The day started off as any other day with the exception of the hundred times I had to answer the question "Where's our teacher? When is she coming back?" RTI group went very smoothly, as I just continued an activity that the students started the previous day. When I got to shared reading, I was extremely nervous to take it on because I had never taught a shared reading lesson. Our students usually experience shared reading with a reading resource teacher, plus my CT, plus me. Today I was on my own. No sooner than I start explaining the purpose for our reading, two of my female students decided that this would be an opportune moment to engage in a physical altercation. My first instinct was to put myself between the two of them and have someone call the office for assistance. Although administration acted quickly in removing one of the students from my classroom, the rest of the class was on edge and their behavior for the rest of the day went downhill after this little incident.
For the remainder of the day, I struggled to maintain appropriate classroom behaviors. The students tried to slack off, give me attitude, backtalk and just flat out refuse to work. At this point, my only option was to contact my PRT for some support. She arrived during lunch and helped me plan for the Math lesson. She also came back to help me co-teach Math.
Math, just as most of the rest of the day, was a disaster. Despite my planning efforts, the students were 100% out of control. And it was the same student as always, causing the disruptions that would initiate bad behavior for the rest of the class. They were so disrespectful, that my PRT actually quietly exited the room and went to retrieve the principal. He came in and finished teaching our Math lesson, and even he caught a hard time from the kids.
At the end of the day, I found myself wondering. What could have been done differently? Would any other actions on my part have been able to turn the day around? What actually caused us to have such a bad day? What can I do next time to avoid all of this commotion? I think the underlying cause of the situation was a flaw in the management system. It was clear to me after only one day that these students did not have a concrete understanding of what is expected of them in the absence of their teacher. Going back to my classroom management course from last semester, I remember that an important part of establishing a foolproof management system is starting it from day one and being consistent in your expectations and consequences. The students need guidelines, consistency and consequences for their actions. I have not been here for the entire year in this classroom, so I don't know what their first six weeks of school looked like, but I do know that there is definitely a flaw in the chain somewhere and these students either did not know what was expected of them or knew that they would not be held accountable for their actions. In addition to management, I'm brought to thinking about instructional planning. It is a must to plan ahead, plan to re-plan, and plan to have more time to plan. Because of the short notice of my CT's absence, I had only 30 minutes of planning time before the school day started and 30 minutes at lunch. My plans were very generic, and unfortunately due to lack of time, they did not include a backup plan in case of fights, student's not understanding the material, or any other act of God that may have changed or altered the desired outcome of the lesson.
This one day was enough to make me realize the importance of classroom management, time management, thorough planning, and being able to think and react quickly. My plan for next time is to take 5 minutes before any lessons begin and have a morning meeting with the kids. Regardless of what management system my CT has in place, this will give me an opportunity to talk to the students about what I expect of them and give them a brief overview of what the day is going to look like. Also, regardless of circumstance, I will ask my CT for as many materials as she can give me in advance. The more prepared I am for what they have coming up, the better I can plan. Hopefully next time I will have the opportunity to apply what I've learned from one stressful day and use it to benefit myself and my students.