Good Behavior

Alison Baker's blog post, "Child Behavior: Tactic for Good Behavior" discuss strategies to get students to behave well. The targeted age for these tactics is Grades Pre K-8th, however, they can still be used for high school students. Her first strategy is the use of rewards in classroom such as stickers, praise and prizes. In the high school setting when stickers do not really cover it anymore, there are still ways to motivate students. I know that I was motivated with simple praise because if a teacher liked my work I would not want to disappoint their expectations on the next assignment. There is also the strategy of offering bonus points for good behavior and well written assignments. If students know that they can get bonus points to add toward future assignments they may not do well on, is an incentive or them to try hard and behave well.

For chatty classroom, she encourages praise for good behavior again, but also notes that teachers should look at the layout of the classroom to see if moving students around would help stop the chatter. I know that when I was in high school, it became apparent after the first week, who the best friends in the class were. Moving the students around without targeting them specifically would provide a nonchalant way of stopping the talking. If students know they are being moved for a specific reason, this may cause resentment and resentment would not encourage goof behavior.

Finally, she explains that asking elementary school children why they are upset during a tantrum may not be the best tactic. Instead, offering opportunities to calm themselves down such as grabbing a drink of water or taking deep breaths with the teacher could help. For high school students, I would recommend having them take a drink of water, that way they can leave class to calm down without feeling like all eyes are on them. This could be risky depending on what they are upset about because if the student is angry at another student in the school, they could leave the class to go find them. Therefore, assessing the situation for high school students is important.

website used: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/child-behavior-tactics-good-behavior