The Bell is My Boss, Too

Dear colleague,

This is the first year I've had a “the bell is our boss” poster hanging by my classroom clock, and I should not be as surprised as I am by how many students have commented on it.

When I made that poster, the goal was to reinforce the idea that when the bell rings in our classroom, we get started on the warm-up. This isn't something I do as the teacher; it's something we do. It shouldn't look like the bell rings, students keep milling about and chatting, and then I eventually wrangle them into the work of learning through raising my voice or classroom managing. I tell them things like:

• “None of you wants to hear an adult haranguing you each day to start class; that's unpleasant for you and it's unpleasant for me. That's a terrible way to start our time together. Because of that, we'll let the bell be our boss — when it rings, we attend to the warm-up on the screen, getting right to work.”
• “Why? Because we are professionals who are becoming more professional. Our profession is the work of learning. Our profession is using our bodies and voices and minds and hearts to make an enjoyable and productive environment, for us and our classmates.”

At this point in the school year, I'm still doing lots of reinforcing here. I'm in the room watching what happens when the bell rings. If it rings and 15 or 10 or 5 students aren't shifting right into the warm-up, then I intervene, saying, “That was decent, but it wasn't good enough. Let's try that again.” And we try it again, with me mimicking the bell and them shifting into the warm-up.

It's brief, clear, strong, and gentle. This is who we are and this is what we'll do.

“But what if the bell rings at the end of class and the teacher isn't done teaching?”

This is what so many of my students have asked me in response to the “bell is our boss” poster: “If we need to start class right when the bell rings at the start, does that mean we get to leave right when the bell rings at the end?”

A LOT of students have brought this up. I didn't expect that, though perhaps I should have.

Here's what I tell them:

• “Yes — that is what that means. If I've not completed the lesson by the time the bell rings, that's my error and something I need to work on. You've got another class to get to in only five minutes, through hallways filled with a thousand or so people. Whenever we're not done with the lesson and the bell rings, you're permitted to pack up and leave.”

Now a lot of teachers will read that and think, “Dude! Don't tell them that. You're making those of us who say otherwise look bad!”

But my purpose here isn't primarily about how it makes me look to students. It's about Gentle Urgency (Strategy #3 in The Will to Learn). I want to be the most gently efficient and competent teacher that I can be, and so I need that closing bell to mean that my class is over.

Otherwise, I'll get loosey-goosey with class endings and class middles and class beginnings. When the bell cuts me short, I want to be cut short, and I want to learn from the experience of having not finished the lesson.

I want these things because I want to get better.

And sure, telling my students that the bell is OUR boss, not just theirs — that does help with my Credibility by signaling that I'm fair. But that's not the most important reason to use the bell this way.

The most important reason is that using the bell this way makes us better.

Teaching right beside you,

DSJR