Archive for the 'Maintaining Discipline' Category
I promised I would update on how things went this past week with one of my young people after needing to discipline him firmly the week before. That occurred toward the latter part of class and, at the time, he responded by being very quiet. I was curious as to how he would behave the following week.
I’d have to say I saw progress tempered by the fact that this young person is who he is and won’t change overnight just because I intervened.
For the most part, he was his usual gregarious self which I was glad to see. I’d hate to have seen him moping. Whenever he ventured close to his previous behavior, however, he saw my eye catching his eye, and he would immediately stop. I never verbally had to get his attention but needed to do so with my eye on a few occasions. I can live with that because as long as I don’t have to interrupt the session, I’m happy. We look for growth, not perfection.
My guess is that the further away we get from the session when I disciplined him verbally, the more likely it is that he will push the envelope with his behavior. We’ll just have to wait and see!
Last night was a night of ups and downs. We began by reviewing how to pray the Rosary and then we moved into our reflective prayer and prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, connecting this to our last class when we learned about the Cross of Jesus. A couple of the young people were pretty hyper and couldn’t sit still. I even had to pause at one point to ask one of them to apologize to the group for interrupting the prayer with various noises and comments.
It was frustrating for a while but eventually toward the last third of the prayer, they had achieved a calm. This allowed me to use a few minutes after the Rosary to invite them to talk to Jesus in the silence of their own hearts which they did very nicely for about 5 mintues.
We then moved into a review of the material that we have covered over the past 6 weeks. This did not go as well as planned since they were not able to keep their focus. I think my mistake was not giving the review to them as a quiz first and then going over the answers.
Finally, in the midst of that review, one of the young people who had been acting up throughout the evening (and for several weeks) finally pushed me too far and I had to firmly confront his behavior and challenge him to act more maturely. I never enjoy doing this but at the same time, I reminded the entire group that it’s my job to make sure that they begin to grasp an adult faith and that I will never hesitate to challenge behavior that is not conducive to doing so.
I also realize that the well-behaved kids appreciate it when poor behavior is clamped down on. They are annoyed by the bad behavior and feel that their time is wasted if such behavior is allowed. We do the entire group a favor by keeping discipline. It’s just not our favorite thing to have to do, right?
All in all, last night was not one of my best experiences but I think the tone is set for next week and I feel compelled to step up my efforts to facilitate an engaging session!
Remember how Rodney Dangerfield would always use the line, “tough crowd, I tell ya, tough crowd”?
Well that’s how I felt after last night’s class! The kids were pretty wired for some reason. I think it had to do with the fact that they had the day off from the school district and spent the day at the mall drinking slurpies (sugar) and Pepsi (caffiene)!
Having a fire drill 15 minutes into class didn’t help either!
Anyway, in general, 3 or 4 of the kids were pretty hyper and couldn’t sit still or stop making noises or side-talking. I had to stop a number of times to get back their attention and eventually told a couple of them that if it keeps up, I will have to call their parents.
“You have our parents’ phone numbers?!” one of them asked, apparently in shock.
“You bet I do and I’m not afraid to use ‘em,” I replied. That seemed to get them to calm down!
We did spend a good chunk of time learning about how the Nicene Creed teaches us what we need to know about Jesus and then we looked at examples of heresies in the early Church that led to the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople where the Nicene Creed was eventually hammered out. We focused specifically on the understanding of Jesus as FULLY human and FULLY divine and why we need to avoid descriptions like “part human/part divine” or “half human/half divine.” We also talked a little about modern day “heresies” such as the Da Vinci Code which can lead people to false understandings about Jesus.
What worked best, however, was moving into our reflective prayer for the last 20 minutes or so. By spreading them out througout the room and assigning space to the few who were acting up, I was able to lead them into a prayerful mood. They were very quiet for the 15 minutes or so that we reflected, first listening to a recorded dramatic rendition of the “Who do you say that I am?” passage (on CD in the Finding God program) and then listening to me as I led them to imagine Jesus sitting down with them and asking them, “who do you say that I am?” I asked them to enter into a simple conversation with Jesus, sharing anything they wanted to talk about, listening to Jesus, and thanking him for this time together.
