Classroom Management in Madrid

So, I have noticed a huge difference between the classroom management in Madrid versus the United States.  I'm not sure if it's because I move to different classrooms and different groups of students for each period of the day, but I have yet to see any sort of regimen for the students to follow.  I haven't seen any rules being enforced or systems of legitimate classroom management.  It has simply been more chaotic and disorganized.  As I mentioned in my previous post I am with high school students as well as elementary students, and this allows me to see the progression of learning styles throughout the school.

Throughout the whole school there is a sense of disconnect and lack of respect between student and teacher.  To start, all the students call the teachers by there first names and speak to them in the informal tense of "you" in Spanish.  Yes, I know this is just a cultural difference, but I do believe it feeds the idea that students have little respect or boundaries when it comes to their relationship with their teachers.  With that, the teachers seem to have no real control of the behavior of their students.  I will begin by focusing on the high school students.  The teaching style is very relaxed and sort of an open structure where students feel like they're having more of a conversation with the teacher rather than lecture style.  I do think this is a beneficial teaching style to engage students, but I don't care for the way the teacher allows students to talk over one another and participate in a disorganized fashion.  There has been absolutely no real classroom management in place other than the teacher raising his/her voice to quiet the class down or try to refocus attention.  This is extremely unsuccessful.  I do my best to walk around and keep students on task and to eliminate the side conversations, but it seems that the students don't care because their is no real consequence for their actions as well as no reward for positive behavior.

Similarly in the elementary classroom, these students are craving structure.  In an elementary classroom a solid routine and behavioral assessment system is so important.  From what I have observed, these students want to please their teacher, but are lacking the skills or resources to behave appropriately.  Students do know to raise their hands, but have no problems calling out or speaking over their classmates or getting out of their seats without permission.  I do agree that classrooms need a bit of freedom for students to become independent but without structure or a routine or a positive behavior intervention system, it is nearly impossible for students to learn proper etiquette in a serious academic environment.  This school is great and the students are fantastic as well, I don't mean to be so critical, but I can just imagine how much better things could be if there was a behavior management system put in place.  I've seen the positive effects before and I can only imagine how great it would be at Colegio La Salle.