Eyes in the Back of the Head

Hello everyone,

I was talking to a veteran teacher the other day about how teaching changes one's personality, and she said that teachers learn to have "eyes in the back of the head."

Our discussion led to the idea of creating that perception in the students as a management technique, and it led to the practical application of both skills and attitudes that teachers use.

Coming from "civilian life," teachers are often reluctant to do some of the things that classroom management requires. "Civilians" (especially in the United States) are accustomed, in public places, to let all parties have their say, and to let them speak freely. If someone chooses to misbehave in public, civilians are trained by long habit to ignore the misbehavior if possible.

Teachers, on the other hand, are involved in everything. We develop the habit of listening in on conversations and paying attention to everything around us. We are especially sensitive to potentially violent situations, or situations that can lead to unwanted explosions of misbehavior. We squelch profanity on the far side of the classroom because we know that, if we don't do it now, we will have to deal with it or worse later. We establish norms of conduct and constantly monitor or reduce variations from those norms (a far easier management technique than trying to deal with really bad things in a chaotic sea of general mayhem).

Of course, there are inherent problems in such teacher behaviors. To wit: We may become busybodies, nosy metiches (the Spanish word for someone who is always sticking their nose into things), who never know when to let well enough alone. Or, if we're not careful, we stop rewarding creativity, and we rejoice in boring sameness. (We think that, if students are quiet in our classroom, they are learning; a frequent error.) And we sometimes learn things we wish we didn't know, and we have to pretend not to judge our students based on the unwanted knowledge, or we have to fill out a police report.

With experience, you will learn to find a good balance. Right now at the beginning of your careers, however, you need to start making the transition from unaware civilian, to hyper-aware teacher. You need to develop "eyes in the back of your head," and learn to listen to everything that's going on in your classrooms. You need to tell the boy across the room to stop telling dirty jokes when he's supposed to be doing classwork, and you need to know when someone has gotten up without permission and moved to an unauthorized location. You have to learn the difference between the buzz of work-related activity and the talk of off-task.

Later, you can work on leaving people alone in restaurants again.

Jeff Combe