As a teacher what is the best way to get kids at secondary school to behave?

Answer 1

There are many good/great suggestions that have already been provided and there have been some poor ones. The easiest way to set the bar is to set the standard the first day of class. It doesn't matter if you are a new teacher or one year from retirement, you can start over each year. Have expectations clearly stated and reviewed.

Different styles work for different people, but I would say some rules of thumb and suggestions are:

1. Always treat students as people. (May be common sense, but I know of many peers that think because they are teachers they are superior.

2. Have students take ownership in the rules. Be a facilitator at the beginning of the year. Create the list of expected behaviors and consequences as a class. Make sure to foster creativity, but stay on task. Create consequences, but have them state why it is relevant to the behavior. This works especially well for younger students. It can review well-known rules and invent new ones.

3. Try to keep consequences relevant to the behavior. Unless a severe infraction, always try to make it a learning situation. While it usually isn't taught directly, behavior modification is a indirect goal for EVERY teacher. It's not a bad thing a child misbehaves, it's how we react and redirect that behavior that is important.

4. Never make and example out of a situation. (Scapegoat). This should be common sense. This can easily backfire for the one you punish and the rest of the class.

5. Dealing with behavioral situations with humor is an artform. The teacher's personality is a huge factor as well as the atmosphere of the class. I think it is easy for someone to suggest humor, but you risk insulting students as you may not have a true understanding of what is underlying the behavior.

6. I find it best to ask for ideas, observe other teachers...take notes on what works...and take more detailed notes on what does not work.

7. Never, ever play good cop bad cop with you and the administration. Most of the time, vice principals and principals play the bad cop and dishes out the punishment without input from the teacher or blindly punishes the student. If you send a student to the office, make sure you do so for good reason and make certain the administator has a clear understanding of why you did so. Try to keep your personal biases toward those students out of the situation when explaining yourself. This tacitly tells the student that even though you're upset and the admin is upset, you all are working together to be fair in this situation. This will minimize the risk for future situation being negative.

8. You may be the only attention from an adult a student receives. They may crave your approval whether through praise or reprimand and will do anything to get it. This is a chess match and you need to choose your battles accordingly. Planned ignorance and getting to know your student outside of the class can be a powerful tool.

9. Realize you won't win every situation. Take disruptions as an opportunity to teach your students that disruptions are a part of life and it's how you learn to deal with those situations that help you overcome many different obstacles. A child going to school is disruption to their schedule of sleeping, playing and eating, but they use school to learn to better themselves so that they can eat better, sleep better and play with bigger and better toys.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Good luck! Some of today's teens have a real attitude. However, you can improve behaviour by rewarding good behaviour. Not with anything as yucky as gold stars or candies, but little things like time off in the room. I used to have a reading corner and a chess game set up at the back of the room. Kids who built up points were allowed to use them while the rest of the class was doing something more mundane. That seemed to help. They were also paired off, so the brighter ones (who were more easily bored and were the ones who most often got into mischief because they had time on their hands) were paired with someone who needed help in a particular subject. Teens love to show off if they know something or can do something that somebody else can't. But once they got started, they were quite committed to bringing up the level of the other kid's work.
Anyway, this gives you a general idea of my classroom. Not all the other teachers approved, but we had a great class, and the kids did well.

Answer 3

You have to make classes enjoyable and provide a reward for good work. You'd be surprised what good some colourful stickers can do. Get students to participate in the teaching (they learn a lot more that way). In law class, for example, the teacher would ask us to research a case each and present it to the rest of the group, often with a doodle on the board or acting it out. It really does help to make people enjoy the class thus behave better.

Answer 4

As you are obviously a teacher in a UK school and most of the answers are from well brought up middle class americans. Allow me......Rewards don't work, they take the piss and think you're soft. Punishments and telling their parents, doesnt work either. punishments aren't allowed, well decent ones anyway. Besides they'll just give you a speech about ' I know my rights' and 'you can't do that to me, I'll tell my social worker!' Telling parents doesnt work for following reasons, a; parents don't give a **** and will tell you that they can't do anything with them either' or parents come round and threaten to 'do you in' its your fault their kid doesnt do as they're told. You're the teacher its your job to teach'

My only advice or help is this; bribery, corruption, threats and claiming close connections with the right/wrong people are the only way to deal with badly behaved kids. Or hire a an armed bodyguard to stand with you in class!

