Teaching in an Urban School

For a teacher working in an urban school setting, they might experience some culture shocks if they have been brought up in a suburban or rural setting.  As Milner says in his article, Classroom Management in Urban Schools, “There is a noticeable difference between urban and rural schools in terms of student mobility, size, and diversity, with urban schools and communities being larger, having higher student transience, and including greater ethnic and cultural diversity,” (493).  But what does this mean for teachers? What kinds of implications come with these differences?

 “We know that more experienced teachers tend to have more effective classroom management skills, and students have greater chances for opportunities to learn with these teachers. We know that students whose basic needs are met – most often higher SES students – are better able to concentrate on learning and on managing their behaviors,” (Milner 493).  Milner is basically saying that teachers need to know how to meet the specific needs of different populations of students.  If teachers fail to make the connection with their students who are considered “at risk,” then those students are more likely to drop out.

In her ethnographic study of 31 culturally diverse students identified by the school as potential dropouts, Schlosser (1992) discovered that teachers must avoid distancing themselves from their students by developing knowledge about the students’ home lives and cultural backgrounds and by developing knowledge about adolescents’ developmental needs.  In her words, “the behaviors of marginal students are purposive acts…their behaviors are constructed on the basis of their interpretation of school live…relationships with teachers are a key factor,”(Milner 503).

This proves to be difficult at times when dealing with institutional and systematic barriers.  Teachers struggle to show students they care and to develop the best management strategies in urban classrooms.  “Teachers are often pressured and closely managed by their administrators. They experience less than ideal support; consequently, the teachers’ students may believe that the teachers ‘forget to care’ about the students themselves. In reality, the teachers are attempting to negotiate ‘structural conditions within the school, such as tracking and high teacher turnover, that preclude caring relationships with students’ (Kats, 1999, p.809),” (Milner 495).

Because the teachers struggle to show the students their support and due to the high rate of teacher turnover, it is hard for the students to make a lasting connection with their students, especially in urban schools.  If teachers learn how to overcome implications and barriers at urban schools, they will succeed in building lasting relationships with their students to encourage them to succeed in education.

Milner, R. H. Classroom Management in Urban Classrooms. 491-522.

Getting the Most Academic Learning out of Classroom Time

The amount of classroom time actually spent on academic learning is a major concern to most teachers.  Teachers want their students to get the most out of their time spent together since, in most high schools, each period is barely fifty minutes long.  Academic learning time (ALT) includes four variables that contribute to its use: “(a) allocated time, (b) time that is actually used for instruction, (c) engaged time, and (d) academic success and productivity,” (Gettinger & Seibert 2002).  These variables are reduced by different attributes of the school day as illustrated in the following figure:

In their article, Gettinger and Seibert claim, “Teacher behaviors and instructional management strategies have an impact on student behavior so as to promote ALT. Collectively, these behaviors reflect as being termed a directive or interactive teaching style. Interactive teaching encompasses multiple teaching behaviors that are associated with higher levels of ALT,” (2002).  The most important aspect of interactive teaching is a strong academic focus.  This is shown in the amount of time devoted to academic versus nonacademic activities and in the type of instructional interaction that takes place in the classroom.  

Classrooms with a strong academic focus share the following characteristics: “(a) systematic, teacher-structured activities; (b) lessons and content related  to attaining specific goals; (c) rapid pacing of lessons; (d) ready availability of teaching materials; (e) high levels of student participation and responding; (f) student accountability for homework; and (g) frequent monitoring of students’ performance through weekly and monthly tests,” (Gettinger & Seibert 2002).

Gettinger, M. & Seibert, J. K. (2002). Best Practices in Increasing Academic Learning Time. Best Practices in School Psychology. 4(20), 1-16.

