Hello!

I teach art appreciation to grades 9-12 (mostly 9) and have interesting groupings of students. Many are discipline problems. Last semester, I had students shot, killed, and arrested. My students were barely under control. Last semester was the first time I had that much trouble with discipline.

Since my course is a one-semester class, I am getting new students tomorrow. I plan to use WBT. Currently, I only have one goal - to not give up on it, and keep using it until I get it to work for me. It can't be any worse than last year, and I know if I start using it and give up, my discipline problems will only be worse.

I know many of these students are not going to want to participate, and I am worried about a few that I am getting for a second time (because they did not pass the first time). I really hope that I will be able to get help here, because I have seen and read about what teachers using WBT have accomplished, and I know it can work.

There is added pressure in that the rest of my department is planning on watching me. I have told them about this, and I have their support. I think they want it to work so that they can use it, too. But I will have an audience for my potential failure.

In my wildest dreams, I use WBT and it works, and other teachers come to me and ask me how to do it so that they can copy my success. In reality, I know it's going to be a lot of hard work and sticking to my guns, and I'm very nervous.

Sorry for the long post, but I feel a little better now that I've gotten that off my chest. Nice to meet everyone here!

Beth Bachuss

Beth,
I think the fact that you have one semester classes is actually a blessing. One thing that is a challenge for me is keeping the students from getting bored of the same old gestures and procedures. The most important thing is to stick with your scoreboard system and use teach/okay a lot. Don't worry about complaints. They will always complain in the beginning. They are teenagers, it's what they do best. Ignore it until you get the majority of the kids on your side. Since you teach an elective, it should be pretty easy for you to come up with some kind of academic game or activity that they like as a reward. When you get most of the kids interested in fighting for the reward, you can then get to the rebellious ones. You may even utilize the kids who failed the first time as some kind of leader. I would pull them aside and say something like "since you already know a lot of this, you are kind of an expert. Can you help this group of kids with this?" May be it will work. Worth a try.
Good luck! Keep us posted on how it goes. I teach middle school so if your having a lot of complaining and arguing I would be happy to hear what they come up with and help you find ways to deal with it.
Angela;)

Angela is right ... just stick with it and ignore the complaints ... you're in a power struggle and if you give in, there is nothing but trouble ahead. Keep a steady course for about a week, then try the approach described in "Industrial Strength Whole Brain Teaching" a free download on this site... use this if the majority of the kids in the class, after a week, are still causing problems. The basic idea is that you are going to identify a group of leaders and then make their status with the other kids in class depend upon the leaders' ability to earn rewards, by their on task behavior, for their followers. This system worked wonderfully well for Jackie Pedersen in a middle school in Riverside, California with a 42% suspension rate ... and keep us posted!

Well, it went better than I anticipated. Many of the kids were hesitant to participate, but some were obviously having fun. Some of them were suggesting scoreboard rewards before class was over. And I had several students say, "Bye, Mrs. Bachuss!" as they left - a first, especially before I even get to know them. We discussed the syllabus, procedures, lockdown/tornado/fire drills, and how we learn (auditory/visual/kinesthetic). Today is the first art content, so I am curious how well that will work. My goal today is to keep the energy levels high, encourage participation, and work on the Mighty Oh Yeah! / Mighty Groan when scoreboard points are awarded.

I do have a question about seating - I told them we would have a seating chart sometime this week. I have about the same number of A&B students as I have C,D, & F students. Should I seat the A's with the D & F's and the C's together, pairing highest to lowest? Or should I Pair the A's with the middle C's, the B's with the low C's and D's, and the higher C's with the F's? The second way, there's not as much difference between the students. I couldn't find anything on the site on seating.

Thanks!
Beth

I want to address the seating situation although I'm sure you've worked it out by now. If not, I bet they're getting tired of standing.

I teach fifth grade and have never taught secondary so this is coming from an elementary perspective. However, I have used a few different seating arrangements throughout the years using WBT. The general idea is to seat the lows with the highs but that does not take into account two important aspects of students: personalities and the actual gap between the lowest and highest students. Both of these can certainly override a general seating template. I always tell my students that their seats may be moved without warning if I decide to do so. This leaves me the option of making any changes I see fit without them saying I am doing something unexpected.

This generally allows you the opportunity to learn the class dynamics (which are never the same from group to group) and make changes as needed. I've had high students with low students as well as high students with students just below them in the same class because that is how THEY worked best, which is ultimately what matters. All of these strategies are designed to increase student success and confidence, so do what it takes to allow them that opportunity. It's not just a catchy phrase when teachers are told that they use the system and the system does not use them.

~Dave~