Dangit. Now I’m going to have to rent all 5(?) seasons of this show…

Building rapport is so important. Focusing on that has made me a better teacher, better classroom manager and also makes the job more satisfying and fulfilling. I try to put that its the students and I against the material. Not me vs. them. I’m hear to help, but if you don’t meet me half way you aren’t going to be successful.

I feel like older teachers manage through intimidation and it just seems way less effective. (“don’t’ smile before thanksgiving” has been discussed at length). I’ve found after year 1, that the ring-leader trouble makers for other teachers, I build a solid relationship with through coaching, or just listening to them honestly, and they become enforcers in class when others act out. It is a really fun thing to see.

Greeting kids at the door each day serves a huge practical purpose of making that connection. You establish a welcoming atmosphere that encourages more discussion, but it also gets to be fun and interesting asking kids how their soccer game went, or the science test, or how their parents are doing. I feel like kids see that connection and are less likely to act out on you.

When is the McNulty vs the Bureaucracy going to come about?

@Doug: It’s funny because in my years as a police officer and later Paramedic I can tell you that the parallels run deep. Rapport with suspects, patients, family members (or anyone with whom you come into contact as a source of authority) is crucial.

It’s the open door, it’s the unbolted lock, it’s the getting into the ambulance when they really didn’t want to.

I’ve seen it as well, cops and medics that work solely by intimidation. They’re usually insecure.

Chris

@Nathan: Classes “doing their own thing” happens. In general you control time and space.

A few strategies i’ve found helpful, any input for improving these would be great….

Time:
-Have something for the students to do as soon as they enter the room, to start before the bell rings.
-Put them on the clock to work on something for 1-5 minutes quietly. Circulate around the room.
-Same activity but w/ a partner.

Space-
-Have a seating chart and make changes where its necessary.
-If you are in a lecture setting, and a student is misbehaving, move their seat. This for some reason is like the end of the world to some students.
-Circulating around the class. If you sense some whispering or talking in a particular area, walk over there. Maybe put your hand on their desk while you keep going.

A big thing, and this is always tough is limiting inappropriate talking. The rule for my class is “you can talk whenever you want, just raise your hand and wait to be called on.” This doesn’t mean 40 minutes of no talking, after 10-15 minutes I try to build in work w/ a partner or group. Then bring them back as a class by counting down 3-2-1 = attention getting signal.

I always think of how strange this job is in that we even have to continue to have these conversations. I mean, of course it all starts with relationships. It should go without saying.

But it doesn’t.

When my wife has forced me to watch “You’ve Got Mail,” the one takeaway I have from the movie is when Tom Hanks (whose book mega-store has just put Meg Ryan’s boutique children’s book store out of business) tells Meg Ryan’s character, “It’s not personal. It’s business.” She replies something along the lines of, “Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal!”

Working with new faculty is one of the best parts of my job, but I can’t teach them this stuff. I can model it. I can show them Dan’s videos. Some know it already when they show up, some figure out after a few years, and some just never get it and end up hating their jobs and “these kids.”

Great video, Dan. Thanks.

I’m lovin dy/av season one. I’m already looking forward to season two next summer. ;-)

Better relationships do make a difference, and as you alluded to in the video, sometimes you just have to throw yourself out there. That can be scary, but as you do it more and more it gets easier. You either get better and being personable and showing that you care, or you just get over the anxiety.

Making sure students know that you care and building that relationship doesn’t eliminate problems. What is does is make big problems small. It makes small problems into non-problems. It makes your day of teaching fun and memorable.

Yup. Part of my core values – relationship and holding hope for the future. Funny, just blogged about that today.

It seems so simple, doesn’t it?

good vid.

@Cara S when you said “I sometimes realize after a week or two that there are one or two kids in my class I haven’t talked to face-to-face. If that happens in their other classes (maybe they’re a quiet kid, etc.), they might actually go through an entire day of school and not speak to anyone.” it really resonated with me.

