One of the areas I had the most growth in this year was my classroom management skills. All of my students came to me with their own unique set of challenges, that made establishing my classroom difficult. While I was prepared for this by administration when I accepted the position, I did not expect how rewarding it would be to watch the difference classroom management would make on my students. The best example I can think of lies with one of my 5th grade students, to protect his privacy I will call him Tom, instead of his real name.
Tom's** Story Tom has a history of extreme trauma and violence. His home life in early years was violent, and unstable. He is now in a less traumatic living environment, however the past traumas still have their lasting effects. These effects have made it hard for him to access his education, he is full of anger and energy. He is also very curious, observant and inventive. He likes to take things apart and put them together in a new way. Once he has an idea in his mind, or has started a task he can't stop it until it's completed. He knows a lot, but doesn't always know the words for them in English, and he likes to help. Tom thrives on structure, and will show you the same level of respect you show him. To understand the magnitude of Tom's success, you have to understand how he was in 3rd grade.
In 3rd grade Tom was in a class with little structure and was expected to fit inside a box, he was never meant for. He was easily triggered, and angry all the time. Tom would get in trouble, would shred his school work, and throw desks and chairs. His mom reported him never wanting to go to school, and she would fight him daily to go. In class he would rarely complete work, and was labelled as being defiant, disruptive and disrespectful.
At the beginning of last year Tom was standoffish, hesitant to trust me, but eager to show me who he was. He couldn't help but be himself, and it took a while, but once he learned that I wouldn't chastise him for being himself, instead would give him the time to do the things he liked and wanted in exchange for the work I wanted him to do we got along well. His second day of school started with a fist fight. His third day of school ended with him throwing an elastic band at my face. Those were the only major incidents he had, from those two incidents we learned about each other and when he started to show signs he was getting agitated, I took counter measures to de-escalate him. I worked with Tom to learn how to channel anger and frustration and vocalize when he was reaching those states, and we worked together to come up with a solution. In October his mom came to me to say thank you, she noticed he was coming home happy to show her the work he had completed, she was no longer fighting him to get up in the morning, instead he was waking up early on his own and happy to go to school.
In December 2019 the assistant principle, Ms. Singh, acknowledged that while inputting referrals for the first half of the school year she noticed that Tom had, had none, in contrast to the previous year where he had 6 referrals by the middle of the year. Tom was doing well in school, working hard and making slow progress. By February, Tom was disrupting the class 30% less often, and was vocalizing when he needed help or didn't understand something. I was working hard on getting him to raise his hand instead of calling out, which he would do begrudgingly at times, but did it none the less. March Tom had began telling me what he wanted to do when he was older and why. He described aspirations of joining the Marines so that he could help protect people and make his mom proud. He had learned about the different branches of the military and came to the conclusion that Marines were brave and strong and thats what he wanted to be. With the right structure and guidance Tom is able to access his education, his past traumas still effect him, but not as much. He is eager to learn and help, and has made immense growth, especially in math and reading fluency.
This past year was an extra struggle for Tom. Distance learning was not beneficial for him. He began the year strong, but by October 2020 he was starting to regress. He craved the return of a stable environment and social interactions. His absences began to increase. By December 2020 I had him back on the right track, he was engaged positively in class and would participate in 1:1 instruction during office hours. The more I listened to his cries for not understanding virtual assignments or struggling to keep up in zoom lessons with choppy, unstable internet the better he did. The day before winter break he begged me to not go, 3 weeks away from even zoom was far too long. When we came back he was rarely present. Even when he would log on he wouldn't engage, camera always off. He would only talk in 1:1 settings. I fought to get students back into the classroom. I was able to in February 2021. I was nervous for his classroom behavior, with almost a year out of a physical classroom how much of the work put in previous school year would be lost?
I was pleasantly happy that he returned eager, happy and with minimal behaviors. His story taught me the importance of creating and maintaining POSITIVE, SAFE, CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENTS and the impact they can have on student success.
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