Part 4: Transforming a Year 3 Class into a Learning Community

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Let us return to my challenging Year 3 class in 2008; where over the course of eight weeks, I transformed an extremely difficult class into a vibrant learning community characterised by respect, empathy, honesty, an inviting atmosphere, and a lively exchange of ideas (Otero, 2001). This was brought about through the creation of a safe learning environment and my efforts to develop positive relationships with all my students, particularly the more challenging ones.

Dealing with challenging behaviours

As I will discuss in more detail in a later post, one of my greatest challenges of this teaching experience was dealing with eight year old “Roy”, a student liable to throw things at the teacher, run away from the class, and draw the teacher into power struggles. After observing and analysing his behaviour (from my position as the second pair of “eyes” in the classroom), I set out to counteract the major causes and reinforcements of the negative behaviours.

I sought to build a positive relationship with “Roy”; circumventing his attempts to draw me into power struggles by maintaining a calm, gentle demeanour, quietly ignoring his attention-seeking behaviours, and removing him from the class to let him calm down (e.g. sending him on errands). I tried to be a positive male role-model, treating him with respect, and working to engage him in his learning. These actions significantly enhanced the “safety” of the classroom learning environment.

Meanwhile, I sought to develop a strong rapport with all my students, taking an active interest in their lives, and listening to their ideas, thoughts, and silences. I noticed “Edward”’s short-sightedness, a possible reason for his delayed literacy development. I also discovered Roy’s passion for aeroplanes and the Fremantle Dockers, loaning him my military aircraft books and commiserating over the football each Monday morning.

While most of my informal interactions with my students occurred during Morning Fitness, when I walked around the oval with my student ‘entourage’, I also spent some time at Recess and Lunch talking to students. I even played football with the boys on several occasions.

Developing positive teacher-student relationships

By really listening to my students, I was able to develop strong, trusting teacher-student relationships, with enormous positive impacts on our classroom environment and learning. It was in this environment that I began to uncover some of the hidden anxieties my students were bringing to class, and this knowledge helped me to respond to their behaviours and emotional needs.

I sought to be open and honest in my interactions with my students, sharing my experiences, humour, and passion for learning. I accepted their eccentricities, and nurtured their interests through engaging learning experiences. I was sensitive to students’ emotional needs, and encouraged them to talk about their troubles with someone they could trust. I explained that while problems may be out of our control, sometimes we need to talk about them. Several students chose to confide their concerns in me, and I supported them in the best way I could, referring one serious case to the school Social Worker.

Responding to Parental Concerns regarding Bullying

During the course of my Internship, I discovered that Daniel’s emotional problems were being exacerbated by another student’s spiteful bullying, and the firm resolution of this issue led to an improvement in his classroom behaviour.

Later, when a parent alerted us that her daughter was being bullied, we uncovered a wider, more serious problem involving a number of girls in our class. While my colleague dealt with the perpetrators, I supported the victims, sharing my experiences of bullying as a child and suggesting strategies for dealing with or avoiding future incidents. Our swift response helped to resolve the issue, leading to a more harmonious classroom environment.

Part 3: The 3 R’s of an Effective Learning Environment

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The 3 R’s: Relationships, Respect & (Shared) Responsibility

In the course of their everyday work, a teacher takes on many roles – teacher, guide, role-model, learner, authority figure, confidante, disciplinarian, communicator, and the list goes on. Teaching is so much more than “chalk and talk”, and our students are not the “empty vessels” of Charles Dickens’ Hard Times.

As a relief teacher, I have worked with and observed the practice of experienced classroom managers, and realised that their classes have several important features in common. They are characterised by positive, open relationships (with students, parents, and colleagues), mutual respect, and a shared responsibility for the learning process. These are the “3 R’s of an Effective Learning Environment”.

The Teacher’s Attitude is Key

Student misbehaviour, in most cases, is not a subversive challenge to the teacher’s authority. Yes, some students can be extremely frustrating, distant and downright irritating, but they are children, and should be treated as such. Their behaviour can be extremely challenging and disruptive, but it often purposeful and influenced by their social environment.

Research shows that effective classroom managers treat student misbehaviour as a natural and normal part of schooling. They take proactive steps to prevent or reduce the severity of their students’ misbehaviour, seeking to minimise the disruption to the teaching & learning process.

As many experienced teachers have taught me, through their words and actions, the creation of a safe learning environment and the development of positive student-teacher relationships are key elements of effective management practice. 

