The following entry contains my observations of the six new teachers featured in the reality TV program Tough Young Teachers over their first term. As I watched the first two episodes, I took detailed notes on rules and procedures, student organization, activities, interactions, misbehavior, withitness (i.e., classroom awareness) along with generally positive and negative strategies employed.
The teachers include Charles (English), Chloe (geography), and Meryl (English) at Lanfranc, Claudenia (science) and Oliver (business) at Crown Woods, and Nicholas (math) at Harefield.
Rules and Procedures
Are they in the classroom?
How are they applied?
What is the impact on student behavior?
Charles’ classroom did not have any visible rules and procedures posted on the walls, but instead his method was to tell the students what he wanted them to do as the issues occurred. For example, on the first day he had a seating chart on a projector and asked the students to find their desks. The impact of this was that most students did so, but it also gave others the freedom to freely walk around in an unstructured manner. Another norm in his classroom is having students copy their homework assignment word for word from the board. In general, it appeared as if Charles would remind the students of this on a daily basis, but to his frustration some would not listen and resisted the procedure.
Chloe would make it a point to meet her students at the door and have them enter one at a time quietly. I could not notice any written rules and procedures on the walls, but in the videos she would often remind them not speak during her lecture, and to sit down at all appropriate times as well. Overall, her verbal reminders seemed to be effective as she spoke with a certain authority in her voice. However, there were a few times when the students spoke over her and she lamented the wasted learning time.
Meryl herself was late on the first day and did not have a seating chart. She then led them into the classroom and spent a long time attempting to find where they all were to sit. Once class was able to begin, she projected her rules and procedures (e.g., quietly wait outside before class begins) on the wall. Another norm she often verbally reminded students of was to be quiet and push in their chairs before exiting the classroom. Overall, I did not notice any fixed postings of rules or procedures in the classroom, and as such Meryl had to frequently remind students of what she expected, often in a state of frustration.
Oliver had the students’ names placed on their desks for them to find their own way. As this was the first day, students had some confusion, but ultimately were able to sit down successfully. I was not able to notice any rules or procedures written on the walls, but a norm in his classroom is to play classical music as they enter, and to subsequently teach them a new quote each day from a famous person. Overall, the students tended to respond somewhere between interested and apathetic, but finding seats and sitting down in general does not appear to be one of Oliver’s main problems with misbehavior.
Claudenia’s classroom did not have any visible rules or procedures written on the wall, but she made a point to often remind the students not to speak over her, sit down, take off their jackets, and of course pay attention. In general, her approach as well was to apply verbal reminders in a very stern voice. At times when the classroom was out of control, she had to bring in an assistant, which worked while he was there, but was rendered ineffective after he left the class and it returned to its original state of rowdiness.
Nicholas makes a point to greet his students at the door at the top of each class and directs them to their seats. In terms of written material on the walls, he has a merit board on which he writes the names of students who perform well and deserve recognition. Overall, the students tend to appreciate his effort to recognize their efforts. Additionally, issues such as not being able to find desks are not present, but the occasional students who spoke out of turn was certainly noticeable.
Student Organization
How are they organized (i.e., seating)?
How does this affect their behavior?
Charles has students seated in groups of four around the classroom. Overall, from what I can tell this tends to create islands of different personalities with some groups being more studious than others. The benefit of which I noticed, however, was that he can move a student to another group to alter the dynamic. For example, he once was asked an unmotivated student to move to another group in order to sit next to a studious one. In the short term this was effective as she was quite nice to him, but quickly he returned to his original uncooperative state.
Chloe has the desks placed around the perimeter of the classroom as well as in the center with four students per row. This allows her to walk around the room and more easily help or discipline students. For example, she once on the desk of a student who was not cooperating and calmly explained to her what she needed to do without having to squeeze in between. In other words, her students are accessible to her.
Meryl has her desks placed very close to one another. It seems to me that this allows the students to more easily talk and play around during class. It is also more difficult for her to access them for discipline or help.
In one of Oliver’s classes, he placed the students in rows of desks. This is a pretty standard layout which allows for less interested students to sit in the back of the classroom. In another business class, he has students sitting at computers placed around the perimeter of the room. The positive aspect is that he is able to easily access individual students to help them, but the negative aspect is that they can go into their own little worlds with headphones on.
Claudenia has her students sit at high desks around the classroom which are all very close to one another. I think the proximity of the students allows for them to more easily speak and play around, but for the purposes of her science class, it allows for easier movement in the front and center of the class when she requires group participation.
