Archive for the ‘Teaching Philosophy’ Category

Classroom Management in Writing

Friday, July 11, 2008

I’ve been taking a lot of time this summer to write my book.  No, it’s not the great American novel, even though I’ve got one of those lurking in the depths of my brain.  It’s my whole classroom management system and teaching philosophy rolled into one.

What’s interesting as I write this is that the simply process of putting down into words my management system and my teaching philosophy requires me to become even more clear on what I think makes a class run smoothly, what I think helps me as a teacher be successful.

And then trying to put that into a verbal expression that will help other teachers experience success like I have takes the challenge to an entirely new level!

I’m really enjoying this challenge, though.  I’d thought I would spend much of this summer creating more classroom management videos- and I was able to make one more- but I’m spending almost all my free time on this class management book.  When I get it finished I’ll let you know.  Already, it looks to be a solid solution to so many problems our teachers are having with the management of their students.

I know these systems work because they work for me and they work for others I’ve taught over the years.  I just can’t wait to spread this easy and powerful system to more and more teachers in the hopes that I can expand my influence beyond my classroom and school.

Be good out there.  I hope you’re getting more outside time than I am.

Darren Barkett

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Ever Get Antsy With All This Free Time?

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

My first week home from school is always an adjustment for me.  My mind and body is so used to being constantly involved from the moment I get to school at 7:45 until the moment I leave work.  Now that I’ve got time to relax or reflect or exercise, it’s taking a bit for my mind to adjust.

Anyone else feeling this lag time?

True, summers off is a great perk of being a teacher.  But making that adjustment to having so much flexibility in my schedule is a lot easier said than done.  I no longer have to wolf down my food at lunch.  I don’t have to time out my bathroom breaks.  I can actually watch a bit of tv during the day if I am so inclined.

Last summer my family and I went on vacation the week after school was out.  This was a great way to transition into the summer.  By the time I returned from vacation, I’d completely adjusted to my new time frame.  This summer, though, our vacation is next week.  And I’m here with all this energy that had been focused on running my classroom.

Luckily I’ve got my classroom management training I’m working on producing for release this August.  It’s got me keeping focused more than in the past.  And it’s exciting to connect with other teachers out there who are looking for ways to grow over the summer.

I hope you’re finding ways to adjust to our wonderful summer schedule.  Let me know how you are coping.  And I’ll make sure I keep you informed on the progress of my latest classroom management videos.

If you haven’t seen my latest offering on how to get your students to listen to you every time you speak, check out the video at http://www.helpingteachersgrow.com/classroommanagement_freedownload.html

You’ll find both of my free videos available to you there.

Enjoy these long days of summer!

Darren B.

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That bitter sweet last day of school…

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

I had a couple extra minutes this morning since my children are already out of school, leaving me with several less tasks to do in my morning routine, so I thought I’d get one last blog post in before heading into seeing my 7th graders off for the summer.

The end of the year is always a bitter sweet moment for me. Especially when I’ve had such a great year. My students were top notch. I had so few discipline problems. The level of buy-in from my students was the highest it’s ever been. And we were able to accomplish so much! Their scores were high and their motivation was higher! I hate to see this crop of kids go.

But, as always happens in this job, they will go. And I’ll have a whole new batch in next year, ready to start the entire process over again. I love that about teaching, having a fresh start every year. That cyclical sense of time and process really helps me manage my personal growth, as no matter how rough a year gets, there’s always next year.

So, in a couple of hours, I’ll be on the bus lot, waving good bye to all those great kids I was blessed to work with this year. And, once they’re gone…it’s time to celebrate!

I hope you’ve had a great year and are looking forward to some very deserved time off!

Darren

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When all else fails…smile!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Here I am, like so many of you out there, suffering through your final days of the year. Here in North Carolina, we’ve already had our end of the year tests and our grades have already been turned in. Typically, this is the time of the year when our students start unraveling, sometimes more than just a bit…  Now my homeroom students this year have been just fantastic.  I wish I could keep them all day.  We could work on a loosely organized project for hours and have a great time together.

