ENFORCING RULES AND CONSEQUENCES

It's late November, and I definitely don't adhere to my rules and consequences as much as I did in the beginning of the semester. I do not have the time or energy to do that all day every day. Honestly, I am willing to take the trade off of having a little less controlled class rather than having to keep up with who has made it to what consequence and losing my train of thought while lecturing because I have to write down that So-And-So must show up for detention on November 27 at 3:40 pm. This does not mean that my classroom is a free-for-all, but it is definitely nowhere close to being in 100% order.

Because my classes have been operating without major problems despite the fact that I have not been a rules and consequences stickler, I did not intend on doing this assignment. Instead, I planned to make something up since, as I said, my students are not guinea pigs to be experimented on for the sake of a class assignment. My students and I have a little rhythm going. Most of them are learning (I hope so anyway), and I don't feel like I need to change up on them now. However, it just so happens that I don't have to pass off a fabricated story for reality because about a month ago I was given a new prep - a geometry class of about 20 students. Therefore, I had the unique experience of having a "Day 1" in October.

At first I tried to treat them like my other classes. The second day I allowed them to work in groups, and the teacher across the hall commented that my class did not appear like my normal classes. The students were loud and terrible. I realized I would crash and burn if I tried to treat them like my other classes. This geometry class is full of students that are younger and less mature than my algebra II and physics class. Also, unlike most of my algebra II and physics students, many of my geometry students tell me that they have no intention of going to college. Some of them don't seem to care at all about school and act as if their mission is to come to school to terrorize the teachers. Therefore, for the sake of maintaining sanity, with this class I have been sticking to the rules and consequences. After that one bad day, I told all of the administrators that I would not be allowing the students in that block to talk at all and that I would be strictly enforcing my consequences, which could possibly mean a high number of referrals the following day if the students did not get in order. I didn't have to refer any students the following day, although a couple of students made it to the second consequence - a writing assignment.

Every day I have to give out consequences, although I notice that on days when certain students are absent, class flows a lot better. Today I had to refer a student because she would not stop talking during a test. Although I usually write and submit referrals at the end of the day, I buzzed the office and requested that the student be escorted from my room. That really got the other students' attention. I think I may handle office referrals like that more often since it shows the students that I actually do follow up with the subsequent consequences.

I definitely understand why some teachers try to avoid teaching in environments where there are discipline problems. I absolutely dread teaching my geometry class because I have to work so much harder to keep the class controlled. I am not able to focus as much on teaching. It definitely takes away from instruction when I have to stop to take notes or deal out a consequence. It is so much more efficient in my other classes when I can just say, "We should be quietly working on our bell ringer now," and move on, and not have to worry about the class getting out of control because I'm not dealing out consequences everytime somebody breathes.