Although my classroom management skills are above average (how far “above? I’m not sure), student behavior remains an issue for me as I approach my 20th year of public school teaching.

In the past, I’ve used a “token system? to improve behavior and participation: i.e. I’ve given out Spanish “dolares? for correct answers and exemplary behavior and have later let students redeem them for candy and homework passes. Possibly the Spanish dollars have helped with participation; but I’m doubtful that they?ve had any significant effect on behavior. I’m probably going to do away with this elaborate reward system this next year. My last few years of teaching have been in poorer school districts where behavior is more of an issue than I’ve been used to. I hope Pat Barrett doesn’t read this and get mad at me, but in communities of lower socio-economic status, whether it’s because of genetics or parenting skills or both, student behavior is often execrable; and the “dolares? just don’t seem to have been that effective.

There are a couple of areas I’ve identified where I might personally work on classroom management. One comes from my current reading of Earl Stevick’s Teaching Languages: a Way and Ways. To quote my own paraphrase of Stevick, “we should give off “good vibes?: i.e. facial expressions, body postures, tones of voice, and inferences expressing confidence in ourselves as teachers and in our students as learners.? I believe this is an area where I fall short. I believe that my facial expressions and tones of voice often express disappointment and frustration with my students and their lack of learning. A history teacher currently next door to me seems to be much better at projecting “good vibes.? He does apparently sometimes get very angry with his students; but in general he has a rapport with them that I don’t. Stevick suggests that in the “good vibes? area there are a few teachers that instinctively give out good vibes without consciously learning how to do so and a small minority of teachers who are incapable of doing so. The rest of us can learn to project a positive, congenial warmth through “good vibe? meta-language. Stevick even recommends videotaping classes to identify ways to improve in this area. I’m not really intending to start taping my classes, but perhaps reflection and introspection will be enough to make progress.

A second area I’m considering is identified in a book by Dr. Marvin Marshall, Discipline without Stress, Punishments, or Rewards. In glancing at this book, there seems to be little that I haven’t read or heard about before; but Marshall’s main point—that external rewards and punishments are relatively ineffective in changing behavior?seems to be something that I should reconsider. Instead of trying to set up consistent punishments for categories of misbehavior, I think I’ll try Marshall’s recommendation (not original with him) of trying to get students to identify their own misbehavior and take responsibility for it.

As of now, I’m planning when I find a problem behavior in class to ask the student involved to come by briefly at break or before or after school. I’ll try to get the student to see how the behavior was a problem and identify how to avoid the problem in the future as well as coming up with some logical consequence if the behavior recurs. In short, I'll try to get the student to take responsibililty for his or her behavior.

Of course, frequently students won’t even show up for such conferences. So, at that point, plugging the student into some kind of regular discipline system would seem to be the only alternative. After I spend the next few hours getting my room ready for next year, I’ll try to at least skim Marshall’s book more thoroughly and perhaps share more thoughts later on this blog.