My Classroom Management » Positive Behavior Management

Verbal Wisecracks at the Teacher

jenniferw — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:10:36 +0000

I was asked how to handle the student discipline issue of verbal wisecracks directed at the teacher. While I do not want to sound like a broken record, the first and most important issue at stake here is what is motivating the behavior of the individual student. So let’s think it through a little and see if we can’t get to the bottom and help solve this problem.

First, is it one student or a group of students behaving this way? I would be willing to bet that if it is a whole group of students, either they are simply trying to push your buttons and are ganged up together, or one student started it and the others are simply following the same path (in which case, you need to figure out who started it because that’s where the discipline problem started).

Now, assuming you want to know how to eliminate the problem rather than just responding to the problem, here are some steps to take:

Reflect Before Reacting

Before addressing an ongoing behavior such as verbal wisecracks, sit down in that student’s seat after class is out and reflect. Survey the classroom from the student’s perspective, know who is sitting where, think about what it is you know about the student’s home life and any other factors that impact the student’s life: subject matter, difficulty level, any special needs, any problems with friends, girl problems, boy problems, puberty, parental issues, poverty level, etc.

Now think about – and write down – the details of the situation in question. What was going on? What happened in the classroom directly prior to the behavior? Many times you can follow the behavior backwards and see a root cause.

Possible Behavior Triggers

A behavior trigger is something that causes a behavior to occur. This might be emotional stress (parents splitting up, verbal/physical abuse at home, bullying), academic stress (not comprehending the subject, difficulty keeping up in class, special needs) or a more tangible cause (being told an answer was wrong in front of the class, being laughed at for academic efforts by other students).

Identifying the possible behavior triggers for a student who is directing wise cracks at a teacher is an important first step towards eliminating the issue. My guess without knowing more about the situation, is that a student who is talking back to a teacher is either under academic stress (probably having a hard time keeping up) or is under some kind of emotional stress.

Having a better idea of what is triggering the behavior will give you a place to start helping the student.

How To Respond?

Solving the underlying problem is the hard part. Responding to the wisecracks is often the easy part. Initially, simply ignore the comments. They are likely meant to get you riled up, so not responding is likely to help in the long run (although it may also cause them to get worse before better, see ignoring the behavior).

If the comments include swear words, here is an idea for how to deal with cursing in the classroom.

The bottom line: you are the adult, so use self-control and respond with maturity and restraint. Then, figure out what is causing the behavior and work to fix the underlying problems because all behavior has some sort of trigger. That does not make the behavior correct, but simply disciplining for a behavior will not eliminate the behavior if you are not also working to correct the trigger.

How to Manage Cursing in the Classroom

jenniferw — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:09:35 +0000

Cursing, swearing, bad language, however you phrase it, the words that fly out of a child’s mouth can be filthy and inappropriate in so many ways. Many would be stunned at the words children say – as young as preschool and kindergarten – but teachers often have gotten to where nothing surprises them anymore.

How to discourage cursing in the classroom can be a tricky issue because usually at the root of the foul language, are emotions that are raging out of control. These words are the way their parents and friends have taught them to handle these crazy feelings and they know no other way.

Because of this, calling home or sending a note home is likely to fall on deaf ears, or in the worst case scenario, you’ll hear worse language through the phone in response to your interruption of the parent’s life.

Instead, it is time for you to step up and take the place of the parent and teach the child how to manage their emotions. The positive thing about kids who swear in the classroom is that they are willing to let their emotions out – providing a platform for teaching, whereas students who keep everything bottled inside often fly under the radar and are many times not helped.

Action Point for Curbing Swear Words in the Classroom

It’s time to break out those dictionaries and begin expanding the vocabulary of the students in your class. Start by translating the phrases that the student uses. Often, over time, this can solve the problem all by itself. Here’s an illustration:

Mrs. Smith “please put your pencil down, it is time to clean up and go to specials”

Student:”x8(3#^&@!(“

Mrs. Smith (DO NOT REACT TO THE SWEAR WORDS!!!! STAY CALM!!): “Mrs. Smith! I wasn’t finished yet! I hate it when you don’t give me enough time to finish what I was working on! (PAUSE) I’m sorry Johnnie, I understand that it is frustrating, why don’t you bring your lunch back to the classroom and I’ll help you finish so that you can go out to recess with your friends.”

