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Category Archives: Behaviour Management
Helping students find their way to success
Some students do not have the work habits that make it easy for them to be successful in school. In class, I talk a lot about the characteristics of successful people and the role that perseverance plays in their success. Unfortunately, perseverance is not the only thing some of my students lack. They lack another important characteristic that successful people share. They lack the emotional support they need to help them be successful. Some students don’t have anyone there for them when the going get tough or even to help them celebrate life’s successes great or small. That’s where I come in. I try to give them the emotional support they need to help them find their way to success at school.
Sometimes students will work on projects and assignments but for any number of reasons don’t submit the assignments for evaluation. They seem to run out of energy, interest or whatever and just give up. I’m always encouraging them to submit things so I can give them the marks they’ve earned. I’m constantly telling them if they don’t hand things in it makes it very difficult for me to find marks to give them. I don’t find it useful to tell them that if they don’t hand work in they’ll fail. They’re used to hearing that. They’re used to failing. I take a different approach. I tell them they have to help me find the marks they need to pass them. Yes, of course it would be nice if my students just wanted to learn for the sake of learning, but that’s not the way it is for some students. I have to start where from where my students are.
I used to get very frustrated when I would see my students working on assignments in class and then not submit them for evaluation. In fact, it used to drive me crazy. I’ve learned to observe and record their progress during the time they work in class so that if for some reason they don’t submit an assignment, I still have some sense of their progress and can evaluate what I have seen. Believe me, there are many reasons why assignments don’t get handed in. Not completing them is only one reason.
It’s important to know that some of my more reluctant/struggling students are not interested in getting high marks. They feel they’ve aced the course when they get 51%. I know because they’ve told me this. Of course I encourage my students to do more than the bare minimum and will often tell them they’ve made a good start. Then, I encourage them to improve their work by suggesting if they just changed this a bit here or expanded on that a bit there I could find more marks to give them. Believe me. It works.
I’ll admit this whole idea of finding marks to give students for assignments they have or have not submitted can seem a bit strange. But, and this is a big but, I teach students who are at-risk academically, and I need to think creatively to find ways to motivate them and give them the support they need so they can find their way to success. That’s what makes teaching so rewarding.
Posted in "At-risk" students, assignments, Behaviour Management, creative ways of finding marks to give students, emotional support for students, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Evaluation, giving students emotional support, helping students succeed, lack, marks, motivating students, my , perseverance, perseverance in school, positive climate, Special Education, submit, success, supporting at-risk students, The way I see it, underachieving students, work habits
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The problem of using common sense to regulate teacher conduct
I was reminded again about the problem with common sense when I read that the Alabama House of Representatives had blocked a teacher code of conduct from becoming law. Opponents argued that the standards were too vague. Supporters argued that they weren’t because they were based on “common sense and something all parents, teachers and legislators should support”.
Common sense is not common. It is very subjective. Let me explain. I teach in a high school with a student population of about 1 700 students. You could easily hear over 60 languages being spoken as you negotiate your way through the halls from one class to the next. Many new immigrants settle in the area served by our school. These immigrants bring with them “the common sense” that served them in their homeland. It may or may not be the “common sense” of the community they live in now.
Some students in my class have told me that teachers ought to be able to beat their students when students misbehave. That made common sense to them. That’s what teachers did “back home” and it worked, they tell me. Kids behaved themselves because they could be beaten if they didn’t. A few parents have even given teachers permission to beat their kids if they misbehave. Thank fully, the common sense that dictates corporal punishment for student misbehaviour is not common to everyone.
I don’t mean to imply here that it is only the case that some immigrants have different “common senses”. That’s certainly not the case at all. I just wanted to make the point that common sense can vary from culture to culture, from community to community and even within a community. There’s nothing common about common sense.
In Ontario, the Education Act, law, sets out the code of conduct for teachers regarding students and for students regarding teachers. The code of conduct is not left to common sense. It doesn’t seem to me there are any major problems with the code. If anyone knows of any, I would appreciate hearing about them. I don’t want to go into a lot of detail here except to say that teachers who break the code of conduct suffer consequences for their actions. Sometimes that means they have their teaching certificate withdrawn; sometimes they are required to get appropriate counseling or training.
I think it is useful to have a code of conduct enacted in law because it forces everyone to be on the same page about what is expected from teachers and from students. It doesn’t matter what a person’s “common sense” tells them. It’s what the code of conduct as law says that counts. I think this gets around the problem of different “common senses”. What do you think?
Photo thanks to didbyatgraham
Posted in Behaviour Management, common sense, discipline in classroom, motivating students, teacher behaviour, The way I see it
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