A focus on the students’ needs

As human beings, we have three basic needs – the need for food, shelter, and safety. It is a symptom of modern society that a significant proportion of our students only feel safe at school. In some neighbourhoods, many students turn up to school hungry, having skipped breakfast. Therefore, teachers and schools play an important role in their students’ lives. 

A safe classroom learning environment is created by the teacher, developed through their words, attitudes, actions, classroom management approach, and the kinds of relationships they develop with their students. 

I have two fundamental beliefs:

  • No student should fear their teacher.
  • No student deserves to be intimidated, bullied, or provoked into violence by their classmates. 

To feel safe, our students:

  • Need clear guidelines or rules for appropriate behaviour. They need to own those rules, and understand the consequences they face if they choose not to abide by them.
  • Need to be treated with respect; as individuals with diverse interests, skills, and talents.
  • Need to feel like they belong, a sense of identity as part of a class, a school community
  • Need a sense of purpose, and degree of shared responsibility for the learning process

Finally, EVERY student has the right to feel safe at school, especially those students who exhibit challenging/violent behaviours. Some of the best teachers I have ever worked with, including my own Year 1 teacher, strive to make this happen. This is a difficult, long-term process, and you will have your successes and failures. This is why I became a teacher. 

Part 2 – My Jigsaw Approach to Classroom Management

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Back in 2008, my reflections on my school experience and professional reading led me to develop a practical construct to describe my classroom management approach. The result was:

My “Jigsaw” Approach to Classroom Management
Key Ideas

1. The classroom teacher’s attitude to student misbehaviour underpins the effectiveness of their management response.

2. A safe learning environment relies on positive teacher-student relationships and positive peer relationships. Teachers can develop such relationships by taking a meaningful interest in their students’ lives, and promoting an anti-bullying ethos through their words and actions.

3. Make an effort to forge positive, respectful relationships with your more challenging students. Study the purpose and triggers of their behaviours, and learn about their backgrounds. Use behaviour management strategies which target the cause of their misbehaviour, and remember they too have the right to a safe learning environment.

4. A proactive classroom management approach relates to the facilitation of the teaching and learning process as well as the preventative management of student misbehaviour.

5. Fairly and consistently apply your system of graduated consequences. Ideally, such consequences should foster student self discipline and bring about behaviour change.

(Michael Graffin, November 2008)
What does it all mean?

The “Jigsaw” construct represents the four interrelated dimensions of a harmonious and productive teaching & learning environment. If one or more of the jigsaw ‘pieces’ are missing, the classroom environment becomes dysfunctional. Looking back on my 2008 experiences, I believe the key to the transformation of my class into a vibrant learning community was the creation of a safe learning environment, the missing piece of the puzzle.

Translating Theory into Practice

As my early relief teaching experiences soon revealed, there is a significant difference between having professional knowledge about classroom management and actually applying that knowledge in your professional practice.

As mentioned above, each “jigsaw piece” is critical to a successful classroom management approach. While I thought I was relatively competent in each dimension, I soon discovered that I had a lot to learn.

Engaging in frequent reflection on my classroom management strengths and weaknesses as a relief teacher, I

  • Engaged in extensive professional reading, focussing on excerpts from Classroom Management: A Thinking & Caring Approach, by Barrie Bennett & Peter Smilanich
  • Discussed my situation & potential management strategies with experienced classroom teachers and Deputy Principals
  • Set goals for improvement; experimenting with and refining my use of various management strategies.
Through this long-term reflective process, I have become a more confident and competent classroom manager, and a more effective relief teacher. I have undergone significant professional growth in this area, but recognising the different challenges of different classes and schools, the reflective process continues to this day.

Creating a Classroom Environment That Works – Part 1: The Context

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On my final student teaching experience in 2008, I taught what I thought to be a Year 3 “class from hell”. I was an inexperienced and vulnerable student teacher, exhibiting a complete lack of confidence in my teaching and behaviour management abilities. I then found myself teaching one of the largest and most difficult classes in the school.

Describing my experiences in my 2008 teaching portfolio, I described how I explored ways to manage and motivate students with extremely challenging behaviours and special learning needs:

  • “Roy” was renowned for extreme aggressive outbursts – throwing things at the teacher, running away from class, and drawing the teacher into power struggles. 
  • “Daniel”, a student with extremely low self-esteem, produced poor work and withdrew completely into himself when stressed, [tending to curl up] under his desk.
  • “Edward”, working at a K/PP level in Literacy and Maths, [exhibited] a challenging ‘baby’ attitude and inconsistent performance. 

I went on to record how “I literally transformed my class into a vibrant and enthusiastic learning community; witnessing some remarkable changes in some of my most challenging students … [through] perseverance, care, teamwork, and a reflective engagement with behaviour management theories”. 

