Want to guess what the teachers’ salaries are in those countries? You won’t believe it!

Here’s the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/opinion/01eggers.html

I didn’t feel too bad. It just hurt to speak. So I wrote that on the board and tried to make it through the day. I could barely manage a whisper.

Something really interesting began to happen. I’d been able to hoarsely give my directions for the day and then let the students work independently on their tasks. When a student asked a question, though, more often than not, that student would whisper to me.

It was as if my inability to speak somehow encouraged the students to speak very quietly too! I chuckled to myself as I listened to the students whisper their questions to me and speak in whispers to each other.

The classes went surprisingly smoothly and the students were able to accomplish quite a bit without my direct instruction. I’m not sure if it was because they were being sensitive to the fact that I wasn’t feeling 100% or if it was simply because we’ve been working together long enough that they don’t need me every step of the way.

Regardless, it was nice to be reminded that you don’t always have to raise your voice to be heard. Sometimes speaking quietly is the loudest way to be heard.

My heads been spinning on how I could structure my classroom to meet all the different ability levels without loosing anyone.

Our school groups students according to their math placement. Would it not then be appropriate to group students by their reading and writing performance? Why are we so concerned with ability grouping of students in reading but not in math?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this as I’m really stumped…

I introduced TvS on Tuesday, and it’s absolutely amazing how things have changed. The entire class has become much more cooperative. The two or three most disruptive students have become quite helpful. The class as a whole moves much more quickly.

And, most importantly for me, I’m enjoying teaching that group of students a whole bunch more than I was on Monday.

I know it will require my consistency to continue to be effective, but what class management system doesn’t require consistency?

If you’re struggling with a tough class, try the Teacher vs. Students strategy and tell me how it goes.

But this year? This year has been a challenge. It didn’t matter to these students that I had been teaching for years or that I’d written a book on how to manage student behavior. This group of students acted like so many of our students act – uncooperative, unruly, and not wanting to learn.

This year, for the first time, my original system of class management (which you can find in my videos at HelpingTeachersGrow.com or in my materials at TakeBackThatClass.com) wasn’t enough to encourage the level of cooperation necessary for all of us to have success. For a couple of weeks, I wasn’t sure what to do.

Then it came to me (and I know this isn’t anything new to many of you veteran teachers out there!).

A new system of management that held the entire class responsible to a level of behavior that rewarded their cooperation and withheld that reward for the times students tried to get the instruction off track.

I call it… Teacher versus Student.

And it works like magic.

At the start of each class (I don’t use this with all my classes. Just the ones that need it.) I write a big T and a big S on the board. As class progresses, whenever a student is disruptive, I put a point under the T (for teacher). When the students are, as a whole, on task and working well, I put a point under the S (for student). I make sure to draw attention to the times I make a point, especially since the times the students earn a point is typically when their focused and not necessarily watching the board.

At the end of the class, if the students have more points than I do, we’ll stop a few minutes early, and I let them socialize or go outside for a minute or something else that they really want. If I have more points than they do, no reward.

This has really helped me change my classes around. I love it when the other students tell each other to be quiet or to stop messing around. When the students start to help manage each other’s behaviors, things are really working.

This little trick has turned my least favorite class into the class I really look forward to each day.

Give it a try! And let me know how it goes for you.