This is just one example, and probably a poor one, but the point is to translate what the student said into something more appropriate, then respond to the frustration. This might increase the language problem at first, but one teacher has told me that over time in her classroom, the language slowly gave way to more appropriate exclamations of frustration. This then gave her the opportunity to better understand her students and how to help them.

You can also give the student a dictionary when they use a choice word and instruct him or her to come up with an alternative. Make the assignment non-negotiable, but consider giving extra credit if the student can find a way to use the new word in context.

Any other ideas for curbing a cursing tongue in the classroom?

Maintain Classroom Management Without a Voice

jenniferw — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:55:51 +0000

Teachers often struggle to take days off when they are sick, and you might find yourself in front of you classroom without a voice if you haven’t already. Teaching without a voice can be a challenge, as can keeping the students in line when you can’t raise your voice over the growing din of noise.

Here are a few tips that might help your day go a bit smoother.

I have found that when students realize that you need help, there will be a handful of them who thrive on the opportunity to keep other students in line and provide any help you might need.

Maybe it’s the sudden opportunity to play boss of the others, but either way, enlisting students to be special helpers will often work. The one or two who try to take advantage of the situation and act up will often be put back in place quickly by the other students. At the very least, you’ll only have one or two students to deal with instead of the entire class this way.

The very nature of having no voice can help as well, ironically – the softer you talk, the more students have to pay attention to hear what you have to say. Pepper you day with jokes and secrets so that students want to hear everything you say.

Have you tried something else that has worked? Feel free to share your wisdom!

Why Students Misbehave

jenniferw — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:35:12 +0000

Students don’t misbehave simply because they like acting up (well, some do, but the number of pathological students should be relatively small in your classroom). Understanding why students are misbehaving will help you find the way to reach those students and bring about a change in your classroom.

1. Difficulty with academics.
Students will often act up if they are struggling academically. Whether the student is truly behind the rest of the class or simply feeling stressed by the work load, the result is often disruptive to the teacher and class.
Solution: provide more one-on-one time with this student or provide additional help through peer tutors, partner lessons, additional examples, etc.

2. I’m Bored!!
Many students who are ahead of the pack are bored and will act up. This can often be confused with students who are struggling because bored students will often refuse to do their work or act up while doing their work.

Solution: provide students with a packet of challenge work that they can do if they complete their work early – make it fun work, not busy work, and allow students to choose activities that inspire them.

3. I am not loved

Students who live in situations where they are unloved or not attended to will often act up because they have learned that acting out provides attention. How sad is it that students will act up for attention? When negative attention is an improvement, we know that this is just a student who needs to be loved.

Solution: Don’t give up on this student! Love him or her! Find ways to make each individual student feel like he or she is the most important student to you. Make this your goal.

4. I don’t understand the expectations ???

While it should not be common, unfortunately many times the reason students act out is because the expectations (rules/consequences/rewards) are not clear. Stating them, writing them down and correcting students for acting out is not enough to provide clear expectations.

Solution: Spent time throughout the ENTIRE school year modeling proper behavior and having students practice proper behavior solely for the purpose of learning proper behavior.

Need more ideas? Check out Common Behavior Problems and Solutions for specific ideas.

3 Ways to Beat the Summer Heat

jenniferw — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:20:43 +0000

Classroom management doesn’t end during the summer. Camp counselors and summer school teachers often find themselves in need of new classroom management ideas. Student behavior is often relevant to the summer heat in that hot children tire fast and tired children are often cranky and cranky children often act up.

Here are three ways to beat the summer heat while continuing with your schedule:

water, water everywhere – whether you use water guns, water balloons or a bucket, getting kids wet can cool things down in a hurry. Depending on the heat, they will dry quickly so the water is not likely to interfere with the next activity. For a targeted cool off spot, aim for the back of the neck.
Cool Treats – Anything frozen can be a great treat that doubles as a way to cool off. Experiment with different ideas and see what the kids like; anyone want to try a frozen marshmallow?
Plastic ice cubes – for indoor cooling off, buy some plastic ice cubes. These are filled with water but do not get you wet when they melt. I have some that look like fish. They are very cute, do a terrible job of cooling drinks down but can do a great job of sending a chill down your shirt!

