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Welcome to New Teacher Talk. This podcast channel is designed to support those new to

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teaching. We talk about the most common challenges educators face and

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how to find answers, whether working at urban, suburban,

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or rural schools. Thank you for joining us.

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Today, our special guest contributor is Priya Duphare,

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a sixth grade English language arts and social studies

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teacher at Glenn Westlake Middle School.

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Hi, my name is Priya, and I've been teaching for seven years in a sixth grade

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classroom at a middle school. The biggest piece of advice I would give to new teachers is

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advice about classroom management. That was one thing I struggled with when I first started

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teaching, and it's something that it's hard to prepare for in

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college, and it's based on your experience in the classroom and how

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you react to situations and how you take those experiences

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and learn from them. One philosophy that I learned about in college from a book

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called Teaching with Love and Logic really shaped how I

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approached classroom management. So in that book,

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the focus is on showing respect to your students and

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empathy and kindness, and that's where the love part comes in.

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And then also using logic and giving them reasons for why

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you have expectations or rules so that they can learn from

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it and that they feel like it's coming from a fair place

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and that you're not just disciplining them or expecting

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them to do things simply because you're an authority

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figure, but because they feel like it's reasonable and fair and

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that you care about them and their well-being.

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Another philosophy that a college professor of mine talked

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about was to have unconditional positive regard for your

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students, and this is something that I've also taken and used in my

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teaching practice to help with classroom management.

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So that idea that your interactions with students,

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you're always seeing them in a positive light,

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and that if they are doing something that needs to receive

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a discipline or consequence with it,

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that it's coming from a place of love and giving them

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logical reasons, but also knowing that that one interaction is not going to

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shape future interactions and that it's a learning

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opportunity for them but that doesn't change how you view

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them in a positive way and that you're a trustworthy adult

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that's there to help them. My first year of teaching,

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I struggled a little bit with classroom management and had

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a lot of different learning experiences, but one that really stands out to me is when I had a

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student in my class and he was acting up. He was kind of

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shouting out and not raising his hand,

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not really listening, kind of causing distractions to the lesson.

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In that moment, I chose to ignore it during class,

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not make a scene, not draw attention to it,

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and then after address it with him.

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And so I pulled him at the end of class and just asked

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him, "Are you okay? Is everything all right?

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Is there something, you know, going on?" And he told me that he wasn't feeling well,

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that he felt sick and nauseous.

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And I said,"Oh, I'm sorry that you're feeling that way.

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Remember, you can always tell me because I don't want you to sit

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through class and not be feeling well. So I appreciate you telling me now." He responded well to

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that. And so I said, "Okay,

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I'll write you a pass to go to the nurse." And so I started

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to write that pass and then he just immediately walked to

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the garbage can and threw up in the garbage can.

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After that, I never really had behavior problems with him like that

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again. So I think in that moment,

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that stood out to me showing how unconditional positive

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regard, how important it is. Because in that moment,

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if I had reacted and been more critical of how he behaved

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and not empathetic, then he might not have responded as well.

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And then my future interactions with him in my class might

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have been negative because that trust was broken.

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But in that particular moment,

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because I chose to approach more with empathy and kind of

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figure out logically what it was that was the root of the

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problem, he felt safe and trusted me enough to share the truth and

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then felt comfortable enough to say,

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I'm able now to let my feelings be expressed.

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I think these philosophies work not only for classroom

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management, but also for modeling how to interact with others when

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there is conflict, which is such an important life skill.

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So when your students see you acting in ways that show

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empathy and respect and communicating your perspective,

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then you're modeling a productive way to handle conflict

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that is really key to helping prepare your students to

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become more caring and more understanding citizens in our

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global world. We appreciate your listening to today's podcast and hope

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you will become a regular follower of this channel.

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Also, be sure to follow New Teacher Talk on Instagram @NewTeacher

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Talk and X @NewTeacherTalk1.