Dealing with the unexpected in our classrooms
In “Becoming a Transformative Curriculum Leader,” Henderson and Hawthorne present a positive and encouraging article, driving us to go beyond teaching itself and into a deeper, more impacting career. As motivating as this article is, it is also idealistic, and it tends to ignore many of the daily struggles that teachers face. However, one of the best points it makes is “not see(ing) things black and white… when dealing with people, especially children, conditions are usually cloudy.”
I believe that this is a very healthy attitude to keep as we interact with our students in class everyday. We’re always facing new situations, sometimes unexpected, sometimes out of context, that take us by surprise and that make us feel “unprepared” to deal with them. We often have to make decisions instantly, and only after do we think “maybe I should have done this or that instead.” In this way, it is important to know that there are no “black and white,” right or wrong answers. We are not working with computers, or predictable beings, but instead, with a group of children with an enormous amount of variability. Thus, how do we take this lack of “black and white” in our everyday practices to become successful professionals? How do we take unexpected behaviors, responses and attitudes in our children to make the best out of the situation? How do we use the no “black and white” approach to keep us reassured that we are doing our jobs right?
I believe that this is a very healthy attitude to keep as we interact with our students in class everyday. We’re always facing new situations, sometimes unexpected, sometimes out of context, that take us by surprise and that make us feel “unprepared” to deal with them. We often have to make decisions instantly, and only after do we think “maybe I should have done this or that instead.” In this way, it is important to know that there are no “black and white,” right or wrong answers. We are not working with computers, or predictable beings, but instead, with a group of children with an enormous amount of variability. Thus, how do we take this lack of “black and white” in our everyday practices to become successful professionals? How do we take unexpected behaviors, responses and attitudes in our children to make the best out of the situation? How do we use the no “black and white” approach to keep us reassured that we are doing our jobs right?
posted by Ms. Arcos at 9:55 AM
14 Comments:
Writing curriculum: What works?
Due to the intense discussion on writing curriculum, I thought that based on what we have all learned this semester, it would be fun for people to see different styles of curriculum writing that works for fellow bilingual teachers.
Personally, when I have written bilingual curriculum I use the following format:
- Decide on the unit of study.
- Decide what language it will be taught in (if this is an option)
- Write lesson of step by step of what will happen and what will be achieved.
- Write materials, objectives, goals and "Do Now" first and then time blocks of activity.
- Allow time for assessment of some type. (This typically is left out due to time constraints.)
* Learn from prior mistakes and fix them.
* Judge how much time it will realistically take to begin and finish the lesson
These are my thoughts, what are yours?
Susan
Susan-- what does your response have to do with Trini's question?
Moving on, it is important to remember that teaching is a profession. We are lucky to become a significant part in our students' lives, however, there is still the teacher-student hierachy that exists. If you always conduct yourself as a professional, it's a lot harder to lose your cool. You need to remember that you're the adult in the situation and that you have a job to do. In completing this job, you realize that children react differently to various situations, with different likes/dislikes/personalities/issues and no one solution to help everyone. If you don't recognize student differences, you disregard the students. It is not until you are the teacher that you are truly able to hear and see the unpredictable nature of the classroom. You get a sense of it when you're a practicum student or student teacher, but, when everything is up to you, this becomes much more than a sense. I think the hardest judgement call is when to take a comment or situation lightly or seriously. You learn how to make everything a teachable moment, but learning when to let the group decide what is acceptable and when to step in. Self-evaluation is also key. You need to reflect and think about the day's activities, or you learn to write-off situations instead of making them as positive as possible. Each teacher is still human, and should remember that the students' needs come before his/her personal agenda.
I agree with many of the things Sarah mentioned. Every situation is unique and following a general rule is not always possible. Conducting ourselves professionally is very important.
But I'd like to offer what my mother constantly tells me every time I'm in a difficult situation with studetns or children in general. Kids need limits. Limits make them feel safe and comfortable in an environment. Our job as a teacher is to set up an environment that has these limits, not to limit their potential, thoughts, or anything like that, but to help them keep control over their own behavior. Kids are kids. They should not be expected to have to manuever in the world alone (though unfortunately some are). Teachers (and parents) are there to guide kids and provide them with a structure so that they can see the world from someplace safe. So while everything is obviously not black and white, there are still some things that teachers need to do to make sure students feel safe, be that reinfocing behavior rules or providing a safe space to share feelings and thoughts. But even though kids need limits to feel safe, they will not usually meekly submit to these limits. They will constantly test them, push at them, see how far they can go before someone stops them. Teachers have to accept this, and realize it is a natural reaction that is trying to reaffirm the safety of their environment. They push the limits to make sure those limits are still there. Teachers need too make sure those limits stay there so that kids feel safe and can focus on learning in a positive environment. So as much as we can't view everything in shades of black and white, it is important not to let ourselves get taken away by all the shades of grey in between. At the end of the day, teachers are there to provide a service for students: to teach them, and sometimes black and white limits are the way that happens.
