School of Hard Knocks: Getting Behavioral Help for Teachers in the Classroom

by Elisabeth Wilkins, EP Editor

Brandi Franks Second Grade Teacher Texas

When one of Brandi Frank’s second grade students was expelled for punching another teacher in the stomach, Brandi was ready for his return to her classroom six weeks later. “I sat down in community circle in the morning and talked with the other students and explained that this boy, *Kyle, was coming back to the classroom. The number one thing I established was, ‘There’s no excuse for abuse.’”

“It’s very frustrating, because teachers want help so badly. You spend the day putting out fires, and unfortunately, scores go down because the kids are not learning everything they need to learn.”
—Brandi Franks
Second Grade Teacher

Kyle’s acting out behavior was a well-known fact at Brandi’s school in southeast Texas. He often threw things, pushed other kids, broke their personal items and called them names. But Brandi turned things around. “I told my class, ‘I can’t abuse you and you can’t abuse me, period. And that goes for *Kyle, too.’”

What happened to change everything in the six weeks before Kyle’s return? Brandi had started using the Total Transformation Program at home with her own son, Noah, and had seen results within a couple of weeks, so she decided to adapt it to her classroom. “I thought, if this works with my child, why won’t it work with second graders?”

The fact is, many teachers report that they are not taught how to manage classroom behavior while in college; rather, their education focuses solely on academics and teaching methods. That means when you start teaching, “They say, ‘Here’s the class, you take care of them, and the less we see them up front, the better,’” says Brandi. “ It’s very frustrating, because teachers want help so badly. We’re having to teach kids how to behave in class, and that takes a long time. You spend the day putting out fires, and unfortunately, scores go down because the kids are not learning everything they need to learn.”

Brandi said she was so desperate for help with her class that she “went to every workshop you can imagine, but I couldn’t find anything that worked,” until she got the Total Transformation for her son.

And when Kyle got back into her classroom that first day, Brandi was ready for him to act out. “He didn’t want to do math, and started with the mouthy behavior. I said, ‘This is what we’re doing,’ and I got him started on the assignment. I told him, ‘I’ll be back in 5 minutes to check on you.’ Then I turned around and walked away from him instead of responding to his backtalk. He was left without an audience, and he realized I wasn’t going to get caught up in his web.”

By using methods from the program, Brandi succeeded in turning around Kyle’s behavior that year. He ended up passing her class, “and became a totally different kid,” says Brandi with a smile. “His mom started getting the happy phone calls instead of the ‘you have to come get him because he just hit someone’ calls.”

Other teachers at Brandi’s school started asking how she maintained order in her classroom. “They noticed that my kids were very well-behaved in the halls—even the substitute teachers thanked me,” Brandi laughs. “The assistant principal came to talk to me and asked me what I was doing differently. He’d noticed that Kyle’s twin brother, who had similar behavior issues and was in a different classroom, had not changed at all that year, and wanted to know what my ‘secret’ was. I told him it was the Total Transformation. It’s the only thing that works that I’ve used,” says Brandi.

Jan Moore Middle School Teacher Utah

Jan Moore was also having problems with some students in her middle school art class in northern Utah. Although Jan enforces rules and consequences when her students don’t follow directions, she still has students who push the limits from time to time. Like Brandi, Jan also ordered The Total Transformation for help within her own family—in her case, for her two grandsons.

“It was working well with my grandsons, so I decided to try it with students in my class,” Jan said. “Before I would ask them, ‘Why aren’t you in your seat?’ Now I don’t ask ‘Why’ questions anymore. Instead, I say, ‘What are you supposed to be doing right now?’ Or ‘What is my rule about talking when I’m talking?’ And my students tell me. I can walk over and say ‘Where should you be?’ and my students go right back to their seats.”

Things turned around in Jan’s class as well. “When I started using The Total Transformation in the classroom, it was kind of like a miracle,” says Jan. “I also like it because it helps me come up with phrases that solve the problems with my students almost immediately.”

Using the program has also changed the way Jan observes parents and their children interacting during parent-teacher conferences. “One mother actually said to her child, ‘I’ve been told you’re just like me, and I wasn’t a good child… and you’re not a good child.’” Jan was stunned. “I realized that there are so many ineffective ways of parenting. I wanted to tell that mom to get the Total Transformation.”

Not only is Jan seeing changes in the classroom, she’s also seeing changes in her grandsons when they come over to her house. “Now they’re going, ‘Wow, we get it. Grandma is going to spend time playing with us, and if we want to continue, we have to behave.’” The last time they came to visit, Jan says she didn’t have to discipline either of them at all. “Before my grandsons left, the older one gave me a hug, and said, ‘Thank you Grandma, for letting me come to your house.’ It was great! It’s working and I’m grateful.”
*Not his real name.

Elisabeth Wilkins is the editor of Empowering Parents and the mother of a 6 year old son. Her work has appeared in national and international publications, including Mothering, Motherhood, and The Japan Times. Elisabeth holds a Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine.

Ignoring the Behavior: Submitted by Damien

I only ignore behavior in a very select few students that I know are acting up solely for the attention. As the student talks to neighbors, gets out of his seat or calls out answers I simply continue with the activity, ignoring the attention seeking behavior. While the behavior does escalate some before it diminishes, in the end, the student is generally on task and following the rules. It helps that the class reward system is whole class and not student specific, so other students are quietly encouraging the student to get back on task as well.

Acknowledging the Distraction: Thanks to Anita Voelker for sharing this tip!

Students are often more distracted by something that they must not pay attention to, like the beginning of a snow flurry outside the classroom window. Teachers who attempt to teach through the distraction will likely have a large portion of the class distracted and not attending to the lesson. Instead, the teacher should draw attention to the snow:

“Look class! It’s snowing outside! I love it when it snows! My favorite thing to do is enjoy a cup of hot chocolate and watch it snow outside my window! Ok, now let’s get back to this activity so that we can all go home and play in the snow!”

While some students will continue to be distracted by the snow, most will in fact return their complete focus to the activity at hand.

Ms. Estes, a Kindergarten teacher in Prince George’s County in Maryland shared her Kindergarten behavior plan with us.

Her students get to have a reward for great behavior with clear understanding of what effect their poor behavior choices have on that reward. The color coded behavior plan method helps students visually understand how they are behaving throughout the day and the rules are posted with an easy rhyme to help students remember what is expected of them each day.

Thanks to Ms. Estes for sharing her success with her kindergarten behavior plan!