What’s a teacher to do about two 1st graders who are always talking, interrupting the entire class?
How about the otherwise well-behaved 5th-grade class that gets wild during recess and on field trips?
Or the 3rd graders who fail to cooperate for a team project because each one wants to be boss?
Student teachers who will graduate in June from National-Louis University shared these and other real-life war stories at a recent session of their weekly Monday meetings on the Wheeling campus. As they near the end of the four-year training program, these young men and women have studied all the theories of classroom behavior management but find that theory doesn’t always provide immediate answers.
“In kindergarten, listening is a big issue, and some children need to learn to keep their hands to themselves,” said Kristin Johnson, who is doing her student teaching at Whiteley Elementary School in Hoffman Estates. “My teacher uses stickers, stars and smiley faces to reward good behavior. When a child misbehaves, he might be disciplined with a `timeout.’ But basically, the kids really love being here.”
Johnson said she is learning a lot just by observing the classroom teacher and participating in the teaching program. “Kindergarten is the first step in the educational process,” she said. “It is interesting to see how we build on that.”
Teacher training in effective discipline and classroom behavior management is critical to the maintaining of a pleasant, well-mannered classroom, said Sherri Bressman, assistant professor of elementary education at National-Louis.
“Discipline is the foundation of good teaching, because poor behavior interferes with the learning process,” Bressman said. “Nowadays, most teacher training programs build instruction in classroom management right into other course work, for both the pre-service (undergraduate) level and master’s programs. When I was a young classroom teacher, I felt I had to learn a lot of it on my own.”
Some teachers seem to know innately how to manage a classroom, she added, while others find it to be an overwhelming challenge.
“Even veteran teaching staff sometimes need an infusion of new ideas,” she said. “Schools are much tougher places than they used to be. Forty years ago, typical discipline problems included talking in class, chewing gum and pushing in line. Today’s problems are more likely to be school violence, weapons and bad language, running the whole gamut of disrespect that can be shown to teachers.”
A Gallup Poll of the public’s attitudes toward education–sponsored every year since 1969 by Phi Delta Kappa, the international organization for professional educators–shows that the public considers discipline in the schools to be at or near the top of its concerns.
Practicing teachers have many opportunities to refine their discipline skills through a wide range of workshops, seminars and other professional development programs. Phi Delta Kappa provides institutes, publications and videotapes designed to further professional development, and the National-Louis chapter sponsors an annual classroom management seminar every fall.
The solutions to discipline problems are as diverse as teachers. Spanking was once popular in schools and at home. In the last 50 years, however, educators have turned to ways to promote good student behavior without intimidation and punishment.
Based on educational models, teachers tend to develop a personal system of discipline that works best with their own outlook and personality, and with the realities of the students they teach.
“Our goal is to assist teachers to become more knowledgeable about the variety of teaching tools and strategies that enable their students to be successful in learning,” said Susan Belgrad, associate professor of education at Roosevelt University and coordinator of the master of arts in teacher leadership program, which is based on the Schaumburg campus.
Roosevelt offers one-week summer workshops that focus on different kinds of learning, including a class called “Positive Discipline in the Classroom,” scheduled for July.
“We help teachers design a learning environment that engages every student for optimal learning,” Belgrad said. “As students become more responsible, there are fewer behavior problems.”
Private companies also provide a wide range of courses, master’s programs and continuing education classes. “The term `classroom management’ is often used synonymously with `discipline,’ but that sounds so punitive,” said Kay Burke, senior vice president of academics for SkyLight Professional Development, an international organization headquartered in Arlington Heights. “We believe `classroom management’ should refer to the whole climate of the classroom, while `discipline’ is how you handle the student who is breaking the rules.”
Burke, author of “What To Do With the Kid Who . . . Developing Cooperation, Self Discipline and Responsibility in the Classroom,” believes that the universities are not adequately preparing teachers to handle the kinds of problems they face. “Discipline problems are the No. 1 reason teachers drop out of teaching,” she said. “Even veteran teachers aren’t accustomed to metal detectors and police dogs. Teachers can’t handle these pressures.”
The inclusion movement, which places children with special needs in the least restrictive environment, has had a big effect on classroom management, she added.
“Special ed kids demand a lot of extra attention, resulting in many more classroom discipline problems than in the past,” Burke said. “Teachers need specialized training, more strategies for working with these children. Theories don’t always translate into actuality.”
Darryl McDonald, a chemistry teacher at Proviso East High School in Maywood, is a 26-year veteran. “I’m at a tough school, so I have to teach social behavior all the time,” he said. “I try to help my class develop rules for the classroom that we can all agree upon.”
McDonald expects to obtain his master’s degree in May through SkyLight courses held at St. Xavier University in Chicago. “The program has reinforced what I already know, and provided me with new tools for classroom management,” he said. “I try bits and pieces of various theories to see how they work for me. You can’t do your job today if you don’t have a structured discipline system in the classroom.”
Angela Walsh, who is also enrolled in St. Xavier’s master’s program, has taught kindergarten for 8 years, the past 5 at Walsh Elementary School in Lockport. “Our biggest problem is bullying, with little kids trying to boss others around,” she said. “We provide a lot of positive discipline, through awards, compliments and praise. Just because the children are only 5 doesn’t mean they don’t understand.
“SkyLight training courses are very hands-on, with lots of practical applications. They fit my style of teaching.”
District 92 distributes a school policy handbook to parents, and each teacher hands out a classroom discipline policy for parents to read and sign. “We work hard to make sure all the children get acknowledged, not just the difficult children,” Walsh said. “Our goal is to build self-esteem.”
First-year teachers with the Chicago Public Schools attend a 30-hour prescribed in-service training program called the Mentoring and Induction of New Teachers, which includes a review of classroom management.
Although Michelle Geter, a first-year business education teacher at Whitney Young Magnet High School, previously taught two years in South Carolina, she still found the review worthwhile. “Teenagers are teenagers wherever you go,” she said. “They will test you.”
Geter establishes order in the classroom at the beginning of each school year so that students learn the routine and know what to expect. “Most of the rules are common sense and agreed upon,” she said. “My most important rule is respect–learn it, earn it.”