I absolutely agree with Sarah that self-evaluation is a critical, key tool when it comes to making the right calls in teaching. I think self-evaluation/reflection allows us to step back and re-visit a particular situation with a critical eye. In this way, we can lessen the chance of making the same mistake again and improve our chances of knowing what is right when something unpredictable does occur in our classroom. With this in mind, I think one of the best ways in which we can approach teaching with a “non-black-and-white” attitude is to be as conscious as possible of our moral and professional duty. Obviously, this is the challenging side of our job. However, I think the individuals who are truly passionate about teaching do develop some sort of “sixth” sense, and with time, experience, and patience, we begin to become aware of what is truly right for each individual child. I’ve found that there are a few questions that serve as an effective “self-check” when I deal with unpredictable, challenging situations. The first is: “What would I do if this were my child?” This helps me to be more sensitive and open minded. It also makes me put the child’s needs above all else. Another question I ask myself is “Has this happened before?/Is there some sort of connection or repetitive behavior that I’m seeing?” With these questions or reminders, I’m able to better assess the situation and I can then determine if it’s something that I need to be concerned about or if it’s something I can take lightly. When all else fails, talking with a colleague has always helped me, and of course, talking with the parents. And when we do make mistakes or make the wrong calls, I think the best approach is to acknowledge it, apologize and not make excuses. I think we also need to be realistic and realize that all teachers make mistakes from time to time. The most important thing is to keep the child’s best interest at heart, and to not be so hard on ourselves.
I think both teachers and students are growing together. As a classroom teacher, you have to meet things out of expectation all the time since the environment as well as its people around you is changing, such as your students, educational policy at a federal/state/local level and the school goal and so forth. Not only children, human beings are all likely and possibly have done unexpected things. In setting of classroom, we have to identify what are acceptable and what are not acceptable and make it clear to the kids. In the face of the whole class, I think teacher's priority should be to maintain the role of somebody in control in terms of teacher-student relationship; in privacy, teachers can be more flexible considering kids' emotional or some other personal causes for his/her unexpected behavior. However, teachers should set a bottom line for everybody and no one is allowed to cross it. When a teacher has to make an immediate judgement, she/he first takes the impacts of her/his decision upon other kids into account since once the bottom line is lowered for one specific kid, it is pretty hard to implement for the rest of the class.
Besides, it is also helpful for teachers to make use of peer influnces in class. Kids will also react to some member's unexpected bahavior/answer, no matter it is desirable or not. Whole class discussion upon certain topics may be helpful to construct a class community where all members share the basic rules or conduct codes. Thus, everyone in this community knows exactly what others expect him/her to do and what they do not
It is very true that teachers sometimes encounter situation that they do not expect and have to deal with it under the circumstances. I think teachers learn to deal with various situations through discussion with colleagues and experiences over time. It's important to use our instinct to judge what is right or wrong at the moment. As teachers, we need to be a positive influence and a role model for the students. Therefore if students sometimes misbehave or do things that we don't tolerate, we need to realize that they are children that need guidance. We have be the bigger person and put our feelings aside and find ways to deal with the situation and teach them lessons. Even if we don't get to do it right away, we can always talk about the issues or discuss the problems with the children in a later time. The idea is to find the most appropriate way to educate the children, even it it takes time for you to think about how to go and do it.
One approach to keep us reassured that we are doing the right job is to be fair to all students. I think in reality we would all have our favorite students. We need to try not to show that because children pick that up very quickly and directly. If they think you're not treating all students equally when dealing with the same situation, it is difficult to have them listen to you and it might create a negative atmosphere in the classroom.
Trini's post reminds me of a story on THIS AMERICAN LIFE: "Squirrel Cop." Maybe you know this one. The cop tells a story about one of his first mistakes on the job. At the end, he says that over time you learn how to deal with things just based on experience; you have a better idea of what things you can and cannot handle, and you learn to have a well-thought out plan before going into a situation, anticipating any problems that might arise.
I think teaching might be like that; we may make our disastrous mistakes often enough at the beginning, but with time and experience, we'll learn class management skills and figure out what works and what doesn't with a particular group of kids. Of course, dealing with the unexpected is always difficult, but if we keep our main goals in mind (the development of our students), we will probably improve our responses over time.
Also, keeping sane is key, and I think the only way of doing that is having a strong support system -- fellow teachers, friends, etc., who are there to remind you that you're only human and that you'll do better next time!
Here's the link to the episode with "Squirrel Cop": http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=115
I totally agree with what I read in that article about the classroom not being black and white. Every day I look back on what went right, and what went right, and think about how I will change things for next year. I think one of the greatest parts of what we do is that things do change every day, there are a lot of unexpecteds, and there's always room for improvement. The teacher who realizes that no lesson they have taught was perfect is the teacher who is constantly learning, growing, and becoming a better teacher and role model for the students. I think it is this lack of black and white that actually makes us successful. Something else that has been useful for me is networking with other teachers. In my school there was a lot of division among the grades, simply because we have different schedules and tend to find time for only our immediate colleagues, but I knew that the other teachers could be great resources. To overcome this, I posted a sharing forum in the faculty room. Anytime we have a question or concern or even just advice, we write it on the poster board around the room. Under that, teachers have the opportunity to give feedback, ask questions, or offer wisdom from their own experiences. I think in this field where you really can't learn everything in school, learning from your own experience and the experience of friends is the best way to assure ourselves that we're doing the job the best we can.