Spring Break – Idea of the Week

jenniferw — Tue, 03 May 2011 15:07:26 +0000

This week’s idea – take a spring break

With the weather turning nicer, students are often distracted and less willing to cooperate as they would much prefer to be outside playing (as I am sure you would too!). Dealing with spring fever in the classroom is a common issue for teachers, and this week’s idea is focused on taking your students outside.

This is the time to take a lesson from the unschoolers - even a simple walk outside can be an educational experience, so taking a break from the classroom is not always a loss in educational time.

Find ways to have students incorporate their current math lessons into what they see outside; have them write short stories or poems about what they see, using the senses and focusing on descriptive phrases.

Not only will this idea allow students to get out of the classroom into the nice weather, giving them a break from the normal humdrum of the classroom, but it will give them an opportunity to experience authentic learning instead of traditional book and pencil lessons.

Did you take your students outside for a spring break learning experience? What did your students learn?

Fun Friday – Idea of the Week

jenniferw — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:15:26 +0000

This week’s idea – Fun Friday

Fun Friday is a way to motivate students to display good behavior throughout the week in order to receive a preferred activity on Friday as a reward. This is often more effective than taking away recess, which leaves teachers dealing with hyperactive students who were not allowed to run off extra energy because of being disciplined.

Fun Friday can be as simple and short as an extra half hour of free time spent doing one or more different choice activities. This could be game time, extra recess, computer time or other ideas that the students come up with.

If some students have not earned a chance to participate in Fun Friday, they could be required to sit at their desk and read or keep their heads down.

Like getting a new idea each week? Send in your ideas to keep them coming!

Think About It – Idea of the Week

jenniferw — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:15:53 +0000

This week’s Idea of the Week: Think About It

Set up a student desk in a separate part of the classroom, much like a hedgehog desk, with a clipboard and pencil for students to reflect upon three questions.

What did I do wrong?
What could I have done instead?
What will I do differently next time?

For question number two, you might require students to list two possibilities, that way they learn there are multiple ways of handling various situations, then in the answer to number three, they must pick one option for the next time the situation comes up.

In order to return to class, the student must turn in the paper with the answers to the reflection questions.

Like the idea a week? To keep getting ideas past the month of April, send in your idea to share!

Mystery Student – Idea of the Week

jenniferw — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 17:08:19 +0000

For the month of April, I am going experiment with an idea of the week. For those of you who subscribe to this blog, I am asking for one favor – if you like the idea of the week and want to continue receiving them through the end of the school year (and perhaps beyond) please send me an email with one idea.

So for your first idea – Mystery Student

During times of the day where behavior needs to be improved upon (walking in the halls, lunch, reading groups, etc.) watch the students for one who is following the rules and expectations and doing a great job. The students should know that you are watching for a mystery student. Then, after the class period is over or whatever time frame you chose to watch for the mystery student during, there should be a reward ceremony to publicly announce who the mystery student was.

A twist on the mystery student is to choose a mystery piece of trash at the end of the day and which ever student manages to pick up that particular piece of trash again receives public praise and perhaps a small reward (a new pencil?) for finding the mystery piece of trash.

Pre-K/Kindergarten Behavior Tool

jenniferw — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:40:52 +0000

While some children will respond to losing privileges and to warnings, many receive far too little praise for good behavior. Instead of drawing more attention to unwanted behavior in the early years of preschool and Kindergarten, consider a punch card behavior tool to focus on good behavior.

What is the Punch Card Behavior Tool?

Basically you take an index card, write the student’s name on it along with either the class rules or some expectation you wish to reward for good behavior and place it in a protective pocket pouch like this:

Then the child can “earn” hole punches in the bottom of the card. Choose either 5 or 10 punches for one card and then provide a larger reward for getting all the punches in one day.

Tips for Using the Hole Punch Behavior Tool
You may find this tool more useful for improving individual behaviors than for general class obedience.
To use for general class obedience, set a specific amount of time, like one activity/subject, and provide punches for those students who followed the rules during that time period.
Consider keeping track of earned punches for a larger class on a clipboard and punch all cards once during lunchtime and once while students are cleaning up at the end of the day to save time.
Yankee Trader or the Dollar Store are good resources for “prizes” earned when punch card is filled at the end of the day.