Halfway Through

For those that didn't know, I've been teaching 8th grade math at a local Title 1 middle school in Austin, TX. I would like to throw out my thoughts now that we are halfway through the school year.

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When I started the year, I felt I was going to be able to teach 8th grade math and that there would be no real issues because I was confident and competent. Over the first several weeks, I fought a losing battle for control of my classroom. Part of it was my fault because I had no plan for "managing my classroom". I expected the students to act respectfully and to attempt to learn. I expected to have fun with them while I introduced the concepts and gave them opportunities to explore the finer points of 8th grade mathematics.
Unfortunately, my expectations and reality weren't even in the same ballpark.

The students were unruly and in many cases openly rude. I knew they were testing me. I had expected that. I responded by ignoring their outbursts because the math was more important than their social improprieties. This was a bad choice on my part as it ceded the improprieties that they claimed and encouraged further seizure of the classroom at the expense of the learning environment.

The behavior issues became more severe and the disruptions more frequent. At some point early in the second 6 weeks, I began serious consideration of whether to just walk away from teaching.

Around the start of the third 6 weeks, I resolved to stick out the entire year. I also followed through with administration support (which I feel had been somewhat lacking up to this point) to take back my classroom. I continued to follow through with efforts to remove disruptive students and created many days where learning occurred for those who remained. The fight has been intense at times. But I feel that two of my three classes are mostly under control now. The third class has also improved, but being larger and of highly differing mathematical levels, it is still highly unruly. This must change.

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