What is your high school classroom like?

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I go to an all boys school and I find that the class can get very disruptive. Students feel inclined to speak out loud or to one other. Generally speaking, the teachers have little control over their students. I am seriously considering transferring, perhaps to a public school but am not entirely sure if I want to be with the CP students in a public school. I am comfortable with the social situation at my current school and find that the students are very forgiving of my difficulties but am concerned that students at a public school may be less forgiving of my social difficulties. I'm wondering if this classroom environment is similar to your high school or unique to mine.

Does your school have any kind of AP or Talented/Gifted classes you might qualify for?

At my school classes were like that with kids yelling and screaming and acting ignorant (it was called "general population"), but I took the Talented and Gifted and AP classes which attracted the more behaved kids.

I think at a public school your very likely to see equal amounts of ignorant behavior. I'm actually suprised you have such problems at a private school.

I remember one day a kid skipping down the hall screaming "I got a 0.33" as happy as he could be.

Sounds like the teachers at your school are incompetent when it comes to maintaining order in class. Don't switch to public school. It's even worse there, and at least you get along with some of the other students where you are now. That is less likely in a public school environment.

I suggest you send an anonymous letter to the principal telling him how ineffective the teachers are at maintaining order in class, and suggesting that they receive some training or guidelines to help them do a better job of it. You could also suggest that the principal hire one or two marine vets to be in school security officers, so they could help the teachers maintain order.

The reason to keep the note anonymous is because the other kids are likely to see you as uncool for doing this, and may give you a hard time over it, especially if steps are taken to restore order in the classes.

Good luck!

No, it's a vicious cycle. I was in honors but this disruptive behavior was not conducive to my learning and I stuggled. When teachers look at my standardized testing scores they cannot understand why I do so poorly. My parents believe I am lasy which is far from the truth. Unfortunately, there is also very large cheating problem at this school. I don't mind it so much when people copy homework off each other but this school puts cheating to a new level. Students take pictures of the test and give them to later classes; during the test there is open discussion; many students smuggle cheat sheets in. In one class for exams last year, our teacher gave 6 essays of which 3 would appear on the final. Students stole blue answer books identical to the ones on the test (from the teachers desk) and wrote responses to these essay questions, they then smuggled in in under their shirt and replaced the blue book that came with the test with the one with the answers in it. That's how bad it is. I'm pretty sure teachers must pretend not to notice, I see about 30% of the class cheating on any given test and I am actually busy taking the test. I once saw a teacher pick up a students answer key off the floor, read it and then put it back where they found it. This school is considered among the best in the are (and schools are very good where I live). I really don't know what to do. It's ridiculous. They can't crack down on everyone because then there would be no one left to go to the school. I am asked on a nearly daily basis to help students cheat but I have only given in once and I strongly regret it. It is a catholic school for the record which makes it even more ironic that the school is plagued with these issues.

I found the 'general' classes at my high school to be similar to yours, with the talking and not listening to the teacher. In grades 11 and 12 they separated the English, math and science classes into 3 difficulty levels, one being like what thewhitrbbit described. The difference was huge, and it made school much more enjoyable. You should definitely check to see if your school has anything like that (or if any of the schools around you do). Outside of a gifted class, you'll probably find the same class environment wherever you go. If the kids in your current school like you you're probably better of staying there.

My classroom is however I decide I want it to be, to the very limits of what I can get away with in my school. I enjoy pushing those limits. It's fun.

The difference between my situation, and that of the others on this thread, is simple: in my classroom, I am the teacher.

We keep a high-octane academic focus, as much as possible. The students learn quickly that I'm there to teach science and math, not be a control-freak, nor ruin their lives. I don't ask personal, nosy questions, not do I answer them. Everyone deserves privacy. Things that do not matter -- do not matter. Things that do, do.

Students who stand out as unusual, for whatever reason, generally love my classroom, for they find it hard to find places where they are accepted for who they are.