But some of my other classes…Well, they can get a bit trying.  I often find myself getting a bit uptight at these changes in my students’ behaviors. I want to jump all over them and fuss at them and tell them how disappointed I am with their behavior.

But then I remember. It’s the end of the year! We’ve only got a few days left together! As long as they aren’t being unsafe or hurtful to others, then perhaps I can take a different approach. Perhaps I can try just smiling and laughing and *gasp* relaxing a bit with them.

If figured it was worth a try.  And wouldn’t you know, they actually became better behaved.  Instead of taking my more relaxed attitude as a sign that they could continue to behave inappropriately, most of my students showed better behavior.  Their behaviors actually improved.

I really like being able to relax with my students at the end of the year.  All too often we get caught up in all these last minute tasks that take so long to accomplish that we get a bit grumpy.  But if we can just remember that our students will remember us more for how we are on these last days of school that we were throughout the last 180 days, it might make it a bit easier to…relax and enjoy these last moments with our students.

Darren

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What would help you most in the classroom?

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

I’ve been teaching long enough to know what helped me be successful as a teacher.  But what helped me might not be the same thing that would help you…

So, a question for you.  What would help you most in your classroom?  What is your greatest challenge in your classroom?  What brings you down and drains your energy in the classroom?

In other words, how can I best help you grow as a teacher?

I’m busy creating my curriculum for the six week seminar due to be released in August, and I want to make sure I include aspects of teaching and classroom management that will be most helpful to you.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.  I very much look forward to hearing from you!

Darren

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When should I start with my new Classroom Managment Plan?

Thursday, May 22, 2008

I was recently checking out the boards over at teachers.net (great source for troubleshooting school issues of all types) and ran across a thread that really grabbed my attention.  The teacher had had a pretty rough year.  The students didn’t respond well to her and she was thinking about quitting.

Many of the other teachers on the boards gave her solid classroom management advice along the lines of what you can find here- create a plan, teach and model it, implement and reinforce it consistently…  She was wondering how her students she was working with would respond to her new efforts at implementing a classroom management plan.

This reply by poster marjoryt really put things into perspective nicely.  Here’s what she wrote:

How bad was my first year of teaching? I was asked not to ask to
return – that’s how bad! (Basically – they didn’t want me again.)
The problem was ENTIRELY classroom management.

My next job was in an alternative school – I had studied everything
available on classroom management and went with Wongs’
recommendations (sorry, Tom, but you weren’t around in 1998). That,
coupled with a strong principal, put me on a good path – I actually
got BETTER every week. During that second year, a few students
would say, “X says he was in your room last year, and he did 1, 2,
3, 4 and got away with it.” My reply was always, “Different year,
different school, different attitude – do you NEED to be bad in my
classroom?” I didn’t deny it, but wasn’t about to slip into bad
habits. Amazingly enough, my then current students agreed that we
had a good relationship going – no need for attitude.

In my 3rd year (second year in the alternative school); in walked 3
students from my first year. They saw me and were immediately
prepared to resume business as normal (causing me grief). This is
what you are imagining now. Here’s what I did:

1) Welcome to my classroom again.
2) I’ve learned from you! I do things DIFFERENTLY now!
3) I know you’ve grown up some physically and intellectually – we
want the old, bad behaviors to be in the dim, distant past.
4) Allow me to show you how things run in this classroom – you can
settle in quickly and start enjoying success almost immediately.

And, that’s what I did – I told EACH student exactly how the
classroom worked – as if they were each a brand new student who
didn’t know me from Adam’s housecat.

When they behaved normally, then I poured on the praise, just like a
new student. If/when they misbehaved, then I treated them exactly
as a new student and corrected them exactly the same.

Get your ducks in a row as far as curriculum and activities, and get
your ducks in a row for managing the environment. Your principal
knows you had some issues last year; talk to him/her about your
plans to head problems off and listen to any ideas proposed.

