Even experienced teachers sometimes have difficult students. teachers spend countless hours in training seminars and workshops, learning how to better manage classroom behavior. The goal is preventing the behaviors in the first place. A few simple intermediate classroom tools can prevent or avert negative classroom behavior problems
1. Use a behavior charts, even with older kids.
Younger children love clothespins and visual aids to see how well they are behaving. With older children, working towards a positive goal works better. Teachers can chose class competitions as a way to catch students being good. I gave a point when students were obeying my classroom rules. While it is impossible to catch every good behavior, doing so randomly reinforces the good behaviors. Be sure and pick different students for good behavior so all will participate. Every class received some reward at the end of the quarter. If not, they would have become negative and quit trying to obey rules. For example, the top class would have a pizza party, the runner up would have a ice cream party and the last class would get a popcorn treat.
2. Ignoring negative behavior and complementing good.
This is an intermediate tool as it is human nature to correct negative behavior. Decide if the bad behavior can be ignored. For instance, if a student is tapping his pencil decide if this is important. instead, choose a student not making noise and complement him or her. The student making the noise will probably stop, once they realize what they are doing. Chances are, calling on the pencil tapping student will result in louder tapping.
3. Provide routine and allow practicing.
Make sure students know at all times what is expected of them. Practice routines often. An example of a routine that needs practicing is walking in a straight line for younger kids. I always tell them they are ducks staying in a straight line so they don’t get lost. Just make sure a duck sound doesn’t go along. My ducks are mute.
4. Explain routine and classroom changes in advance.
For example, one year our classroom was moved in the middle of the year for remodeling. A sudden change from one classroom to another would have resulted in chaos and confused students. We planned out the move in advance, creating a new seating chart. Students even created posters for the new classroom.
5. Allow conversation to a small amount.
A totally quiet classroom is not realistic. Set up occasions when no talking is allowed. Mine included during a lecture unless hands raised, when a guest is visiting, when another student is talking, during silent reading and during a test. Other times quiet talk was allowed. However, make a rule that the talking is to be kept to a minimum and should be related to school work. WE even made a list of when we were allowed to talk and when not. This list helped students to remember when talking was aloud and how loud they could be.
These tips should help experienced teachers in keeping classroom discipline in order. These tips prove too advanced for first year teachers, but teachers who have taught for years, often find these tools easy to implement in their classrooms.