Watch Maintaining Classroom Discipline

Aimed at teachers, this short from textbook company McGraw-Hill has a surprisingly modern take on how to achieve classroom discipline. Mr. Grimes is fed up with his ninth-grade math class, perhaps understandably: they do poorly on tests, toss paper wads and make rude noises, then erupt into full-on chaos when he briefly leaves the room. But is this group of seemingly dumb, defeatist kids his problem or his fault? By re-viewing his irritated reactions and "provocative reactions" to student misbehavior, our narrator suggests Mr. G. is "covering up [his] own insufficiency" with disciplinarian excess. Better that he play Mr. Nice Guy, encouraging rather than scolding. By the end, these little wiseacres think he's "a good egg" rather than an old creep, and their grades are improving, too. - Dennis Harvey