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Avoid an Awful Day at School

Veteran teacher and author, Julia G. Thompson, shares helpful tips to keep you smiling all day long.

Avoid an awful day at school with these tips.

Step One: Be a Good Leader

1. Establish a warm and supportive class identity where students can work together as a team.

2. Provide an organizational framework to help students stay focused. Help them set goals. Use a syllabus or daily planner. Show them how to make and use ‘To Do’ lists. Plan lessons around learning objectives.

3. Keep your students active. Use every minute of class.

4. Do the unexpected. Include a variety of activities that will intrigue your students.

5. Don’t make success an impossible dream. Start out with familiar material, and then move on to more challenging assignments. Build their confidence.

6. Mix up the type of activities you include. Individual, cooperative, and competitive work during the same class period can be effective.

7. Let students have a voice in some of the decisions in the class.

8. Reward and praise as many students as you can when things go well.

Step Two: Get Help

1. Call on the support personnel at your school: guidance counselors, social workers, or administrators. Turn to other teachers and coaches for advice, too.

2. Call a parent while the problem is still small.

3. Arrange a time-out situation with a nearby teacher. If you see that misbehavior is beginning, send the offending student to the other class to get back on track.

4. Be a good role model. Arrange guest speakers who are also good role models for your students. A little inspiration always helps.

5. Have students help each other learn something new.

6. Arrange for older students to visit your class and give advice, counseling, and support.

Step Three: Make an Attitude Check

1. Keep in mind that in spite of your very best efforts, not every student is going to like you or enjoy your class. Do the best you can and then go on.

2. Laugh at your problems. Even the most annoying problems at school have possibilities for humor. Look for the lighter side of a problem.

3. Remind yourself that even the worst-behaved child in your class deserves the best from you.

4. Plan to ignore the small stuff. Make a list of the behaviors that you can and should ignore.

5. Focus on the positive. Being negative will not make a situation better; it will only make you miserable.

6. Be sincere. Adolescents have a special “teen radar” for phonies.

7. Do not engage in a confrontation with a student. Shouting is a sure way to ruin your day.

Step Four: Be Courteous and Alert

1. Stand at your door and greet your students. This gives you a chance to check the emotional weather as they enter.

2. Be aware of the messages your body language sends. Make eye contact and smile. Don’t point at a student.

3. Be friendly and firm. If you have to say ‘no,’ do it pleasantly.

4. Never lose your cool. All kinds of bad things can and will happen when you indulge yourself in a petty tantrum.

5. Allow no disrespect. Treat your students with exquisite courtesy and expect the same from them.

6. Use those teacher-eyes that grew on the back of your head during student teaching. Pay attention to what is going on in your class at all times. Alert teachers can spot and nip trouble in the bud.”

From Section 5 of “Discipline in the Secondary Classroom”

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