Great advice.  The students really take their lead from us.  Whatever we reinforce, both consciously and unconsciously, the students follow.

I wrote her and asked if I could include her response.  She agreed and even expanded on the story a bit.  I’ll save that story for a little later.  It’s too good to pass up, hearing how a full-time chicken farming mother went back into the classroom, struggled, was nearly fired, and discovered how she could manage her students effectively.

You can do this!

Darren

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Nice comment from our newest member!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

I just had to share this email I received tonight. It was so positive and supportive. It really made my evening. Here it is:

Dear Darren,

Just want to let you know that I watched both of your videos. I wish I would have found your website during student teaching. I was lost when it came to the constant talking by the students. My weakness was not nipping it in the bud at the first signs of talking. Now I know!

In my opinion, you are providing a great service for all teachers, especially beginners like myself. The information you give has made me feel more confident about managing my own classroom. I look forward to your classes.

Thanks for your support,

Rachel

And thank you Rachel for you kind words of support. It is for exactly this reason that I’ve started working towards helping teachers be more effective in the classroom. If you are like Rachel and you’ve been helped by my videos, I want to hear from you. I’m putting the final touches on my first class management mini-course, and your input will help me make the course more effective and empowering.

After all, I’m doing this, not just as a job, but to help grow individuals and the teaching profession as a whole.

You can always leave a comment here on this blog or head over to our forums at HelpingTeachersGrow.com/forums.

Darren

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A Glimpse Through My Students’ Eyes

Thursday, April 10, 2008

I recently had to take a day off from teaching and the substitute teacher I brought in provided one of those rare glimpses of how my students see me. This sub works at our school as our after school coordinator, but recently he’s begun subbing for different teachers.

As I came to my class this morning after being out yesterday, I did my typical scanning for any “trouble notes” from Chris, the sub. Thankfully, there were no trouble notes to be found. In fact, I typically receive only good notes from the teachers who cover my classes when I’m out. I’d like to think that I’ve groomed my students well enough for them to understand that my expectations hold even when I’m not in the class.

Hard to say for sure, but I have heard that the same students aren’t as well behaved in someone else’s class when a sub’s in there… Curious, these little creatures we call students.

I did find one note. It was a short list of five words written out below the brief plans I’d left for the sub.

doughnuts
veggie lover
the fro
laid back
one of us

I figured the sub had asked the students something about me because I often speak of loving donuts. I use the term donuts when I’m coming up with sentences for our spelling tests. I’ll come to school on Monday reliving a donut I enjoyed that weekend and encouraging other students to tell me about the donuts they ate. Veggie lover? I’m vegetarian and my students had quizzed me extensively about that early on in the year when they found this little tidbit of information. “The fro” comes from a picture I’ve got behind my desk of me holding my first born daughter just minutes after she was born. I didn’t actually have an afro, but I was having an exceptionally big hair day, and the shadow from the flash made it look just like I had a fro. Of course, I wasn’t going to dispell my students’ ideas…

I loved hearing the students call me laid back. For the first couple of years of my teaching I was anything but laid back. I would get openly frustrated, loose my temper, even yell at the students. All this until I learned the simple classroom management method I still use today. Laid back. They couldn’t compliment me any better unless they said something like…

“one of us”

That about brought tears to my eyes. I ask a lot of my students. I push them hard. I don’t waste time in class generally, and I don’t quit early. My students know I work from the moment class begins to the moment it ends. I don’t try to be my students’ friend, but I do manage my students with respect, dignity, and love.

For them to describe me as “one of us” was truly the highest compliment I could have ever hoped for.

I’ll sure miss this group of students when they go.

Darren

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Response to my Classroom Managment Video

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Hey everyone!

Things are getting exciting around here ever since I released my video called “Don’t Be a Teaching Statistic – How I Learned to Love Teaching Again.”  Over a hundred people have viewed that free classroom management video, and I hope many more do too!

