No Fear In My Classroom

A Teacher's Guide on How to Ease Student Concerns, Handle Parental Problems, Focus on Education and Gain Confidence in Yourself

Frederick C Wootan

• Publisher: Adams Media
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781440520037
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Classroom Management

Teachers have a lot to worry aboutùfrom classroom management to school violence to job security to national mandates. Lucky for them, this book helps relieve those fears and allows them to focus on what theyÆre supposed to be doingùteaching. With a friendly, accessible format, teacher-turned-author Frederick Wootan supplies solutions to his fellow educatorsÆ fears, like:

• Are their students actually listening to them?
• Are they being fair about grading?
• What can they do about overly aggressive parents?
• How are budget cuts going to affect their classroom?
• WhatÆs to stop them from being laid off?

With this book, teachers will build their confidence, take back their classrooms, and put the emphasis back on education.

PART I

Personal Fears


You have these before your students
even walk through the door

CHAPTER 1
Is My Classroom an Effective Learning Environment?

Thomas Jefferson sat down to write the Declaration of Independence after long and arduous discussions with his colleagues Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and other Founding Fathers. They all brought different viewpoints and opinions to those discussions, but they all agreed they wanted to establish a country that provided equal opportunity for all; a country run by its people, not a people run by a government. This meant abject defiance of England’s King George, and then the construction of a classless and educated society.

Like our Founding Fathers, everyone has a slightly different view of what “classless society” means today. Some focus only on the idea that it means everyone is created equal, with the same basic human rights. Some take it one step further and believe achieving a classless society requires overall equality ensured by a central government that provides these human rights to all. And then there are those who say the classless theory applies to the overall welfare of a nation with a diverse people working in varying levels, but with the potential to achieve whatever level they desire, limited only by their personal talents and how well they choose to use them. However, whatever theory they espouse, they all agree that in order for this country to remain a democracy, it must have an educated populace.

Is it such a stretch then to think that classrooms could have different learning environments created by the dynamic of the individual teacher and his students, but maintain the common goal of an educated populace? Shouldn’t we in fact come to expect these differences, which are based on different ethnicities, regional prejudices, nations of origin, religious beliefs, races, and levels of income? Yes to both. Nevertheless, it’s still logical that you, as the teacher in these equations, should fear making mistakes in your classroom, thereby impacting the learning environment. Let’s take a look.

The Overall Picture

During the era following the American Civil War, our country’s educational experience evolved from Josiah Holbrook’s lyceum movement of the early nineteenth century to establishment of permanent venues for speaking to the people. At their peak after the war, the lyceums actually took on more of an entertainment purpose than educational, with shows provided by traveling entertainers such as minstrels and vaudeville acts. The public forum they created also attracted influential speakers including Susan B. Anthony and Mark Twain.

Eventually this grew into a system of public and private schools with specific rules about who must attend, when they must attend, and what they should learn. One of the amazing things about this country is its diversity, and yet our education system actually attempts to create a uniform playing field. That playing field seems unattainable even in this, a classless society. Jonathan Kozol, in his book Savage Inequalities, tells about many differences that exist today; differences caused by rich versus poor, by minorities versus majorities, by tax structures that support our public schools, and by teachers’ skills and attitudes.

In order to defeat this fear you have about creating a better, more effective learning environment, you need to understand that the power lies in you. The playing field may be laid out before you, but it is your game.

You: The Influencer

I get up every morning and think of the two things I remember from a speech given by the great motivational speaker Zig Ziglar: “We are what goes into our minds” and “I feel fantastic, but I’m getting better.” Beginning your day with feeling fantastic and also planning to feel even better during that day will penetrate your very being until it emanates from your every pore into your personal space and on into the world around you. Think of the pebble thrown into the pond. The splash is negligible, but the ripples continue outward. Become that pebble and let your enthusiasm ripple through your classroom.

If need be, write out Zig Ziglar’s thoughts on a small card. Place it by your bed or next to your coffeepot. Read it every morning until your mind has absorbed it and it becomes an important part of your personality.

Recently, one of my colleagues (whom I always find in the teacher’s lounge when I arrive every morning, and I get there pretty early) said something to me that made my heart grin. He is a true academic and a voracious reader who has introduced me to many very interesting books, resulting in our having some great philosophical discussions. On this particular day he responded to my cheery “Good morning!” with, “Good morning my friend. You always get my day off to a great start. I have never in my seventy years on this earth found another person who, with such few words, so early in the day, every day, could so positively influence my mood for the entire day. My students and I appreciate it.”

I nearly fell over. I actually thought that some days my early morning cheeriness irritated him.

Remember the Ripple

I know I am blessed to work in a private school where most students have a stable home life, and come ready to learn. But I also know it is an artificial environment isolated from the real world. Our students generally come from households where the fear of going hungry or becoming homeless has never been an issue. Some would call them snobs. Some would call them spoiled rich kids. Some would simply have so much envy in their eyes they forget these are just kids. I will not deny that most of my students live privileged lives.

