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Breaking the
suspension habit: by Sandra Clark |
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SUSPENSIONS
Are schools calmer? Results of a 1998 revision of the discipline code. Alternatives
to suspension keep kids in school Three
masters of management share their tips Breaking
the suspension habit: John Hay emphasizes classroom management |
The school has taken a number of steps aimed at improving student behavior, but teachers say they need more help with classroom management. “What you learn in college is not practiced in the classroom,” says Susan J. Woo, one of five newly minted teachers at John Hay. “It’s more about creating cooperative learning environments or higher-order thinking. They don’t prepare you for getting to the point where you can do those activities and for [those activities] to be productive.” The 28-year-old math teacher earned her teaching certificate at the University of Toledo in July 2000. Woo says that for her, the biggest challenge is managing boisterous behavior During her second-period class last
semester, students were neither profane nor disobedient. Just animated.
Woo says she looks for ways to manage this behavior because she would
never suspend a student for being a chatterbox. Typically, Woo uses “bell work” to get classes off to an orderly start. She writes a multi-step problem on the board and students are expected to begin solving it as soon as they get in their seats. This day, bell work let her down. Three students straggle in late, one chattering loudly all the way to her seat. The girl’s commentary mingles with a class-wide chorus of non-math-related banter that nearly brings the lesson to a halt. Woo’s demands of “Shush” and “Quiet” go unheeded. The students are loosing points for the lesson, and Woo is loosing her cool “This should be an easy walk
for you. Don’t blow it off,” Woo cautions. “The easiest work you can
do is bell work. Not
enough help
Delbert E. Longino, John Hay’s principal, says classroom management training for teachers is second only to block scheduling as a method of maintaining order so that all John Hay kids, even those prone to disruption, can learn. A CATALYST survey of teachers new to the district in 2000-01 underscores this emphasis. Forty-eight percent of the respondents reported that student misbehavior was their biggest problem, ranking it first among 15 concerns. (See CATALYST Aug/Sept. 2001 or go online to www.catalyst-cleveland.org.) According to John Hay’s Academic
Achievement Plan, classroom management training is done primarily through
the distribution of articles on the topic and staff discussion groups. Woo has read the articles and learned
from them. But she says: “What
I think really helps is hearing from teachers who have been through the
same thing.” And Anna Boles-El, a special education
teacher at John Hay, says she has not even received the articles. The school offers after-school and
Saturday sessions on classroom management, Woo notes. “But you’re so
drained at the end of the day,” she says. “I don’t know of anyone
who has stayed after school for a workshop.” Longino believes after-school sessions
were sparsely attended in the past because they were held infrequently. He
would like to offer them more often, giving teachers more opportunities to
attend. A number of John Hay teachers have volunteered to mentor novice colleagues during the school day. However, the only time they get is their 20-minute free period. Martha S.
Hendricks, research associate at the University of Cincinnati, says mentor
teachers should be allowed time away from their classes to observe young
teachers in action and give them pointers on what they see. “Just passing materials and having people talk about it is not much different from being in a college classroom,” says Hendricks, whose university is well known for its teacher-training program. “The ability to practice it and have someone observe you” will improve a young teacher’s ability to manage a class. Longino acknowledges that what John Hay
is doing is not enough. “We’re doing what teachers are willing to
volunteer to do,” he explains. Contingency plans needed Woo says she has been successful in establishing a classroom routine,
which student behavior experts say is essential. It starts with bell work
and progresses through homework review and the introduction of new
material, followed by an activity. However, John Hay’s switch to block
scheduling in threw her off, she says.
The school’s version of block scheduling provides for 90-minute
periods instead of 40-minute periods and ends with lunch. The idea is to
reduce opportunities for students to get into mischief and to allow
teachers to engage students in interactive lessons. This schedule makes Woo’s second-period class, a group of freshmen, especially challenging. By 10 a.m., when the class begins, the kids have been in school for over two hours and are getting restless and hungry. Yet lunch does not start until 2:14 p.m. The result: The class often turns Woo’s lesson plan upside down. John Hay teachers predicted this glitch, which is one reason they balked when block scheduling was introduced. (See story page 4.) Physics teacher Mary Ann Vogel says teachers accustomed to 40-minute classes need training in how to sustain the momentum of both students and themselves for 90 minutes. The new schedule was put into effect with little preparation time, she says. Eighty-minute classes, which had been proposed originally, may have been easier to handle, teachers say. Young teachers need alternative plans in case the original ones fall through, experts advise. That includes contingencies for restlessness due to block scheduling, says Angelique Arrington, coordinator of the Department of Teacher Preparation at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Woo may need to create special procedures strictly for the midmorning class, Arrington suggests. Meanwhile, John Hay is creating other programs it hopes will improve student behavior. It started a Reentry Program this year to get over-aged 9th-graders back on track. It plans to open a Twilight School offering afternoon classes for chronic truants, hall walkers and other students with problematic behavior. And it is developing conflict resolution procedures to deal with fights.
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John
Hay High School can be a tough place to be a new teacher. In 1999-2000, it
logged 73 suspensions for every 100 students, the highest rate in the
city. In 2000-01, it logged 75 per 100, the second highest rate.
