Job Discussion Forums

[miss_betty]

I just completed my first week of school. I am teaching 16 year olds at a private high school!!!!

These kids do not know how to stop talking. I came from a Language school teaching adults where everyone wanted to be there and were subsequently very attentive.

I find it the most challenging part of the week to keep them quite. I lecture for 10 minutes and put it back to them for collaboration. SO, I know I am not making them pay attention for too long.


I think my strategy for this next week is to start kicking people out. That way their parents will find out.

I refuse to yell at them. Not my style.
I flick the lights on and off to get them to stop........still talking.
I clap my hands.......still talking
I shoot glares........still talking.

I have been told by fellow teachers that Mexican students LOVE to talk. Also, that I am at a private school, I think these kids are just used to getting their way with most things in life.

Does anyone have any other suggestions????

Maybe I am Naive.....but I really did not expect this.

[moonraven]

First: You need to understand that students "take the measure" of their teachers the first day of class. Any behavior that you don't want to have in your classroom must be rooted out then. Do not even wait for Day Two to do that, or you will have an uphil;l climb for the rest of the school year.

Two: I usually have students who insist on talking when I am talking stand in front of the class next to me so that they can have ALL the attention of their classmates. After about 5 minutes they start begging me to let them sit down. That is usually enough.

Three: Once in awhile someone lapses. I will ask if he wants to come up next to me. Of course he doesn't. I point out that when I am talking I do not want competition, and that I do not talk when other people have the floor.

Four: If you don't find these strategies working, you will need to develop Classroom Presence. In the meantime, call in the parents of the offenders. Let the parents chew on their behinds for awhile.

Good luck!

[thelmadatter]

I sympathize with you miss betty... I was surprised myself just how much noise is tolerated in the classroom in general. We have refined the art of passing notes because we've been conditioned not to talk in class. It doesnt seem to be so much the case here.

Some of it may be testing you, like MR says but I suspect a lot of it is simply that is what they are used to. Its simply a cultural difference. MR is right that you need to deal with this - the sooner the better. Consider her suggestions but talk to other teachers at your school -- theres nothing worse than laying down the law just to have your boss undermine you (it happened to me - fortunately my current boss backs me 100%).

[Samantha]

I agree Thelma. It is a very tricky situation. You automatically expect that once you are hired, you will be backed by administration. I have seen quite the opposite in several schools here. It seems to me, in my experience, the more exclusive the school the tougher it is for the teacher to actually be in charge. As long as the parents are paying the big bucks, the teacher must adapt to the goings on as best as possible.

Talking is only a part of what takes place that could send a teacher running for the hills. There is the tardiness, the cell phones, the creative homework excuses, the missing report cards, the missing workbooks, the dreaded pencil boxes and cases, the cheating on exams etc.

I saw one really nice young Mexican teacher get fired unexpectedly because the people in charge of administration were close friends with a grade 3 student's parents. The little girl continued to play with her pencil box contents (everything but the kitchen sink in some of those cases!) and pass it around the classroom. (Those things fall on the floor spilling everything about 4 times per child per class - in a class of 33 little students this is a huge disruption) The teacher warned her several times that she must stop disrupting the lessons and pay attention. She told her that she was going to put it in the garbage can if the behavior continued. Well, you already know the end of that story. She got fired for following through.

I had the pleasure of teaching a grade 6 class when a size 10 tennis shoe was thrown through a window as I was writing on the blackboard. Luckily they all love to tattle, and far be it from me to even think about consequences for the darling little perpetrator. He meant no harm, after all he wanted the shoe to hit his friend (who happened to sit in front of the window) in the head when I wasn't looking! I summonsed my co-ordinator who notifed the parents who paid for the window. Punishment? Nahhhh! Life went on. I considered that I had been supported because I didn't get fired for not having eyes in the back of my head.

Teachers coming from places like England where they are used to being in charge and having quiet in the classrooms and orderly students can have a very tough go in Mexico. I worked with two British teachers (in a University) who got fired because the students went to administration and complained that they were too strict. And never ever throw a piece of chalk to get a students attention when they are chatting during your lesson. Yes some schools in Mexico still have chalkboards! And it's tempting...LOL

It is different and you must be flexible or you will possibly go insane! The Mexican teachers I worked with in that elementary school were all VERY calm. I used to march into the teachers room and say "Okay, I need a drink!" and they would crack up. I wasn't kidding some days. They are amazing to do that all day, and then go home to their own 2 or 3 or 4 children with energy to spare. Some of them even tutor after hours for extra money. I on the other hand would go home and whine to my husband who would say "I warned you".

As Thelma says, get to know your fellow teachers as best you can and find out what's what in the school system you are working within to avoid these pitfalls. You will learn so much about yourself while you are teaching in Mexico. It is a very worthwhile experience.

[grahamcito]

Somebody once told me that 'studies' have shown that when making a speech, you have 5 minutes in which to win - or lose - your audience's attention.

