Fires in the Bathroom chapter 3

This chapter talks about how to manage your classroom. It says that it all starts in the beginning. When you walk in on the first day, the students will want to know if the teacher is there as a supervisor, or someone who is genuinely interested in who the students are. Once this is established, it is important for students to know what is going to be happening in the class each day. Putting the agenda up on the board is a great way so the students know what they are going to be doing and what the teacher expects them to do. Students will also need to know what the teacher expects from them with behavior. Teachers who do not have any rules or punishments will lose their classroom because they won’t be able to enforce anything. Have rules/restrictions and consequences printed out or posted on a wall is a simple way to go through the requirements. If students disagree or want to add rules they should be able to bring them up, but if they want to get rid of a rule that you feel is important you must hold your ground. Some schools have rules that the teacher may not really agree with, such as eating/drinking in class and wearing hats. You may check with a principal to make sure it is okay to not follow these certain rules in your classroom.
To keep classroom behavior going well, the teacher must remember that the students are the top priority. Teaching them interesting and important material along with a way to hook them into the assignment or lesson will keep your students from becoming off task, which may lead to distracting the rest of the class.
One issue that I found in this chapter is where it talks about sleeping/putting your head down in class. The students say it’s okay to put your head down and doze off because at least you are in school. I do not agree with this because if they aren’t going to learn and pay attention, then why even be in school. Also, the excuse that girls go through a lot of stuff throughout a month is bogus. Great, they have to go through stuff that guys don’t but I’ve never heard of anyone dying from it if they don’t lay their heads down and not pay attention. It is one thing if there is family issues going on and I would cut them slack if they came to talk to me or I spoke with them after class, but other than that I want my students heads up and paying attention.
When students act out a lot, most of the time there is and underlying cause for this. Teachers should talk to the student about it rather than throwing them out of class or sending them to the Principals office. If you are going to discipline your students, it should be something that they don’t want to do but is actually relevant to what they are being punished for. One student says; you don’t want to lose the student’s interest or motivation in the punishment. Punishments should be relevant and make the students understand what they did was wrong so that they don’t do it again.
Some of the helpful tips that I liked or agreed with were to not ignore disruptive behavior, don’t let it go if a student doesn’t do their homework, remember to give students physical breaks from sitting and working, don’t just call on people just to make them pay attention, and finally, don’t let them work with their friends all the times.