For this assignment I talked with Ms. Thompson, the high school English teacher, and Mr. King, the high school math teacher.

I first talked with Mr. King and asked him about what he does when he runs into a behavior problem.  He says that most of the problems come when they transition from section to section in a class instead of doing it the next day.  There’s a brief pause while the students get ready for the new material that allows some of the students to “goof off”.  He says that it’s good for the students to relax for a second, and it never really affects the class’s rhythm.  Another situation he says he faces is when students come in to class late.  It causes a distraction, so to deal with this he keeps track of tardiess, and for each one they have to stay after school in his class on Friday for 10 minutes.  He said that tardies are his biggest problems, but since he’s put this Friday plan in action, they’re not as big of a problem as they once were.

Ms. Thompson said that she deals with management incidents as outlined in her school’s handbook.  She says they provide a lot of structure for a teacher regarding behavior and consequences.  Any time a student doesn’t want to cooperate, they are sent to the principal’s office.  She also added that if students act up in class, they too get detention on Fridays.  It was interesting when she said, almost like it was straight out of the book that the consequence has to fit the bad behavior.  She says her biggest problems are students who are negative in class, questioning the importance of the material.

Both Ms. Thompson and Mr. King are first year teachers, and they agreed that they were managing this semester’s classes much better than the first.  A little experience goes a long way.  Ms. Thompson had never been involved with a serious incident, but Mr. King said he was at the right place at the right time to stop a fight from breaking out.  It was during lunch, and he escorted the students, along with the security officer, to the counselor’s office.

Mr. King and Ms. Thompson both take away points from a student’s conduct grade, but have never used good or bad behavior to influence the grade on their class work.

Mr. King says he hasn’t had a student act up so bad that he had to call their parents, but Ms. Thompson was concerned about one student.  She said that she was always good in class and then all of a sudden started behaving differently.  She contacted the parents and had a discussion over the phone where she learned of a situation that was going on in the family.  Ms. Thompson and the parents agreed it would be a good idea for the student to see a counselor.  She did, and shortly after her behavior returned to normal.  It worked out for everyone.