Turning Things Around: Making Your Worst Class Your Best Class

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Ok, which class is it?

1st hour? The one everybody dreads because bleary eyed adolescents aren’t quite awake enough yet to engage in critical thinking or tolerate “teacher humor”?

5th hour? The one that’s interrupted by lunch half-way through?

It’s 8th hour isn’t it? The one where kids whine “It’s almost the end of the day, do we HAVE to do work now!?” ten minutes into class?

Or maybe you teach elementary school and it’s that odd little block of time between recess and specials that’s not quite long enough to do anything REALLY productive with, but too long to do nothing with?

Regardless, there is a way to “reclaim” that troubling time of day and turn your “worst class” into your “best class”.

(Ok….so maybe that’s hyperbole. It’s not a “magic bullet” but there are some things you can do.)

It starts by recognizing that as important as relationships with individual students are, collections of students also have a “culture” about them and a relationship a given time of day that defines them. Each class has its own culture, and sometimes despite effective work by effective teachers, things can get a little “out-of-whack”.

I can’t promise anything, but I can tell you that I’ve had success using this formula to “re-boot” a given class. It works best after a prolonged break of some kind, or even a long weekend, but you can give it a whirl at any point. Let me know how it goes on Twitter (@MarkClementsEdu) or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  

Day 1: Have Fun

Your students are entering your class with a pre-determined, mostly negative, set of expectations. Maybe they don’t like you, your subject, or each other. Maybe their behavior is awful and NOT focused on learning. No worries.

For today, you only have one rule - just have fun. Seriously. Look at the teacher next door and say “Sorry” because there’s a chance you’re going to “be disruptive” as you attempt to realign your group’s beliefs and attitudes about your class. I highly recommend one or more of the 8 classroom games we discussed here, or check out the tweet with the game of “Rock-Paper-Scissor-Cheerleader”....but even if you just sit in the middle of the room and throw a nerf ball around (which for some reason sends kids diving over desks with reckless abandon, so use caution) while discussing what you did over your weekend….just have fun.

Oh, and YOU have to have fun with them. This isn’t a “free day’ where you let students hang out and chat while you sit at your desk….that doesn’t build rapport. We need a game you can play too, stories you can share, etc. Something interactive.

I’ve said before, there’s a secret great teachers know that nobody wants to talk about...they do have to like you. There is a broken relationship here, whether it's your students relationship with your class, this time of day, or maybe even with you.We need to change the expectations and becoming more strict probably isn’t going to do the trick right now (I’m guessing you’ve tried that already). We’ll fix the relationships and re-set expectations over the next few days, but for Day 1, just have fun.

 

Day 2: Team Building

Your students have perhaps arrived today with a slightly better attitude, and they’re probably begging to just “play games all day” like they did yesterday. I wouldn’t blame you for doubling-down on that idea and repeating Day 1, but for the sake of moving things along here, let’s take a different approach with Day 2.

Students in struggling classrooms often feel “talked at” because they’ve “been in trouble” so much, so we need to get the kids talking, and preferably up and moving as well. I know, you’re probably saying “Yeah, but the problem I have is that they all spend all of their time talking to each other anyway.” That may be true - but if that’s the case it’s only more evidence that this group of kids is craving social interaction with each other in a positive way. We need to send the message that this need will be provided from now on.

You know all those silly team building activities your principal makes you do at faculty meetings? They work GREAT with kids. (I happen to believe they work with adults too, but we’ll save that for another day).

I highly recommend an activity like this where you put questions in a cup and have students take turns answering questions (but always allow them to put back any question they don’t want to answer, with no questions asked. Trauma with students is real and we we need to provide “safe” questions and always provide an “out”).

You might also opt for something like Two Truths and a Lie, Bizzaro Bellringers, or “Freewrites”, all of which I talked about in my 15 Ways to Build Rapport with Students post. This would also be a GREAT time to kick of a 2x10 journey to turn things around with your most troublesome students, also described in the same article).

We need to spend time learning about each other. Remember, this classroom has a broken relationship that needs to be mended. Have fun with it, and knowing THAT is your goal, other than safety (emotional and physical) nobody should be reprimanded today. Keep it light.

Day 3 (or more, depending on class length and how smoothly this goes).

Today we start the heavy lifting, though, the kids probably won’t realize it. They’ll probably continue to beg to “not do work” and “keep having fun” so ham it up a bit and talk about how “far behind” they’re getting and how you “really do need to get started on [whatever your next topic is].” Rest assured - you’re giving up instructional time here, but you were already having a difficult time accomplishing much academically to begin with, right?

