D Word, The

NEA Today, Sep 2005 by Flannery, Mary Ellen

7 PLAN, PLAN, AND PLAN SOME MORE. Idle hands are the devil's tools-and a real demon in the classroom. Never be caught with nothing to do, advises Melanie Hazen, a Tennessee media specialist who offers I Can Do It! training to her colleagues.

When Hazen taught English at Montgomery Central High School, she sliced up a stack of vocabulary words and dropped them into a cup. Then, when she had a few spare minutes, she'd pull out words and her kids would race through their dictionaries to look for definitions.

"If they're busy-busy, they don't have time to disrupt class. So, make sure you over-plan," Hazen advises.

8 REFER TO YOUR UNION CONTRACT. If a kid constantly disrupts your lessons-to the point where none of the children can learn-you may reach a point where you want him out of there. When your principal is supportive, it may be easy to get that eviction notice. When you're on your own, talk to your Association.

In Florida, where state law allows teachers to remove unruly students, the Palm Beach County contract sets guidelines to make it work. When a student interferes with a teacher's ability to teach, or classmates to learn, then that student must be removed until a committee decides to return him or her. Any teacher who removes 25 percent of the total class enrollment must receive training on better management techniques.

9 SPICE UP YOUR LESSONS. Every year, a Connors-Emerson School parent, who also works at the local medical research lab in Bar Harbor, Maine, comes to Karen Barter's second-grade class to do a real-life lesson on hand-washing. The kids sit rapt as they collect and count bacteria in the classroom sink, on its doorknob, on their own hands.

Who could have guessed that an hour in the backyard would leave 10,000 bacteria on Jalique's hands? Fascinating! (Or that the sink drain offers more than a million of the little creepy-crawlies?)

"They were totally in the flow," Barter recalls.

10 FEED A GENTLER SPIRIT. Even your best-behaved students can turn into John Blutarsky-the John Beiushi character from Animai House-when they sit down in the cafeteria. But Nina Boyers, a Michigan paraprofessional with more than 25 years of experience, has a few tips to keep the caf under control.

Teachers should walk their students all the way into the lunchroom, rather than drop them off at the door, and students should be required to sit with their classmates-not kids from other homerooms or grades. The best deterrent is to have an administrator present, if possible.

THERE MUST BE AN EPIDEMIC OF HEARING LOSS IN THIS COUNTRY BECAUSE TEACHERS OF ALL AGES COMPLAIN THAT STUDENTS ACT AS IF THEY'VE NEVER HEARD THE WORD "HOMEWORK." HOW DO YOU GET THEM TO PICK UP THEIR PENCILS?

11 NIP EXCUSES IN THE BUD. A one-liner usually does the trick, says Nebraska teacher Randy Gordon. "Bummer," he tells a pleading third grader. "But I had hockey practice," comes the retort. "Bummer," Gordon repeats, shaking his head with empathy.

"Everybody knows the best way to stop arguing is not to pay attention to the argument," says Gordon, a teacher at Cavett Elementary in Lincoln and a trainer of Discipline with Love and Logic, a behavior management program.