a breakdown in the classroom. The kid is out of control in your mind and your hope is that an intervention will curtail their negative behavior. And then the meeting produces no useful results whatsoever. Who's at fault? The parents? The student? The teacher? The dean/behavior specialist? Well from my small experience and from countless veteran teacher discussions, I see similar factors that render behavior interventions useless.
1. Teacher calls for intervention too late- Yea, I'll admit sometimes I should have intervened much earlier than I chose to and my student's behavior reached a point where it could not be controlled. The intervention naturally was ineffective because the child had already reached huge levels of disruption which allows them to only slightly deescalate their behavior in order to stay in the clear. An intervention typically tells a kid that they have crossed the line. So in their minds if they take a step back they'll be fine. In more concrete terms, a kid who "punched another kid in the face" and then received an intervention will rationalize that all of their behavior before that moment (e.g. play fighting, neck slapping, etc.) was acceptable behavior that they can get away with. The teacher who felt like the intervention was clear on physical interaction will find themselves frustrated because the student only dialed it back slightly. We need to draw the line around clear positive expectations. If respect other people's spaces is the rule in your classroom, then any infraction against that rule must be taken seriously. You need to call the intervention immediately. Don't wait...unless your administration keeps you.
2. Administration is not responsive- Just to be clear when ever I talk about dysfunctional administrations I'm never talking about my own. In fact, the only time I reference things from my school are criticisms of my own actions (my previous admission is a good example of this). But I have plenty of friends who have administrations that don't want to be stressed with the "small stuff" and that makes perfect sense. Administrations need to be focused for when huge serious issues occur, especially in schools that serve high needs populations. What do you do when a student is arrested? What do you do when you have a student potentially engaging in drug dealing within the school? Administrations are hard at work preventing those issues rather than talking to Brian Wilkers (completely made up story) about why he decided to get on his desk and start twerking in the middle of chemistry.
3. Conversation is framed in a broad or intangible manner-
What many people think would happen
Dean: Ok let's outline the negative behaviors this student does, let's outline the positive behaviors. Now let's create a plan to remove the negative ones and reward more heavily the positive ones.
Teacher: Sure, he is awesome at helping in the classroom, but he is horrible during the mini lesson
Parent: Well I know he has trouble focusing, maybe we can find a stress ball?
Dean: great we'll give him the stress ball and we'll tell him to keep his helper job he needs to focus in class.
Parent: I'll check up on him every week about how is focus is and corroborate what he says with the teacher.
Teacher: I'll be sure to upkeep communication with the parent and I'll create a point reward system that gives him rewards for keeping focus.
Dean: Ok bring him in so we can discuss these tangible next steps to change behavior.
What actually happens:
Dean: Ok let's lay into this kid for about 30 minutes.
Teacher: he's horrible, he's a nuisance. He's capable, but lazy. I want him to learn. It's not me, it's him. Etc. Etc.
Parent: I'm going to respond either in complete helpless agreement or I'm going to be overly defensive and claim my child is an angel and you are the only one having issues with him
Teacher: I'm either going to agree with your agreement or be passive aggressive about your disagreement the entire time.
Dean: ok now that we've established you have all these things wrong with you, how are you going to change your behavior
Student: here's a contrived and forced set of steps I will not follow and my teacher will have no way of holding me accountable to. Also, please accept my forced apology.
Dean: ok well hopefully that's the end of it.
Honestly, that's what ends up happening all the time. Behavior interventions needs some more concrete steps to follow.
4. Parents don't show-
No judgement here. Parents often have difficult lives and to expect them to come at moment's notice for meetings is actually pretty ridiculous. Just because a parent hasn't shown or call doesn't necessarily mean they don't care. Life is hard, so keep the judgement somewhere else. However, when a parent doesn't show up, all it accomplishes is reaffirming to the child that there are no real consequences for their actions.
5. Lack of a stable classroom environment-
As a new teacher my classroom management is so shaky. I can admit that I have a lot to work on as a manager of the classroom as most first year teachers do. So when I have a student who's chronically a behavior problem, it's important for me accept a fraction of responsibility for their actions in the classroom. If I maintained a strong classroom, many of them would not act the way they do. It's often due to unclear and poor maintenance of expectations that classroom chaos ensues. That chaos can be enough to set off students who have poor control of their behavior. Of course don't ever let students use this as an excuse for bad behavior.