After some playful give and take, feel free to “give in” to students and say “Ok, fine, we don’t have to get started on [x] but there is something else kinda easy I wanted to try with you guys...if we have time leftover maybe we’ll play a game at the end.” (Plan on that by the way).

Then, ask students to answer the following questions. I recommend doing this on sticky notes, but you could do it in Google Forms or any other medium.

  1. “What characteristics would you use to describe a great teacher?”
  2. “What characteristics would you use to describe your ideal classmate?”

When I did this with students, after some “pruning”, I put their responses into a “word cloud” generator (like WordItout or Wordle). We then spent time as a class talking about the classes expectations for me as a teacher and for each other. I probed for clarity too (especially after one year the word “Lit” was prevalent in what their expectations were of me!).

Kids benefit from watching us reflect, valuing their opinion and commiting to improving ourselves. Get specific examples of what you can do to become the teacher they envision.

Then, repeat the process with the characteristics they value most in a classmate. Again, get clarification. Ask for examples. Explain to students that it’s really not fair for you to allow a few students to disrespect the will of the class by not being the kind of peers they clearly want. From now on, not only will you be committed to being the kind of teacher your students want, but you’ll be committed to helping them become the kind of peers they want in each other.

Doing this allows you to claim the “moral high ground” with classroom management. It’s no longer about rule enforcement. Now, it’s about human development - you’re trying to respect the will of the group and create the kind of classroom they all want to be in.

To be clear: it is MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE if you do both of these questions. Only asking about student behaviors smells like “rules” and doesn’t bridge the credibility gap after a prolonged period of negative feelings and a lack of trust. Meanwhile, only asking about how you can improve sends the message that you are entirely in the wrong - and while it’s powerful to model reflection, you lose the opportunity to leverage this and turn things around for your struggling class.

Additionally, if you’d rather take a different approach than the question/word cloud activity I described here, that’s fine. There are different means to the same end. The important part is that students sense a commitment on your part to improve for them and that claim the moral high ground by having them dictate what is the new “normal” behavior.

Day 4 +

Now it’s time to get back to genuine learning, but in a new and improved way. We MUST honor the commitments we’ve made and be sure to not violate our newfound sense of trust by not following through on those commitments. So, do as “Teach Like a Pirate” author Dave Burgess suggests and “Set the Hook” to bring some new found excitement to your lessons. You can view a PDF file of classroom hooks here that I found on Matt Miller’s “Ditch That Textbook” website.

Try something crazy (whatever that means for you). Maybe you use “The Mozart Hook” by incorporating music into your instruction, or the “Human Props” hook by asking students become physical representations of your subject matter. There are lots of options. The important thing is to not continue to do the same activities you’d done previously - at least for a while. Your students need to see you try new things and aspire to be the teacher they’d described the day before. That doesn’t mean you can’t go back to those activities later if they were quality activities, but for now, your students need novelty.

Likewise be sure to stop the class and (gently) correct any behavior that is out of line with the class’ vision for the ideal classmates. Try not to overreact - remember everyday is a new day - but definitely send the message that you’re trying to be the teacher your students wanted and that includes helping them be the people their classmates described.

Day 5+ - Reflect

Make it a point to reflect with students on your new found commitments. Ask them: “How am I doing in trying to be the teacher you described?” and “How are you doing in being the classmates your peers described?”

Make it a point to do this regularly.

With any luck, your class is now developing a growth mindset and on a journey towards self-improvement, with you leading the way. It’s no longer the class a group of students dread, but a fun class students look forward to, and will often act accordingly. Continue to spend time playing games, reflecting on commitments and building trust. If your class has a rough day (and they will) don’t ask yourself what can you take away or what new procedures your class needs….ask yourself when the last time you had fun was, when’s the last time you learned more about who your students are as people, or tried something new instructionally. Start fresh the next day and try again - not with harsh punishments or stricter rules, but more focus on relationships, trust and growth.

There are no “magic bullets” but hopefully, this helps. If there’s anything I can do for you or your students, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Likewise, if you find this helpful or have a different way to “turn things around”  I’d love to hear about it! Hit me up on Twitter (@MarkClementsEdu, #Edunators) or at Facebook.com/Edunators. Or shoot me an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

More articles about developing a culture for learning

I'm Sorry, They DO Have to Like You

Lest We Forget...School Sucks

15 Ways to Build Rapport With Students

8 Classroom Games to Play With Students

 

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