The first thing I did was to seek out more experienced teachers. I spoke with white teachers, black teachers, my principal, other cohort members from my masters program as well as professors. Three professors observed the class. I got a lot of sympathy but not many concrete suggestions. I was thrilled to have a black substitute for my paraprofessional one day and she too gave sympathy but was short on ideas. The outstanding fourth grade teacher in my school who was African American has 24 years of teaching experience and she has the same concerns and frustrations that I have with some of her children.

Later I read that my directions like "Where is your seat?" or "What should you be doing know?" are classic mistakes made by white teachers (Heath, 1983, p. 280-283; Delpit, 1995, p. 33-34). "It's time to put our paints away now," or "I think two books will be enough for you to read today," is considered an indirect directive that can be difficult for some children to interpret, as it is different than their home language. More children would understand if I said, "Put the paint in the closet now, " or "Choose two books." I learned that MY language was sometimes the problem.

I was also advised to have a discipline plan, make it clear, and stick to it. Prior to this year I had used more of a situation by situation approach with class meetings. In the past I was more successful in redirecting children or making them see why their choice was hurtful and what a better one would have been. This approach was not working and when I changed to a more formal plan, where punishment was involved ( a "bad" note home), most of the children I was having trouble with suddenly improved. I also used incentive charts and hourly monitoring for a few of the most challenging students, and these proved to be successful for four out of the five children who needed extensive assisstance.

I would be more comfortable having a class whose actions more commonly reflected the caring that exists between classmates and teacher. I prefer having a class where I "remind" students to act respectfully towards one another, or follow procedures. I continued to strive for this through partner activities, teambuilding games, and class meetings. But I still needed a discipline plan to maintain order. It was difficult, because if there is a discipline plan for one, then there is a discipline plan for all. I had to be consistent with everyone, even though the children themselves were very different.