It is no understatement to say that working with these students prompted considerable professional growth in the areas of behaviour management and facilitating student learning. In fact, my experiences in this classroom have had a profound impact on the classroom & behaviour management approach which I continue to apply and refine today. 

Food for Thought 

To close, here’s some food for thought for those final year university students with romantic visions of their future classes. I thought my Year 3 class was a “class from hell”, yet on my extensive travels as a relief teacher, I have taught worse, and not just in upper primary either. As a teacher, your class is what you make of it, but don’t expect your first class to be angelic. You may get lucky, but don’t be surprised if you end up with a “seriously difficult” class on your first appointment. It happens. The trick is to be prepared. 

A Process of Trial & Error: Developing My Classroom Management Approach

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I have found classroom management a very complex topic to learn about, let alone write about, so I have divided it up under four major headings:

  1. Classroom Management – Creating a Learning Environment which Works
  2. Behaviour Management – Strategies for Dealing with Student Misbehaviour
  3. Complex Behaviour Situations – Dealing with Aggressive/Violent/At-Risk Children/the “Class from Hell”
  4. Advice for Graduate Relief Teachers

I have learnt some valuable lessons in all three major areas of classroom management, and have had some major successes with managing more complex behaviour situations. By sharing my experiences here, I hope that some of my readers will be able to better prepare themselves for their first years of teaching. 

Thoughts on Classroom Behaviour Management

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Classroom Behaviour Management.

Those skills we wish were taught in first year university, but (at least in my case), most definitely were not.

Those skills, without which a class can effectively fall apart; where unruly and sometimes violent students reign, and drive even experienced teachers to and sometimes beyond breaking point. I have witnessed this first-hand, and it happens more often than many would care to think.

I was once advised by a university lecturer to keep a journal of my first year teaching experinces; and despite being too shellshocked to write for nearly four months, my early journal entries reveal a significant, and necessary preoccupation with classroom management. In those days, it was a matter of survival.

As a relief teacher, I enter unfamiliar school and classroom environments on a regular basis. Unless you have the opportunity to develop a reputation amongst the student population, a process which takes a considerable amount of time and effort, this unfamilarity almost always translates to unruly student behaviour, and sometimes, major behaviour management challenges.

With my heady combination of inexperience, nerves and poor classroom management skills, I had my fair share of “disaster” days. I have quite literally had classes descend into total chaos, called for Admin assistance on more than one occasion, experienced the horrible piercing sound a student makes screaming their lungs out in class, and let us not forget the day I had to send seven students to buddy class (Day 2 of my teaching career).

Perhaps the most ‘memorable’ experience was the time I had a student fire pieces of paper at my head with his home-made catapult, prior to his forcible removal from the class, numerous escapes, attempts to scale the roof, and kicking me in the leg. Pity Admin didn’t warn me that this student was in the class, because with my past history of dealing with such students, I might have been able to handle the situation better. Amazingly, I managed to keep some semblence of control that day, despite the chaos going on outside.

To be honest, the collegial and administrative support I recieve as a relief teacher shapes my lasting impressions of the schools in which I work. These impressions are generally positive, and I have found most of my teaching colleagues to be extremely supportive, particularly in hard-to-staff or low-socio-economic schools.

I still remember my first day of teaching, when the teacher next door kindly introduced herself and offered her assistance if needed. A particular thankyou goes to the Year 6/7 teachers at one particular school, who supported me the day after my worst ever management disaster (last year), offering to give up their DOTT to support me if I had to face the class again. This offer was above and beyond the call of duty, and thankfully proved unnecessary. I later found out that a teacher with 30 years experience couldn’t control the class either, a most reassuring observation.

I am also grateful to those Deputy Principals who willingly lent their support in crisis situations, and didn’t judge me negatively for it. In some cases, I was afforded the opportunity to try teaching the class again; but sadly, many “disasters” meant I never returned to the school. While thankfully my relief teaching experience now enables me to deal with most problems in the class, I still regret being denied these valuable opportunities to learn from my mistakes.

In those early days, I had my good and bad days. Yes, some were really bad days, like those I described here, but I learnt so much by reflecting on my experiences, researching classroom management strategies, and frankly, asking my colleagues for help.

Herin lie several fundamental lessons, learnt from painful experience:

1) Don’t be afraid to ASK for help (when you’re drowning)
2) Engage in Professional Learning – RE: Classroom Management
3) Plan, Experiment, and Reflect on your Management Approach.

In the following series of posts, I will explore how I dealt with the significant challenges I faced trying to develop my classroom management approach, and share some key ideas and strategies which guided my reflections & skill development.

