Managing Your High School Classroom with Compassion
High school teacher Grace Dearborn says students don鈥檛 all respond to consequences in the same way, so teachers need a full toolbox of options.
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There is no one-size-fits-all approach for classroom management; the methods for discipline need to be as diverse and unique as the students themselves. But according to Grace Dearborn鈥攁 high school teacher and the author of the books聽Picture This! and Conscious Classroom Management鈥攁 common thread should run through them all: compassion.聽
In , editor Ki Sung provides聽Dearborn's tips on compassion-based classroom behavior management. Infusing discipline with compassion means considering not only what consequence to impose, Dearborn says,聽but rethinking some of our assumptions about how, why, and when we discipline students.聽
To give students more autonomy, Dearborn presents a series of tiered choices framed 鈥渁s consequences, not punishments.鈥澛燛ven if the student鈥檚 choice doesn鈥檛 yield the outcome a teacher wanted, the process reinforces that the 鈥渢eacher cares enough to hold her accountable.鈥�
Dearborn, who engaged in frustrated exchanges with students as a young educator, advises teachers to be vigilant about 鈥渢one, posture, and volume,聽to avoid standoffs鈥濃�攁nd to consider disciplining privately when appropriate. Teachers should be mindful that high school students often act out because they 鈥渇eel shame when they are called out in front of the entire class.鈥�
When students are defiant or openly angry, she encourages educators to look for the 鈥渟ubtitles鈥� of the behavior. The focus is less about the action and more about the 鈥渨hy鈥� behind it. 鈥淲hen kids are acting in a confrontational, dismissive or volatile way,鈥� according to the article, 鈥淒earborn suggests looking for the deeper message the student is communicating, whether they know it or not. She imagines an invisible subtitle running in front of the student that communicates what she really needs.鈥� The approach has been revelatory, allowing Dearborn 鈥渢o stop perceiving misbehavior as disrespect.鈥� 聽
Another method she developed is called 鈥渄rive-by discipline.鈥� Instead of engaging in a battle over a small behavioral issue, she cautions, 鈥淪ay the kid鈥檚 name superfast and then move on. 鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 the right thing to do. It startles her, and then I move on before she can bait me into an argument.鈥�
Dearborn acknowledges there are no simple solutions to classroom management: 鈥渃hanging behavior comes down to hard work.鈥� Choosing compassion over knee-jerk punitive approaches builds relationships and, she contends, does a better job of improving engagement and behavior in the long term.聽