They are learning to really appreciate this prayerful time and they ask each week if we’re going to “do that prayer thing.”
Hopefully, next week they will be back to normal, tired out from a long day at school and less hyper!
Hey, that’s life as a catechist!
I received an e-mail from a catechist named Betty who mentions a discipline problem she faces in her sessions. Here’s her e-mail followed by my response:
I am a volunteer religious education teacher in a small parish. I teach the 9th and 10th grades as one class of 13 students. They are a great group of teens. I find it quite challenging but very rewarding. Challenging may be somewhat of an understatement at times. As we are trying to have discussions or as I am asking questions, they all talk at once. I have tried several different ways to get their attention…and keep it…unsuccessfully. Four years ago, I also taught a 9th grade class of 10 students that did the same thing.
Now, I have just read your article “Ten Tips for Maintaining Discipline” and it offers some great tips, especially when you have one or two students that act out. But, can you offer any suggestions to deal with the situation described above? Thank you in advance for taking the time for my question.
God Bless,
Betty
* * *
Betty,
Thanks so much for your wonderful e-mail. You are indeed quite blessed with your own God-given talents and dedication! I understand the challenge you are talking about…I deal with it all the time. The kids tend to be very impulsive and undisciplined and just shout things out. Here’s what I suggest:
- Preface your questions with, “someone raise your hand and tell me…” or “who can raise their hand and tell me….” This acts as a constant reminder that responses should be preceeded by a raised hand!
- As they begin to talk at the same time, calmly say, “Can I see a hand?” or “I don’t see any hands raised!”
- Before beginning a discussion, invite the class to spend 1 minute in silent prayer, asking God to help them focus and to be respectful of others.
- Preface some of your questions with a student’s name, in essence, calling on someone before they raise a hand. For example, “Betty, what would you say is…?”
- If that student has difficulty answering, you can follow up with “who can raise their hand and help Betty out?”
- It’s helpful to ask the students at the beginning of the year, “For our discussions to be successful, what rules would you suggest?” Typically, they will suggest that they should raise their hands and be respectful. Then, you can post these few rules and remind them that they are THEIR rules. When they break them you can remind them that they are not following their own rules.
I hope these few suggestions are helpful, Betty. The problem almost never goes away but it can become more manageable with diligent efforts. Let me know how things go as time moves on.
Thanks again and best wishes for a great year!
Here’s an e-mail from a “rookie” catechist who is getting through his first year with the ups and downs that come with it. Luckily, it sounds like he has good support from his DRE, fellow catechists, and from the catechetical community that gathers here on my blog. Let’s hear it for our rookie catechists!!! Thanks for bringing “new blood” to our ministry! We’re here for you!
After reading your entry about from February 22nd about “When Being a Catechist Isn’t Easy”, I felt like you were at the Ash Wednesday service ,last night that my 7th grade RE class and I attended. Two of my best students (in terms of classroom participation) were acting up and even though I was giving them “The Look of Death” from across the pew, they would stop for a few minutes and then pick up right where they left off. I came to terms with it, talked about it with the class for a few minutes after Mass and left it that I hoped to see much better behavior at our Reconciliation Service next week.
I am a first year Catechist with a mere 18 classes under my belt. I am a numbers person by trade with absolutely no formal teaching experience and I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your site. I visit it almost daily as part of my morning reflection. You and some of the site resources you listed have given me ideas on how I can help both me and my students to not only learn about our faith but to live our faith.
My DRE is supportive and both my resource Catechist and the other Catechist at my grade level are very helpful. It’s nice to have another source that I can go to anonymously on the web to get some really good ideas. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU and keep up the great work.
P.S. A follow-up e-mail tells me that behavior was better this past week. Praise God!
Sometimes being a catechist is not easy. OK, it’s NEVER easy being a catechist! When I get overwhelmed by the challenges we face, I like to remind myself that Jesus faced some pretty difficult “classroom situations” himself:
- Matthew 13:57 (Jesus is rejected in his home town)
- Luke 4;28 (Jesus is thrown out of the synagogue and dragged to a cliff)
- Mark 11:27 (the crowds challenge Jesus’ authority)
- Luke 9:51 (a Samaritan town refuses to receive Jesus)
- Luke 19:6 (the crowds grumble when Jesus announces he will dine with Zacchaeus)
- John 6:66 (many of Jesus’ followers find his teaching too difficult and leave him)
- John 8:59 (crowds pick up stones to throw at Jesus)
- John 9:41 (the crowds challenge Jesus’ healing of a man born blind
- John 10:31 (more stones!)