I am also ferociously challenging, academically, for I see easy classes as useless (they were to me, when I was in school). I hate textbooks, and avoid using them. I write my own material. I decorate the classroom with paintings I've painted myself, or with student work, and I despise such things as "motivational posters." They're insipid.

I strictly enforce the rules that matter, and it isn't hard to figure out which ones those are. Fighting? Bullying? Bigotry? Interfering with the efforts of others to learn what I am trying my best to teach? I have no tolerance for any of that. As for, say, a violation of the dress code, well, I don't ignore it ON PURPOSE, but inspecting my students' appearance just isn't on my agenda, so it's very unlikely I would notice trivialities like that, unless someone brings them to my attention.

Some teachers, I understand, actually keep track of how many times per grading quarter students go to the bathroom. How do they find the time, and why do they care? Also, isn't that just downright creepy, and risky as well? I don't want to have a smelly mess to clean up in my classroom, nor do I want my students to be uncomfortable. I'm not a sadist.

Students love the freedom they have regarding things that don't matter, which, for reasons I do not understand, they don't get elsewhere. Why should I care, for example, if they use red ink? Teachers don't own a wavelength of light. If they write in red, I can simply grade in blue. Not an issue. Are the assignments on lined or unlined paper? Is it loose-leaf, or torn from a spiral notebook? WHO CARES? I have actually told classes, just to make the point, that they can do their homework on a brown paper bag, written with a purple crayon. No one has turned in an assignment like that -- yet.

I'm not about to enforce standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. It would violate the First Amendment for me to do so, after all. Duh!

I think they also find it entertaining when I yell at the intercom for interrupting my class. If the cause of the interruption involves sports, I've been known to call the office back, immediately, to complain. At one former school, the intercom-interruptions were so intolerable that I actually opened the damn thing up, and installed a volume-control knob, so, when the stupidity got to be too much for me to handle, I could turn it down. That always amused them.

When (not if) I make errors, I expect my students to point it out as quickly as possible, so that the mistake can be fixed, and we can move on. Arguments from authority are not considered mathematically nor scientifically valid, and I make certain to include that concept as part of my lessons, frequently.

I didn't go into teaching to exercise some sort of power trip, but to, you know, teach things. I try my best to become a better teacher every year.

It's also fun to play music, when they're working on labs, etc. -- any time it is not a problem to do so. I probably play music by The Flaming Lips, Muse, and John Lennon more than anything else.

I wear a rainbow bracelet to show my support of gay rights. Of course, this means that a lot of students assume I am gay. Since it is none of their business, and since I co-sponsor a GSA at my school, I have decided to refuse to "come out" -- as straight. I mean, seriously, why does it matter?

I'm also in the Southern USA -- the "Bible Belt." I get asked if I am an atheist, which is widely rumored, and, unlike the rumors about my sexual orientation, this one is true. However, again, why does it matter? I typically tell them that I'll answer that question as soon as the answer becomes important for their learning science or math.

In other words, the answer to "What is my classroom like?" is this: different from any other classroom they've ever seen. On purpose. I like it that way.

What would be the point of having yet another normal, typical classroom, or being anything like what my students are used to?

As you've probably guessed, I really enjoy what I do for a living. Next year will be my 18th year as a teacher. I think it helps keep me looking and feeling young. I wonder how many other Aspies are teachers? Or, to put it another way, I wonder how many other teachers are Aspies?

I think it would be a very good thing if more of us went into teaching. I hope some of you who see this will consider it. Our schools NEED more good teachers -- ones who are different that what is typical. Aspies, by definition, are not typical, and that's a good thing.

My classrooms are of average size, all with around 25-30 people.

When I was in Year 7, a lot of my classes I had with my whole form, but subjects like English and Maths it was people from two different houses.

In Year 8 I am mixed with people from all houses, but only with people that do a certain MFL language.

Year 9 is pretty much the same as Year 8.