During my 39 years in the classroom, my classroom management methods were pretty simple. Only a handful of explicit rules. We're here so I can help each of you become better at reading, writing, listening and speaking; anything that gets in the way of that is not okay. This classroom is meant to be a place where nobody needs to fear disrespect or mistreatment. Treat all students with respect all the time. That pretty well covered it.
One contributing factor I think to administrative lack of response is that school data on serious behavioral issues is reported and some administrators will do anything to make the school look good. I learned the hard way as a teacher in 2022 that unless I did the writing up, even if the student was sent to the office repeatedly because they were making it impossible for others to learn, the student would never be written up at all. Even if I did write them up, the parents would not be notified. When I did write them up, administrators would edit the reports to make them seem less bad and would reduce the reportability level. And it was a definite no-go to report racism because “that doesn’t happen here” - kids knew the official line enough to avoid calling someone the n word to their face when I could hear it, but there were a couple White boys who did everything they could to provoke a fight with the Black girls in my class where the girls would have hit first and then been the ones in trouble.
It's a very sad situation. As a former teacher who worked in a variety of districts, I can attest to the truth of it all. Unfortunately, admins who truly support teachers are all too rare. The major, I'm sorry to say, are simply careerists.
One contributing factor I think to administrative lack of response is that school data on serious behavioral issues is reported and some administrators will do anything to make the school look good. I learned the hard way as a teacher in 2022 that unless I did the writing up, even if the student was sent to the office repeatedly because they were making it impossible for others to learn, the student would never be written up at all. Even if I did write them up, the parents would not be notified. When I did write them up, administrators would edit the reports to make them seem less bad and would reduce the reportability level. And it was a definite no-go to report racism because “that doesn’t happen here” - kids knew the official line enough to avoid calling someone the n word to their face when I could hear it, but there were a couple White boys who did everything they could to provoke a fight with the Black girls in my class where the girls would have hit first and then been the ones in trouble.
It's a very sad situation. As a former teacher who worked in a variety of districts, I can attest to the truth of it all. Unfortunately, admins who truly support teachers are all too rare. The major, I'm sorry to say, are simply careerists.