The Major Challenges of First Year Teaching

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Based on my personal experiences, and discussions with graduate colleagues, I think there are three major challenges facing most first year teachers in Western Australia.

     1) Curriculum Development & Lesson Planning

     2) Classroom Behaviour Managment

     3) Assessment & Reporting

As graduates, our response to these challenges, and the avenues of support we access, frankly determines our survival in the teaching profession. It is no joke that many teachers leave within the first 5 years of teaching, and I now understand why.

Starting work as a relief teacher in February 2009, I entered the most intensely stressful period of my life. Yet, as I engaged in the PLI Graduate Teacher Modules, one of the last relief staff to be able to do so, I was reassured to know that I wasn’t alone, and indeed, some teachers were going through much worse. For a much more realistic picture of first year teaching than my university ever painted, I highly recommend Ellen Moir’s article on the Phases of First Year Teaching [pdf].

In the following series of posts, I will explore how I have dealt with my first year challenges as a very much part-time relief teacher. I hope they will provide some insights into what has been for me an incredible personal and professional transformation. 

There is one important caveat; however, as my personal situation has literally allowed me to compress several years worth of professional learning and development into an 18 month period. It has been a wild ride, and if I had my time again, I wouldn’t have moved at such a breakneck pace. Nevertheless, the results have been worthwhile, and I hope my fellow graduates and relief colleagues will learn something from my experiences. I’d love to hear your comments.

Well, here goes …

Multiliteracies in the Media

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Over the years, I have collected education-related media clippings on a variety of topics. These articles below provide some insights into how multi-literacies informed teaching practice can provide real educational benefits for our students. 

Winners of the Inaugural DETWA Teacher’s Innovative Online Learning Award (2007) described the influence of ICT integration on teaching and learning in their classrooms:

Rod Blitvich, a secondary science teacher, described how his podcasting and movie-making projects led to “a wonderful transformation in discipline/motivation problems within [his] classes”.

John Atkins, teaching in Broome, Western Australia, described how Indigenous students were encouraged to use MP3 recorders and headsets to “tell their stories in a non-threatening, non-shaming way”. This practice helped teaching staff overcome long-standing barriers to assessing Indigenous students’ speaking skills.

Paul Fuller, an innovative primary school teacher, engages his students in a range of online projects, including podcasting and blogging students stories. He “was blown away by the enthusiasm, energy and quality of writing … as formerly reluctant writers became prolific authors”. (Google “Albert the Blogging Bear” for an example of his work).

DETWA (24/8/2007). ‘Paul’s students are global citizens’ and ‘Teacher’s Innovative Online Learning’ in School Matters, Issue 8.

A collaborative project between Murdoch University and Cooblellup Primary School (Western Australia) found that the use of Interactive Whiteboards to support literacy and numeracy teaching led to significant improvements in students literacy and numeracy results.

Surveys of student attitudes indicated that students became more motivated and engaged in their learning, and mathematics results were on average 2.5 times greater than expected for normal developmental growth.

[Murdoch University (May 2008). ‘Hi-tech whiteboard hits home’ in Discovery Magazine, v(2) Issue 4]

Children who use technology are ‘better writers’ – A survey finds blogging, use of social networking sites, and texting leads to improved writing outcomes for students (National Literacy Trust, UK)

A survey of 3,001 children aged nine to 16 found that 24% had their own blog and 82% sent text messages at least once a month. In addition 73% used instant messaging services to chat online with friends. However, 77% still put real pen to paper to write notes in class or do their school homework. Of the children who neither blogged nor used social network sites, 47% rated their writing as “good” or “very good”, while 61% of the bloggers and 56% of the social networkers said the same.

“Our research suggests a strong correlation between kids using technology and wider patterns of reading and writing,” Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, told BBC News. “Engagement with online technology drives their enthusiasm for writing short stories, letters, song lyrics or diaries.” Mr Douglas dismissed criticisms about the informal writing styles often adopted in online chat and “text speak”, both of which can lack grammar and dictionary-correct spelling. “Does it damage literacy? Our research results are conclusive – the more forms of communications children use the stronger their core literary skills.”

Extract from BBC News Online “Children who use technology are ‘better writers'”, by Zoe Kleinman (Thursday, 3 December 2009)


Multiliteracies – A Teachers’ Guide

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I made my first forays into the field of multi-literacies several years ago, researching the topic as part of a special high-level university unit.

In writing this plain-language guide, I have attempted to explain my understandings of the multiliteracies theory, as outlined by the academics. In a later post, I will discuss how this theory informs my personal philosophy of literacy teaching, and its’ impact on my classroom practice. 