Nicholas has his desks setup in traditional rows from the front to the back of the classroom. Although this allows for more unmotivated students to sit in the back and attempt to slack off, Nicholas’ is quite engaging and moves around the room a lot, possibly because he is aware of this.
Activities
What activities are students engaged in?
How does this impact their behavior?
One activity which Charles did was to have the students stand up, say their first names, and to mention something they liked which begins with the first letter. The students seemed to not resist much, but did not have much enthusiasm as they completed the activity.
Chloe’s activities did not receive too much attention in the first two episodes, but one included her asking students to read and analyze a cartoon about the changing economic structure of the UK. Afterwards, they were to reflect upon it in a journal. Overall, the writing portion of this seemed excessively challenging to students and highlighted their unwillingness to learn, as Chloe put it.
At one point Meryl had their students write about what they did over their summer holiday before starting this new school year. In general, it was a real struggle for her to even get students to write a few sentences, let alone a paragraph. At the end of the activity she was left frustrated and deflated.
An activity which I Oliver did with his class was to have them write about their self-expectations for the year. From what I could gather from the video, most students only wrote very little, but some students wrote a little about the particular grade they might want.
On Claudenia’s first day she blew up balloons in her class to demonstrate different reactions to fire. In general, this younger-aged class found it very exciting and were very engaged in the project. On another day with older students, she had them line up and clap to demonstrate how sound travels. This time, however, the activity was not accepted so well by students who could not understand the basic concepts involved or why Claudenia bothered to have them line up in front of the class.
A particularly memorable activity Nicholas had his students complete was to write a persuasive letter to their head teach explaining why they should not have to stay after school for extended study time. As this truly motivated the students, quite a few wrote expressive essays which the head teacher came into the class to praise.
Interactions
How do student interact with one another?
How do students interact with the teacher?
How does this impact their behavior?
Charles tends to have an argumentative tone with the students he feels are not living up his expectations and a general business-like attitude with the others. At one point he said that he could not remember students’ names and it was not his fault, and in my opinion that generally summarizes his interactions with them. Another point I noticed is that he does not have eyes on the back of his head, so to speak, This is evident as he often is focusing on a single or group of the students while others mess around or put their heads down. Overall, the students in the class, however, tend to cooperate well with one another, possibly uniting over their dislike of Charles.
Chloe has a very patient and gentle way of interacting with her students. She attempts to call them by their names and maintain eye contact. When students misbehave or do not participate she makes a point to speak with them and calmly explain what they must do without making it personal. I think the students appreciate this as they seemed to be generally calm as well.
Meryl tends to speak to her students in a consistently stern tone of voice. Overall, she does not have much control over her class and cannot gain it without the assistance of other school staff. When speaking with students she does not get angry often, but a sort of drained patience is very audible. I think the students pick up on this and likely do not feel the motivation to improve.
Oliver is generally pretty calm with his students and repeats what they need to do. For example, one student complained he did not teach them the basics before giving them independent work so he decided to take a different approach by having them work on a single topic at a time. This was the result of the advice of his adviser, and the results were positive. Overall, most of his students are quite calm but their motivation seems to be quite low.
Claudenia stated that she is not friends with her students and I think this generally summarizes the way she interacts with them. Overall, she maintains a stern tone of voice and does not often smile. From her point of view, maintaining this is the key managing behavior and from my point of view she is quite effective at it. Her students do at times speak out of turn and fool about, but she has the power to bring the class back to her, most of the time.
Nicholas generally goes out of his way to interact with students and create a warm relationship with them. He also likes to often use analogies (e.g., a descending scuba diver) to simplify his math problems, as well as personalize his lessons with stories about his youth and his troubles with learning in school. Another impressive aspect of his class is that he “breaks” his own rules at times as a reward to students for good behavior. One example of this was by giving them treats in class to take home. His students tend to get along well and his classroom has a positive atmosphere, but he will not hesitate to assign detentions to those who misbehave.
Misbehavior
What was noticeable?
How did the teachers respond?
A student named Caleb in one of Charles’ classes is where most of the misbehavior was focused on in the episodes I watched. Some examples included him not wanting to do work in class, not wanting to write down his homework, and arriving late. Charles tends to deal with it by asking him to leave the room or stay after to discuss. In general, these interactions do not lead anywhere productive and the misbehavior continues the next day.