1. Teacher calls for intervention too late- Yea, I'll admit sometimes I should have intervened much earlier than I chose to and my student's behavior reached a point where it could not be controlled. The intervention naturally was ineffective because the child had already reached huge levels of disruption which allows them to only slightly deescalate their behavior in order to stay in the clear. An intervention typically tells a kid that they have crossed the line. So in their minds if they take a step back they'll be fine. In more concrete terms, a kid who "punched another kid in the face" and then received an intervention will rationalize that all of their behavior before that moment (e.g. play fighting, neck slapping, etc.) was acceptable behavior that they can get away with. The teacher who felt like the intervention was clear on physical interaction will find themselves frustrated because the student only dialed it back slightly. We need to draw the line around clear positive expectations. If respect other people's spaces is the rule in your classroom, then any infraction against that rule must be taken seriously. You need to call the intervention immediately. Don't wait...unless your administration keeps you.
2. Administration is not responsive- Just to be clear when ever I talk about dysfunctional administrations I'm never talking about my own. In fact, the only time I reference things from my school are criticisms of my own actions (my previous admission is a good example of this). But I have plenty of friends who have administrations that don't want to be stressed with the "small stuff" and that makes perfect sense. Administrations need to be focused for when huge serious issues occur, especially in schools that serve high needs populations. What do you do when a student is arrested? What do you do when you have a student potentially engaging in drug dealing within the school? Administrations are hard at work preventing those issues rather than talking to Brian Wilkers (completely made up story) about why he decided to get on his desk and start twerking in the middle of chemistry.
3. Conversation is framed in a broad or intangible manner-
What many people think would happen
Dean: Ok let's outline the negative behaviors this student does, let's outline the positive behaviors. Now let's create a plan to remove the negative ones and reward more heavily the positive ones.
Teacher: Sure, he is awesome at helping in the classroom, but he is horrible during the mini lesson
Parent: Well I know he has trouble focusing, maybe we can find a stress ball?
Dean: great we'll give him the stress ball and we'll tell him to keep his helper job he needs to focus in class.
Parent: I'll check up on him every week about how is focus is and corroborate what he says with the teacher.
Teacher: I'll be sure to upkeep communication with the parent and I'll create a point reward system that gives him rewards for keeping focus.
Dean: Ok bring him in so we can discuss these tangible next steps to change behavior.
What actually happens:
Dean: Ok let's lay into this kid for about 30 minutes.
Teacher: he's horrible, he's a nuisance. He's capable, but lazy. I want him to learn. It's not me, it's him. Etc. Etc.
Parent: I'm going to respond either in complete helpless agreement or I'm going to be overly defensive and claim my child is an angel and you are the only one having issues with him
Teacher: I'm either going to agree with your agreement or be passive aggressive about your disagreement the entire time.
Dean: ok now that we've established you have all these things wrong with you, how are you going to change your behavior
Student: here's a contrived and forced set of steps I will not follow and my teacher will have no way of holding me accountable to. Also, please accept my forced apology.
Dean: ok well hopefully that's the end of it.
Honestly, that's what ends up happening all the time. Behavior interventions needs some more concrete steps to follow.
4. Parents don't show-
No judgement here. Parents often have difficult lives and to expect them to come at moment's notice for meetings is actually pretty ridiculous. Just because a parent hasn't shown or call doesn't necessarily mean they don't care. Life is hard, so keep the judgement somewhere else. However, when a parent doesn't show up, all it accomplishes is reaffirming to the child that there are no real consequences for their actions.
5. Lack of a stable classroom environment-
As a new teacher my classroom management is so shaky. I can admit that I have a lot to work on as a manager of the classroom as most first year teachers do. So when I have a student who's chronically a behavior problem, it's important for me accept a fraction of responsibility for their actions in the classroom. If I maintained a strong classroom, many of them would not act the way they do. It's often due to unclear and poor maintenance of expectations that classroom chaos ensues. That chaos can be enough to set off students who have poor control of their behavior. Of course don't ever let students use this as an excuse for bad behavior.
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