It is rumored that teachers do not live long after retirement. Or they don’t stay in teaching long enough to get to that concern.
It is further rumored that the reason for this is not because the lesson plans wear you out, or the pay is not enough, or the quality of the coffee in the cafeteria (although I think more research may be required for the latter reason). .
No. Teachers don’t like discipline problems.
Day after day, month after month, year after year.
And reading the tips out there, you’d think that disciplining is supposed to be part of everyday work, something you have to do over and over again, like cooking eggs in a restaurant.
So most of the advice is things like ‘Stand close to the student’, or ‘point out the desired behavior to the student’ or ‘be positive’. The last one is my favourite: ‘Johnny, you’re a good student and you threw the apple at Jane’s head very well! Now let’s get back to the lesson.
The problem with these solutions (there are some better than the above, but not much better) is that, like pulling weeds from above, they don’t prevent the problem from growing back. So if you have a troublesome student, are you supposed to stand near him 180 times during the year? And if there’s another troublesome student on the other side of the room, do you astral project to that side as well?
What if you don’t believe in astral projection?
To enjoy a long stress-free teaching career, you must find solutions to these problems that prevent them from recurring day after day. So a technique here and there isn’t enough: you need to develop a consequence system that is strong enough that Johnny doesn’t want to repeat his mistake.
You don’t have to worry about Jane, because on Day 88, when you forgot your physical proximity trick, the apple hit her and Johnny was praised for his dexterity and kinesthetic prowess.
Find ways to leverage your consequences hard enough that students don’t mind facing them again, your classroom environment becomes fun and sensible, and you can enjoy your students and your retirement.