Chloe had some students facing away from her in class and another refused to take of their jacket. She dealt with these cases by maintaining a calm tone of voice and simply stated what the students needed to be doing until they complied. Overall, she is assertive with them, but she tends to take misbehavior personal, as she puts a lot of time into lesson preparation. The students in general tend to misbehave in typical ways such as talking during class, but are also compliant for the most part when Chloe calls them out.
Meryl’s class had many incidents of misbehavior which she generally could not sort out by herself. Some examples include students drawing on themselves, standing up, or jumping over desks. Meryl raised her voice once or twice which the students see as a weakness to take advantage of.
Oliver tends to speak in a mild way so I think the students take advantage of his lack of presence in the classroom. For example, one student came to class late and after she explained why in a sort of annoyed way, Oliver backed off quickly. This signaled to other students they can get away with certain things. Overall, the students tend to have low motivation, but misbehavior in terms of fighting was not really noticeable.
Claudenia had some typical problems including students refusing to sit down, speaking too much during her lesson, and drawing inappropriate things in class. In the case of the inappropriate drawing, she dealt with it by first consulting with other teachers, and then speaking with the student the next day. She let him off with a warning that his parents would be called next time. Overall, I think her students mostly misbehave in typical ways and she is able to discipline them with her strong personality.
Nicholas had some students who were not motivated to get their work done, so he threatened to have them all stay after school until they finished. After they finished he had them write a short persuasive essay as to why they believed they should go home on time. After reading these, he selected the best ones and presented them to the head teacher for her to praise in class the next day.
Conclusions
How did the teachers exhibit withitness?
Which positive and/or negative strategies were employed?
Charles’ general level of withitness was quite low in my opinion and this is noticeable in that he focuses on certain individuals or groups while the other students begin to act up. One particular positive strategy, however, was to place the less motivated student(s) next to a high performer in the hopes of good behavior rubbing off. A negative strategy, however, was the speed at which he removes students from the class or asks them to stay after. In doing so he does not solve the problem but merely postpones it until next class where it reappears. Overall, Charles would find it beneficial to learn more about his students then to write off the ones who he feels are not willing to commit to the class fully.
Chloe tends to stand at the front of the class, stand sideways while writing on the board, and maintain eye contact with her students. As such, I feel she has a high level of withitness. Another indicator is her ability to easily walk around the classroom thanks to her desk organization. Doing so keeps her engaged and I would call this a positive strategy. One other strategy in particular which was memorable was that that she wrote down the names of students who performed well on a merit board to emphasize her appreciation. Overall, she is quite calm and assertive, but she might want to consider speaking in a louder voice at times to show she means business.
Meryl’s level of withitness is not very high in my opinion as I observed her being quite frustrated as students misbehaved in groups around the classroom. Often times, most of class time is spent trying to control them and not much work gets done. Later in the second episode she is even placed on watch from her head teacher as a cause for concern. Despite her weaknesses in class, one positive aspect of her teaching is calling the students’ parents and talking to them about their misbehavior. I think this demonstrates her willingness to engage with them outside of the classroom, but unfortunately not much improvement was noticeable for her.
Oliver gradually improved his withitness as the episodes progressed. In the beginning, as aforementioned, he would sort of gloss over the the main ideas of his lesson and then quickly assign independent work. This often left the students confused to the concepts and requirements of the day’s lesson. After accepting advice from his adviser and breaking up the lesson into digestible parts and discussions for formative assessment he was able to gain a greater awareness of where his students were at. Overall, I think he learned that the way a teacher represents his or her expectations is ultimately reflected in their students’ behavior.
Claudenia consistently made a point of be very present and aware in the classroom so I would rate her withitness as quite high. This is noticeable in her choice to keep the front and middle of the classroom open so she can be physically and mentally present for her students, and not just a talking head at the front of the room. One positive strategy she employed was to consult with her fellow teachers about the inappropriate drawing she found because she simply did not know what to do. I think this led to the best outcome where she simply spoke to the student and warned him without directly going to punishment. One thing she can do to improve her class is to make sure she pre-teaches content before putting them in groups, as was evident in one activity where the students did not understand what they were supposed to be doing or how it related to how sound travels.
Nicholas, in my opinion, has the highest level of withitness. This is evident in how he constantly keeps his eyes on the class, as well as his willingness to take the time to get to know his students at a reasonable level. A particular memorable strategy was his ability to get students to relate to him by discussing how he too had problems studying when he was young until he decided to put in the work and eventually made it into a prestigious university. Another strategy he describes was to first present students with very simple challenges to build up their confidence before gradually increasing the difficulty level.