Jamie Dale
T O P I C :
Detention: Yes or No?
Jamie Poses the Question. . . .
September 16, 2007
Two of my classes are at capacity (30 students) which makes the room very full and crams a lot of students close together. I am stuggling with classroom management, as far as student behavior is concerned, and when I have these classes, it is even harder. How do you "manage" this many students in the area of talking? I feel like I am constantly calling students down for talking when they are not supposed to — either while I am talking or when they are supposed to be working silently. I haven't given any detentions and my mentor is encouraging me to do that so that the students know I am serious. How do I choose which student(s) to give detention to? It is a widespread problem (as in not just one or two students) and I think part of it is because there are so many students crammed in such a small place. Does anyone have any suggestions for curbing the talking besides resorting to detentions?
Sarah White answers. . . .
October 13, 2007
Something that I have started doing that my mentor showed me is that when students are talking when they are not supposed to be (i.e. when someone else is speaking, or they are supposed to be working silently) is that I write their name on the board. They have to stay one minute after the bell for their name and one minute for each checkmark after that. The class is warned that this will happen if they don't stay quiet. I don't stop teaching to do it, I just walk over to the board and without skipping a beat I write their name on the board and keep teaching. Once most students see their name on the board they stop pretty quickly. For those that get checkmarks, they don't do it next class once they end up being tardy to their next class or they have to stay into lunch because they had to stay so long after the bell. If they keep doing it despite actions like this, then I would give detention because they are completely disrespecting you and their peers.
Anthony Halter answers. . . .
October 22, 2007
My mentor teacher was at a wedding, and I was alone with the students for the first time. The students were much nore talkative, so I wrote their name on the board and placed a check by it each time that I caught them talking. I was not sure what the punishment was going to be, but I told them they would not like it. Close to the end of class, it came to me. As I was closing class with reminders of what was to be turned in next time, I mentioned... " By the way, if your name is on the board, you need to stay after class and give me a minute of your time for your name and each check mark." The students did not like this at all. I told them they owed me for the class time they had wasted. I gave them the option of lunch detention or wait for the amount of minutes they had been disruptive. All five students chose to wait. The word spread in the hall that I was not in a good mood today, while actually I was quite happy, and I did not have much trouble the rest of the day.
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