Check the Weather

As a child, I remember the alarming whine of the storm siren.  It often warned of impending danger. I discovered other signs as well. I learned to “feel” the humidity before a thunderstorm, and to even sense from the silence of nature an ominous tornado. I have used the same senses to watch for storms coming within my classroom. These are some tools that I have discovered and found beneficial to check on my own teaching and classroom skills and prevent the onset of personal bad habits and classroom disorder, and promote a healthy, vibrant class atmosphere.

Look at your students. I am a high school teacher, so I have the blessing of five minutes between classes. These are critical times for checking on the temperature of class character. Elementary class breaks serve the same purpose. Be on the look-out for a change in class demeanor. “Raccoon” red eyes or a student that won’t look at me is a potential sign that something has happened. A private conversation outside the door often reveals the problem. Sometimes it has been truly sobering news that needs loving prayer, other times it has been an overactive boy “who just hit me with a ball,” and might require a little ice and first aid. Other times it can be just exaggerated self-pity that can be healed by a cold drink of water and a little attention.

Listen to comments as students come into class or as you walk the halls. I am amazed at how often students will tell me more than I want to know about a problem in my or someone else’s class if I just hush and listen as I prepare for the next session. I then get to choose my war strategy rather than react to the disaster. I will choose the time and the season for battle and choose to: let the problem solve itself; coach the participants to solve the problem themselves; reprimand public sin: public rebuke; or private sin: private rebuke. I do my best to keep a constant open-door policy to make it convenient for any student to talk to me at almost any time.

Develop a personal relationship with every student. This is much easier said than done. I am talking about the shy student, the obnoxious irritant, the “I-want-attention” leach, as well as the ones that are easy to enjoy. An honest, loving atmosphere will promote confidence that a student can tell me anything privately without being publicized. The bounty of information can be as simple as whose birthday it is, to a family tragedy of a friend. Students do not practice time-management; therefore I have chosen to make their priorities mine as well.

Check the classroom order after class. I am assuming that your class is in order before you start. An orderly classroom promotes orderly discipline. I regularly look over my room for telltale signs of attention-deficit. Concentrations of litter toward the back of the room, or desks pushed askew are perhaps signs that I wasn’t the center of attention last hour. It is easy to get so busy teaching that I forget to be a teacher. Because I am naturally left-handed, it is easy to fail to teach the right-hand side of the class. Sometimes I can spend all my attention on the bright-side, or the slow-side of the class as well. Looking over a room after students leave is an early barometer of discipline and learning problems. I need to be more watchful of problem areas, or “there is a bigger storm coming.”

These are a few of the routines that I regularly practice to check the weather signs of my classroom. They are quite simple, fairly obvious, and easily neglected in the hectic pace of the day. Why don’t you jot me a note (jcarey@nvbschools.org) by email and help me with a few of your own storm trackers. Let us all work to be conscious of our own proficiency and development to watch for storms.