Accountability Without Power Struggles

It's no secret we're dealing with more disruptive behaviors in the classroom than ever before. It can be tough to navigate as a teacher, and it can often feel like we're fighting a losing battle. Today I have a simple strategy to share that I've found myself using more and more frequently in the last couple of years that I've found to be very effective.

Dealing with escalated students who are being disruptive and disrespectful can be very difficult, especially when you teach elementary music, because

-class time is so short that one incident can derail the entire lesson, and there isn't enough time to properly address issues to prevent them from happening again,

-behaviors that would not be as problematic for the class as a whole in other subjects, like refusing to participate, are much more problematic in music where students rely on each other for success, and

-with hundreds of students to teach it's difficult to build enough trust with each student or learn how to most effectively respond to each individual student when they are having a hard time.

One thing I learned fairly early in my teaching career is to avoid public power struggles as much as possible. The problem with that is if you don't hold students accountable in the moment when they do or say something disruptive or disrespectful, other students may not get the message that the behavior is unacceptable, and more importantly, if one student is being disrespectful towards another student, the student who was treated badly won't feel protected or vindicated, and the problem festers rather than the relationship being mended (side note: there are far too many times when we are asking students to "just ignore" things that they find offensive or hurtful because it's easier not to have to get the other student to make amends- telling students "it's not a big deal" is not a solution either). 

Having a private conversation when the student is calm is definitely the most effective way to truly address a problem and work on finding solutions to prevent it from happening again. The key, though, is to make it very clear in the moment to everyone that you are going to do that (and then actually do it). Making a mental note to myself to talk to them later isn't enough if the other students who saw it happen, or most importantly if other students were hurt, don't know that it is being addressed and not just ignored to avoid a bigger blowup. 

There are a few ways I do this, depending on the situation:

-Say to the specific student out loud, "we will talk later", have them go sit away from the group, and write a note on my seating chart

-Say to the class, "I'm going to start keeping a tally of how many times people are calling out" and add a tally next to their name on my seating chart

-Say "I'm going to write this down so we can talk later" and write down the exact words a student said

Obviously writing things down is important for me to be able to remember what happened and who I said I wanted to talk to, especially if I'm in the middle of back-to-back classes and I know I won't be following up until later, but I've found it's really helpful for making students more aware of what they are doing and realizing that they are indeed being held accountable (it's not just an empty threat), and also for the other students to realize when I say I will deal with it later, I really will. 

It's also important to note that I'm writing these down to myself privately, not up on the board publicly- the writing itself is not an embarrassment tactic or a punishment in and of itself, it's genuinely a strategy for accountability. And once I do this a few times in class, I don't even have to say the words- students know exactly what I'm doing and what it's for when I go write something down. So it quickly becomes a silent way of holding students accountable, removing even more of the power struggle element in the moment.

Sometimes these strategies alone aren't enough to get the lesson back on track or handle the problem- in that case I may end up needing to have the student go to the office, or with a support staff, instead of staying in the room. Even in that situation, these strategies help communicate to the students that I am the one handling the situation rather than passing it off, because I will be circling back with them, and that having them leave the classroom is not the "punishment" in itself but a way of deescalating. 

I'm sure this is something many of us already know and do, but with behaviors escalating, more people getting sick, and patience running thin, I thought this was an important reminder for everyone. Is this something you do a lot in your teaching? How do you stay on top of everything with so many students and so little time? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.