For student teachers perhaps the biggest challenge of being in a classroom is finding ways to manage student behaviour. Teachers yelling ‘quiet’ every five minutes isn’t a particularly effective form of discipline. The kids don’t like being shouted at and you’ll end up with a sore throat by the end of the day.
So what are some techniques I’ve seen in action in the last 4 weeks?
1. You catch more bees with honey…
AKA as positive discipline. Instead of focusing attention on troublemakers, the teacher focus their attention on the children who are behaving in class. Eg. ‘I like the way Sarah puts her books away,’ ‘I like the way Matthew is sitting on the Matt.’ This technique is particularly effective with younger children who still seek a teacher’s approval for their behaviour however I’ve seen it used in year 7/8 classes as well.
2. ‘Eyes on me’
You sing, eyes on me, the students sing it back to you. Good for juniors, drowns out other conversations but does tend to add to the classroom noise.
3. “Clap clap, clap clap”
Like ‘Eyes on Me’ but the teacher claps a pattern and the students clap it back. Suitable for older kids as well as juniors again it drowns out other conversations but it does add to the noise.
4. Stand and glare
This is particularly effective at the end of the lesson and with kids from about year 3/4 upwards. Don’t do or say anything and wait for the class to bring itself to attention. Pro doesn’t add to classroom noise, con takes time there’s a risk the students will continue with their off-task behaviour ignoring you. Must have good ‘teacher glare’ to implement.
5. Hand up
You put up your hand and stand quietly. The students notice and then start to add their hands up until every is silently sitting/standing with their hand up. Pros, doesn’t add to classroom noise and is visible. Con, takes time to train and to implement.
6. ‘5,4,3,2,1’
Teacher counts down to 1. The technique is effective when you want to get students to complete a task, eg. putting away reading books, in a timely matter.
7. The silent pick-up
Students are given a list of tasks that need to be done at the end of the class, eg. putting away the paint, washing the brushes etc. The class is checked off against those criteria the students win points for extra jobs and lose points for talking. At the end of term the class with the winning points gets a certificate at end of term assembly.
Part 2 to come tomorrow…
Teaching the Teacher 
Great reading thank you… I got admonished for saying “you guys” a number of times. But that was after I’d been listening to the relief teacher screaming at the kids in the next classroom and I sure didn’t want to sound like that! I must find a happy medium.
What I’d like to know though – what happens at the end of the count down? Do you start again if some ignore you? What consequences would bring them to task? At least with your own off-spring the count down would incur the loss of a privilege but what privileges can one cut off in the classroom? And, no, I’m the kind of person who enjoys my lunch-break, so imposing the stay-in-at-lunchtime is not something I want to administer…
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Thanks for your comment.
I think that perhaps you need to remember you don’t just have to use any one technique at one time. So if the countdown fails, you don’t need to rush to consequences. You can always try a #1 reward the students that have already completed what needed to be done or you could use a #2/#3/#5 to get attention and repeat your instructions. You could also go to #4.
I should mention that the kids at my school are pretty good behaviour wise but my school’s culture is pretty awesome.
Hope my reply helps đŸ™‚
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