However, with privilege comes fear. These types of students have a fear of not living up to certain standards. You need to make them realize that these standards of perfection are only perceived in their young minds.

Alternatively, there are those schools with students who do live with daily hunger and sometimes even no home to go to. How do you motivate them? You may have more than thirty of these kids in your classroom. They are sleepy from not having a comfortable bed; they are angry because of the fight that took place in their home the night before. They can’t concentrate because of the rumblings of their empty stomachs. Your classroom is cold because the windows won’t close tight and have several cracks or broken-out panes. The aged coat of paint on the walls has faded into oblivion or is peeling off. Ceiling tiles have fallen from a leaky roof that should have been replaced or at least repaired twenty years ago.

Your students are dealing with a different type of fear. They want to survive. You need to be their rock and let out ripples of hope to assuage their fears, and in turn your fears of their not learning.

Take for Example . . .

Obviously, these very different scenarios require very different methods. Last year I became so concerned about the classroom environment my privileged students were creating that I conducted an experiment.

It was in the dead of winter and the outside temperature was in the below-freezing range. I shut my classroom door and opened the windows. I reorganized the desks, normally in a spread-out V pattern, into tight rows of nine. I placed the rows about a foot apart, and each desk touched the back of the one in front. I made cardboard signs that read “ceiling tile” and took long strings and tied them to the ceiling’s support beams so they hung either in the rows between the desks or came within about a foot of where a student would sit.

I greeted the students as they came in, telling them to leave their books and whatever else they were carrying on the floor near the door and to take a seat without moving the desks or climbing on them. That meant they had to cooperate with each other and enter the room in single file.

Once they were seated I passed out five pieces of copy paper and six pencils, some with no eraser and in need of sharpening. I told them there was a wall separating them from the open space left in the room between the last row of desks and the actual wall, and they could not cross it. (I placed a strip of masking tape on the floor to represent the wall.) I also told them not to close the windows even though the room was getting cold.

Since I taught American Literature, I took out my book and began reading a poem. I read one stanza and looked up. They sat there looking at me with a mixture of disgust and puzzlement in their eyes. One asked what was going on. I answered using my sternest teacher voice, saying, “Keep quiet! I am reading, and you should be taking notes, not asking stupid questions. I intend to read this poem and then you will write an explanation for me without a copy of the book to reference.” When he complained that he not only didn’t have anything to write on but he didn’t have anything to write with, I told him he should have brought those things with him. Of course, he responded that I had made him leave them at the door. I then began the real lesson.

I told them that for at least that class period and more, if necessary, my classroom was part of the poverty-stricken public school system of one of the poorest cities in this country. I told them about one of the finest young men I ever knew. This young man, whom I met while in the Army, was from East St. Louis, one of the poorest communities in the United States. He had plans to go to college when his tour was over and then to return to the family business of running a junkyard. He was a well-spoken, articulate man, and I had every confidence that he would achieve that objective.

As I expected, one student asked why on earth he would want to go back to such a place and, of all things, run a junkyard. I told them that, because of growing up under those circumstances, he did not know a better thing existed. He was proud of the fact that his family had a successful business. One of the kids said in a low voice to the person next to him, “What an idiot.”

That was not the voice of a snob. It was the voice of a student who needed to further his education and to expand his world. At the end of class, several students asked if I was going to continue with the room that way. I then told all of them to write a paper for me telling me why they prefer the original classroom and why the friend from my past was not an idiot.

The response was great. Most of my students actually thought about what had happened that day and wrote papers reflecting those considerations. Will that brief exposure to another world make them better people? Only time will tell.

The message here is that the learning atmosphere of your classroom is up to you. If you know that your students need a soft place to land because they don’t have one at home, your classroom can be that place. If your students don’t need that soft place, you don’t have to provide it. Remember, your obligation to them is to help make them educated citizens, and that will work best if you have them in an environment that promotes learning. In order to make sure your classroom is an effective learning environment, examine your physical site in light of what you know about your students and their outside lives, and adjust accordingly.

The Fear What if my students don’t feel comfortable in my classroom? I’m afraid that my classroom may not be the right environment for learning.H ow do I reduce my students’ fears and enhance the learning that takes place in my classroom?

The Solution Find out what movies and what music your students like. Find pictures that convey your interpretation of those movies and/or music. For example, I have made a collage of pictures of some of my students’ favorite musicians and bands and placed it on the wall they see when they enter my classroom. When I am giving a test or having my students work on an assignment, I play soft “easy listening” music. I switch the music to something they like that has a fast, upbeat tempo when I want them to take a break. T hey know I am paying attention to their world with the pictures and their music.T hey also learn that there are simple ways to express artistic talent such as with the collage, and to actually enjoy the peaceful calm of my “easy listening” musi...