Classroom Management Reflection

The article that I have read in relation to my own practice was Teacher Depletion: How Challenging Students Suck Us Dry, and What We Can Do About It. By Grace Dearborn. This article has helped change my perspective on my most challenging and disruptive students. One way this occurred was when Dearborn states the following, “Students who present with the most difficult personalities and behavioral choices in the classroom have learned that adults are not trustworthy. In their minds, all adults will eventually abandon or abuse… Still, deep down, they want there to exist an exception. An adult who will treat them with respect, hold them accountable firmly but gently, and never give up, no matter what awful things they do or say. So they test us by acting out in class. They are collecting evidence, watching, noting how we respond.” This point helped me realize that we as educators have to gain the students’ trust. It’s easier said than done and this requires a lot of patience.

Also, Dearborn states, “Paradoxically, it is often the teachers who generally care the most who have the hardest time maintaining positive assumptions about chronically troublesome students.” This rings true for me because I deeply care about my children because I love hard. However, I find myself emotionally drain at times wondering if I made the necessary impacts in their lives.       

And last but least Dearborn said the following, “This is when I first started to understand that just because a student doesn’t change on the outside (behavior) doesn’t mean he isn’t changing on the inside (belief). Some kids are battling a lifetime, even if they are just 5 years old, of not being able to trust adults. Some kids need to experience more than one year of consistent, loving accountability in order to internalize trust. We truly never know how we are affecting our toughest students internally. But we can assume the best about them—that they are working on it, even in the complete absence of any external proof.” She also shared that she had one student who failed her course and was extremely disruptive tell her that she was the best teacher he had. Dearborn further discuss that just because they are not changing on the outside doesn’t mean they are not changing on the inside. We have to continue to perservere with our students and consistently care no matter what.  That is why I can't give up.