A Lesson in Behavioral Management
I’ve gotten significantly better at quipping and bantering with my students. There’s a thin line between saying something that hits well and being too mean. I've been learning how to navigate that line, and I think I'm going about it fairly well.
My staff keeps asking me how I manage the behavior in my classroom so well. I struggle to answer. They're extra impressed because I have the most evil kids: the 7th graders. Every teacher I’ve spoken to in the district seems to pity 7th grade teachers, almost as if they're like coal miners about to die soon from monoxide poisoning.
But anyway, about behavior management… It seems like the part of my brain that houses this knowledge is just on auto-pilot. The only thing I’m actively thinking about is the academic education portion. The actions I have to take to correct behavior and set expectations just come to me naturally 90% of the time. Actually, I bet that streaming for the past 8 years has helped me develop most of these skills. Audience management, chat engagement, moderation, etc.
The confusing part is, I don't do too much out of the ordinary. Perhaps I have a bit more patience than average. Or maybe I’m able to fix messy situations using non-confrontational methods a bit better than most. But I don't think that's the main reason why I can control the evil lot so well.
I think the reason I have them in the palm of my hand is because of the respect I’ve gained by being “cool.” Every time I recognize a current trend, I get +1 rep. Every time I quip back at them with style and grace, I get +1 rep. Every time I do something unexpected or atypical, I get +1 rep.
At a certain point into the semester, my metaphorical Steam profile gets to +200 rep. They now trust me and feel comfortable in class. But here is where things get tricky. If all I do is act cool, then they will want to treat me as a friend. That is NOT a good thing. Plenty of teachers act cool and then realize that the class is actually harder to control now than before. So, there must be another step.
I think this next part is crucial. They need to fear you. Just a tiny bit. They need to remember that you are an adult, and they are a kid. They need to realize that you have thousands more stressors and responsibilities than they do. They need to realize that the worse they do, the worse it makes things for you. They need to learn some metacognition and the ability to self assess. They need to realize that you are a safety barrier between them and the horrors of adult life. The only way that will happen, is if you keep things real on occasion.
I don't raise my voice often, but when I do, the students know, “Oh shit. We fucking up right now.” Sometimes I show them just how tired I am, so they understand that I’m not an NPC. They slowly realize that the classroom doesn't have a teacher spawner that activates in the morning when the lights are off. They realize that I'm a real guy just like their parents. Now of course, they’ll never fully grasp that I'm a “real guy” until 10 years later, but the closer they get, the better. I take every opportunity I get to show them that I'm just one of them, but big now. I show them that it sucks. But not too much.
I think these two guiding principles are what have distinguished me amongst my peers in regards to behavioral management. I'm still not perfect though. Plenty of work to be done. There are still days I want to blow my shit off smoove.
One of my students just gave me a pencil sketch of me with cat ears, waving an Armenian flag, with a speech bubble saying, “I love math!!” in Japanese…
Ok, maybe I need to be meaner.
- Binglio