Focus on the ones who want to learn

Hello everyone,

You must realize that, even in the worst behaved class, there are students who really want to learn.

You have an obligation to these students.

Do not, as some some teachers in movies and literature do, make favorites of your students. Treat all your students with equity--with this exception: Make sure that the good students get the bulk of your attention in the classroom.

What I mean is, if you find that the majority of your time is taken up with taking care of the misbehaving students, then you may be certain something is wrong. If you are not helping someone who really wants to learn because you've gone off to discipline someone who's being disruptive, then something's wrong. If your lesson isn't happening at all because a cadre of students is preventing it, then you have a big problem.

I'm not saying that you should give up and allow the misbehavers to get away with it. Give them their consequence, and move on. It's best if their consequence is given to them quietly while everyone else is working (what's best is not always possible).

You may find that, if you keep the class moving with a good lesson plan, and if you are giving good positive support to those that are trying, and if your attention to the disrupters is minimal (only what is necessary to keep them accountable), then peer pressure will shift toward learning and away from disrupting. It's what one of you called "herd behavior," but it's real.

By the same token, if you let disrupters get away with bad behavior, if your lesson plans are poorly thought out or non-existent, or if your consequences are vicious and arbitrary, you will alienate the very students that should be the core of honest learning in your class.

Let most of your focus and your concern--indeed most of your time--be on those who really want to learn. The others will come around, one by one.

Jeff Combe