Plan of Attack

Several weeks ago, one of my supervisors gave me some feedback about the atmosphere of my classroom. I would ask questions to the entire class and have them shout out, but still have the expectation on my next discussion question that students would raise their hands.

I mean, really. Can't middle school students read my mind? :D Just kidding...

I took it to heart and started verbally setting my expectations for certain questions and discussions: "Raise your hand: What is a metaphor?" or "Let's here some of your ideas - shout them out. What are some of the rules of a narrative?"

But today - my expectations collided.

My fourth period class is pretty energetic. It's right after lunch and the majority of my class is boys. Seriously. You're talking 80%. Who set that up?

Because of this, I have a class with several show-offs. You know, the students who think that any attention is good attention. I got frustrated with several of those students who refused to acknowledge my verbal expectation of raised hands as well as my physical cue (I stood at the front of the classroom raising my own hand and pointing to it with the other. Obvious? I thought so).

And still, I had two students who would answer my purposeful questions with random comments like, "I don't know" or "So, do we have to keep this paper?"

I paused - my face sternly statuesque - and let the class laugh. I reminded them that they were in charge of how much time we spent in the computer lab but they were still responsible to have their final drafts finished by tomorrow.

When I got after one of these students specifically, he (still outloud and not under his breath) responded by saying, "Jeez, I just thought you wanted participation. I guess I won't say anything anymore. I'm going on strike."

I talked with him after class, letting him know that I wanted his participation, but I wanted him to be sincere about it. "Use your good judgement," I told him. "I know how smart you are, but I also know how it feels to want to be the center of attention. My class isn't the place for that kind of participation."

Of course he raised his eyebrows at me like he had no idea what I was talking about.

So when I joined the rest of the class in the computer lab, I wasn't surprised to see my class-clown students goofing off. I warned them that if they didn't work well, I would have them print off their drafts right then and there and that would be their final work. But I knew after the words exited my mouth that they straightaway exited their ears too. Threats like that (if that's the right term) mean nothing to students who don't care about their grades.

How do you manage students who don't seem to care? I know some of them do, mostly because they have parents who won't accept anything lower than a "B." But what about the others - what kind of power do I have in my class if they don't care about my status as the Grade Giver? I've even tried challenging them to see the long term - the choices they make here determine the classes they take in high school which determine the classes they take in college which determines where you end up in life...

But to most teenagers, that's too far away to think about right now.

I see the rest of the class losing engagement during the whole fiasco as well. Oh dear....

Plan of attack:

• Change seats again. Will I ever get it right?
• Change my procedures to an "ALWAYS RAISE YOUR HAND" classroom (at least for that class). I hate to do it, but it just might help give me back some sense of control. 
• Talk to some of my more trusted students and encourage them to speak up in class when they see others misbehaving (though I will totally understand when they turn me down - I wouldn't want to take on the "popular" kids in class either). Maybe if I talk to several of them at once, that will give them the courage to band together. Positive peer pressure. Done.
• Call home - not in a punitive way, but in a "I feel like your son is just not feeling engaged in class. Can you tell me what he likes or what he cares about so that I could incorporate some of those things into my classes? Are there things you do at home that I could remind them about to motivate them to put in more dedicated work in class?" It's more of a call to gain information than a call to inform them, though I hope it would do both.
• Make good on some of my threats with those students (but then I have to worry about what to do with them for the rest of the period since I made them turn in their drafts early). 
• Ask other teachers/past teachers for ideas. Really. I'm scraping the bottom of my bucket here.

My greatest fear is that I've become the unwise mother who lectures about attitude and submits students to punishments that only solidify their desire to continue the behavior: they frustrated me, so I frustrate them, so they frustrate me back. I've followed most of these discussions and situations with an increase of love, but when students roll their eyes at me, I get the feeling it's not getting through. 

But it's a process, and there's never a point of no return. There are points of it-will-be-really-hard-to-return-after-this, but I'm not giving up any time soon.