Since I started teaching at my school almost 5 years ago, the campus-wide policy has been for the students to line up outside the classroom door at the beginning of each class period. It usually takes awhile to get the students lined up, and while doing so, the tardy bell will often ring with all the students still standing outside the classroom, and straggling students who should have been marked tardy are sneaking into line. Once they are all standing in line and quiet, we teachers usher them in all at once, and the students come in... usually at a very loud level.
At the beginning of this semester, I finally reached my limit. During the first week back from Christmas Break, I announced to my students that they no longer had to line up outside my door; that I would have my door open and they were free to walk into my classroom. There is a catch of course, and it has worked beautifully. I put my students on notice that once they have entered my classroom, they are there to work quietly at their desks; even if the tardy bell has yet to ring. If they don't want to come in and work - if they still want to socialize - they are free to do so... outside! Just make sure you are not still socializing when the bell rings or you are tardy; you must be in your assigned seat by the time the tardy bell rings. But once they walk into my classroom, the socializing must stop, they must take their seat, and get to work on the Bellwork. If a student comes in making noise or begins talking once he is seated, I quickly order him back outside. Doing that has made my students get the message, and so now when the tardy bell rings, instead of being an annoyingly noisy gaggle making their way to their seats and taking many minutes to get settled down, my students are silent and on task.
Whew!
In the meantime, my letter system that I described a few posts ago is still going really well. After a flurry of letters during the first few days to demonstrate my resolve and consistency, there was a huge dropoff in the number of letters issued at the end of last week and the beginning of this week. Hopefully that trend continues!
Good Day to You, Sir
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." --Thomas Jefferson
3 comments:
Now, you can get rid of the schoolmarm word "socializing." That's too polite for what modern kids are doing. Try "pre-hooking up."
Keep up the good work. I would love to have you as a member of the faculty at my school. I know we would work well togetehr.
Thank you! I think you and I would piss off the faculty enough that our lives would be in danger.
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