3.4.2 Creating Teacher Power

The second cousin to this principle is that student privilege creates teacher power. The more privileges you put into the classroom, the more power you have. You may think that giving students privileges is doing them a favor, but giving kids privileges is helping you. This is the case because it enables you to have more ways to control your students. Every time you create a reward, you have something to take away. That is control. Other than throwing a kid out of the classroom, what can you really do? The only other thing is to take points off if they do something bad.What you're saying in that case is that if a kid talks then he learned less Algebra than if he didn't talk. In order for you to give yourself power, you have to give your kids lots of rewards. Another part of this is private discussion. If you are trying to negotiate control with your kids, it is often better to do that in private. You are going to get much further with your students if you talk with them in private.

I would think my lecture today is successful if by the end of the day you know a couple of ways to control a classthat you didn't know about before we started. If in every lecture you attended during teacher training you learned one or two new ways of controlling a class, you would have a huge arsenal by the end. This morning I am going to suggest to you a few different methods. You choose the one or two that you didn't know about.

Most teachers never think about the idea that creating rewards is the most effective means of control. It is a matter of survival for you to create rewards. The bottom line is that if the kids think what you are doing is cool, then you are all set. If the kids don't think what you are doing is cool, it will not work. You must decide how these principles work for you in terms of the kind of classroom you want.

Another technique for establishing control is individual contacts. For example, you might say 'Susie, I know you have trouble not talking, but I don't want to keep stopping the class. Why don't you and I just understand that if I walk by you and tap my fingers on your desk that means you need to stop talking.' This can be very effective because not only can the student deal with the behavior, but what you're saying to the kid is 'Look, I know you are having a hard time living up to what we are doing here and I want to help you.' This way the kid knows that you are really interested in helping them. Not all kids respond to this all the time, but kids do respond to the fact that the teacher is trying to help them to do better.

	What essentially creates teacher power in the classroom? Explain this.	Answer Here
	Mr. Bryant teaches a fifth grade class in a somewhat sub-standard school. He allows the children in the classroom to bring in one game or toy on Friday in order to reward them for good behavior through the rest of the week. By doing this, who does Mr. Bryant ultimately give the power in the classroom to?	Answer Here