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Show , Spring 2005 page 9 Graduate Writers Manage with a Behavioral Contract: Advice from Graduate Students who Teach BY SHANNON HALEY AND LYUB1MA SIMEONOVA PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN HOLT When I received my first teaching assignment, I was excited, yet intimidated. I was eager to share my knowledge and enthusiasm about my academic field, but I also was concerned about the time commitment and reluctant about public speaking on a regular basis. Soon, these worries were replaced with the difficulties of classroom management encountered during my first semester teaching. I expected to know exactly how to manage my students; after all, I had been a student for the greater part of my life. However, as a student, I was accustomed to a classroom atmosphere where civility reigned and very few disruptions occurred. I did not realize or reflect on the techniques that my professors employed in creating such a harmonious classroom atmosphere. Veteran teachers have generally observed or participated in a wide range of conflict situations with students and can thus negotiate them efficiently. They can create an illusion that contentions in their classrooms simply do not occur. However, having student management problems is as common as the Yankees beating the Red Sox (it usually happens, and when it does not, everybody is surprised). Novice instructors do not expect difficulties with students and don't have established methods for counteracting or managing them. Lacking experience, first-time teachers are likely to misinterpret the type of leadership teaching requires, and they tend to gravitate towards one of the two extremes: the stern, inflexible disciplinarian or the loose, easy-going friend figure. Both of these can set difficult precedents for the classroom atmosphere and result in inappropriate responses to problems. During my first semester teaching, I wanted to be liked by my students. I subscribed to the belief that if I could establish a friendship with all of them, then they certainly would not misbehave. I can vouch for the failure of this method. I do not want to imply that one should not be friendly and treat students with care and respect. However, students become confused when teachers try to be friends and disciplinarians, and such confusion is detrimental to the order in the classroom and to the management of the students. I soon discovered the problems that occur when the instructor tries to be a friend. Midterms week was a time of increased absences and late or mediocre work. This behavior was accompanied by an excruciating parade of excuses. I heard it all: computer failures, road accidents, family emergencies, strange diseases, childbirths, all of them suspiciously coinciding with the midterm date. By no means do I want to belittle the real crises that some students experience. I would rather let myself be deceived than fail to help a student that is experiencing difficulties. But more often than not these stories and explanations are exaggerated or misleading. If the students see the teacher as a friend, they are more likely to approach him or her with excuses and personal disclosures. The students assume that sharing something so personal to a friend entitles them to special treatment. They tend to think, how could one not grant an extension to someone in such an excep- |