Here is one of my favorite:

Want more great ideas? Check out Energizing Brain Breaks.

Give brain breaks a try in your classroom and see how the students respond! Did you try one you especially liked? Tell us about it!

Related posts:

1. Spring Fever in Teachers
2. Succes Story: Silent Lesson
3. Addressing Student Misbehavior

Related posts:

1. Holiday Party as a Motivational Threat
2. Keeping Kids Calm Through the Holidays
3. Handling Holiday Excitement

I once lost my voice during the school week. Since being able to speak is a basic requirement of teaching, I was worried what would happen the next day in class.

I made sure that I had everything planned out as thoroughly as possible, and had directions and a welcome written on the board before students arrived.

Throughout the day I would whisper teach, as this was as loud as  could project my voice, and while I did have to repeat myself and move through the classroom teaching small groups of students at a time so that everyone could hear me, the students were quite well behaved!

I was thrilled to see how simply lowering my voice (even if it was not my choice at the time) can help keep students quiet and focused. I have used this method many times since and the students always respond well.

Related posts:

1. Speak Softly
2. Undersand Your Teaching Style
3. Two Keys to Starting the School Year off Right

How many Rules do you Have?

• Be sure to have at least three rules
• Class rules should be kept to five at the very most
• Combine rules to reduce the number and clarify more specifically to have more rules.

Positive Language for Class Rules

• Do the students know what to do after reading a rule?
• Each rule should state what students need to do rather than what they need to avoid doing.
• Reword rules as necessary

Class Rule Clarity

• Be sure there is no question as to what students are to do after reading the rules
• Analyze each rule – can it be stated more clearly?
• Can any rules have additional details added in order to ensure proper student behavior?

Teach and Reinforce Class Rules

• Did you teach students what each rule meant?
• Can students explain to a visitor what the class rules are?
• If faced with a hypothetical situation, could students explain which rule applies and why?
• Did you practice each procedure including lining up, preparing for lunch and recess and cleaning up at the end of the day?

It is never too late to go back and add or correct the classroom rules. In fact, starting fresh in the middle of the school year may make all the difference in the world and turn your problem class into a success story!

Related posts:

1. Rethink Your Classroom Rules
2. Q. How Many Class Rules Should I Have?
3. Rules for Classroom Rules

I have had a problem with my fourth graders being too talkative during lessons so I tried the silent lesson and it worked wonderfully! What I did was plan an entire lesson with lots of visual and tactile aspects. I also wrote the rules on the blackboard:

1. No talking!
2. Work together
3. Write down any questions you have
4. Anyone who remains quiet receives 10 extra minutes at recess

I included that last rule about 10 extra minutes at recess in order to motivate the students to stay quiet. I realized afterward though that I may not have needed to because they found the entire lesson as a game!

This lesson got them involved and focused on learning without focusing on chatting with their friends. I repeat the silent lesson at least once a month as a great exercise for my lesson planning skills and to remind my students that they can enjoy school even without talking to their friends!

Related posts:

1. How to Calm a Class Without Saying Anything
2. Behaior Management After Break
3. Keeping Kids Calm Through the Holidays

I recently had a breakthrough in my classroom management strategy that I wanted to share. I have struggled for several years to get my students to listen to me and while each year my students followed the rules and obeyed for the most part, I recently experienced a great change.

I decided this year that I was going to believe in myself, and it made all the difference. Instead of doubting my decisions or questioning what I was doing whenever I dealt with a behavior problem, I forced myself to be 100% confident with each decision.

It was hard work, but with practice I got better and amazingly my students began behaving and responding to me better as well! Now when faced with a discipline issue I square my shoulders, lift my head high and take a deep breath and believe in myself before I speak. My students listen and I feel so much better!

Thanks for sharing Elizabeth! That is a wonderfully encouraging story!

Related posts:

1. Success Story: Let the Students Decide
2. Checklist for Writing Class Rules
3. Holiday Party as a Motivational Threat

In fact, speaking to the class will often have the opposite effect as students will raise their voices to continue to be heard over the teacher. Instead, a teacher should silently signal to the students that it is time to quiet down and move onto another activity. There are several ways to do this.

1. Turn off the lights, or flick them once to get the students’ attention.
2. Raise hand in a quiet signal and wait for all hands to go up and mouths to shut.
3. Clap a rhythm pattern for students to echo clap in response.
4. Utilize another quiet signal the students are familiar with.

Once the students have been signaled to quiet down, it is vital that the teacher wait. It may take 5 minutes, but it is important that students realize that they need to be quiet and settle down on their own. As more students calm down, they will help hush those students around them, especially if the time it takes for the class to quiet down is banked educational time that is then taken back from recess.

*Additional note from Anonymous*

I use a quiet signal in my classroom and it works really well. I challenge students to beat their quiet time and within the first week of school my students are usually all quiet within seconds of receiving the signal. This allows me great opportunity for extra instructional time and the students really like the challenge.

Related posts:

1. How to Calm Students Down
2. Speak Softly
3. Behavior Plan: Raise Hand to Speak

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.

Related posts:

1. Those Who Can’t Do… Ask
2. Keeping Kids Calm Through the Holidays
3. Teach your students to focus

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.

Related posts:

1. Three Classroom Management Mistakes
2. When Saying “Good Job” is Bad
3. Rethink Your Classroom Rules

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.

Related posts:

1. Watch Where You are Going
2. Bad Classroom Management Example
3. Brain Breaks Keep Students Energized and Focused