The Easiest Place To Be In A Classroom

Frequent readers of this blog will know that a major part of my new role is to coach teachers and work with them to improve practice. I am not arrogant enough to think I know everything about teaching¹, but I do believe watching others teach is a sure fire way to improve what you do.

The easiest place to be in any classroom is the rear of the room, watching what’s going on. Only then do we really get a true idea of exactly how much a teacher does in every single second² of a lesson. A study estimated that teachers make around fifteen hundred³ decisions per working day – more than a brain surgeon. It’s arguably more important than brain surgery too as it has long lasting implications for around one hundred and fifty people per day. Brain surgery is obviously vital work, but how many people do they treat per day?

Some reading this will scoff and say there’s no way you make that many decisions per day, it would be exhausting⁴. Let’s have a look at a lesson in a bit more detail, and the thought process your typical teacher will go through.

The students are lining up, ready to enter your room. Two lads are having a very animated conversation about something, and it is escalating to the point of imminent blows. You step closer to them, crack a joke⁵, or just ask what they’re talking about. They stop and mumble something⁶. Was there a swear word in there? Was it aimed at you? Do you escalate this already, given it is minute one and they’re not in the class yet?

You move back to the doorway, and start letting the students in. Groups of five, come in without talking, collect equipment and start doing the retrieval task you put on the board in the nano-second between the last class leaving and this one arriving. You scan the room, making sure they’re not talking, but also have to keep an eye on those outside so they don’t start getting rowdy. Obviously this would be easier if you had an extra pair of eyes or could turn your head Regan-style through 360 degrees. Next group of five in and so on. This can be done really quickly, or you could let the whole class in at once and hope for the best⁷.

So, class are in, but Delia really wants to tell you about Sandra’s birthday and can we all sing to her at the end? You just want her to work, but she’s doing something nice for her friend⁸, so you don’t want to be too harsh. You have to take the register, so usher her to her seat, probably harshly. Next comes the lending of equipment crucial to the lesson, like a pen, a calculator or a brain. Some students can’t do the retrieval practice because they have ‘never done this before in my life’ even though they have the notes in their book from *last lesson*⁹. Do you stop, explain it again? When you do, you realise you’ve used the exact same phrasing as yesterday, but now the students says ‘okay, I understand now’ even though they clearly don’t. Even telling them to look back takes time away from the register, but you have to have that done in the first five minutes. Ignore them? Deal with it? What should you do?

Register taken, so you circulate the room, looking at the answers the students have written in their book so far. At least one hasn’t opened his book, taken his pencil case out or even come to school with a pen. Now you have to log a lack of equipment, and any defiance if they answer you back when you point out how utterly incompetent it is to turn up without a pen, especially as you asked who needed a pen only two minutes ago. One kid is rude about his pen, ‘cos it just exploded in English’¹⁰, so you have to log that too. The five minute retrieval time is nearly over, but several students have not written a thing. Three have finished and are exchanging notes on anything from who is fit, to who is going to win the Six Nations this year¹¹, to the latest TikTok craze and have you seen sir’s TikTok?

Now Brian is kicking the back of Sophie’s chair, probably because he fancies her and if she did ever agree to go out with him that would be the peak achievement of his life, but of course Sophie is irritated so she puts her hand up and is promptly called a grass. Which do you deal with first? Brian or Sophie? Or do you tactically ignore¹² it, because you and Brian are actually beginning to forge a positive relationship and you don’t want to ruin it?

You ask for quiet so you can go through the answers. You follow the procedure the school has set out as policy and you know they can do, because you saw it in a different lesson. They are silent, which is usually the time that someone either calls out or puts their hand up. This student asks the same question every lesson: “Shall we mark in green pen sir?”, “What’s the title?”, “Do you want this on whiteboards sir?”. Do you tell him off? His defence will be he’s only asking, so where does that leave you? do you answer him, even though the class are finally quiet and ready for the next stage of instruction? Out of the corner of your eye, you see two of your nicer students chatting. Do you pick them up on that? They’re not doing any harm, as they’re waiting for you to read the answers out (to the questions they finished in the first minute).

Now someone asks if they can go to the toilet. There was an email this morning about a student who had been diagnosed with a bladder infection so had to be allowed to go to the loo whenever they ask. Is that this kid? Can’t remember, and now loads are not paying attention because you’ve taken too long to get to the answers.

Experienced teachers will deal with all of this and make it look easy, but the truth is it’s anything but. For the record, most of that is what’s referred to as ‘low level disruption’ and being firm handles the majority of it. Have a quiet word with Brian. Make sure you have a bunch of pens in your hand when walking around the room, so you can give them out discretely. The incessant question asker just gets answered, however irritating it is. Have a quiet word with the two chatty girls later. Say ‘absolutely not, you’ve just had break’. If it is the kid with the infection, they’ll tell you.

This is why the back of the class is the easiest place to be. You see more than the teacher possibly can. You begin to understand the demands of minute by minute more. You absolutely should be asking yourself what you would do in that circumstance. This is how you grow as a teacher, as after all, you can only teach the students once they are meeting the basic requirements for being a student. In case you think I’m exaggerating this, I saw all of this last week.

We are five minutes into the lesson at this point. Just fifty-five to go¹³…

Until next time.

FOOTNOTES

1. Truthfully, it’s not even close and be wary about anyone who claims they are excellent in the classroom. ↩︎
2. Every second counts remember… ↩︎
3. Referenced here: American Society Today: Teaching Isn’t As Simple As It Appears ↩︎
4. Well, duh! ↩︎
5. My favourite is to wave my wrist in their face whilst making scary noises. Then I say it’s a terror-wrist. ↩︎
6. No teenage boy wants to admit out loud they were arguing about D&D characters or whether one type of tractor is better than another. Or at least, not in front of the girls. ↩︎
7. Depending on your school, this could be a terrible idea. ↩︎
8. Or avoiding work. ↩︎
9. FFS. ↩︎
10. I have never, ever had a pen explode. Not once. However, I reckon it’s probably one a day that a lad will come with ink all over his hands. What the hell do they do to them? ↩︎
11. Definitely not Wales, unless the wooden spoon counts as winning. Damn. ↩︎
12. Yep, this is a legitimate tactic. Pick your battles. ↩︎
13. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck……. ↩︎