STARTING SCHOOL YEAR OFF DIFFERENTLY

This school year has truly been a roller coaster year for me. LITERALLY!!!
I was a “fresh meat” teacher. The stacks that were against me were that I was young and a Yankee. The stacks that were for me were that I knew math, could relate to the students and had one prep (which would make it easier to devote more time to the students).
Throughout this school year I have thought of many different ways I want my classroom to run differently for the upcoming school year. There is one teacher I started to go observe during my planning period during the first week of school. She was the freshman Biology I teacher and had what I thought to be excellent classroom management. Her students were silent the entire time they were in class, even before the bell rang. Even during the end of class when there was nothing to do the last 6-7 minutes before the bell rang, they were totally silent. Mrs. Rudd and I would even talk in the back of class after she was done teaching and her kids didn’t even turn around or start talking to each other or stop working. I know that I do not like chaos and I do not want to continue to stand up around kids and constantly instill rules in them that I have already told them. I knew that one way I WANTED TO START THE SCHOOL YEAR OFF DIFFERENTLY was to instill excellent classroom management at the beginning of the year so that I would scare the students to the point that they would not want to break the rules or try me at all. So I asked her to help me with my classroom management. She started out by explaining to me that these students are different students and that they are “country kids”. They don’t understand a calm voice and a finger to the mouth for “shhh”. She told me that is crazy to do that and that will get laughed at. You have to manage them like their parents and grandparents manage them. You need to be loud with them at the beginning and explain to them that this classroom is going to run one way and that is my way. She also said that she does not have a whole lot rules, black kids didn’t grow up with rules. She had procedures that she instilled in them and if they were not done right then she would instill her consequence of writing something a 100 or more times and if that was not turned in the next day, it would effect their grade. She also told me that she called on everybody in the class to participate and gave a lot of pop quizzes.