A month of teaching : The three Cs

A long weekend has made me realise the value of having things sorted and planned. A week into school, all my time was consumed in working or planning or doing a chore. The painful weeks have paid off and I can now sit at home peacefully and type this out as slow as I want to. I don’t have disturbing thoughts of dealing with an unruly class. I look forward to seeing the faces of the little ones. Thoughts can lazily rest in my head without being burdened with the weight of something that needs to get done.

What did we do to change things in class ? I think it boils down to three things. Calmness. Consistency. Consequences.  

Calmness

The first step to being calm is just doing it. I hated being the teacher who raised her voice in class and as a student, I hated that teacher who raised her voice in class. But its funny how it took me so long to put two and two together and just stop doing it. I’ve learnt that it is a calm, consistent tone that demands respect. It makes you feel good and it will give you the energy you need at the end of the day.

Consistency

The follow up counts. I admire people that walk the talk and am shamelessly vocal about my contempt of people that don’t. Consistency in thought and action is the only way to go. You’ve got to pick up that piece of paper and throw it in the dustbin every single time. You’ve got to applaud their answers every single time. You’ve got to be consistent every single time.

Consequences

For every rule that is broken there needs to  be a consequence. I often shied away from administering severe consequences, but that is the biggest mistake a teacher can make. The moment the kids could see a quantifiable consequence for every action, they learned to use their judgement and do the right thing. I hope for the day when this sense of right and wrong gets internalized in them.

Until then, I teach.


“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” ~ James Arthur Baldwin