Owning It. Alex Kajitani

       3

      VISIBILITY IS EVERYTHING

      Increase Your Classroom Presence to Seem Like You’re Everywhere at Once

      Every teacher with classroom experience knows that simply managing your classroom can be an everyday challenge that often overshadows instruction and learning. One of the keys to ensure your classroom stays on track is to create the impression that you are always visible and aware of what goes on within its walls.

      When I was a new teacher, I really struggled. All the typical new-teacher clichés applied: my students were constantly off task, I shouted more “be quiet or else” warnings than I had time to enforce, and I left school each day feeling disrespected. Too often, I didn’t feel my students learned anything that day. I found this frustrating because, in my credential program, I’d excelled in all of my teaching-theory classes and had been a pretty decent student teacher. But all of a sudden, on my own in a real classroom, I was sinking.

      Then, my dad gave me a book that had seemingly nothing to do with teaching, yet it changed my teaching forever. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (2002) outlines the work of two sociologists, James Wilson and George Kelling, and their broken-windows theory. In this chapter, I explain the thinking behind this theory and how it applies to education. I then present five strategies you can use to ensure there are no broken windows in your own classroom.

The Broken-Windows Theory

      The broken-windows theory is quite simple. It’s based on the contested belief that crime is the inevitable result of disorder (Kelling & Coles, 1996). Thus, if you walk by a building with a broken window (or several), you make the connection in your mind that nobody cares for that building and that, if you choose, you are free to go into the building and commit more (and more severe) crimes, with very little potential for punishment.

      Gladwell (2002) paints the picture of New York City in 1990, when crime was at an all-time high, and twenty thousand felonies per year were being committed on the subway system alone (Kelling & Coles, 1996). Believing that the city’s history of letting seemingly small, insignificant crimes go unpunished had created in peoples’ minds the perception that they were free to commit more serious crimes, the mayor and police chief decided to implement the broken-windows theory. They ordered the police to crack down on two of the city’s most visible crimes: graffiti and subway turnstile jumping.

      Although they received much criticism for putting so much energy and so many resources into these smaller infractions, by 1996, felonies on the New York subway system had fallen by 75 percent, and murders dropped by 66 percent. To be fair, there were many factors at work, and there is justifiable debate regarding the correlation or causation regarding this policy and crime reduction; however, there is no question public perception changed from one of chaos to orderliness, and the health and productivity of the city improved (Gladwell, 2002).

      So, as I read this book, I couldn’t help but ask myself, “If application of the broken-windows theory could contribute to turning around one of the world’s largest cities, how might it apply to my classroom?”

      I adapted the theory to my role as an educator—not thinking of myself as a police officer, but more as a wise guide (think Yoda from Star Wars), and not thinking of students as criminals but as young people who, regardless of what past experience they bring to my classroom, can thrive with clear, firm guidance (think Luke Skywalker).

      The next morning, I walked into my classroom, determined to change my students’ perception of it. No longer would they view my class as an out-of-control environment where they were free to roam; rather, I needed to transform my class into a safe place they recognized as well-organized and effectively managed. I decided to focus hard on two smaller, but much more visible infractions (undesirable behaviors): chewing gum and arriving late to class. I announced to my classes that when we respect our classroom and its expectations, we respect ourselves and our learning. So, starting at that moment, chewing gum or walking in late to class would result in an automatic detention. Then I held firm.

      I devoted all my energy that day to noticing and acting on these admittedly two minor offenses. It was exhausting. The next day, I devoted about 50 percent of my time toward this, and the next, just a little. By the end of the week, my students were on task, following directions and, dare I say, learning. The following week, when I announced that I would be gone one day and that a substitute teacher would be taking my place, I overheard a student say, “I’m not misbehaving when the sub is here. Mr. Kajitani will bust you for gum—just imagine what he’ll do if you act out for a sub!”

      It was at that point that I realized a crucial truth: visibility is everything. Although assigning consequences and holding students accountable are necessary components of any classroom, intentional, well-thought-out expectations and clear, consistent rules are what truly set the tone and foster a positive classroom culture. Award-winning educator Tom Hierck (2017) writes in Seven Keys to a Positive Learning Environment in Your Classroom:

      Expectations serve as guidelines that are important not only in the classroom but, more often than not, also in life beyond the classroom’s four walls. Expectations guide student responses academically and behaviorally. Expectations have an emphasis on lifelong learning and an eye toward growth. Rules, on the other hand, tend to be specific and are often responses to previous negative outcomes. Rules are attempts to guide student responses, but tend to be reactionary and often do not bring about the desired change. (p. 20)

      There are all sorts of reasons that students act out, and I write about many of them in part 2 (page 59), but when it comes to general classroom management, our students’ perception of what is happening in our classrooms determines how they act while in our classrooms. Like with the Force, the true power lies in students’ minds.

Strategies for Success

      There are a variety of ways you can model for your students to set a tone of positive expectation. The tips in the following five sections can help you increase your powerful presence in the classroom, while keeping your students focused on the learning at hand.

Make Phone Calls Home

      Before the first day of school starts, I call the home of every one of my students. (It takes a while, but the time I save not dealing with discipline issues throughout the year comes back tenfold.) I

Скачать книгу