Although Henderson and Hawthorne’s present a positive and self-reassuring article, I agree with Trini that it would be idealistic. I agree that the “not seeing things black and white… when dealing with people, especially children, conditions are usually cloudy.” It is important to be prepared for the unexpected behaviors, responses, and attitudes children can have. As it was mentioned before as teachers we are facing new and unexpected situations, that will sometimes take us back. Although we might not have the right “thing” to say it is important to offer the best advice we can. I know I was taken back when one of my students said to me, “I think I am going to drop out of school when I get to high school like my brother did.” It was said during an art activity that had nothing to do with future plans, but it somehow unexpectedly came up. I must admit I was shocked because I did not want to accept that my 5th grade student would come up with a comment like that. It was hard to take in. I tried talking to him about why he felt like that. We ended up having an interesting conversation, where his statement came from his dissatisfaction with school. I feel when situations like this emerge it is important to think about the situation and how we are much more than educators. We are also role models that are not only teaching students, but also incorporating educational values, helping develop student attitudes, and their appreciation for academia. That is where I feel we can develop and establish the deeper ties in our profession. This includes getting to know our students on a personal level as well as keep track of how they learn and what their interests are.
I think that my teachers, the one that I remember for taking me to a higher level of education always were realistic and made decisions based on the classroom. I think that Teachers should have a balance between theory and practice because it can be great to take a theory to an idealistic idea and make it work in the classroom, but it is essential to be realistic. For example, Dangerous minds real story. Everything in the world cannot be perfect, that is the way life is; I believe that the challenges that people face throughout life is the indicator that sparks the decision to try to fight against it. There must be a relationship between a teacher and his/her students of respect and trust in order to have classroom management as well as giving students advice. The success story of students and their academic performance should be the evidence that a teacher is doing a great job.
I'm a big believer in small victories. So every time I feel like something really failed, I concentrate on one thing I did well and take that with me when I start the next day. So I guess that translates into the whole reflect and readjust bit that seems to be so popular in all our readings. I try not to dwell on things. As teachers we have to constantly think on our toes and make decisions in situations that are far from ideal. I try not to dwell on those moments, but instead think about how to move forward. It's also crucial that we realize that there is no magic answer for anything in the classroom. Somethings work wonders for some students but get you nowhere with others. So I think the key to teaching is to constantly assess situations in front of us and react accordingly. And that aint easy. WORD TO YA MOTHA!
I am not sure if I understood the question but I felt like it was asking me to think about strategies for dealing with the unpredictable nature of students. As many of you have mentioned in one way or another, experience should make it easier for teachers to teach children. It will take time for teachers to learn about the many different types of personalities and backgrounds that may affect student’s classroom behavior. Eventually, teachers should be able to predict how students might behave and react in different situations. This type of understanding will make it easier to develop standards for what is right and wrong in a given teacher’s classroom. Parents should be included in this development of classroom standards because they can provide invaluable information about their child’s behavior. If teachers work together with parents they should be establish just standards for classroom behavior. Once the children know what is expected of them, they will become more predictable and easier to teach.
In regards to how we responds to those unexpected questions, situations, and dialogues that our students may pose to us and expect ¨right¨answers. All I can say is that just how there is no black and white, there is also no right or wrong answer and it is a matter of perspective, so instead of running away from such situations, these situations should be taken advantage of. There is definite skill that needs to be attained, but I personally believe that it begins with self assertion of who you are and be willing to instill that it´s okay to agree to disagree with all and any perspectives that may differ. Our success therefore depends on where we place ourselves as individuals, it starts with the self, as is expected from our students, it starts with them. In additions, i think that it´s okay to tell students that there is a time and place to address certain issues, so although the issue is not addressed on the spot it is important and there is great value in addressing issues that give students the opportunity to use their critical eye. As an educator it is important to take advantage of the grey area, since it gives students who may or may not other wise have a voice. I think giving all our students to voice themselves and providing that space is the first step to assuring that we are doing our job in creating consciousious students. Of course this goes back to reflecting on the self to determine what you want your role as an educator to be.
What makes teaching so challenging is the fact that no situation is exactly alike. At the same time, I think this unpredictability is what makes teaching so exciting. As many of you have mentioned, experience definitely helps us in terms of planning for the unexpected and handle the situations that we encounter daily in a professional manner. However, it’s impossible to be “prepared” for every circumstance; I think having the right attitude might be more beneficial than the actual amount of experience and/or knowledge you may have. By “right” attitude I mean really loving the children that you teach and putting those children before anything else; I think true love often require us to draw definite lines and be “black and white.” Only when there are clear set of rules that create and maintain order can love and warmth be truly appreciated. If we have this notion of love and order instilled in us, I think we would be able to make the best out of any situation.
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