Newsflash: It's not just about music

I am now one-and-a-half weeks into my teaching career at this school and I must admit, things are going better.  Some of the shock has worn off, both from my side and the students', and already I'm feeling a much stronger sense of ownership over my position, my lessons, and my goals.  On Thursday I began my second week's lesson and though I'm still getting a sense of what the students already know, it seems the lessons went fairly well.

One of the greatest challenges I'm finding about teaching in an elementary school is the amount of time and energy I spend at any given moment focusing on behavior.  In fact, at this point I'd say that most of my time with the students is spent establishing and reinforcing behavioral expectations.  This was something that also shocked me throughout my student teaching experience last semester.  I took for granted that students need to be taught how to behave, and not just as students but as citizens and human beings.  Children need be taught how to stand or sit in a particular spot, how to govern themselves and their actions, how to move safely from one area to the next, how to raise their hands and wait to be called on.  I realize that most of you reading this are probably older than me, have been teaching for a while, and/or have children of your own, so you're just nodding your head thinking "Yup, yup, definitely, yup."  But as a young teacher far-enough removed from childhood to not remember the details of learning those skills but not yet entirely familiar with how to teach them, the responsibility of it all is, well, a little daunting.

I hope that recognizing this responsibility is having a positive effect on my classroom management.  Long before I even got to student teaching one of my biggest concerns was about classroom management.  Could I be strict enough?  Could I earn my students' respect?  Would they be able to like, respect, and listen to me?  I was afraid of becoming the nice teacher that would rarely get all her students' attention, like some teachers I had throughout junior high and high school.  Yet in the back of my mind I was also aware of the opposite problem, the possibility of becoming the teacher that was too strict, too demanding, and thus reviled by her students for having the class that was all work and no fun, led by the draconian power-hungry authoritarian.  

Well, let's face it: I was never really afraid of becoming the latter, but I knew the former was quite possible.  I'm a softy.  What can I say?

Now that I have my own room, though, I'm discovering a strength I didn't know I had.  Once I get into the right mindset it's actually not quite so hard to scold a student for jumping around the room when he should have stayed in his spot, or for quickly telling a girl running through the lunchroom to stop, go back, and try it again walking!  Every day it's becoming more instinctual to be on the lookout for behaviors that need to be corrected and properly taught and to actually take the time to do it, because at the end of the day it's not about how well a student can clap a beat or sing a melody, but how well a student can function as a good person.

I've gotta admit, though: sometimes I wish I could do this all the time.

You see, most days out of the week after I leave school I head directly to my other part-time job in a service industry where I interact with all kinds of people.  All kinds.  Some are lovely, wonderful people.  But many, 

well,

aren't.

I had a slight breakdown last week that had very little to do with the stresses of teaching and very much to do with frustrating customers who have no sense of decency or protocol for interpersonal communication and interaction.  The lack of proper etiquette among some of the people I deal with (both customers and coworkers) is astonishing, and sometimes I wish I could respond to them in the same ways I respond to my students.  In the cafeteria if a student says "I want a milk," I say "How do we ask for that nicely?"  And I help them, encourage them, and wait until they come up with "Could I please get a milk?"  But if a customer barks an order at me at my other job I have no option but to smile and acquiesce.

What I want to know is this:  Where were their teachers?  Where were their lessons in manners and acceptable behavior?  Or if they had such lessons, what happened along the way to adulthood to destroy what they had previously learned?

In some ways, it is very good that I have to work in some very frustrating circumstances.  The juxtaposition between my two roles -- as a salaried professional teacher and as an hourly bottom-rung retail clerk -- is jarring, but every negative interaction with a cranky customer is more incentive for me to positively influence a generation of young children.