Management

28 July 2006

Much of the focus of this month has been on management. How can we manage our students? How can we manage our classroom? How can we manage our lives? I've been thinking a lot about these issues. While Ben, our professor and many of the second years repeat again and again that we need to set up highly structured environment for our students. The rhetoric behind these claims characterizes the students as lacking any structure in their lives, indeed as students who crave some structure in their lives. On one level, I am willing to accept that the evidence behind these claims is true. After all, I don't have any experience with these students; Ben and the second years do. I am less inclined to accept the conclusion their draw from that evidence.

Just because students crave structure, does that mean that, as teachers, we should give (or impose) our notion of structure upon these students? Giving (or imposing) structure, after all, is our justification for the regimented procedures, rules, and, to varying degrees, silence in the classroom. In this model, as Ben as suggested, we use our status as a professional, to some extent, to justify why these students should obey our structure. In turn, we need these structures to foster a learning environment. In turn, we are instilling (one method of teaching, I suppose) a respect for this sort of structure in our students.

My issue with this method of management is that it never explicitly asks the students to own any sort of self-management. It's all based on some oddly objective "procedure" that displaces any agency over the structure itself. After all, it's not the teacher's fault, it's the all a matter of procedure. It even displaces the student from his/her own behavior. It's not the student, but the behavior that conflicts with the procedure. My vision of management would, instead, first work with the students to develop and then put that in place. Practically, this may involve setting out, very explicitly, MY procedures and then working with the students to adjust those procedures. I believe that if the students have a part in making their own classroom rules, they will be MUCH more willing to obey them and to suffer their own consequences.

In addition, I'm also of the camp that interesting work will do most of the management that I would want anyway. I envision a class with lots of group work and lots of inductive learning (even my vision of student-made procedures is inductive at heart). In summer school, almost all of my management problems have come on days when I've known my lessons weren't interesting enough, when I was spending too much time at the board and when I just wasn't giving the students enough to do. Ms. Monroe and Joe both commented that my class might be a little unruly, but I'm not convinced that the shouting out and the 12" voices are a problem. Maybe I'll change my mind, but if most of the talk in the class is about the subject, I think I'm winning. Students will always be disengaged at times. Who wasn't in high school? But "idle" talk between students is not necessarily unproductive. Not only can it help relieve some of the tension of having to be in school, but it can help establish the community that my classroom needs. And, if the work is interesting and challenges the students in ways that they think matter, then a culture of work will emerge, particularly with a healthy dose of encouragement from their crazy and energized teacher.

I think by showing my students this sort of respect, that is, a confidence that they can create healthy and productive social structures will help build trust within my classroom. Most of all, as I said, I think it will help build ownership in the classroom. Since my biggest rule is "Take responsibility for the classroom community," this ownership is essential.

I anticipate the students will be very opposed to this idea at first. Just like my students in summer school were really really frustrated when I first asked them to actually problem solve. But, like in summer school I think the honest I'm almost sweating out of my shirt catches on. While I'm still having tons of problems, one of the biggest successes for me is that many of my students at Holly Springs will tell me when they don't understand things I'm saying. Many will even interrupt me to say they don't understand. In fact, the other day, I was giving a particularly boring lesson and I think we had a good dialogue about why that was and what I could do better. After all, who knows better what's interesting to my students, than my students themselves. So, even in my failure, I was pretty happy that they were honest with me.

So, I guess I'll have some experimenting to do come August. Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? I'm really very interested in two things: does anyone read this and, if so, what does anyone think of these ideas.