Welcome back to school! Now sit down and be QUIET!

I have just begun my 8th year of teaching.  That's a pretty decent hunk of time.  I still vividly remember my student teaching semester.  I was with a teacher who had been teaching for 30 years and she was going to retire after that semester.  I learned some bad habits from her.  Her primary form of discipline was yelling, and it was very ineffectual.  Her class was horribly misbehaved.  It was teacher purgatory to student teach there.

When I left her classroom, I was well aware of the fact that I had picked up the bad habit of yelling to regain control, and it didn't help that I was prone to yell anyway.  I didn't know how else to get control or vent frustration.  My one chance to learn under a veteran teacher had been spoiled, and now I was about to be launched onto the world with few tools in my belt for classroom management, and most of those tools were bad.

During my first two years of teaching, I yelled probably a total of 6 times.  I kept setting the goal not to raise my voice, until my third year, I think, when I didn't yell at all.  Since then, I haven't had to shout to gain control.

Thus it turns out that since being at my new school, none of the students have ever heard me raise my voice in anger.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday was the first day of the 2019-2020 school year.  It was a hectic day at our high school as we implemented a new orientation idea for the secondary students.  After the initial orientation classes, the first 6 period classes filed in rapid succession through the rooms.

My 6^th hour is primarily comprised of seniors, and only two of them are girls.  It is a college level English composition class.  I am excited to begin teaching it, so I awaited the arrival of my students with great anticipation.  I had a smile on my face when the first tall senior boy burst through the door.

“What’s up, Miss Hall?” he shouted, lifting both hands in the victory sign (I guess?).*

My smile faded, replaced rapidly with the stern, ‘I am not pleased,’ expression that every veteran teacher has down pat.  “That is not how you come into this classroom,” I said, “and you know it.”

It stemmed the initial flood of spirits just long enough for them to find their seats, and then they were boisterously chatting again.  The bell hadn’t quite rung, so I let them have their talks – today was a crazy day, what could I expect?

When the bell rang, I began my introduction.  I told them their textbooks were under their desks and they could get them and check that their names were in it.  They continued to make noise, and I continued speaking, sure they’d calm down once I got to the next subject.

Then someone slammed his book on his desk.

I whipped around.  My flow of words cut off.  I cannot say I consciously thought, “If I don’t nip this in the bud now, they’ll run circles around me all year,” but I know these boys.  I know how they rule a class if allowed.  This is my third year with them after all.

“That is enough,” I barked, and for the first time since they met me, I raised my voice.  “I don’t know who that was, and I don’t care.  You are not going to be loud and rowdy.  You know better than to behave like that.”

I made it a point to meet every students’ eye before relaxing my stance and my expression.  Every single one of those boys is bigger than me, and every single one of them looked frightened.  The toughest looked ashamed.  Even the girls looked guilty, though I know they weren't.

I turned away and picked up where I had left off.  I tend to pace in front of a class when speaking on my feet, and after two turns, I stopped, my head down, and then I laughed.

“Man.  Now I have to go home and tell Heather I yelled on my first day back at school.”

“To be honest,” one of them said, “I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.”

“You mean, you’ve behaved like this all day?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

“Pretty much.”

I’m glad I yelled at them.

*I have since learned that the raised 'V' with the two first fingers is not the Victory sign anymore, as used by Winston Churchill, but the 'Peace' sign.  As these boys are anything but what I'd think of as citizens who will promote peace (at least in our school) I find it a bit ironic that that they like to flash the Peace symbol.