From Ringmaster to Conductor. Managing pupil behaviour is all in the eyebrow. I was 12 and sat next to Stevie B in the back row of Ms Cosby’s English class, a fact that represented immense opportunity. Stevie B was cool, or at least coolish, and I was surely not. But just maybe I could impress Stevie, appear a little bit dangerous. There was an elastic band in my desk. I took it out and stretched it back, pointed it as if to shoot... At the front of the room, Ms Cosby was asking us questions about a short story, The Lady, or the Tiger? I think. I looked at Stevie and he looked at me, raised his eyebrows and nodded. In this moment, I was similar to some student sitting in almost any classroom on any given day – an opportunist. And then, suddenly, almost imperceptibly, the balance of factors shifted. The array of forces acting upon students are malleable, responsive to even subtle adult actions – especially to subtle actions.
Use your radar The first is that looking and noticing matter. Similarly, prevention beats cure. Distract the audience He tweets @Doug_Lemov. Behaviour Management. Pivotal Tips. Paul Dix- Behaviour. Paul Dix- Behaviour, Relationships, Learning. Behaviour - Low Level Disruption. Low Level Disruption. Can you kick it? Yes, you can. A stream cuts a score down a mountain until it becomes a ravine, and then a valley. It doesn’t do this because it’s powerful. It succeeds by persistence and patience, using the same weapon with which a weed splits a paving slab: time. A student can do the same to your lesson, and eventually your sanity, if they are allowed to drip, drip, drip away at you.
Low level disruption is what teachers face most of all, and most often. Low level disruption appears, in isolation, like nothing at all. What qualifies as low-level disruption? And that’s why it’s so corrosive; because of all the things you’ll have to handle as a teacher, this stuff will be constantly with you, looking over your shoulder like Long John Silver’s parrot, pooping gaily on you and laughing, as you take the register. If you’re a member of the human race you will have a limit on your patience. It happens a lotIt’s hard to put out a dozen fires at once Resources.
How to manage behaviour in the classroom | Education. Behaviour management tip 1 Get in and get out quickly with your dignity intact We know that to effectively deliver sanctions the message needs to be simple, clear and non-negotiable; in practice it is easy to get caught up in a lengthy argument or confrontation. Focus on moving in, delivering your sanction as discreetly as possible and then moving out quickly. Choose a phrase that you will withdraw on 'I need to see you working as well as you were in yesterday's written task, thank you for listening' or 'I will come back and give you feedback on your work in five minutes'.
Avoid waiting around for the student to change their behaviour immediately; they may need some time and space to make a better choice. Behaviour management tip 2 Countdown A good technique for getting the attention of the whole class is to use a 'countdown' from 5 or 10 to allow students the time to finish their conversations (or work) and listen to the next instruction. Two, quickly back to your places Zero, thank you.' TES classroom behaviour. The Butterfly Effect: Behaviour Management. Anyone who knows me will be aware of my penchant for Monster energy drinks (there are other brands available). At the start of my 50 minute drive to work in the morning, I tend to ‘crack’ open the can in the hope that I will have slowly consumed the 500ml of chemical infused liquid by the time I arrive at work, where I will be all set for the day ahead. One morning last week, I made a small (bad) decision at the start of my journey that had a knock on effect for the rest.
So the bad decision I made? Well, rather than rid the cup holders in my car of the empty cans of past drives, I decided to leave them be. My drive began as usual and around 5 minutes in, I opened my fresh can of Monster. However, my decision not to remove the old cans meant that I had no where to place the new can between sips. I could have thrown the old cans on the passenger floor, but decided that I would just keep the can between my legs. Ownership – I owned my classroom. Like this: Like Loading... Six behaviour management mistakes. It is seen as fundamental to effective teaching and without it, teachers flee the workforce. After all, calm classrooms are pre-requisite to children’s learning. However it eludes many a teacher, and nearly a quarter of all resigning teachers cite poor pupil behaviour as the main reason for leaving, according to a DfES 2003 study. Yet there are key principles of managing behaviour that, if mastered, can really help teachers perform in the classroom.
