Collateral Damage

We all know them. We love them individually, but in a group, they are a true terror. When they are together they can create a storm, almost hurricane-like, of noise and outlandish, boorish behavior. Who is this? The 9th grade boy, of course. This year's 9th grade class has, like every class, a group of these boys. It's just my luck that I teach every single one of them, but compound that, I have them all in the same section. There are eight of these boys along with seven girls in one of my sections of Geometry.

The second week into class, there was a day in which the boys were all clustered on one side of the room, being themselves and I was having difficulty getting them to pay attention, let alone learn anything. At some moment, I announced that as of the next day, I would have a class seating chart. I was in charge, not them. And the next day, as they walked into class, I had post-it notes on each seat showing the students where to sit. The goal was to divide and conquer the boys. I succeeded, whether it was the separation of the boys by the seating chart or simply the fact that the students got a clear picture that I was in charge, classroom chatter and noise has been reduced.

A couple days later, the Upper School held its Parents night, in which parents go to all of their childrens classes to meet the teachers. When the parents of this infamous section entered the room, they looked around at the other parents. There was an immediate sense of doom and one of the parents said that I was in for a long year. In response, I told parents of the boys about the seating chart and how classroom decorum had been greatly improved from the first week of school.

I then looked at the parents of the girls in the class and told them that, unfortunately, their daughters were collateral damage in the strategy to divide and conquer the boys. The girls had merely become buffers between the boys. I am glad that there was laughter from the parents.