The topic of praising students is a sticky subject and some teachers disagree with praising students for doing things they should do out of respect, and only thank students for going above and beyond the call of duty.

The problem with his concept, though, is that the job of teaching children to act appropriately in different situations, as I did my daughter at the post office, belongs to the parent. While many parents are willing to take the time to teach their children these skills, many put their children in daycare instead, and let someone else will take care of the discipline. Day care workers are not substitutes for parental teaching and many teachers find themselves with students who are not trained to act appropriately in the classroom.

In a recent post on why saying “good job” is bad, I addressed the idea that praise needs to be specific in the classroom. Indeed, praise needs to be specific, and hold the double purpose of both creating a positive classroom atmosphere and teaching the children the appropriate way to act in the classroom.

Do your students benefit from parental discipline or does that job end up falling to you as the teacher? Share your stories!

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1. Raising your voice.

Raising your voice will only serve to escalate the problem. Even if the students quiet down or listen for a moment, it is only a temporary fix and will in fact cause more classroom management problems down the road.

2. Ignoring students.

This is different than ignoring student behavior, something that is sometimes necessary. Instead, a teacher who ignores students, or who is checked out, not caring about what happens in her classroom, is doing her students a huge disservice. If this is you, it is time to find a new job.

3. Relying on Parents.

This one is a sad truth about the culture of America today and in some situations is not true. While some parents are involved and do discipline their children, even for actions done at school, the age of a parent backing a teacher is in the past. It is time for teachers to find new ways to discipline children because threatening with a note or phone call home is becoming a useless act.

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Here are your five basic steps to handling any discipline problem effectively:

1. Take a breath – this will give you a moment to collect your thoughts and remain under control
2. Address the misbehavior – this is important to do appropriately, do not embarrass any student, but be sure that the student knows what he or she did wrong
3. Follow through with classroom consequences
4. Do not engage in excess conversation. Informing the student of the infraction and the consequence is enough, excess conversation only invites argument
5. Forgive and forget – leave the misbehavior behind as the lesson continues, giving all students the chance to learn both from the prepared lesson and from the example set

Read more tips here: Classroom Management Strategies for Teachers

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Evaluating your Management Style:

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When praising a student, it is important to be as specific as possible.

• “Excellent handwriting!” is praise that will encourage more neatly written work.
• “Good question” thanks the student for participating and provides great opportunity to further learning.
• “I like the way you….” tells the student exactly what he or she did well.

The more specific the praise, the more sincere it is to the student and the student in turn knows exactly what he or she is doing well.

Does this mean that saying “good job” is bad? Not necessarily. Let’s take a look at when it would be appropriate to say good job to a student.

When praise is appropriate but time is short, good job might be an acceptable statement. For example, after a student gives a presentation to the class, a teacher might say “nice presentation, Sam” and turn to the next student in line. Specifying one thing that the student did well during the presentation might put undue stress on the next student, so a generic well done is appropriate.

Anytime when specific praise might complicate the situation, general praise is useful. For example, if a student has done something that helps prevent embarrassment for another student, a simple thank you is less intrusive than a more specific praise.

Finally, when praising a student for accomplishing a task, such as finding an answer in the text, the general praise “good job” is appropriate. This tells the student that the teacher is pleased when it is not necessary to tell the student exactly what he or she has done.

Read more about praising students.

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When a student misbehaves, a teacher who uses her hands to display her frustration (open hands thrown up in frustration or finger pointing to the student or to the place the student should be with large arm movement as well) is emphasizing her point with non-verbal cues. What she is saying is:

I’m so frustrated right now!

Why can’t you follow the rule?!

Would you just do as you are told!!!

In response, the teachers voice often raises, along with her blood pressure, stress level and not too surprising, the student’s response is negative as well.

In contrast, when a student misbehaves, if a teacher were to just control her hands, a lot would change in the exchange. Instead of throwing her hands in emphasis, the teacher clasps her hands together in a calming and controlled manner. Now her stress has an outlet, she can relax her shoulders and keeping her voice quiet direct the student to the appropriate task.

By controlling the hands, the teacher is able to control the tone of voice, the attitude and in turn the student will often respond more respectfully, and the situation diffuses quicker.

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Sarcasm is the most destructive tone of voice a teacher can use with students. Sarcasm requires a more advanced understanding of language and students do not comprehend the “joke” behind a sarcastic comment. The tone of voice used with sarcastic comments is cruel and confusing to students.

While some students might be able to understand and respond well to sarcasm, this is the exception, not the norm. When responding to a student who is misbehaving, teachers need to make sure they use a sincere tone of voice and avoid sarcasm.

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Additionally, keeping your eyes open and watching what is going on – being actively involved in every moment in the classroom – will help prevent discipline problems. Proactive classroom management is the best way to prevent frustration and keep students on task.

Next time you discipline a student, pay attention to what you are doing, and notice where you attention (and your eyes) are focused.

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