According to Andy Vass, co-author of several behaviour management books and former consultant to the DfES, teacher attitude is crucial. “This is because the way teachers manage behaviour is based on the attitudes and beliefs they hold.” “If teachers get it right, children pick up on this, often unconsciously, and this tells them that this teacher is authentic and interested in their success,” he adds. Attempting to control a classYou cannot control anybody else’s behaviour but your own. What’s your worst behaviour management mistake? Dealing with the difficult – tips and tricks for effective behaviour for learning. Behaviour management is one of the toughest parts of any teacher’s job. Difficulties arise because we’re not just standing up and teaching a lesson to a group of children or young adults, we also have the responsibility of managing the relationships and interactions within our classrooms. Essentially teachers have to teach, enable the learning we aim for, and create the required atmosphere.
This last point is what will determine how pupils treat themselves, each other, and their teacher. Here are some effective techniques on maintaining outstanding behaviour management. 1. Focus on praise Make the creation of norms one of your key goals. Over time, you’ll find that you can easily shape the atmosphere of your classroom to a way that meets your expectations by using praise. 2. Even when we have the kind of behaviour we want in our classrooms, there is always the possibility of difficult situations popping up.
Defusing conflict. 3. Managing Today's Classroom. Classroom Rewards Reap Dividends for Teachers and Students. All teachers prefer to rely on their students' intrinsic motivation to encourage them to come to school, do their homework, and focus on classroom activities, but many supplement the internal drive to succeed with external rewards. The teachers say rewards -- free time, school supplies, or tasty treats -- can help kids master the expectations of acceptable classroom behavior and scholastic achievement. Included: Ten tips for using rewards in the classroom! "I don't know if it is any more appropriate to use rewards with inner city students than other students, but I have seen it work," said Kristina Campbell, a fourth-grade teacher in Indianapolis.
"My students come from backgrounds that I couldn't even imagine at their age. Many of our students don't eat regularly (unless they are receiving the free breakfast and lunch from school), they spend more time on their own than with parents or family, and they receive very little encouragement in regards to school. Schools' tough approach to bad behaviour isn’t working – and may escalate problems. It’s often thought a tough approach to behaviour is the way forward for schools. But research shows that punitive responses, such as writing names on the board, taking away a student’s lunch time, or handing out detention, are actually ineffective in the long term and can exacerbate student disengagement and alienation.
Harsh actions might initially bring about some student compliance, but over time they build resentfulness, and relationships then breakdown. So why do schools in Australia continue with this approach? What does research say about how to improve behaviour in schools? And are other countries getting it right? How Australian schools discipline kids A common technique used to manage behaviour in Australian schools is to remove students from their learning.
Often schools use exclusion practices that increase in severity. Use of this type of system is extremely prevalent. But there’s little evidence to support such exclusionary approaches. Approaches being used overseas. Strategies for Reaching Quiet, Disengaged, Struggling, and Troublemaking Students. As a new high school history teacher, reaching a diverse array of learners posed my biggest challenge. Well into my third year on the job, I neither fully understood nor appreciated the unique strengths and challenges that my pupils brought with them. Now, after nine years in the classroom and learning from numerous failures, I still don't claim to have mastered the art of teaching or connecting with every kind of student, but I do have some thoughts on how to avoid my rookie mistakes.
The Quiet Student I wonder whether teachers are right to encourage introverted students to "come out of their shells. " Some time ago, I stopped grading for class participation to help the quiet students know that they can succeed in my classes. To check my thinking, I spoke to Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. The Disengaged Student Will Richardson's short but insightful book, Why School? The Struggling Student The Troublemaking Student. Independent Thinking - Blog. As an NQT, in my first term of teaching, nobody had told me how to 'do duty'. To make matters worse there was a drizzle in the air and it was Friday afternoon. In those days schools used to have an afternoon break, but now it's deemed too dangerous! I was standing on the corner of the playground observing the scene.
Children laughing, playing football, skulking. All of a sudden a fight broke out in front of me. Two Year 10 boys took it upon themselves to knock lumps out of each other on my patch. Now, for all those who have worked in a large town centre comprehensive school, we know what happens when there is a fight. I could see that my boy, Mark, was full of adrenalin. Then it happened. The children were like a football crowd in the last moments of a cup final. That day was the last time that boy set foot in the school. That day was a career defining moment for me. We, as teachers, change lives. A few weeks ago I saw that former colleague again. Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion. Back to school Part 2: Relationships.
This series of #backtoschool blogs summarises much of my thinking as it’s developed over the past few years and is aimed at new or recently qualified teachers. Each area has been distilled to 5 ‘top tips’ which I hope prove useful to anyone embarking on a career in teaching. That said, I’ll be delighted if they serve as handy reminders for colleagues somewhat longer in the tooth. Once clear and sensible routines are in place, there’s space for positive relationships to form; without them, we are merely fire-fighting. Somewhat surprisingly perhaps, pupils prefer teachers they perceive as ‘stricter’ and want the reassurance of feeling safe, and knowing exactly where they stand.
