As the last days of school pass, there are two things that you need to do:
First, do not leave your patience at home. Both you and your students are eager for summer vacation, and while you students may have checked out, you can’t afford to. You want to leave your students on a good note, so take a deep breath, count to ten, and find creative ways to keep your students focused on learning – even if this means more games, more breaks and more recess time.
Second, evaluate your behavior plan. What worked? What didn’t work? What would you like to change for next year? What do you want to remain the same? Did you find any great tips that helped? Write them down! It is helpful to journal each part of this evaluation, writing any reflections down and it will become clear what needs to be done for a successful school year.
Don’t forget – do these now! Don’t wait!
Sure, you make it through each day, and you feel your students are pretty good most of the time, but have you ever sat down and reevaluated whether or not your management style is good enough? It’s time to find out if things can be better than they are, even if you think they’re ok as they are.
Evaluating your Management Style:
Smile
Be positive
Greet each student by name
Hold your head high
Make eye contact
Be gracious
Be patient
Be firm
Be consistent
Have students
Help each other
Demonstrate important behaviors
State clear rules
Predetermine consequences
Make learning fun
Know your student’s names
Over plan lessons
Involve parents
Genuinely care
Ask questions
Know which questions to not ask
Demand respect
Open lines of communication
Hold classroom meetings
Take time to be silly
Encourage sharing
Diversify lesson activities
Be aware of culture
Be there when students need to talk
Post rules where students can see them
Read to students
Be genuine
Be committed
Collaborate with other teachers
View each day as a new day
Give second chances
Apologize when you make a mistake
Praise student effort
Be specific in praise
State intentions clearly
Re-teach rules and consequences as necessary
Be strong
Do not show fear
Leave troubles at home
Be present
Explain expectations
Never give up
Eat lunch with students
Create individual behavior plans when necessary
Allow students some say in positive rewards
Allow students to earn rewards
Set goals
Ask students to set goals
Encourage students to help each other
Take time to have fun
Share jokes
Laugh
Expect more from students
Ask for advice
Learn from other teachers
Take time for your own family
Believe in your students
Make lessons obtainable for all students
Provide visual aspects to all lessons
Provide auditory aspects to all lessons
Provide kinesthetic aspects to all lessons
Try a new seating arrangement
Rewrite class rules
Have students decide on class rules
Have students decide on class consequences
Never raise your voice
Avoid showing frustration
Do not show anger
Listen when students talk to you
Provide uplifting activities for students
Discourage tattle tails
Teach students not to bully
Teach students to treat each other properly
Do not repeat warnings
Make consequences fit the crime
Make the classroom a safe place
Be a trustworthy confidant
Send positive notes home
Encourage students to share with the class
Look for the reason behind a behavior
Find ways to encourage every student each day
Prevention is the best method
Have a plan in place
Keep a June box for confiscated objects in class
Relax!
Count to 10 before responding to a child pushing your buttons
Ignore attention seeking behavior
Develop a good relationship with the school counselor
Remember that learning is fun
Create fun and engaging activities
Do not beg students to obey
Expect obedience
Respect students
Don’t be afraid to change
Learn how to say no
Practice transitions
Have fun!
When setting up a behavior plan it is vital for the child to have a say in the rewards that he receives for success. This will make the reward a motivation for changing daily behavior and will encourage him or her to get back on track after a bad day.
Have a conference with the child prior to setting up the behavior plan and explain that there will be a plan targeting this specific behavior problem and that as the child improves his behavior, you want to provide rewards. Allow the child to provide input into what rewards he will receive for proper behavior.
Guide this conversation so that it does not turn into a pot of gold situation where you can’t assign homework or some other important aspect of learning. It is also vital that every reward is agreed upon by both the teacher and student and that those rewards are the only ones used on the behavior plan. Otherwise the plan will fail because the student will not find the rewards motivating.
When a teacher is writing a behavior plan for a troublesome child, it can sometimes be a problem trying to choose what behavior to target on the plan. It is important to choose only one or possibly two major behaviors to focus on, this way the child will not be overwhelmed and will be able to succeed.
When attempting to choose the target behavior, think through the behavior problems the child has and list them. Then, order them in degree of importance or seriousness. If there is a behavior that is potentially harmful to the child or to other children/adults in the classroom, that needs to be the target behavior.
It is important to think through each behavior as well, because if a child throws chairs frequently, that may not be the best behavior to choose because by the time the child has thrown the chair he is already in a state of out-of-control anger. Finding a behavior to target at the onset of this anger is a much better place to focus.
Once one behavior has been targeted and improved upon, it is time to celebrate and move onto another problem behavior. Once the child begins to see success in one area, it will be easier to continue that success to other areas.
