All Aboard the Struggle-Bus: Creating a Learning Environment that Supports All Students

Let me just put this out there right away: I suck at differentiation. Differentiation is the most straightforward way to make sure every student is involved in the classroom because it tailors the curriculum to the students’ needs and allows them to feel like they can achieve within the classroom. Differentiation is vital to learning environment, which I have learned the hard way when students get frustrated at work that is too difficult or too easy. As we all know at this point (mostly because I can’t stop complaining about it), I teach three classes. I could spend all my free time planning lessons, differentiating those lessons, grading papers, creating lesson materials, printing lesson materials, completing grad schoolwork, and the million other tasks teachers have to do. Or I could do what I’ve been doing, which is to teach somewhere between the struggling and average learners and improvise differentiation for when it is desperately needed.

In the absence of differentiation, I have certain expectations that govern how I manage the classroom. I expect that all students work while in class and are respectful to each other. I give students consequences that don’t respect the personal space of others, as well as try to intervene when interactions get borderline heated. (Although, what I consider heated is relative. Raised voices, even in jest, seem aggressive to me.) I think I have mostly landed on the side of waking my students up when they’re supposed to be completing classwork. I want them to know I expect them to stay on task during class. Also, insisting that they work simultaneously functions as a power move and an indirect way of showing that I care that they succeed in my classroom. (Although, like many things in my classroom, this practice is still pretty inconsistent.)

I think some of my struggles in the classroom lately stem from an inconsistent learning environment. I don’t think I have spent nearly enough time modeling skills and building student confidence in their work. I also worry that I am building artificial confidence. When it comes to grading, I often grade in a manner that gets the job done quickly, but not thoroughly. For instance, the last set of five-paragraph essays that I graded – mind you this was a more casual assignment – students were graded for whether or not they had an introduction paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph. If students had five paragraphs, they received an A. I didn’t grade for clarity of thought, grammar, sentence structure, spelling, etc. I am concerned, as such, that I am falsely telling my students their writing is great when it could actually use quite a bit of work. My grading lacks sincerity and specificity.

My students lack accountability, which is problematic for juniors and seniors that are about to graduate. Students inevitably come to me when their grades aren’t where they expected them to be. I am incredibly uncomfortable being the barer of bad news, that although they are completing assignments, the quality of their work is lacking. I’m not sure I ever truly address students who aren’t meeting classroom expectations academically. (I did call some parents failing students after the first round of progress reports this term. Otherwise, I am not convinced it is my job to beg students to do their work. Laziness is a choice.) If students aren’t meeting expectations behaviorally, I employ the consequence ladder as consistently and as best as I can. As part of a New Year’s Resolution (and as a request from my principle), I have also been contacting parents/guardians more frequently. Although parent contact still terrifies me (for reasons I cannot easily explain or support beyond that they make me incredibly anxious), most of the parents I have talked with are happy to hear from me, which is the only reason why the whole process isn’t completely unbearable. Having to answer to their parents does add some accountability for my students academically, behaviorally, or both.

TLDR: My learning environment is a work in progress. It will hopefully improve as I gain more experience in the classroom and become better at managing all my teacher tasks.