I teach freshmen in health and juniors/seniors in a class called, "Individual Family Living". Managing the classes can be a super challenge for me, especially for the older population.
In all my classes, I do a lot of walking/moving around, making sure I offer myself to as many individuals, or groups, as possible as I speak, as they speak, or as they work. I use a lot of eye contact. I make facial gestures towards them like scrunching up my face, or turning my palms upside down and giving them a "really?" look. I try to use humor first since I have a "you be cool to me and I'll be cool to you" mantra that I remind them of constantly. These strategies work for excessive talking or chatting when it's not appropriate, or when they should be listening. When they don't listen, I shift into a more serious tone, and I tell them that every minute that they are disruptive is a minute that they lose after the bell rings. If they try and get up to line up before the bell rings then I have them sit down and wait, and if anyone is up then everyone has to sit until everyone is seated before they can leave. They hate this. I try to have my "withitness" with me in class everyday, so I can react immediately, give constant feedback, and stay on top of my special needs students, who number 7 in all five classes, and are all ADD with IEP's.
Strategies work for me with the freshmen. They don't work as well with the juniors and seniors. I have a LOT of kids who "don't care" or have extreme apathy. Considering some of the problems they have with their home life and the law, if I can keep them at school, I'm winning half the battle. I don't assign homework and I try to do group work that involves higher order thinking skills like solving problems through case studies. I also have great guest speakers, like AIDS patients and teen parents. I find that they are attentive to the more serious real-life stuff, and since we don't have any district sanctioned curriculum for IFL, I can pretty much do what I want with them. It's been a great learning experience.
Thanks for sharing! I really liked this blog. I have your same mantra of, "If you're cool, then I am cool." I have used that line with all of my classes for years and the kids that have common sense get it. It is those kids that do not have common sense where it is lost in translation and you end up having to be more direct with them in what your expectations for behavior are. Also, I empathize with you and the ADD students. That can be tough to deal with sometimes, especially if there are several in one class. Lastly, the IFL class sounds really interesting. I've never heard of a class like that. I'm interested in learning more about what the focus of the class is. Great job, and thanks again!
ReplyDeleteHI Allyson,
ReplyDeleteYour approach to working with secondary students is much different than what I am hearing from your elementary colleagues. I too believe that developmentally students are much different and at this point they have the capacity to make an active choice as to whether or not they will be in attendance today. This is not necessarily the case with elementary student. I have tried rewards with older students and it is very complicated with 5 classes 30 students in each and quiet expensive. Although I don't think there is a magic bullet I think you are on the right track with engaging curriculum and meaningful learning. It is also great to hear that you have the capacity to create your curriculum which would allow you to survey the students and get an idea of what they would like to talk about. Perhaps they could do a research project on a topic of interest and present their findings to the class.