How to Stop an Insurrection (controling your class)

One of my 'aha' moments during student teaching came after a particularly challenging class period, which of course happened to be observed by my university supervisor. The whole period had been a struggle to keep the class focused, on task, and engaged with the lesson I had so painstakingly prepared. I felt like I was on the losing side of a tuck of war. The end of class was in sight and I was trying to squeeze in just a little more instruction before the bell. With about three minutes to go in class a student decided he was done, stood up, and began packing up his stuff. Trying to get in the last little bit of instruction I just ignored him and kept teaching. That was a big mistake. Once some of the students saw him stand up, they also decided it was time to pack up. Any further instruction was not going to be effective.

Sitting down with my university supervisor afterwords to debrief the lesson he mentioned to me that I could have prevented this occurrence if I had simply stopped what he called the "ringleader" from doing it first. By letting the first guy stand up I was sending a subliminal message to the rest of the class that what he was doing was acceptable. If I dealt with the first person who was being disrespectful then I would be sending a message to the other students that the behavior was unacceptable.

A few days later I had a chance to put this technique into practice and it was successful. Lesson learned.

That Darn Yankee and the Almost Mistake

Now, teaching about the Civil War in Virginia as a New Yorker is daunting. But teaching the Civil War for my CT who is an expert and has written books about it, is scarier. In my public school education up North, we spent maybe a week on the entire war. We are spending four weeks on it now. I’m in a whole new ball game.

Before Spring Break, I was teaching the differences between Northerners and Southerners in the Civil War. I came up with a way to creatively teach this in my own unique way. Since my CT was a true Virginian and I am a born and bred New Yorker, we decided to role play a Union and Confederate soldier. As Johnny Reb, my CT put on a confederate costume and talked about missing the plantation and his lack of education on his father’s tenant farm. As Billy Yank, I talked about how my father was an Irish immigrant and my sister worked in the Lowell textile mill. We both refined our accents and spoke in the true regional style.

By the fourth period doing this, my CT and I had this act down pat. I was comfortable with my old “non-teacher Sara speech,” relishing in the fact that my students were getting to see a new side of me. However, I got way too comfortable and turned off my teacher sensor. Somewhere in our act during fourth period, I began to say, “Us New Yorkers like to read magazines, newspapers, and all that other shi… stuff.” I almost cursed in front of the sixth graders. I almost died. I quickly pretended nothing happened and my CT and I continued with the act; on with the show.

I say this was an almost mistake, but really I am horrified that some of the students may have caught on. Luckily, no one said a word and we never heard from a parent. This was one of my biggest lessons that week. I learned that I must always assume the role model position and realized how easy it may be to slip out of it.