25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them

80 Classroom Policies and Practices
tutoring if needed and will try not
to make the child feel deficient in
the process. Wise teachers give new
students warm welcomes, mostly
SCENARIO 12.2
Banished to the Underworld
because they want to, but also
because they know that today’s disaffected,
alienated new student can be
tomorrow’s discipline problem.
I remember being spanked on my hands with a ruler for talking in class in fourth grade.
This same teacher didn’t like me so she put me in a lower level of reading. Guess what?
That only lasted one day because my mother came to the school the following day and
things changed. I went back to the higher reading group. To this day, I still don’t care
for Mrs. C. I’m trying to forgive her but incidents like this stay with you all your life.
Some of the laments that have
echoed through educational
corridors for decades are: “The
teacher didn’t like me so she put me
in a low group,” “she gave me a bad
grade,” or “she kept me in for recess.”
These unfortunate perceptions usually
emerge from a lack of communication
between teachers and students.
In some instances, these charges are
true. I believe the scenario teacher
deliberately put this child into a lower
reading group as a punitive measure,
particularly because she had to move
the child from the higher reading
group. She had spanked the child
earlier for talking and it seems she
exploited the negatives and stigma
associated with low-level grouping
and used them as a discipline tactic.
Effective, caring teachers would
not use low achievement status,
SCENARIO 12.3
It’s Now or Never
grades, or the like as a means of discipline.
This strategy is unfair and
ineffective. It only serves to alienate
the student. If there is a need to place
a child in a lower reading group, the
teacher should feel assured that the
benefits of such a move would outweigh
the risk of harm.
The desirable strategy would be
to communicate to the student the
rationale for moving that student to a
lower group. An even better approach
would be to get the child’s consent
and agreement that spending some
time in a lower group might be helpful.
If the child has some input and
ownership in the move, the change
may be more palatable and effective.
If the child is against the move, she
has a right to remain in the group and
to try to do better. Moving the child to
a lower group should be a last resort.
The incident I remember most involved my tenth-grade math teacher. I had been sick
for a few days and the day I returned, she made me take a test. I asked her if I could
take it a couple of days later, as I had been too sick to study while out. We also didn’t