Could be apocryphal, but how about reconsidering your approach of lecturing for the first ten minutes of every class. I teach adults who want to be in my classroom and want to learn, but me talking for ten minutes at any point in the lesson causes them to switch off.

It can be difficult to pay 100% attention to anyone speaking for 10 minutes, especially if they're speaking in a foreign language and especially if you weren't interested in the first place.

How about using activities that involve the students earlier in the class?

[miss_betty]

Okay, Thank you for all your responses.

[ls650]

[miss_betty]

Yes, I am sorry, I should have elaborated on my definition of lecture

[Firecat]

My first assistant principal told me, �You are only as tough as you are on your first day. You can always ease-up, but you can�t get tougher if you have been too easy.� Now don�t take �tough� as meaning you need to be a dictatorial ass, but you do need to control your classroom.

Remember that Latin Americans are very social. I found that my students were not trying to be rude or disrespectful, they just wanted to talk. In an English class it is not hard to use that to your advantage!

[moonraven]

I thhink the comments made about lecturing were very much to the point. I have about 5% teacher talking time in my classes, as I don't need to practice the language. Students will do better if you put them to work immediately, as they are entering from a Spanish environment and need a warm up in English.

A lot of dealing with students falls under the heading of conditioning expectations. What was mentioned about not talking if students are interrupting by talking works well--once you have conditioned them. When students lapse you can install something like I did with one group of 9th graders: If they began to talk instead of working I told them that if I walk over to the desk and sit down behind it that the entire group would get a zero for the day's work. All I had to do was take a couple of steps toward my desk and everyone fell silent. I never had to actually sit down in the chair behind it.

Teachers without much experience frequently think that they must spend their time imparting pearls of wisdom--instead of encouraging students to perform. I have even fired teachers for doing that, because students' right to practice time was being violated.

[thelmadatter]

Wow! after reading the comments here about teachers essentially being screwed by admin/parents... I consider myself quite lucky. More reason to stay where I am.

[M@tt]

i couldn't resist responding to this thread. it's almost the same thing i wrote about two years ago, except that my students were college aged. probably the same school...

what i learned has mostly been explained by others, so i will just second the advice about the First Day. it will set the tone for the rest of the semester and possibly the rest of the year, esp if you are at a small school where your students next semester will have already heard stories about you. i started out much stricter second semester in an attempt to undo the damage, but it was reaelly too late.

i made a ton of mistakes, including yelling at them. i can't recommend doing that. it might feel effective at the time but in the end it doesn't really help.

i wouldn't put that much stock in parental figures either, though. i had students whose parents didn't expect much of them, or who were more interested in their child getting the grade they needed than in learning anything in class. so just be prepared for the possibility that the parents are enabling the bad behavior.

moonraven had really good suggestions. so did the person who mentioned standing silently. but that can be a very very long wait. ultimately my biggest challenge was keeping the students in english mode. even on days when they behave well, class felt pointless if they were talking among themselves in spanish. in fact one technique i used in class with limited results was to stop students who were chatting with each other/telling jokes while i was talking, and encouraging them to share the joke with the whole class as long as they could do it in english.
at the time i was honestly hoping for some good jokes, but the side effect was that they spoke to each other a little less in spanish.

good luck, if you play things right, it could get better. if not--well, there are always other schools.

[miss_betty]

well, I wanted to post a follow up for you all

ON Monday, I brought the offending students up to the front of the class room. I have four classes. I did it in each class. I told the class what you had recommended and made them my helpers. Needless to say, many of the shyer kids who talk have now been quite. Thanks so much, I will continue to do that.

I discovered that my students can be quite! They are just not conditioned to. I think I used a method that they had not been exposed to yet and they haven't figured out how to get around this new rule.....yet.!!!!

One more experience to share on the same note:

Since I have only been in Mx for 3 weeks and it has been really rainy here, I got sick over the weekend( serious allergies) and totally lost my voice by MOnday night.

You can imagine, to my dismay, I woke up on Tuesday Morning and thought...oh great, it is my second week and I am already calling in sick. Of course, there is no was to fake losing your voice. B

So I went to class ( I actually teach Science not English) and luckily on Sunday there was a plane crash in Greece!!. Not lucky for the people who perished, but lucky for me. Since we were studying atmosphere and the plane depressurized and lost oxygen. So, I made an exercise where I did not have to talk all day. I wrote out discussion points for them...The students were great. Their end conclusion was some crazy conspiracy theory. I was great to listen to.

This actually worked to my benefit in so many ways. My chatty pupils actually were quite....they knew I could not talk over them....so they actually listened!!! I also made some inroads by bringing up the leader of the classrooms ( the alpha male/female) and whispered directions to them and they would tell the class. They were essentially my mouthpiece. This too was invaluable too in building a relationship with the strong students in class.

So thanks again everyone
I do really enjoy the kids.....they are rich and spoiled rotten, but really do have great minds. I ignore the first two and focus on the third aspect.

[moonraven]

I have also lost my voice in class--and I made the students teach it. It was lots of fun for them.

You are doing fine. Keep up the good work.

[Cdaniels]