Of course, St. Paul faced some rather challenging “students” of his own:
- Acts 14:19 (they stoned him and dragged him out of the city)
- Acts 17:32 (they mocked him)
Suffice to say, we are in good company when we face challenges preaching the Good News. Let’s take heart in Paul’s words: As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry. (2Tim 4:5)
Years ago as a student teacher, I completed my first class and was quite proud. My cooperating teacher agreed that it went well but he said that I “talk too much.” His advice was, “You had the spotlight on yourself when it should be on the students. They are the ones who are here to perform, not you.”
I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves as catechists by putting ourselves in the spotlight all of the time. We make ourselves the “sage on the stage.” We need to continually shift the spotlight on to our students, requiring that they take responsibility for their learning. Here’s one idea that helps. It’s called the Paired Interview.
If you have a rather large chunk of text to cover in your textbook, divide the class into 2 groups and have group 1 read (independently) a part of the text and group 2 read (independently) the other part of the text. Put a time limit on the reading of the text (always give less time then is really needed to create a sense of urgency).
Then, pair up students, one from each group, and have them take turns interviewing one another about what they read. Have the interviews ask questions such as:
- Explain what the main idea of your text was in a few sentences
- What is one quote (sentence) from your text that you would put on a poster to inspire a group?
- What are some specific things your text helped you to learn or realize about the Catholic faith?
- Based on your text, name some specific things we, as Catholics, need to know, do, or believe in order to live as followers of Jesus
These questions can be written on the board or you can create an interview sheet. You can also adjust the questions to fit your grade level. Again, set a time limit for each interview: 3-5 minutes for each interview (6 to 10 minutes total). Each student should record the answers to the interview questions that their partner provides. As all this is going on, walk about, keeping students on task and announcing how much time they have.
When they are finished interviewing, call on some students to report on what their partner learned from the text they read. Take notes on the board about important concepts they touch on. Then, fill in the cracks, so to speak, about anything they missed and elaborate on key concepts.
The result is that the material is covered but the spotlight is on the students who do most of the work allowing you to facilitate. In the academic world, this is referred to as cooperative learning and by the intermediate grades, kids are accustomed to such activities in their school classes. Of all classes to have students cooperating in their learning, it would seem most appropriate for RE!
I mentioned in an earlier post that some behavior issues, especially among the boys, had been an ongoing nuisance. Finally, during the class preparing them for reconciliation, I calmly read the riot act to them. I said, “We are talking about God! We are talking about Jesus! To laugh and make light of things during this class is to make light of our relationship with God.” I went on to explain that, like a coach, I’m here to help them learn some knowledge and skills to excel, not in a sport, but in the Catholic way of life, which I firmly believe is “the Way.” That thought proved to be a sobering and positive thought for them. Later, as we discussed examples of mortal and venial sin, I proposed that misbehaving in religious education class could be considered a venial sin (“a failure to observe necessary moderation,” CCC glossary). This was an eye-opener for them and seemed to open the way for much-improved behavior as the class progressed. A sprinkle of guilt, used sparingly and wisely, can serve as an excellent tool for growth.
P.S. As long as we’re on the subject of “children behaving badly,” I have a free gift for you: Ten Tips for Maintaining Discipline. Just click on the link in the column to the right titled “Free Catechist Tips.”
One of my students just won’t quit. He talks out of turn, makes noises, laughs, and draws attention to himself every chance he gets. I’ll soon be taking him aside for a heart-to-heart, but I will be sure to focus on his behavior and not on him. In cases like this, I strive to say things like “You know, you’re really a great kid and very likable . . . that’s why it’s so disappointing that your behavior has been so poor. It’s really beneath you to act that way. You have so much more potential than you are showing, and I’m challenging you now to live up to that potential.” I believe that to discipline someone is to call them to something greater, not to bring them down. Tell me about a situation involving discipline that you have faced or are facing.
