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Hi. Welcome to Week 9. This week we're going to start talking about some of the ideas
presented in "Teach Like a Champion" Chapter 6
setting and maintaing high behavior expectations in your classroom.
So at this point in the year you're probably noticing that student
behavior... students are trying to test behavior norms in your classroom a little bit
more than they were
at the beginning of the year.
Totally normal; totally traditional. It's also a time of year
where if you look at that "The phases of the first year teaching" graph that I
gave you that
teachers start to fall in this kind of disillusionment
phase in teaching where they're exhausted;
it's time for a break; everyone's sort of overwhelmed
by the amount work they have to do and the demands of teaching on a day-to-day basis.
So
that sets up a climate for students starting to
test their boundaries. Now it's also this kind of time where if teachers don't
start showing... if they didn't show in the beginning the year
you're gonna see the students perceiving this idea of teacher control as being
sort of arbitrary and something to
fight against. And I think it's really important to set up in the beginning of the year
as a teacher
a power structure, or a classroom management structure, in which
students understand that their behavior is about their success and not
your need for control or power over them.
So some of the ways you can do that are by implementing some of the techniques
in Chapter 6.
So
I don't want you to read the whole Chapter 6 this week. I only want
you to focus on the first 3 techniques:
Technique 36, which is 100%
I think 100% is a really valuable technique. And it's one that requires a
lot of discipline on the part of the teacher.
And one of the most perfect examples of 100%
that you can do... that should be done on a daily basis is when you give your
signal for silence
you're making sure that your students are 100% compliant.
Now the importance of 100% compliance that you read
... but really quickly is this idea that
you want
your students to know that
when you ask for them to do something 100% of the students must do it before
you'll
move on to your next thing.
So if you accept less than that, like "Oh, a majority of my students are
ready to go... I'm gonna continue on with my lesson" then you're sending the message
that you're authority is kind of subject to interpretation
and then you also get this, what
the author calls this "toxic culture"
of only the good kids want is asked and I think that it's really important
for you to make sure that 100% of the students are doing what you ask 100% of the
time.
So, there's also some video clips - watch those
and then there's going to be 2 essential questions this week
I want to answer both of them and you do not need to reply to a
classmate's
forum post. So you're gonna reply to 2 essential questions this week
instead of
the traditional format which is responding to the only 1 and then responding
to a classmate.
So I would just like 2 responses.
So the first essential question is going ask you to take these techniques
and think about something you've observed inside the classroom or even
outside of the classroom
in which you've seen trouble starting
and it hasn't gotten
stopped and what the consequences of that was
and then also what
do you think, after reading these techniques, could have been a better
approach that might have
stopped that behavior before it got out of control.
Or you can choose to
select a time when you've seen someone intervene too forcefully and it's been
detrimental to either the student or the situation and then describe how you would have done it better
Finally... looking at
the second essential question that I'd like you to look into
is trying to take some
specific things that teachers say a lot in the classroom
some certain phrases and then trying to specifically reframe
them in a more positive
and productive
frame
especially when you think about the what-to-do technique and the strong
voice when you think about
the power of your words as a teacher and how they can affect
student behavior
thinking about ways to positively frame requests
especially for defiant students and how that language can affect
your classroom management. So I look forward to reading your posts and I hope you have
a great week!