It's exhausting...
I love it...
I could end this post with that dichotomy and it would be 100% accurate. Anyone who has hosted a slumber party or piled five or six middle schoolers into the minivan for a trip to the mall knows exactly what I'm referring to. Now, multiply that by fourteen. As in 5 (or 6) X 14 = 70/84. My choirs at school range in size from forty to eighty students, typically.
Most veteran teachers think twice before agreeing to cover a class for me if I have to miss for a special performance or rehearsal. That's because the veterans know that class size has a huge impact on classroom management. Ah, classroom management. The thing they try to teach you about in college. And, they warn you about it in college by telling you if you don't have great skills in that area, you will likely not last in the teaching profession. Classroom management skills are often viewed as the initial barometer for evaluating young teachers. Yet, most young teachers don't graduate college with great classroom management skills (I sure didn't). After all, a skill is something one needs to rehearse in order to become an expert in. Most teachers develop these skills on the job, during their first few years of teaching. I'm still working on improving my skills in this area.
In addition to class size, here are a few things that make my job difficult as they pertain to classroom management..
1. My room is a 180 degree semicircle with me in the middle. I have great peripheral vision, but contrary to folklore, I do not have eyes on the back of my head.
2. Because of #1, kids feel as though they can get away with stuff: Chat with their neighbor. Say something funny to get a laugh, etc. much more than in a standard classroom setup. If I'm looking at the right half of the room. I cannot see the left half at all. What's worse is that the students in the right half of the room can actually see the students in the left half of the room better than I can. So I have a situation where students see other students behaving badly even when I cannot see the bad behavior. This can lead to a long term, negative climate issue because middle schoolers don't have the wherewithal and wisdom to realize what is actually going on. Instead, they often think that I am letting the students across from them misbehave. This causes the adolescent brain to think the teacher is playing favorites which is simply not the case.
3. My students' chairs are only a few inches apart from each other. Unlike a traditional classroom with rows of desks, my kids are so close to each other that they can reach out and poke someone two seats away from them.
I try to let my students know on the first day of school every year that because our class is two to three times the size of a normal class, they need to socialize 1/2 to 2/3 as often, just to have the talking/noise level be that of a normal classroom. This generally helps for a few weeks.
Middle school aged kids don't know what they want. They want to have fun and they want to be successful at our performances, but, they hate being stifled. They hate being made to work diligently on the material. They want to talk to their friends all the time. But they hate not sounding as good as we should when listening to the audio from last night's concert. They want to be funny all the time and get laughs. But they get mad when the other choir warming up next to them sounds better than their choir. I had a student ask me a few years ago, "Mr. C why do they sound better than us?" My answer was direct and simple. "Because they work harder and talk in class less than our group."
Middle school aged kids rarely see their parents at work. They rarely get to witness adults focusing, concentrating and putting in lots of effort. For many, the only place they see this is at school. It's no wonder they often describe the more demanding teachers as "mean." The majority of their time outside of school spent with adults is leisure time. Because of this their teachers and coaches are the ones that need to demonstrate focus, effort and work ethic.
Often, on Mondays, I feel like the tough, demanding parent who just got their kids back from the fun loving "I wanna be your friend" parent who had them for visitation over the weekend. Today was no different. A difficult Monday of explaining to my choirs that because the concert is only a few short weeks away, I will continue to ramp up the expectations in regard to behavior, effort and concentration . I really use music as the medium to teach those things. It's exceedingly more challenging to keep adolescents focused in today's digital age of constant media bombardment.
They are addicted to technology! Seriously, they cannot put it down. They feel anxiety when restrictions are placed on them like insisting their phones stay in their lockers. "But what if my mom texts me?" I suppose that's a legitimate concern but today it spurs anxiety to the point of MANY students breaking school rules by keeping their phones on them in class.
A few weeks ago I received the Apple Classroom app which allows me to monitor their every move on the iPad, limit what apps and sites can be accessed, etc. It was met with great resistance! The app utilizes Bluetooth as the method of connection and multiple students complained. "Mr. C, I can't turn Bluetooth on because it drains my battery so I won't be able to join your Apple Classroom group."
Me: "oh, yes you will."
Parents aren't parenting like they used to. What I mean by that is, sorry folks but it's true, there is barely any parenting happening anymore. Because actual parenting involves doing things that might upset our children. The vast majority of kids feel entitled. They feel as though they have rights and deserve to be respected and also deserve to be able to speak when they want to. WHAT??? A few years ago I coined a term: Ignorantly disrespectful. This is common among middle school aged students. They are disrespectful without intentionally being disrespectful. They feel it's ok (because they deem it important) to say something to a neighbor at any time even in a final dress rehearsal before a concert. They think being disrespectful is only limited to things like back talk or, swearing at a teacher. Sadly, they also think (mostly because of what they see adults doing) it's OK to yell at the ref and dispute the call. Guess what... it's NOT. That's disrespectful behavior.
Kids don't know what to be proud of. Well, they know it's good to be proud of an athletic achievement, but other than that, they struggle. We've all complimented a kid only to see them blush or behave in an embarrassed way. Middle School is an uncomfortable age for many, and as adults we need to be encouraging. This morning I saw a student carrying a large project into school and that student appeared to look uncomfortable. That was sad to witness. I've seen kids who earn solos in choir concerts claim they are "bad singers." Ugh. That's just sad.
Sadly, the majority of kids today just aren't fans of music. Unlike when I was a child, they don't spend hours listening to music as a passtime. They also don't watch hours upon hours of Bugs Bunny cartoons that all had FANTASTIC original soundtracks. They also don't listen to music riding in the car. This may be the most significant difference with kids today. On every car trip (short or long) I took as a kid, the radio was usually on so I was getting almost constant exposure to music of a great variety. Kids today have ear buds in while riding in the car. And most of them, sadly, are not listening to music. I started to notice this a few years ago when fewer and fewer 6th graders wanted to sing karaoke on Fridays. Often, they would rather play Name that Tune instead (If my choirs earn it, we spend the last twenty minutes of Friday's class on one of these two fun activities). And, their favorite Name That Tune category is almost always TV Theme Songs.
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