Case Study 5
“It’s cool. She doesn’t yell or glare or anything. She just looks.” McKinley, an eighth grader, was describing her math teacher, Ms. Clark, who is known for keeping her students on task and doing so without sending kids to the office or to detention. Whether working with small groups or talking to the entire class, Ms. Clark always notices when kids are beginning to talk or behave inappropriately. No matter what she is doing, she stops, and in an almost frozen position, she makes eye contact with the student or students. Her Mona Lisa-like expression shows no negative emotion, only rapt attention. If the offending students do not notice at first their peers alert them. When they stop their disruptive behavior, which is almost always in seconds, she continues where she left off. The polite attention and silence both set a positive tone and get the desired results.
“The beauty of Mr. Killian’s style of discipline is that it is done in a way that maximizes instructional time. As you watch him, notice the continuous flow of instruction.” This is how the mentor focused the observation planned for Ms. Jacobson, a first-year teacher. Sure enough, as she sat in the back of the room, Ms Jacobson observed Mr. Killian constantly moving throughout the room, always interacting with students about the content. When he moved toward students who were beginning to disrupt, it often appeared that he had been heading in that direction anyway. His actions were so subtle that they did not seem threatening, yet any disruptive behavior ended quickly. Ms. Jacobson wondered if she would ever be able to perform such an effective dance in her classroom. At least now she had a clear model in mind, and she knew that it was possible.