Often it just takes a short interaction with a student to really make a big difference to them. I was surprised one day to get a phone call from a parent thanking me for my concern for her daughter. Her daughter was feeling down and thinking that none of her teachers–the significant adults in her life–cared. All I did was say “hey Jenny, you look a little down, is there anything I can do?” She didn’t pour open her soul to me, but clearly the idea that an adult noticed and cared was important to her. Important enough for her to talk to her mom, important enough for her mom to call me. It was only a 30 second interaction I had with Jenny that day, and after her mom’s phone call I realized those 30 seconds where the most meaningful of my teaching day.

Building rapport with students isn’t just about helping with discipline issues, it’s about making all students feel valued and feeling like they are part of the school community.

@Dan I love your videos and clearly I have to get caught up on ‘The Wire’ (I’m only on season 3). I’m glad you’re putting off the McNulty comparison for awhile–could damage the psyche!

Dan:

I really like your series of videos… they are topical and hit the point! Great Job! I decided to post a comment on this one because I am a huge fan of the Wire and thought the way you followed the progression of Carver was perfect. I even embedded the video into my blog….

I have been a classroom teacher for 20 years, just embarking on my first administrative assignment at a school not too far from you, I really applaud the depth you have in your message. Having spent basically a career as a teacher there are a few things that I want to share that you get to, but in 6 minutes can’t really get deep enough.

First year teaching is like waging a two front war. Hitler tried it and lost… Kaiser Wilhelm tried it and lost… Napoleon tried it and lost… What do I mean two front war? You fight a two front war between Content and Management. Spend too much time on management, you never get to content and spend too much time in content you can’t get the kids focused enough for you to get to the content. Most every teacher will tell you that when they get their first teaching assignment that they were not 100% prepared from a content standpoint to fly solo. The ones who make it are the one’s that have the ability to teach themselves or have a great mentor to guide their journey. Those teachers who try to manage using power, more often than not burn out or are the one’s who send a steady stream of students to the administration to handle minor discipline issues. Who succeeds?

Some of the comments above talk about classroom management like being a dictator of a third world country. I would challenge Baby Doc or Fidel to handle a class of 35 – 9th Graders on a Friday during 7th period on a day where the temperature is above 80*. Classroom management comes down to a choice between Power and Influence. Power is hard…. you expend so much energy being the most powerful person in the room 5 hours a day that by the time it is over, you crawl to your car and hope to get enough rest to do it again the next day. Using influence, you use the students in your class to create the norm and will help you manage those who are outside of that norm. Caring about what is going on in their lives and asking questions are great ways to build rapport and create influence in your classroom.

Carver tried power… it didn’t work…. he switched to influence, he wasn’t 100% successful, but he knew there would be instances where he could change the life of one kid… even if it was just one kid! This is why he broke down taking Randy to the group home… Bunny Colvin changed the life of ONE KID! Remember the last episode…. Namon is giving a speech in front of an academic group and DuQuan, who showed promise working on a computer with Mr. P., was shooting up heroin in the alley.

hi im new at teaching, im an english teacher and so far all is going bad for me, my students are hell i try for the firts weeks to be a teacher and a friend to some point u know, not going to deep into u can do what you want but a mix between the 2 and it didnt work so i start with my discipline cause my boss told me to do it that way i mean my boss didnt ask but told me to do it that way and is worse now and i just reach a point where i dont know what to do, some students had a problem between them and they blame it on me doing nothing i mean i didnt know! i was writing on the board and they were wispering things to eachother i told me them to go quiet and they did but later i found out one hit other with a book, but i dont have eyes everywhere and one should say hey teacher this is going on we need help here but no one say a thing so i got called to the principal office cause one of the girls left school and well why the teacher did nothing and is not fair cause the other students also didnt know what happend and this is not the firts thing that happend im going crazy im thinking about leaving and i love teaching but i really dont know what to do anymore