Teachers have so many roles to play besides being instructors. They also need to shape the learners’ behaviors to ensure they become the best they can be. But learner behavior can sometimes move from being annoying to being out of control, which disheartens teachers.
One of the things you learn in your teaching course is behavior management. It can, however, be tricky to manage some student behaviors. Well, this is where resources like this article become helpful. It has the best tips to apply along with what you already know.
Let’s see them below.
Table of Contents
1. Build Relationships
This should be one of the major steps to be undertaken when managing student behavior. You need to ensure that you build solid relationships with your students. Most students tend to be mischievous if they feel that their teachers aren’t as friendly with them as they should be.
Thus, you need to build close relationships with them. Show them the friendly and loving side of you and they’ll start behaving better. Also, you need to be a role model by doing what you expect of them. Be open to admitting mistakes and apologizing whenever necessary.
2. Expand Your Knowledge
Student handling and management of behavior is an expansive topic. You need to spend time learning and understanding what it takes to do it effectively. Taking advancement courses is one of the most effective ways to learn new ways of managing learner behavior.
There are various online courses for teachers that you can undertake. Online graduate courses for teachers will open more opportunities for you besides equipping you with the skills you need. You can even take a Google classroom training course online and get certified.
3. Have a Behavior Management Plan
You also need to develop a clear behavior management plan. And there is so much that you need to include in this plan. This includes the rules that you expect learners to stick to and the consequences of failure to. Ensure that you include your students in creating this plan.
Another thing that you must focus on is how you apply the rules you set. It is vital to ensure that you are consistent by applying these rules uniformly. Showing fairness will make your students trust you. Also, ensure that you correct misbehavior instantly, but always be subtle.
4. Engage Your Students.
Many teachers do not understand how helpful student engagement can be. You always need to keep learners busy to ensure they don’t have too much free time that they can misbehave with. For instance, when teaching in class, ensure that you make it fun by engaging learners.
You can sometimes change the plan from learning to playing games if you deem it necessary. This is especially true when the overall mood of the class is not that pleasant. An escape room activity will help them re-energize and also before they get back to normal classroom learning.
5. Engage the Parents
You also need to engage parents whenever students show signs of extreme behavior. A parent is the learner’s closest companion, and children spend the majority of their time at home. Thus, the root causes of the behaviors they are exhibiting might not have resulted from the school.
Speaking with the parent or guardian will help you understand the learner better. You will know if there are issues at home that might be triggering bad behavior. Parents will also help you know the best approach to use to de-escalate these behaviors and get the desired results.
Some students might have special reasons for behaving in certain ways. You can ask their parents if they have sought counseling services. This will let you know whether seeking counseling would be a better option. Also, ask parents to look out for misbehavior at home.
You should also consider taking advancement courses for teachers, especially those focusing on counseling. This can help ensure that you identify students who need counseling and offer it at school without having to trouble their parents.
6. Use Positive Language
You should ensure that you always use positive language when correcting students. It is worth noting that negative language sometimes reinforces bad behaviors. Children and teens can exhibit some funny behaviors where they do what they are told not to do.
How you react to such behaviors matters a lot. It will determine whether they’ll desist from them or if they’ll repeat the same mistakes. Using positive language even when angry will show students that you respect them. This might make them have a change of behavior.
Using positive language makes the learning environment safer for the learners. It also helps instill a sense of behavior in them while also making them disciplined and motivated. You might also encourage them to start speaking positively about themselves and their peers.
7. Make the Environment Learner-Friendly
Sometimes learners exhibit bad behavior because the environment encourages them to. It is easy to notice this, especially in the classroom. Students will misbehave more if they get distracted. This can be because of activities happening outside the classroom or within.
One thing you might have come across in your teacher’s course is how to make the learning environment learner-friendly. The most outstanding way to do it is by ensuring that their space has no distractions at all. You need to comb it up before you start teaching.
That way, you will reduce the chances of the learners getting distracted. By extension, you will have reduced misbehavior because the concentration levels will be through the roof. This also applies to other aspects of learning, not only in the classrooms but anywhere at school.
Conclusion
Those are some of the best tips to implement when looking to manage student behavior. As we have mentioned, you can also consider advancing your knowledge on this subject. You can take a continuing education course to help you acquire skills to de-escalate bad behavior.
Also, you can use the tips we’ve shared in this post to manage student behavior. These tips are both effective in and outside the classroom. All you need to do is integrate them into the behavior management plan that you’ll create. That will make preventing bad behavior easier.