The response has been overwhelming!  I knew, from my time spent as a teacher in our public schools, that many teachers are looking for solutions to their problems in the classroom, and I knew that my system has worked for me for over 12 years.  I was excited when I decided to make the switch from teaching in the classroom to teacher training, and the responses I’m getting from my video just seem to reinforce my decision as being the right one.

Michelle C. wrote…

“That was the best 14 minute workshop training I have ever watched! I have dial up and it was worth the 2 hour download. I am checking the website for more. I plan on watching from my friends home who has high speed internet so I can get immediate gratification.”

-Glad to hear it Michelle!  I’m working on another free video this weekend that details more about who I am and how I came to be where I am in my teaching career.  Stay tuned. I’ll post it here first!

And, coming from the other end of the spectrum, Laura B. said…

“Please forgive me it this sounds a little harsh, but do we really need another classroom management expert? I understand the appeal of getting out of teaching and get paid to tell other teachers how to teach. In fact posters on Teachers.net have even broached that idea as something they would like to do. Others asked them - if you do not have a PhD and years of experience, etc., what would qualify you as an expert?  Why would anyone pay you for your advice? In my opinion, much of your powerpoint presentation, excuse me, “video,” is straight out of Wong and other established experts. Now your name is popping up constantly on the chatboards. offering free expert advice along with a plug for your new venture. I am inclined to skip over your posts because they really aren’t telling me anything I don’t know.”

I thought a lot about her response to my free video, and I emailed her back this response:

 

“Laura,

Thanks for your constructive comments.  I’ve never actually read the Wong’s resources, but it’s great to hear that I’m on the right track.  I developed this system after receiving a bit of coaching about 12 years ago.  It literally saved me as a teacher.  If you’re in the schools as much as I am, you can’t help but notice that there are more teachers struggling to manage their classes than those who are accomplished managers.  I’ve always felt like I had something to offer these teachers, but due to the political structuring of most schools, I was never in the position to influence other teachers.

Now, I’m about ready for my transition to teacher training and felt like I could make a positive impact on our proud profession.  I’m pretty sure I haven’t billed myself as an expert.  Rather I like to offer interested people the method that has worked for me over the years.  Not only that, it is an easily transferable method of management that will cover a wide variety of situations.  I don’t even have any products for sale, yet…I’m working on another video, hopefully a bit more engaging than my last PP.  I’ve never made videos before and have a whole new learning curve to struggle with.  My eventual goal is to offer online training seminars for new teachers in the counties around where I work (western NC).  Most of the one-shot workshops available create a limited impression and don’t affect real change in our teachers.  I felt an extended online seminar with teleconferences, videos, and resources would have a much better chance at creating a lasting impact.  (Now you’ve done tricked me into revealing my business model!)

Thanks again for your input.  I’ve had a pretty positive response from the teachers.net’ers who have contacted me.  I hope you don’t think I’m in this just to make a buck.  There are tons of different places to make money online.  I just feel a sense of loyalty to and responsibility for growing this profession that has treated me so well over the years. 

Good luck in all your ventures, both in and out of teaching!

And I hope many more people give me their input on the classroom management video I’ve posted.  I plan on upgrading my video presentations due to the great demand I’m experiencing, and I hope my new setup will polish my videos for more teachers to see.  Come back here to check when I’ve published my latest tips on how to manage your classroom.  Like I told Laura, I’m not an expert, but I know what works for me, and I’ve seen it work for others.

 I’m pretty sure it will help you too, if you’re ready for the change.

 Until then, be good, and have a great weekend!

Darren B.

 

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What keeps you from reaching your and your students’ potential?

Monday, March 24, 2008

What is it that keeps you from reaching your potential in the classroom?

What keeps your students from reaching their potential in the classroom?

Is it the administration?  The students themselves?  The parents?  A lack of support?  Is it unmotivated students?  Manipulating coworkers?

What keeps you from being as effective as you want to be?

I’m busy putting the final touches on the first of my online teacher training courses, and your input will help chart the course of this training.  Leave me a comment with your insight.  I’d love to hear from you!

Darren Barkett

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