You Don't REALLY Need to Go Do YOU?

Effective classroom management is always a balance between being a decent human being and a strict disciplinarian. Teachers often let too many students leave to go to the bathroom. Let me give you a few tips on reducing your bathroom trips.

First, imagine you are a student. If you have a choice to walk your girlfriend to class or to relieve yourself, what would you choose? Students keep a mental list of which teachers are "cool" and which ones you don't even bother to ask for a pass. Don't be the latter!

When a student asks you to go to the bathroom, say, "Hold that thought" and continue what you were doing. Many times the student won't ask you again. When they do, you might repeat the first step and put them off. If you can manage to put them off long enough then you can say, "Well, it's almost time to go!"

When you, on occasion, let them go, don't make it pleasant for them. Give them a dirty look. Take a deep breath to show you are slightly annoyed at them. Tell them, "Okay, but hurry. Don't make a habit of this!" Students are constantly trying to gage which teachers are cool with bathroom breaks and which ones aren't. From a psychological perspective, don't reward them with smile and an easy-going attitude. Make 'em pay!

When a student asks you loudly in front of the class if they can go, the answer is always, "No." If they ask you privately, then give them an annoying look or other posture and let them go. If your class sees you letting one student go, then you will have literally 4 or 5 saying, "Can I go, too?" Those students didn't need to go bad enough to ask themselves, but all the sudden they all have an "emergency." Don't let this happen. Make them ask you privately to avoid this line.

Keep them busy! Bell to bell business always distracts them from their bladders. Honestly, students just like to walk around. They genuinely need to go, but they really want a change of pace/scenery. You can't blame them, but you can't have 4 people per hour roaming the halls causing problems for other teachers. It seems that when I'm teaching, students rarely need to go. However, when I transition between one activity to another, someone always asks. Keep 'em busy!

Some of you will just say no all the time. That is a great approach as long as you are human about it.

Watch their eyes!

Where are your studens looking? Are they looking at what you are trying to show them? Are they looking at the book? A quick glance around the room can be a handy strategy of detecting off-task behavior. If you are showing a power point or a movie or a math problem and your student is looking down near their belt buckle area then they are probably on the phone. They could also be fascinated with various objects. Kids get fascinated with all sorts of objects. I'll show a $20 million dollar movie with lots of special effects and violence and I still find students staring at their erasers or bottle caps. Teen behavior is really fascinating, isn't it?

Again, watch their hands; watch their eyes. Don't let them get behind because once they do, they'll copy off of somebody or simply give up. Don't let them get behind. Don't let them think they can get away with it!

Student Respect or Lack Thereof

Wouldn't it be great if we could all work in different school environments so we could appreciate what we have and strive for what we don't? My background is a bad inner-city school and a high functioning inner-city school. I've never worked in the suburbs. But today I talked to a teacher from the suburbs. She lamented how she missed working in tha hood. She was tired of the disrespect. I thought you have a problem with disrespect? As it turns out some of her students are somewhat wealthy so they look down on teachers. It probably didn't help that she was African American.

My definition of disrespect is much different! At my old school, I'd get cussed out every day. I'd get physically threatened on a regular basis. Just so you know, my students didn't do it that much; it was usually students in the hallway. But still, that type of disrespect is a completely different monster. In order to consider working at such a school, you must understand this: African American kids are the most forgiving kids you'll ever meet. They'll blow up at you one day and you'll blow up at them. Then it's over. That's it. No anti-depressant medication necessary for the student, no parent conference (usually), no resulting school shooting (Sorry suburban schools! I couldn't resist.) In my 6 years, I've never noticed a student look down on me because I'm just a teacher. I've heard of teachers in rich districts complain about that.