Behavior Management

It’s back to school fear time and this year I have two:

1. For the first time I have two aides in my classroom, one classroom assistant and one 1:1 aide. I’m worried I won’t get along with one of them, or they won’t get along with each other, or that they’ll get along with each other TOO well, or that they’ll get along with each other and hate me… etc haha

2. I’m worried that I forgot how to manage really tough behavior last year because my class was really good. Sure, there were a few annoying behaviors here and there, but there were NO behavior problems, and I’ve never had a class like that before. Merging the two concerns, I’m worried that my aides will have trouble managing behavior if the class is really tough. I hate coming back from a meeting or lunch to hear how miserable the kids were.

In preparation for the year ahead, I bought Setting Limits in the Classroom and Positive Discipline in the Classroom. I’ve read about half of the first book, and the second seems like more of a resource- it has a bunch of different classroom behaviors and suggestions for dealing with them.

In Setting Limits, they basically outline 3 ways of responding to negative behavior. The first approach is called permissive. For each response I will tell you the extreme version so you’ll get an idea of the type of teacher we are talking about, and then the version that I am guilty of myself…

Extreme Version

Teacher: Bobby, do you think it’s a good idea to sit in your chair like that? It might not be safe.

Bobby: I think it’s okay. I am being careful.

Teacher: I don’t know, I don’t really like when you do that, I wish you wouldn’t.

My Version

Me: Girls, please stop talking.

Girls: Okay (stop for 5 seconds, start again)

Me: Girls, if you are going to talk you will not be able to sit next to each other anymore

Girls: Okay (stop for 5 seconds, start again)

Me: Girls (teacher look inserted here), remember what I said…

The second behavior management approach is the punitive approach.

Extreme Version

Teacher (very annoyed/angry): BOBBY!!!! WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO GET IN TROUBLE? CAN’T YOU EVER BE GOOD?

My Version

I don’t tend to get annoyed immediately, but I am guilty of being this type of teacher where I don’t enforce my consequence immediately (example above) and then get so annoyed that I implement a harsher consequence than necessary. This is technically called the Mixed Discipline Approach, but it’s a mixture of the permissive and punitive approach, meaning I display attributes of both when I do this.

The third behavior management approach is called the democratic approach. This is the approach we should strive to use. For example:

Child: Tosses eraser at his friend across the table instead of doing his work.

Teacher: Bobby, we do not throw things in our classroom. If you continue to throw things and are not able to get your work done at your seat, you’ll have to move to a table by yourself.

Child: Okay (throws eraser the next minute)

Teacher (still matter-of-fact): Bobby, you continued to throw your eraser. You will now work at the back table.

What I love most about this approach, besides the fact that the kids learn quickly that you mean business, is that it’s all done in a very matter of fact manner. I know that it’s easily enough to SAY you are never going to get annoyed when a child does the wrong thing, and much easier to follow through with. But, at the same time, it really benefits me just as much as the kid to stay level headed about the whole situation.

For me, the key is to manage the situation before I am annoyed by it. I have a pretty high tolerance for annoying behaviors, but eventually they do get to me. Instead of waiting for that to happen, I am going to immediately deal with any “rule-breaking” behavior.

In addition to my plan to take the democratic behavior approach (not sure why it’s called that by the way…), I will also do my normal behavior “tricks” including:

-Teaching the Rules at the beginning of the year. The kids make a “rule book” the first week of school after we decide what the rules will be. Each day we talk about a new rule, I model it, the kids demonstrate the wrong and right way to follow this rule, and then they draw a picture of themselves following the rule in their book. I got most of this idea from the Daily Five book, though that’s more about teaching reading (which I also use it for). I also do “guided discoveries” of materials in the classroom so I can teach how to use them as well- this is from the First Six Weeks of School book.

-Use a lot of positive reinforcement. Kindergarten kids love to be praised (for something real, not just general praise) and tend to continue to do the right thing if they see someone is noticing. I try to make it more beneficial in my classroom to do the right thing instead of the wrong thing, in terms of both getting attention from the teacher, and having classroom privileges.

-Communicating with parents when I have an problems. Sure, parents are often no help at all. But sometimes, maybe 1/2 the time, just knowing that I am chatting with their parents is enough to tame the behavior.

What kind of behavior approach do you take in your classroom? What are your weaknesses when it comes to behavior management? What are some goals you have for the upcoming year?