Dealing with Passive-Aggressive Students

A pretty consistent frustration to teachers is the passive-aggressive student.  Teachers usually do not know why these students frustrate them so much, but once they delve deeper into the personalities of these students, they can begin to recognize their manipulative behaviors and then begin to help them change the behavior.  After all, passive-aggressive students “deal with their anger and frustrations by eliciting these feelings in others, thereby appearing to be the victim of the other’s irrational behavior,” (The Institute on Community Integration).  In the article published by the The Institute on Community Integration, typical characteristics of the passive-aggressive student are:

• Passive listening; hearing only what they want
• Slow-motion; moving very slowly when asked to go somewhere or complete a task
• Purposeful forgetting
• “accidental” destruction
• Frequently out of seat
• Frequent behavior which is either inappropriate or exhibited at the wrong time
• Cruel cut-downs
• Constant complaining
• Incomplete work if not constantly nagged

One of the first questions that these students might bring up in a teacher would be, Why does the student seek attention in this manner?  “…the student has likely learned, over the course of his or her life, that he or she can quickly gain attention through this behavior.  He or she was probably not reinforced for appropriate behavior and likely lacks the skills necessary to elicit positive attention,” (The Institute on Community Integration).  Another typical reason students act in this way is because of their lack of self-esteem.  Because others underestimate their potential, the student has learned that they are not capable of much, even though this is hardly ever the case. 

Teachers of passive-aggressive students tend to wonder what the most proactive interventions are when it comes to changing the students’ behavior.  “Positive reinforcement is very important in improving the student’s self-esteem and changing his or her self-perception,” (The Institute on Community Integration).  By giving the students positive feelings about themselves, they stop feeling the need to utilize passive-aggressive behavior.  Another effective intervention method is modeling. “Modeling helps the student learn new behavior,” (The Institute on Community Integration).  By showing our students how we expect them to act, they might begin to pick up on the subtlety of our modeling. 

These methods might not always work on each individual student, and knowing your students is the best way to figure out an intervention method best for them.  Remember that every student is different.

Smith, K. Passive Aggressive Behavior: Preventing and Dealing with Challenging Behavior. College of Education, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Effective Time Management

There is not nearly enough time in the school day, or let alone in each period, for a teacher to get everything accomplished that he or she intends.  Organizing time is one of the most important aspects of teaching.  New teachers need to get as much of a grasp on the concept of time management as they can before the school year starts, but it isn’t always learned immediately. Even veteran teachers can improve their time management skills.  Thomas’ article, “Organize for More Time,” gives strategies for students and teachers to manage time more effectively.  

Strategies for Students

Getting your students to be able to function without your monitoring them during instruction can be a huge time-saver.  If they can sit quietly and work on something such as bell-work, you can quickly get attendance taken and beginning-of-the-class tasks accomplished (Thompson 2006).  

To make this system the most effective, train students to find the induction activity in the same place each day. If it is a worksheet, establish a tray where students know to find it each day.  If there are questions to answer, create a special place on the board for these questions, write them on a transparency that is already projected when they walk in, or use PowerPoint with an LCD projector to display the questions. (Thompson 2006).

As Thompson stated, students need to know the procedures to everyday tasks in the classroom. Teachers also need to establish set places for students to turn in and pick up assignments.  One idea for this would be to use plastic crates or individual folders for each student (Thompson 2006).  Another issue in all classrooms is absences.  Instead of having students come to you in the middle of the class to ask what they missed, have a place in the classroom that either lists the previous day’s events, holds assignments, or both.  This will save you time when it comes to pulling together the assignments, because it will probably happen at least once a day.

Strategies for Teachers

Not only can students help manage your teaching time, but you can adapt strategies to effectively manage your time as well.  One of the most time-consuming tasks for teachers is lesson planning. Because all the lesson plan books out there are not conducive to real-life situations, the best way to compile your lessons is by creating your own lesson book using a three-ring binder.

A lesson plan template can be created on the computer using Microsoft Word or Excel. From there, the teacher can either type lesson plans and print them out on the computer, or print out the template to handwrite the lesson plans.  Behind each lesson or set of lessons in the binder, the teacher can include one copy of the notes, worksheets and activities that were used to teach the lesson (Thompson 2006).

