All teachers on deck! It’s day four of our “One Week Only!” idea gathering, and today’s topic is a whopper—student behavior. We’ve all had a student or two who had us contemplating the location of the nearest loony bin, haven’t we? I know I did; I’ll call my student B.B. because he was big and bad. Actually, let’s add a third B because he was also a bully. But you know what? Triple B wasn’t a bad kid; he was simply toting around a ton of bad behaviors. That’s the focus of today’s request—how do teachers help students replace bad behaviors with good ones?
In case you’re wondering, Triple B grew into one of my finest students. Trust me, this wasn’t a solo act. It took a village, and it was worth every ounce of our combined efforts!
This one’s for you, Triple B!
Ms. Badden
PS: Remember that each of your ideas we accept for publication earns you a $20 gift certificate that spends like cash at TheMailbox.com!
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Thursday’s Idea Request How do you encourage students to let go of bad behaviors and embrace good ones? How do you help a student whose behavior prevents him or her from getting along with classmates? |
We want your ideas for other topics too! See Monday’s request, Tuesday’s request, Wednesday’s request, and Friday’s request.
Treat each child as an individual, and realize what worked/works with one may not with another. Do what you said and get others involved, don’t take something like this as personal tackle, you’ll only up as frustrated as the child. Perhaps this is their way of coping with an unkown situation, and they no of no other way. Model and rewards are great stimulators for good behavior.Reward for good behavior should be a practice instead of notices for bad behavior, I have never been proponent of the stop light system of behavior modification (where you go from green to yellow to red by demoting for unwanted behavior). And lastly realize that this all takes TIME!
I have one student this year that has been very disruptive in ways that seem to change each day… (screaming during story time, wrestling other students, crying when he doesn’t get his way etc.) I decided that rather than giving him the attention for his behavior I would ask the other kids how it made them feel when he acted that way. It was very effective for the little boy to hear his classmates say things like, “I don’t like it when he screams because I can’t hear”, or, “It made me feel bad when he took the toy I was playing with”. I have also been trying to allow the little boy a chance to “try again”, using the appropriate behavior he is learning. I have realized that this little boy just needs to be taught the appropriate behavior for preschool and be allowed to create good habits through practice. Although he still struggles with his behavior, he is trying harder and following the example of the other students!
Sometimes the only thing between a good and bad decision is just a little bit of time to slow down and think! I teach my kids to slow down and breath if they feel strong emotions (anger, jealousy, impatience, sadness) building up inside of them. We do something called “The Cocoa Trick”. Early in the year I make myself a big mug of hot steamy cocoa. I then model the act of smelling the cocoa (through my nose) and cooling off the cocoa (by blowing out through my mouth). We smell it because it smells so sweet and we blow on it because it’s just too hot to sip. I then teach the kids that these same actions can help us if we ever need to calm down. We can calm down by taking deep breaths through our nose and slowly blowing out through our mouths. The Cocoa Trick (A breathing exercise in diguise) might just buy your students the time that they need to calm down and make a good choice! Give it a shot!
I work with young children and when they show bad behavior I try to model good behavior to them. For example in the school I work at we encourage the children from the time they are 18 months old to use their words. If one child pushes another child, we teach that child to say no thank you I don’t like it when you push me. Please walk away. It encourages the children to work out their own problems. When two children are screaming at each other, I step in and try to figure out what happened and then I help them work it out. Eventually they stop screaming at each other every time another child pushes them and instead they tell the child to walk away. In addition, when a child in the class pushes me or takes something out of my hand, I say to that child no thank you, please give it back to me. I do not like it when you take things out of my hands. This shows the children that I use the same technique that I have taught them to use.
We all get children who are dificult. I teach preK and sometimes the children we get come from homes where behaviors are tolerated. I go over and over the rules of the classroom at circle daily using a puppet. But with some children it doesnt help. With those children I usually make a huge deal over them when they do behave nicely. When they hurt another child I make the fuss over the injuried child. With my 4 year class I have in the past had to resort to losing playground time. That is a huge deal to the 4’s and I have never had to use it more than twice on a child. There is something about losing 5 minutes of outdoor time, watching their friends go and leave them behiond really hurts.
I teach Kindergarten and I have numerous students with behavior issues this year. One student has had a difficult time keeping his hands to himself. We have had him walk separtely from his classmates, so he is not close enough to touch others and then we let him try it again. We had him at a table by himself for a while and have moved him back with his peers when we felt he could handle it. We use lots of praise when we see him being responsible, respectful and safe! Just this morning, he came into the room and did everything perfectly! We made a huge deal of how proud we were of him and he beamed with pride. Every child is unique, and finding what works is a trial and error process!
I use a Treasure Box system in the classroom. Children earn “Behavior Bucks” for making good choices. I use that word A LOT: Choice. I let the children know that they did not make a good choice, what would have been a better choice, how could we have handled that situation different? When they earn their behavior bucks, they spend them on Friday and get a prize from the Treasure Box. Most of the time, children will try to work harder with their behavior and choices for specific prizes. Of course there are times where this just doesn’t work so magically. We keep communication logs with individual parents, just to inform them of certain behaviors that we need to work on. I have also used individual behavior charts for children. These were kept in a binder, or inside a teacher’s cabinet, so other children could not see the progress of stickers. There were a few elements that would earn stickers on the chart: keeping hands to yourself, using polite words, using helping hands during clean up, walking feet inside the school, and using an indoor voice. We would add up the stickers daily/weekly to see progress together.
We use positive behavior support within my classroom to increase those desirable behaviors and decrease the undesirable behaviors. We are constantly catching the student “being good” and reinforcing these behaviors either through social reinforcement (high fives, good job) or through tangibles reinforcers. If we are observing a non desirable behavior then we will use positive language and tell them what the should be doing. Of course there are some students who need their own individual system so we move them to a token reward system (ie sticker chart) Each time the child does what they are suppose to be doing then they get a sticker and once they get the specified amount then they have earned their chosen award.
Every child is different. Some work well with behavior charts, token economy systems, reverse token economy, and positive notes home. Others may need talk time with the a teacher or another trusted adult. We also hold class meeting to discuss what some of the issues in our classroom are and brainstorm on how we can solve them.
I work at a K-5 grade school as the Behavior Intervention Specialist. One of my roles is the lead recess duty. On the playground when bad behavior results I first make sure that the students are aware of which rule has been violated. Usually a safety rule has become a personal injury or there is a perceived injustice during a game. When that happens I instruct the students involved to ‘Take a Talk’ at the picnic table and then come and tell me when they (not I) have reached a solution for their (not mine) problem. I stand a short distance away from them just in case they need me. The students are most often very eager to embrace the responsibility of solving their own problems. Occasionally they need my intervention but more often then not their solutions are exactly what I would have suggested. Sometimes even better! Allowing them to work it out for themselves brings about a certain level of maturity in youngsters that we often tell them we expect but fail to give them opportunity to show.