The trick to solve all classroom-management problems
16 August 2019
Self-portrait taken at the age of 15
The new schoolyear is about to start, so I figured it's high time to share my best and easiest trick to solve all classroom-management problems. If you have stories of your own that you would like to share with me, please feel free to email me at info@todaysteachingtools.com.
For one reason or another, most conversations I have had in the last couple of days, discussed the same topic: Being and feeling seen.
In primary and secondary school, I often felt unseen. I now realised my thinking pattern is different from other people’s; I tend to think more abstract, I make connections more easily, and I can see a consistency in certain patterns, that can seem completely unrelated to others. These characteristics can also be described as being 'gifted'. There is nothing wrong or right about this, but it is different, and people didn’t seem to understand. Oftentimes, I would be lost in trying to explain myself, I would refrain from asking questions because I knew it would be considered annoying, and I would keep my thoughts to myself, just to make sure they wouldn’t be ridiculed. I have felt alone and unseen in so many moments that my feeling of self-worth and being understood dropped majorly, even before I hit puberty. I was often seen as someone who exaggerated, who sought attention in a negative way, or who was just being a wiseass. I taught myself coping strategies, amongst which was manipulative behaviour to get the attention I felt I needed, but also longer periods of self-injury and binge-eating. This behaviour was not recognised as a cry for help, but was often disregarded as annoying.
After graduating from secondary school at age 17, I studied biology and English as part of the teacher training programme. By doing two studies at once, I was suddenly different than others in a good way. I was recognised and seen. I felt seen. Because of teachers who took the time and energy to see me, I managed to complete the two bachelors’ in three years, as opposed to the standard of 4 years per bachelor’s, while also working several jobs as a teacher and starting as an entrepreneur. The motivation that came with being seen was indescribable.
When I started teaching my first classes in secondary school at age 18, I committed myself to seeing every single one of my students. I soon noticed that with genuinely being interested in them as people, all class-management issues disappeared instantly. Key to this was understanding why students displayed certain behaviour. Most often they were not trying to be difficult, they were just trying to communicate their needs in a somewhat unusual way. An example of this was a student in one of my biology classes. He clearly had the smarts, but his upbringing hadn’t facilitated his personal development, to put it lightly. He would often misbehave, he never did his work, and he could be just impossible to deal with. At first, I was incredibly annoyed by his behaviour, but soon my own thoughts appalled me; this is just a kid I am looking at, and I am letting my emotions determine how I treat him. Instead of finding new ways to correct him, I decided to try to understand him. Why would he display this behaviour? What is he actually asking for? I knew he was much smarter than his grades showed, and I knew he was only seen as the troubled kid, and that he wasn’t recognised for who he was or could be as a person. I tried a new method.
‘Can you please go and sit in the back, instead of the front?’ He shrugged, and walked to the back of the classroom. I walked over with my laptop and placed it on his desk. The look on his face changed from indifferent to surprised: ‘Are you sure you want to give that to me?’ he said with a smirk. I nodded and opened a new browser for him. I logged into my Kahoot! account and started a new quiz. ‘I am going to instruct the rest of the class about this paragraph’s contents, and I would like you to come up with the most difficult questions you can possibly think of, based on my instruction. You have the entire hour to finish it. You can add pictures if you like, and at the end of class, we are going to play your quiz.’ His face lit up and a sense of determination came over him. I had never seen this student pay as much attention as he did that day. When the class played his quiz at the end of the hour, many students fell for the clever trick questions he wrote. He laughed as they did, but also explained why the other multiple choice answer was right. He visibly enjoyed every second of it.
This student continued to work with me like this for the rest of the year. His grades went from a 2.3 (out of 10) average to a 7.7 average, and he started to collaborate with other students who wanted to help him create his ‘master quiz’. His social circle grew, he paid close attention to what he had to learn, and all troubles as far as his behaviour was concerned, had disappeared. All I had to do was disregard my own ego and look very closely at what this person was asking for; he wanted to be seen, just like every one else. He just asked for it in an unusual way.
So my trick to eliminate all classroom-management troubles is this: see your students. I know it can be emotionally taxing, and I know you don't always have the patience or the energy to analyse behaviour and determine the hidden needs, and I know it takes a while to have effect. But please just try, every single day again. See who your students are and acknowledge them. Trust them, see them as human beings with needs rather than reckless teenagers who display behaviour that affects you. Try to identify and eliminate your biases. Try to find what your students are trying to communicate and focus on that, instead of on their behaviour. Every single student, regardless of how they communicate their needs, deserve to be seen. The quiet ones, the loud ones, the annoying ones, and the sweet ones. And while we're at it: You deserve to be seen, too.
In order to structure this process of finding out what student(s)'s motivation behind their behaviour is, I came up with the model below. It is merely meant to help you in the thought-process of understanding your students and it is by no means the only way to analyse behaviour. I am not an expert, all I know is what I do.
