Class Management Skills Are Vital

I started to teach Mandarin to 7th graders at M408 in Fall 2010. I discovered at once that I faced a great discipline challenge. The first few classes were disasters. First, I changed the seating chart, but it did not help much. One time I had to send a troublemaker to the Assistant Principal’s office, and the parent accused me of being unfair because I did not eject other kids who made trouble in class. In general, the students were not attentive. They talked, were disrespectful and disrupted my class. Often, I could barely teach.

A few staff at the school suggested that I ask for help from the math teacher, who was also my students’ previous classroom teacher and whose name has a magic power to my students. So I did. She told me about how she managed the class: Prepare a performance slip and ask the students to rate themselves daily; the teacher approves or changes their rating according to their performance. Every weekend, the students have to bring the slip home and ask their parents to sign it. On Monday, the students bring back the slip to the teacher. She said it took a lot of time but that it was worth it.

She also told me to send disruptive students to her at any time, or assign them to lunch detention the next day.

I also had a talk with the Assistant Principal. She suggested that I videotape the class so there would be proof if there were any disputes; for example, if the students would not admit that they have engaged in disruptive behavior. It can also be shown as proof of a child’s misbehavior to parents.

It took me a few weeks to finalize the format of the “daily performance slip.” I revised the syllabus by adding that the performance slip will count as 50% toward the final grades, and that students who receive high scores on the their performance slips will be rewarded with red stars, which will be turned to points and added to their final grades.

The daily performance rating helped a lot. In addition, I occasionally called parents for help. I also took firm action to send disruptive students to their math teacher and to lunch detention, and rated down students who did not concentrate in my class.

The above actions had changed my class. I could concentrate on teaching more than ever.

This experience shows me that in order to teach successfully in a grade school, one must be able to manage the class successfully. Class management skills are vital for a teacher.