What Could You Let go of for the Sake of Harmony?

As a teacher and educator, this is a vitally important question. Teachers can not fight every single battle, every single day when managing large numbers of students. If they do this, they will be burned out by Tuesday and their productivity will rapidly decline, as will their relational capacity.

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Each day the teacher must make decisions about what issues are truly a problem, and what is not. Is the kid whispering to their friend in the back of class a big issue, or can it be handled in a simple way, let go…? Will other students see this as the green light to start talking during instructional time? Will they get progressively louder as this becomes more socially acceptable. The answer, well it depends ….

It could be a class where one student being off-task will de-rail the entire class. If the teacher does not intervene immediately, the rest of students no longer have any incentive to pay attention. Perhaps that one student is distracting three or four other students, but perhaps it is just a passing moment, or a singular occurrence.

Teachers must be very astute in this regard. Every time a teacher must stop what they are doing to address behavior, it wastes time and can cause more behavior disruptions. Pretty soon the entire class turns into teacher versus students, students leave the class frustrated, the teacher leaves class exasperated.

This does not mean, however, that intervening is always bad. The punishment must fit the crime in order for the intervention to be successful. If a student is consistently off-task, when confronted about it, they can not say it was a one-time thing, so it is good to start with a warning. From there a consequence, perhaps changing their seat, then perhaps bring in parents and/or administrators. It is rare that things get to this point, but sometimes it is necessary.

A teacher must also be able to “read the room” and see what the overall disposition of students is. If students are super social and excited about Winter Formal or some highly anticipated event, it is easier to get them to work in groups together. Conversely, if students are tired and struggling, playing learning games may do the trick. There is no magic bullet or one-size fits all solution, so each teacher must find their own way to balance these things to keep harmony in the classroom.

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Thanks for reading The Lifelong Learning and Education Blog! I hope you have a fantastic day! Likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated! What could you let go of for the sake of harmony?

• Work a Low Wage Job for a Day….Day
• Is 3I Atlas an Alien Probe or a Comet?
• Embracing Your Inner Child: The Joy of Being Kid at Heart
• Panda’s Three Wishes
• Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Learning