If you have any resolutions for the new schoolyear, please let trying to see your students be one of them.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at info@todaysteachingtools.com.
For one reason or another, most conversations I have had in the last couple of days, discussed the same topic: Being and feeling seen.
In primary and secondary school, I often felt unseen. I now realised my thinking pattern is different from other people’s; I tend to think more abstract, I make connections more easily, and I can see a consistency in certain patterns, that can seem completely unrelated to others. These characteristics can also be described as being 'gifted'. There is nothing wrong or right about this, but it is different, and people didn’t seem to understand. Oftentimes, I would be lost in trying to explain myself, I would refrain from asking questions because I knew it would be considered annoying, and I would keep my thoughts to myself, just to make sure they wouldn’t be ridiculed. I have felt alone and unseen in so many moments that my feeling of self-worth and being understood dropped majorly, even before I hit puberty. I was often seen as someone who exaggerated, who sought attention in a negative way, or who was just being a wiseass. I taught myself coping strategies, amongst which was manipulative behaviour to get the attention I felt I needed, but also longer periods of self-injury and binge-eating. This behaviour was not recognised as a cry for help, but was often disregarded as annoying.
After graduating from secondary school at age 17, I studied biology and English as part of the teacher training programme. By doing two studies at once, I was suddenly different than others in a good way. I was recognised and seen. I felt seen. Because of teachers who took the time and energy to see me, I managed to complete the two bachelors’ in three years, as opposed to the standard of 4 years per bachelor’s, while also working several jobs as a teacher and starting as an entrepreneur. The motivation that came with being seen was indescribable.
When I started teaching my first classes in secondary school at age 18, I committed myself to seeing every single one of my students. I soon noticed that with genuinely being interested in them as people, all class-management issues disappeared instantly. Key to this was understanding why students displayed certain behaviour. Most often they were not trying to be difficult, they were just trying to communicate their needs in a somewhat unusual way. An example of this was a student in one of my biology classes. He clearly had the smarts, but his upbringing hadn’t facilitated his personal development, to put it lightly. He would often misbehave, he never did his work, and he could be just impossible to deal with. At first, I was incredibly annoyed by his behaviour, but soon my own thoughts appalled me; this is just a kid I am looking at, and I am letting my emotions determine how I treat him. Instead of finding new ways to correct him, I decided to try to understand him. Why would he display this behaviour? What is he actually asking for? I knew he was much smarter than his grades showed, and I knew he was only seen as the troubled kid, and that he wasn’t recognised for who he was or could be as a person. I tried a new method.
‘Can you please go and sit in the back, instead of the front?’ He shrugged, and walked to the back of the classroom. I walked over with my laptop and placed it on his desk. The look on his face changed from indifferent to surprised: ‘Are you sure you want to give that to me?’ he said with a smirk. I nodded and opened a new browser for him. I logged into my Kahoot! account and started a new quiz. ‘I am going to instruct the rest of the class about this paragraph’s contents, and I would like you to come up with the most difficult questions you can possibly think of, based on my instruction. You have the entire hour to finish it. You can add pictures if you like, and at the end of class, we are going to play your quiz.’ His face lit up and a sense of determination came over him. I had never seen this student pay as much attention as he did that day. When the class played his quiz at the end of the hour, many students fell for the clever trick questions he wrote. He laughed as they did, but also explained why the other multiple choice answer was right. He visibly enjoyed every second of it.
This student continued to work with me like this for the rest of the year. His grades went from a 2.3 (out of 10) average to a 7.7 average, and he started to collaborate with other students who wanted to help him create his ‘master quiz’. His social circle grew, he paid close attention to what he had to learn, and all troubles as far as his behaviour was concerned, had disappeared. All I had to do was disregard my own ego and look very closely at what this person was asking for; he wanted to be seen, just like every one else. He just asked for it in an unusual way.
So my trick to eliminate all classroom-management troubles is this: see your students. I know it can be emotionally taxing, and I know you don't always have the patience or the energy to analyse behaviour and determine the hidden needs, and I know it takes a while to have effect. But please just try, every single day again. See who your students are and acknowledge them. Trust them, see them as human beings with needs rather than reckless teenagers who display behaviour that affects you. Try to identify and eliminate your biases. Try to find what your students are trying to communicate and focus on that, instead of on their behaviour. Every single student, regardless of how they communicate their needs, deserve to be seen. The quiet ones, the loud ones, the annoying ones, and the sweet ones. And while we're at it: You deserve to be seen, too.
In order to structure this process of finding out what student(s)'s motivation behind their behaviour is, I came up with the model below. It is merely meant to help you in the thought-process of understanding your students and it is by no means the only way to analyse behaviour. I am not an expert, all I know is what I do.
If you have any resolutions for the new schoolyear, please let trying to see your students be one of them.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at info@todaysteachingtools.com.