For some advice on managing behaviour, I refer you to Part 1 of this Back to School series. A lot has been said and written about the power of relationships, and some have even gone as far as stating that all teaching can be reduced to how well we know our pupils. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Back to School Part 3: Literacy. Developing Positive Teacher-Student Relations. Positive teacher-student relationships boost good behaviour in teenagers for up to four years. A new study has found that having a positive relationship with a teacher around the age of 10-11 years old can markedly influence the development of ‘prosocial’ behaviours such as cooperation and altruism, as well as significantly reduce problem classroom behaviours such as aggression and oppositional behaviour.
The research also found that beneficial behaviours resulting from a positive teacher-student relationship when a child is on the cusp of adolescence lingered for up to four years – well into the difficult teenage years. Researchers found that students with a more positive relationship with their teacher displayed towards peers, on average, 18% more prosocial behaviour (and 10% more up to two years later), and up to 38% less aggressive behaviour (and 9% less up to four years later), over students who felt ambivalent or negative toward their teacher.
“Teachers play an important role in the development of children. From Ringmaster to Conductor. Own your room. Not all teachers have the luxury of their own classroom; many have to move from room to room for their lessons, but regardless, one of the biggest pieces of advice that I give to teachers when managing classroom behaviour is to OWN YOUR ROOM. When I started out teaching, I would often arrive at my classroom 2 minutes before the lesson to find students already in the room, sometimes eating/drinking, on phones, generally treating the place as a common room, rather than place of learning. This put me on the back foot as a teacher. I couldn’t arrange the tables as I saw fit, so would try to involve the learners in moving the room around (mayhem). Then trying to get them to sit where I needed them became even more of an issue. I had to start negatively by enforcing rules that learners should have been following; “put your drink in your bag”, “put your phones away”, so getting learners focussed on the lesson became difficult.
Like this: Like Loading... Entry Ticket. The 8 Minutes That Matter Most. I am an English teacher, so my ears perk up when writers talk about their process. I've found the advice handy for lesson planning, too. That's because both writing and planning deal with craft. In writing, you want your audience to be absorbed. You want them to care about your characters. You want them be delighted by the suspense. John Irving, the author of The Cider House Rules, begins with his last sentence: I write the last line, and then I write the line before that.
That is the crux of lesson planning right there -- endings and beginnings. The eight minutes that matter most are the beginning and endings. Here are eight ways to make those eight minutes magical. Beginnings 1. YouTube reaches more 18- to 34-year-olds than any cable channel. 2. If you want to create a safe space for students to take risks, you won't get there with a pry bar. 3. Toss a football around the class before you teach the physics of a Peyton Manning spiral. 4. Endings 1. 2. 3. 4. Classroom Culture. Behavior Expectations and How to Teach Them. Imagine that a student enters an English class to find that it's that most dreaded of days -- graded paper pass-back day. As he receives his paper, his teacher begins to criticize him for his mistakes saying, "You should have known better than to write your thesis that way.
" What if the teacher went on to add, "That's the third time this month. What am I going to do with you? " before sending him to the office for his mistake? Students who make academic mistakes are given time to review, relearn, and reassess until they master the content. Because educators are well trained to deal with academic failures and missteps, we know that this isn't the way to handle the issues with an academic assignment. The "He Was Told So He Should Know" Problem As a high school teacher, I certainly didn't think that I needed to teach behavior.
Here's what I wonder: What would happen if we taught behavior expectations with our best instructional practices? A Better Way Be clear with your expectations. The Pygmalion Effect: Communicating High Expectations. Positive Engagement through restorative approaches. Mark Finnis on How to Implement Restorative Practice for Great Results! PP107 | Pivotal Podcast – Managing Behaviour – get practical advice on managing behaviour in your classroom. Conflict Resolution. More carrot and more stick; more love, more warmth, more discipline. | headguruteacher. 99 Ways to Say "Very Good"
How to Motivate Learning: Alternatives to Rewards. Motivation and barriers to learning for young people not in education employment or training. Motivating students beyond carrot and stick. Engaging Without Carrots & Sticks. Podcast: Students Interview Carol Dweck about Growth Mindset. Praise: The good, the bad and the ugly. Level up Mindset 4 by 4. From Ringmaster to Conductor.