On Classroom Discipline

I never had any disciplinary problems with my Grade 7 and Year II students. I would only have a problem with the Year II opening the windows of their classrooms (they don’t open a single pane at all!) and with the Home Economics materials of the Grade 7 on their desks as I enter their classroom. I always give the Grade 7 a minute to fix their desks and do a little sweeping. For the Year II, I always make sure that they open the windows first before we begin the class. The second years never got the habit of opening their windows. This is because I never punished them if I come in the classroom with closed windows. I would give them a reason why they should open the windows but it seemed that they do not care. I would always remind them that we cannot live breathing on each other’s carbon dioxide. It’s cute but never worked…probably later in their lives.

As for the “lovable” first years, as I would like to call them, I really have a hard time on a group of students’ tendency to talk nonsense with their seatmates during class. I am teacher with a soft heart and I cannot shout at them or lift my finger and tell them to go out. It already reached a point that I had a heart to heart talk with this class about their talkativeness. I know it was wrong for me to talk to the whole class when it is only a group—actually a row of them and the front row! I made sure that they feel understood. I even told them that I was talkative myself when I was their age, but that I never talked as if there wasn’t any teacher in front to hear me. It was then that established two class rules: keep it to yourself and talk with a 10-inch voice. One of them already formed an acronym of KITtY for the first rule. When I look at her, she says KITtY and covers her mouth. I also learned to move around the classroom so they would be cautious. I would see students doodling and trying to hide it as if I did not see it. I also dealt with this. I really cannot stop them totally from doodling. Again, I told them that I also doodled. I understand them completely because even when I was doodling, I could still listen to the teacher. So I told them that it’s okay to doodle as long as they can still follow the discussion, but if not, they should stop doodling. Reflecting on this, I think I am a high school teacher with college disciplinary techniques. Another insight to this reflection is that now I realize that teachers really have to be constant with her rules so that they become authentic rules to be followed and not just mere enumeration of imperative sentences. They have to be applied if discipline is to be fostered as well in the classroom. Why do I have to learn this the hard way?