One of the best parts of this binder idea is that you can use it for years to come, but adapt it as you see fit.  Along with lesson planning, another area of teaching that sucks up a lot of time is organization.  One idea for better organization techniques would be to use as many file folders as necessary, even if you are using one folder for only one thing.  If you minimize the amount of folders used, you end up with a mass of unorganized paperwork.  Another idea is to color code according to class. As a secondary teacher, you will have more than one class to teach within the day.  Using a different color for each class can ease your students’ confusion. 

Thompson provides ample suggestions for better time management within the classroom.  If we begin with ourselves managing time more effectively, we can then transfer the skill to our students in order to aid us in our time management. 

Thomas, V. (2006). Organize for more time. In Association for career and technical education. Retrieved from http://acteonline.org/uploadedFiles/Publications_and_E-Media/files/files-techniques-2006/Organize-for-More-Time.pdf

The Fourth R in Education -- Relationships

“The Fourth R in Education—Relationships” makes it extremely clear that a student’s feelings about the academic material determines how well they do in the class.  In Witmer’s article, he quotes Caine and Caine as saying “Learning occurs only when what is being presented is meaningful enough to the student that he or she decides to actively engage in the learning experience,” (1994).  Witmer also quotes Glasser (1998) as explaining “people often evaluate an activity as meaningful when it satisfies human emotional needs.”  This means that teachers need to find ways to make their lessons meaningful to their students. 

Since the human brain does not automatically separate cognition from emotion (Witmer 2005), a student might be emotionally turned-off from a topic or situation and, in turn, subconsciously shut down cognitively. We need to keep our students invested in what they are learning. One way to do this would to simply get invested in our students – they will realize that we care, and in turn, care about the work they produce in class because they do not want to disappoint their teacher.  

One way to let students know we care about their lives is to have them complete an interest inventory.  “The first job of any teacher at any level is to know students’ names and to know something unique about each student…Using students’ names and interests in classroom examples personalizes the learning and sends a message that each students is valued in this class (Wong and Wong 1998),” (Witmer 225).  If we use something such as this interest inventory idea to get to know our students, we can send them the message that we do truly care about them and have an interest in their future.

Witmer, M. M. (2005). The Fourth R in Education--Relationships. Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas. 78(5), 224.

Viewing Classroom Management through a Social and Emotional Lens

“Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is an approach that teaches individuals to recognize, regulate, and express the social and emotional aspects of their lives so they can successfully manage life tasks,”  (Norris 2003).  Some people are naturally attuned to their emotions as well as others, and some people are not.  There is no program for SEL, however it is possible to gain emotional intelligence.  “Leaders in the field of SEL believe that schools need to take a more programmatic approach where SEL behaviors permeate every part of school life—the policies, curricula, instruction, and interactions of all who work and learn there (Elias, Arnold, & Hussey, 2003),” (Norris 2003). SEL is important in the classroom because it helps teachers to be aware of their students’ emotions. It is equally as important for students to have a decent level of emotional intelligence so that they can express themselves correctly. 

The following table shows key skills students and teachers must have in order to foster social and emotional learning:

(Norris 2003)

It is important that teachers create a positive classroom climate in order for their students to be successful. In order for this to occur, teachers must have a well-organized classroom management plan in place. “Well-organized classroom management plans establish the

parameters for the physical, social, emotional, and intellectual environments of the classroom. Classrooms where students feel safe to take risks, acquire new knowledge, and know they are valued members of a community are classrooms where learning is optimized (Evertson, Emmer, & Worsham, 2003; National Research Council, 2000; Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1994),” (Norris 2003). 

There are several aspects of SEL to consider: Do teachers with higher levels of SEL competencies remain in the field longer because they have more job satisfaction? What SEL approaches can narrow the achievement gap between ethnicities and genders in the classroom? Can high levels of SEL in students decrease bullying? All of these are reasons to address SEL in the classroom and try to portray high levels of emotional competencies to our students.  After all, they learn most through our modeling. 

Norris, J. A. (2003). Looking at Classroom Management through a Social and Emotional Learning Lens. Theory Into Practice. 42(4), 313-318.