MTT

Today while I was at Meyer Middle School, while the teachers met for their daily team meeting, the big issue that was discussed was a group of 4 students, in this case they happened to be boys, that were consistently being disruptive in class. Not only are they deterring from their own learning, but they have also been distracting and disruptive to other students. All of the core teacher felt strongly that something needed to be done to alter the behavior of these boys. Mark, the assistant principal, who used to be a teacher himself, shared a technique that he used in his classroom. This approach had three steps, the first was to walk over and stand beside the disruptive student, which would be considered the students first warning. The second step was to walk over to the student, stand in their personal space, and calmly and quietly whisper in their ear what they are doing wrong and what will happen if they continue this behavior. The last step would that if the student did not change their behavior, the teacher would point to the door, and the student would know that this gesture meant that they needed to go to the office. The teachers all agreed that this would be an appropriate technique to use with these students, and in fact they even called each of the boys that they were having such difficulties with into the team meeting and explained this new procedure to them, and that their behavior will no longer be tolerated in the classroom. Mark also explained these 3 steps to the students and that he expects that he expects them each to change their behavior because it has gone on for too long, and the teachers have been more that patient with them thus far. Mary also explained, not to the students but to the other teachers, that when she got a report from a substitute that the students were all disruptive and talkative the entire class, that the following day she had her students open their planners to the section on student rights and responsibilities. She had them read out loud the statement that teachers have a right to teach, and each student has the right to learn, and explained to them that by being so disruptive, they took this right away from everyone. I thought that both of these techniques were great classroom management strategies that I would like to implement in my classroom. Has anybody else heard or seen any good classroom management techniques that they find might be useful?

“Last night, the school board voted on student uniforms.  Teacher uniforms are still being debated.

BUT….the law says that uniforms must be provided if students are eligible for free lunch.  (assistance must be provided to those eligible for reduced lunch)  Our school has over 70 % free and reduced lunch students.  The solution?  Change the wording to delete the word uniform.  Our new ‘dress code’ says only black and khaki pants and shirts with collars or turtlenecks with no logo, design, slogan or other decoration are allowed.  Because they aren’t calling it a uniform, they don’t have to provide anything.

In addition, the students are allowed to wear any shoes they choose.  Pink stilettos,  stripper boots, sandals…all allowed.  In the area where I work/ live, shoes are a much more important symbol of status than any other item of clothing.  They will not be required to tuck in their shirts, which should ensure that they won’t have to stop sagging.”

I read this on Mad Hot Math, and thought it raises some interesting questions. First of all, I feel like changing the word uniform to dress code was very manipulative. In a school where 70% of the students have free and reduced lunch, these families are obviously not in a position where they can go out and buy a weeks’ worth of new clothes for their child. My second thought on this was that if the students are allowed to wear whatever shoes they please to maintain their social status, and their pants are still allowed to sag as much as they please, what problem is the uniform, excuse me, dress code really correcting?