Preventing Disruptive Behavior: Tips for Classroom Management
1) Adopt a middle ground. Be firm in enforcing rules, but do it in a way that you balance it with warmth, praise, understanding, fairness, responsiveness, and acceptance of the troubled student’s needs. 2) Increase your tolerance for angry feelings and acting-out behaviors by identifying positive attributes in the feelings or behavior; for example, independence, leadership qualities, or strong character. 3) Change your teaching style from stationary to circulating so that you can walk by the troubled, anger-prone, or acting-out student every five-to-six minutes. 4) Use proximity control , such as walking towards the student, putting one hand on the child’s shoulder or desk, and/or (without saying a word) removing any object that is distracting the child. 5) Model calmness, gentleness, and respect. Address children using “Thank you,” “I’m sorry,” or “I apologize.” Teachers should never be afraid of saying to children that we are sorry, or acknowledgi