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MAINTAINING DISCIPLINE IN THE ARTS CLASSROOM
If you’re a new teacher, this is probably your biggest fear within teaching.
Discipline, especially in an amorphous setting like an art classroom can be a
very frightening prospect. You may even wonder, “If I turn my back for a
second, will one of the students decide to recreate the character from
Hellraiser using Needle tools?” Chances are, no, but you do have to have
some well-respected rules in your classroom to insure safety. Even if your
goal is for the students to have fun and for your classroom to be an
environment where they can be themselves, discipline is a prerequisite.
However, this doesn’t mean you have to be Attila the Hun. There are many
ways of acheiving discipline and what works well for one teacher may fail
miserably with another. Further, different classes may need a different set of
rules or method of discipline due to class make-up etc. The key is feeling
comfortable with the style of discipline you choose to enact in your
classroom. I’ve heard wonderful success stories of many types of discipline.
One of my favorites came from my mother. She had a teacher her
senior year of high school who told the students on the first day of class that
there were no rules. Rules would be made as it became necessary to make
them. This was a very popular system because it meant the students could
talk in class, chew gum in class, sit where they wanted to sit, etc. SO LONG
AS IT DIDN’T BECOME A PROBLEM. Should something become a problem, a
rule would be made prohibiting it. At the end of the year, the class still had
no formal rules. The teacher had trusted the students to act like capable
adults from the beginning of the year, and the students, in turn, made every
effort to maintain that trust.
I’ve also seen the exact opposite type of situation. A band director I
know was always extrememly strict with his band. He expected excellence
from his band. He seemed to achieve this through fear and intimidation.
Students behaved in his class, came to class prepared, and gave 100% effort
during his class. To some degree, the students behaved this way out of fear.
The teacher had been known to throw music stands or something along
those lines (although that could very well be an urban legend about him).
You might think that a teacher like this, who used fear, would be hated by his
students. Quite the reverse, actually, his students loved him. Outside of
rehearsals, he would joke around with them and have fun, etc. He was a
very popular teacher. The students respected him because they knew where
they stood with him. He demanded hard work, and when they gave it to
him, they reaped rewards ranging from his approval to contest awards to
their own feeling of having performed well.
An excellent book on the subject is Teaching / Discipline: A Positive
Approach for Educational Development by Madsen & Madsen. I have recently
been made aware of a fantastic website dealing with behavior issues. It
even has a bulletin board where you can post specific problems and a
bunch of different people will reply. It's absolutely fantastic!
http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/pub/eres/EDSPC715_MCINTYRE/715HomePage.html
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