Positive Classroom Behavior
Improving the Classroom Mood...
If you are feeling like you need to cultivate more positive classroom behavior, the following tips may help.
Remember your students have had only a short time to learn self-control and that even adults find it difficult to keep their emotions under restraint.
No matter how annoyed you may feel with a child, be consistent and calm. Don't expect kids to behave perfectly. As they explore and discover their world children will make mistakes.
6 steps for a more positive classroom
1. Establish classroom routines early and practice them over and over.
- It takes preschool and kindergarten kids a while to remember routines.
- Once the majority of the children get in the rhythm of classroom routines they teach the other students and the outcome is more positive classroom behavior.
- Keep routines and rules simple and teach one or two at a time.
2. Children's poor behavior may be the result of feeling ignored.
- Some children lack skills to make friends.
- Assign different children to small groups regularly to avoid cliques from forming.
- Play plenty of games that not only involve learning social skills but also result in the children learning each others' names.
3. Comment on a student's choices and efforts rather than on praising him or her.
- An uncomfortable atmosphere of competition can arise when children hear other children being approved of and they are not.
- E.g. Thank you Sarah for helping Adam find his backpack rather than Sarah you are wonderful.
4. Offer more choices.
- Being a kid can be tough, especially if you are one with older brothers or sisters. Create positive classroom behavior by giving children choices all day long.
- This technique can sound overused to an adult but choices give the child a sense of being empowered.
- Children can choose between crayons or felt markers, brown paper or blue paper, glue or tape.
5. Check with children
- When a child refuses to do something, take a moment to check if there is something bothering him or her. They could be hungry, tired or sick.
- Children often do not have the vocabulary to explain why they feel uncomfortable or to express their feelings.
6. Learn to be an expert communicator.
- This is an absolutely necessary teacher skill. Children's behavior is often unpredictable, illogical and based on their emotions.
- Rather than get locked into power trips and arguments, learn effective communication techniques to establish positive classroom behavior.
Need to improve your communication skills?
If you work with young children in any capacity, I recommend Chris Thompson's audio books, "Dealing with the terrible twos and beyond, talking to toddlers".
Don't be fooled by the title, or by the fact that the audio books are geared to a parent audience. His techniques work well with children from two to school age and are beneficial to educators as well as parents.
He offers 3 communication techniques on a free download. Chris is an expert at communication strategies, language patterns, influence and persuasion and his techniques work well to help create positive classroom behavior. Create more positive classroom behavior. Click here for a link to Chris' page.
