Imagine a day where the classroom behavior is less than phenomenal. Maybe someone decided biting was the new craze or decided to pretend to be a tornado and now your room looks like the Tasmanian Devil himself strolled through.
Really, in the classroom, what is going to happen is up to the students. What happens because of a student’s behavior is up to you! Classroom behavior can be a big hurdle to overcome especially when you are starting off with a new bunch of kiddos.
Really, in the classroom, what is going to happen is up to the students. What happens because of a student’s behavior is up to you! Click To Tweet
If you have ever had a day like the one above, and let’s face it we all have, then this blog will help guide you to a classroom with better behavior management.
Chart It!
One of the tried and true ways to help keep your students on track is to use a classroom behavior chart. There are several different types of charts you can use and your class make up will dictate which one is best.
Sticker Chart
A sticker chart is a great way to work on a singular skill. Let’s use standing nicely in line as an example skill we would want to enhance. When you use a sticker chart you want to:
- First identify an area of concern; for us that will be standing nicely in line.
- Secondly, you need to explain what you expect in order to earn a sticker. For example, you may say standing in line nicely means you are silent, you are keeping your hands and all other limbs to yourself, and you are not moving in and out of line.
- After you discuss what the skill looks like you will want to practice.
- Finally, you work on the skill. Every time a student stands in line nicely you give him/her a sticker. Once the child reaches so many stickers, they should get some kind of reward. Keep in mind a reward can be a bookmark or something simple but useful.
If you decide to use a sticker chart, you want to make sure you are staying consistent. When using this technique, you also want to make sure you don’t inappropriately use the power of the sticker.
There is no penalty for not standing in line nicely other than not getting a sticker; you can’t lose a sticker for poor behavior.
Task Tracker
This type of chart is more so for the student to keep track of his/her own behavior. When you use a task tracker, you will want to make up a list of tasks a student needs to do every day.
When the student gets done with that task, they can either put a sticker in that spot or they can simply put a check mark.
There are many tasks you can put on the list depending on the format of your classroom. Here are some examples you can use:
- I did my bell ringer!
- I put my reading book away on time!
- I turned in my homework!
Any every day task would be good for a task tracker. You can also give a prize for the people who are on track most of the time. Overall, this tracker is good at getting your students into a routine and keeping their classroom behavior on task and focused.
Beyond charts there are other ways you can help manage classroom behaviors.
Stay Organized
A great way to manage classroom behaviors is to stay organized yourself. When we aren’t organized, sometimes students will feed off of that energy and become chaotic themselves.
Now, no one expects perfection, but there are several ways to help maintain an organized classroom that promotes good classroom behavior.
Keep it Simple
There are so many tasks you are going to do with your students in a day. Make sure every task or every subject has a routine that is easy to follow.
For example, you should have something for students to remember their logins for computers. If not, computer time can get crazy really fast and then it’s hard to be truly productive.
You may also want to have stations to help keep your students organized. For example, you may have stations for:
- Reading
- Researching/Science
- Math
- Review Games
There are so many ways to organize your classroom and having a solid routine will help your students stay focused throughout the day reducing your chances for negative classroom behaviors.
Focus on the Process
Another way to help with classroom behavior is to focus on the process instead of the final result. Bear with me, this may seem a little side-ways but I promise it will be a game changer. So often we are told to teach students to do well on this test or that test.
But what really matters is the process of getting from point A to point B. If I can tell you I got to point B but not how I got there, did I really learn anything? Did I really do anything?
When you are teaching students, remind them that it is how they get there that is the most important thing. Sometimes students only want to get to the end so they can prove they know it on “the test.”
When we stress that everything we do every day is going to be on a “test” of some sort, it will make students want to focus on the day.
Now this isn’t fool proof, but I have found that being upfront with students about this fact will change the way they learn. Telling students you want them to struggle, to work through things, and to come out as extraordinary problem solvers is a great way to promote positive classroom behavior.
There are benefits of letting students struggle and one of them is your classroom behavior being better. Having an overall goal will always yield good results.
Wrap Up
There are several ways to help students get on a great track for positive classroom behavior. Whether you are working on the day-to-day activities or the overall “culture” of your classroom.
Do you have a challenging student that needs some guidance to get back on track? Check out the FREE BEHAVIOR CHECKLIST below to help track your student’s progress while getting their behavior back on track in your classroom.
