Take a proactive approach to bad behavior. Taking steps to prevent common behavioral issues in the classroom helps avoid losing valuable time dealing with behavioral issues.
One effective method for accomplishing this is to start the school session with a list of rules. Review the rules at the start of each school week if needed. Continually explaining rules and consequences as each student disrupts the class is ineffective because valuable time is spent dealing with individuals as opposed to the organized approach of addressing the group. With a set list of rules and consequences, students know what to expect. (refer to policy manual)
One effective method for accomplishing this is to start the school session with a list of rules. Review the rules at the start of each school week if needed. Continually explaining rules and consequences as each student disrupts the class is ineffective because valuable time is spent dealing with individuals as opposed to the organized approach of addressing the group. With a set list of rules and consequences, students know what to expect. (refer to policy manual)
Establish Clear Rules
A lot of instructors think that some rules are implicit, like being respectful to classmates and
teachers, only speaking English in class, or coming prepared every day. But that’s an
assumption that can come back to bite you.
Sometimes younger students need things spelled out for them more clearly than you realize,
and even older students need reminders, as well as clear boundaries. Laying out your rules
clearly gives them those reminders and those boundaries of what is appropriate and what isn’t
appropriate.
It also very clearly establishes that you as an instructor know what you will tolerate and what
you won’t – communicating that to them is just as important as the specific rules that you have.
Even if you started the year out perfectly, with your rules clearly written and explained to all
students, you might be due for a refresher. Especially if you have been lax in enforcing the
rules, your students might have forgotten some of them, or “forgotten” some of them, or
started to think of some of them more as suggestions than rules.
The best way to remedy that is to take 5 or 10 minutes at the beginning of class to go through
the rules, the same way as you did on the first day, to remind them of the consequences, and to
make it clear that breaking those rules will not be tolerated.
Clear and Consistent Consequences
You don’t necessarily have to outline those consequences to the students directly. It can help
to briefly explain to them what will happen if they break the rules, but it’s not really necessary.
What does matter is that you and your co-instructors, and your administrators, have discussed
what the consequences are, for minor disruptions and for major problems that escalate to
where a student needs to be taken out of class. Your classroom management will run so much
smoother if you are all on the same page.
If students learn that you, your co-instructor and the administrators, will all have completely
different reactions and will enforce completely different consequences for breaking the rules,
they’re going to keep pushing everyone to see where the different holes are in the discipline
system, to see where everyone’s different buttons are, and to see what they can get away with,
with different instructors. If the discipline system is consistent, they’ll eventually realize that
they are beating their head against the same wall and that they aren’t going to get anything out
of their current behavior.
Even if you are in a situation where your co-instructors and administrators don’t fully support
you (and trust me, that’s a frustrating but all-too-common place to be), it will still go a long way
to make sure that your own reactions and consequences are consistent, even if your co-instructor might one day ignore a student throwing a pencil and the next day completely stop
class to yell at him for 5 minutes.
Enforce consequences consistently, without anger or frustration,
without arguing, without wavering.
It’s got to be the same, whether it is a student’s first time breaking the rules or whether they
give you trouble every day. It’s also got to be without getting emotionally involved – if you lose
your cool and get angry, not only will you find it difficult to consistently follow through with the
consequences you’ve outlined, students will realize they can push your buttons and they will
keep figuring out ways to do it.
It is also so easy to get provoked into an argument about, say, whether or not turning a chair
backward to sit in it is technically breaking the “stay in your seats” rule.
If you sense that a student is genuinely confused about why they are in trouble, make sure they
understand. But most students know when they are breaking a rule and are just trying to see
how far they can push you, so don’t play that game with them.
Don’t play the pity game, either. When that quiet girl who usually is so well-behaved gets
caught up with a couple classmates in an inappropriate game – and then gives you those
innocent watery doe-eyes, it’s hard not to feel your heart melting and to want to go easy on
them.
If you do, you are depriving their of a valuable lesson in consequences and taking responsibility
for their actions, and you are being unfair to students who are being punished more harshly for
the same misbehavior.
There’s nothing wrong with being a little bit sympathetic to first-time offenders but, letting
them off easy is a slippery slope that opens up a lot of room for students to take advantage of
your sympathy and for you to start labeling some kids as “good” kids and some kids as
“troublemakers” and treating them accordingly