Rule of the Road: Never do anything a student can do for you.

I'm reading a new book, Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Students by Their Brains, by LouAnne Johnson. In case you don't recognize that name, she is the woman that wrote the autobiographical book that the movie, Dangerous Minds, was based upon.

In this book, there are a lot of helpful ideas and bits of information. The first one that struck me was "never do anything a student can do for you." What?! I didn't like this idea at all. I understood the purpose of the idea; really, it's to make things easier for you as a teacher. But I can't let students do everything and run a smooth classroom, can I? And certainly, it would be chaos if I let students get up and do things for me while I'm teaching... right? Besides, don't I want to be in control?

Well, yes. I do want to be in control. In control of my classroom. The real ticker of this: This idea is presented as a disciplinary tool.

Okay, fine. I'll try it. You'll see, this doesn't work in a music classroom.

Unless...

it does.

I had helpers assigned in my second grade guitar class to hand out guitars and rests. Every week, I would choose four students that were exceptional the week before to help with this. But I would stand at the guitar cupboards and hand them to the student, then watch frantically as the students handed them out. Basically, it wasn't any less work for me except perhaps the walking back and forth. Psychologically, it was no less work whatsoever and in fact wore me out with worry.

Letting the kids do all of it never would have crossed my mind. It was hard enough letting them have the responsibility I did. But... Ms. Johnson said it, and I'm willing to try what it takes to promote self-responsibility and to help with the discipline problems I have in my classroom.

Today, I let the kids (1) grab violins from the 1st grade class and help me put them away, (2) unlock and open the cabinets, (3) arrange their own chairs into the guitar staggered places, (4) get the guitars out of the cabinets and hand them out to students, along with the foot rests.

Meanwhile, I tuned guitars and helped students get into proper position, and explained a new sticker reward chart I made for them.

It
was
glorious.

The students got out the guitars without dropping or banging them. The other students were quiet and attentive, and the class didn't start with a bunch of chatting and fooling around. The students were happy, quiet, and ready to learn. I was able to get through the review in less than 10 minutes and start on my lesson plan. (Last week, I took 30 minutes to review once the guitars were out, which left 10 minutes to learn something new and put the guitars away.) The students learned how to play the E string with their first two fingers, got individual help on technique and questions, and were happier and more attentive. I got to retune most of the guitars BEFORE the students played much on them.

The students then put away the guitars without me helping them place the guitars in the cabinets. They have to be just so, so that they all line up and fit, but don't bump one another. It even took me a while to figure it out the first time. I didn't hear a single guitar "bump" the sides of the cabinet or another guitar. I was able to speak to individual students (something I LOVE), and get the room in order. I didn't even look at the guitar cabinets until we were all ready to go; they were closed and locked, all the guitars put away.

I realized, I don't give my kids enough credit. With a little bit of added responsibility, they buck up and do what they're told, even if it's something they're fully capable of, even if it has nothing to do with the lesson itself; the fact that I trusted them (or pretended to) allowed them the room to have success. And I was calmer to boot -- much less stressful.

Today was a great teaching day. And all from trying one simple "rule" from this book. I was hoping for something to happen, but planning for disaster. The results exceeded my hopes. I am now going to add into my lesson plans "helpers" for each class as well as always ask students to help whenever possible.

It's amazing how you can turn one hundred eighty degrees on an idea just by giving it a fair chance. Next up: Instead of writing names on the board or threatening a consequence for bad behavior, ask a misbehaving student into the hallway to discuss how you will not tolerate the behavior, and tell them they have the choice of returning to class and ending the behavior, or if they continue, they will have to leave and go to the office. Leave the door open upon returning to class and allow the student to decide. This is another tip from the book. I have tried it once so far. It worked on that student. We'll see how it goes with a full day tomorrow....