Total Classroom Dysfunction

I am actually quite glad that this is the topic of our fifth online discussion as I had been hoping to share my experience at my current high school with peers.

The classroom management technique that I would like to discuss is the blatant disrespect that I have seen my mentor teacher display towards her students. The majority of her classes are Freshman English and they are, shall we say, very energetic. When class begins, I often observe a handful of students who all compete to be the center of attention with their classmates and make a concerted effort to be social in an attempt to gain control of the classroom. This generally involves being physically silly (ex: dancing around, play fighting, etc...) cracking inappropriate jokes at the expense of fellow classmates and using profanity simply in the hopes of getting a reaction of some sort. They are generally successful in their endeavors.

My mentor teacher is a no-nonsense type and relishes in the idea of total control. While she attempts to connect with her students on their level, she chooses to do so primarily through a comedic performance of some sort. No problem with that, right? Well, there is a problem with that because this instructor seems to get some sort of sick satisfaction out of cutting the "problem" students down to a level where they are not only deeply offended, but completely turned off to the notion of learning.

Example: Yesterday, when I was observing a seminar period, my mentor teacher insisted that her students participate in twenty minutes of sustained, silent reading. Most of the students did not object and happily complied, involving themselves in course reading or periodicals of some type. However, there was one student in particular who was clearly not going to go along with this idea. In my personal opinion, he is confrontational solely because he enjoys getting a negative reaction from this teacher. He likes to make her squirm and he likes to push her buttons. When he sees that she's perturbed with him, he's usually laughing hysterically. During the chaos that ensued in the midst of the silent reading time, my mentor teacher received a phone call from the teacher next door asking my mentor teacher to send a student down to the neighboring teacher's classroom to pick up another student and bring them back to my mentor teacher's classroom to discuss some makeup work. My mentor teacher selected a quiet girl near the door and the student went on her way. Reggie, the "difficult" student, asked my teacher, "Why'd you send her to go get him? You know how slow she walks! She'll be gone for days!!" This of course, elicited a roar of laughter and my teacher replied, very matter-of-factly, "Reggie! She walks about as slow as you think!" I was flabbergasted!! All of the kids looked at Reggie and laughed and then comments of "Right on, Ms. ___, you tell him!" and "She got you, Reggie!" were heard for the next five minutes or so...Reggie was immediately quiet, but not because he was engaged. He finally did what she wanted him to do because she broke him. That was very troubling for me.

I do not think that belittling your students EVER has a place in the classroom. I do not believe that cutting students' self-esteem so low that it barely registered is the best way to do things. I guess that on one hand, my mentor teacher was successful because she ultimately settles the kids down, but I am fundamentally against the way that she handles these situations.

Kids don't need the crap that they hear in their homes echoed in the classroom. They need someone to believe in their abilities.

On a side note, this same teacher has recanted stories of how she "helplessly" watched as one of her male students stripped on top of one of the desks in the classroom one day and how she constantly entertains questions from that same student regarding her sex life because she "just doesn't know what to do." I have also heard her say to students, "That's so gay!," "Why are you being so gay today?" and other such inappropriate phrases during the course of a normal lesson, even in a class where clearly there is a homosexual student.

I just don't know what to think of this classroom environment...

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Arianne