What is literacy?

In Australia and many other Western societies, our social institutions, governments, schools, and economic markets are underpinned by the use of the English language, the language which most people in our society understand and use. This makes English literacy a fundamental social practice; for literate individuals have the knowledge, skills, and power to effectively live, work and communicate in our society (Anstey & Bull, 2004; Lankshear & Knobel, 2004).

Traditional conceptions of English literacy have focussed solely on reading and writing the printed word (Walsh, 2006). While favoured by the ‘back to basics’ movement in Australia, this definition of literacy fails to reflect the increasing social, cultural and language diversity of our times; and does not recognise emerging communication technologies and electronic texts such as blogs, email, YouTube™ and Twitter™ (Cazden, et al, 1996; Kalantzis, Cope, & Harvey, 2003; Unsworth, 2001).

Multi-literacies in the Real World

As an English-speaking educator, I am able to communicate and interact using a variety of oral, written, visual, and multimodal (multimedia) mediums. For example, in the course of my work:

  • I use my oral communication skills to teach, interact with students, exert authority (for behaviour management purposes), share personal stories, encourage discussion, make phone calls, etc
  • I use computer applications and internet resources to plan units of work, develop comprehensive databases of teaching resources, and preview Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) and digital learning resources. 
  • I use Web 2.0 technologies, including wikis, weblogs (blogs) and online professional learning modules to further my understandings of effective ICT-integration in the classroom

This is not to mention how I tend to email friends, study bus-shelter advertising, deconstruct movies using film codes (a regrettable habit), read newspapers (print and online), watch DVDs, read comics, write letters, shop online, … and the list goes on. In fact, it is almost impossible to list all of the literate practices and texts I use in the course of my daily and professional life.

The Premise

We are not born with the inherent ability to communicate and interact using these diverse mediums. These texts place multi-literate demands on readers, who must simultaneously engage with words, still and moving images, and sounds to make meaning (Lankshear, et al, 1997).

To engage with the various texts and communicative practices of our society, we require different knowledge, skills, and reading practices, or different literacies, to those traditionally focussed on and learnt in schools (Anstey & Bull, 2004).

This has significant implications for literacy teaching practice. 

The Value of Relief Teaching for New Graduates

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Relief teaching is a challenging, and sometimes frustrating business, but it can also be intensely rewarding. 

Relief teachers come from all walks of life. Some are retired teachers seeking to supplement their retirement incomes, there are the few career relief (one colleague has been working as full-time relief for 20 years – she taught me!), others are in-between jobs, and some are new graduates, forced to work as relief while looking for more permanent/fixed teaching positions.

I fall into the final camp. I certainly didn’t choose relief teaching as my preferred career path; rather it was a decision forced upon me by circumstances beyond my control. At first, I was intensely disappointed at my “failure” to obtain a full-time teaching position; however, with the benefit of hindsight, I now understand that this was the best possible thing that could have happened to me.

Relief teaching was a rude, and extremely stressful introduction to the true realities of teaching. As a newbie graduate, I had no conception of the planning, instructional, and behaviour management demands of the teaching profession. I was in for the greatest shock of my life.

I am so thankful, that as a part-time casual employee, I had the ability and the time to adjust, reflecting on my experiences and actively seeking to address my major professional weaknesses. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that my relief teaching experience in so many schools and classrooms has helped me grow as a person and a teaching professional. 

As I will detail in later postings, I have used my time as a relief teacher to clarify my understanding of effective curriculum planning, instructional strategies, and assessment. I have learnt how to teach from K-7, and developed professional relationships with colleagues from a diverse range of teaching backgrounds. 

These relationships have proved an invaluable professional learning resource, as my conversations with teachers about effective behaviour management, literacy organisation blocks, quality curriculum resources, and instructional strategies have significantly influenced my evolving teaching practice. I have met some incredible teachers, and I am truly grateful for their advice and support. I hope to emulate them one day.

While gaining valuable classroom experience, I have been actively preparing teaching resources and programming materials (syllabus overviews, units of work, activity planners) for teaching Years 4-7. I am confident that my curriculum resource database, which now contains well over 3000 documents, is unique for a graduate teacher, and will will significantly reduce my stress and planning workload when teaching across a range of year levels.

One day, I hope to be able to share this treasure trove with my teaching colleagues, but in the meantime, I will continue to explore ways to improve my teaching practice & curriculum understandings with the ultimate intention of supporting those “difficult”, “hard-to-teach” students I meet and work with on a regular basis.