Oh and make sure you drive a cool car!

Answer 5

When I was in middle school my favorite classes were the ones that moved away from the traditonal classroom setting(outside under a tree, floor, chairs and desks in a circle so everyone could watch you). We new this was special and we knew we would lose it if we acted up so nobody dared mess it up. The rules were clear from the beginning and our teacher never faultered in putting us back to the old school ways when someone got out of hand thus making the peer pressure very strong. It created a want to go to this class stronger than any other.

Answer 6

Involve your students in the lesson, it's no good just standing at the front and talking at them.
Make the lesson interesting, even if you're teaching a boring subject in their opinion there are still ways of making it fun and interesting.
Ask for their opinion, ask your students what they want you to do and ask the reccuring mis-behavers why they do it.
Enjoy yourself, if you're relaxed, friendly and co-operative then your students are More likely to be to.
Reward the well-behaved students, if they think you don't notice them when they're being good then chances are they're more likely to mis-behave in the future.
Hope these tips help! As a secondary school pupil myself I know why students tend to mis-behave. If you want you can e-mail me and tell me exactly what's wrong and I might be able to help, my address is [e-mail].

Answer 7

I'm a School Psychologist and get asked this one all the time. The best way to get them to behave is to have structure (students knowing what to expect and what comes next...predicability, etc) and good classroom management. For individual cases of inappropriate behavior, take the student out of earshot of the other students and explain what they were doing that was inappropriate and have them assist you in coming up with reasons why the behavior was inappropriate. Next, assist the student in listing replacement behaviors and describe for them, the positive consequences of doing the right thing. Yelling and put downs never work.

Answer 8

I agree with the teacher and psychologist, especially with the pairing up students(paired by YOU) so that both students benefit (I've witnessed the success of Talk Partners in primary schools).

Maintain your position as a teacher. Respect them as mature people and they will do the same. Basicly, speak to them as you would like to be spoken to. For example, if they are naughty, pull them aside (they may be covering up their lack of knowledge in front of the class), talk to them letting them know that you want to help and that the conversation is not going to be disclosed to the rest of the class, allow them to express a response, come to a compromise and follow through.

Teachers cannot be "mates" with their students but they can be someone that is respected, trusted to do as they say and promise, and approachable - students always respond to you the same way they are treated.

Get to know your students, ask them about themselves, background etc. You can find out about their learning styles, what interests them, any suggestions they can give you to make your partnership better, etc and plan your lessons to try to accomodate for as many students as possible. Break your lesson up into small sections where they are taught differently, particularly allowing interaction and discussion, asking questions, etc. It keeps them stimulated.

I have great respect for all you teachers and the government should stop all this stupid inspections, reports, league tables etc and allow them to do what they went into the job to do - teaching and inspiring the children of our future... or they will all move abroad and we lose the passionate beings who do the jobs many can't and won't do - they don't get paid enough for that "privilege".

Answer 9

be funny and they will pay attention to you. comedy in school is seriously underated. if you have a laugh with them and a good time you will feel as though you belong to their generation and gain their respect. lets face it kids rebel. if you have a laugh with them, when the time comes to get some serious work done they will respect you and behave. treat them as your friends not enemies you have to control.

when i was in secondary school I had this awesome teacher for history. she was so funny nad rewarded us for good work all the time eg. chocolate fridays.....whoever had done some good work got free chocolate!!

looking back now (i have nearly finished university) I don't remember much about high school, or college....but I can remember lots of things from that history class and that was many moons ago. when i remeniss with my old class mates down the local.....we often talk about how fun that class was and how she inspired us all.

you can be a legend too. be one of the kids. tell them cool stories from your childhood and reward them all constantly...even the bad ones and you will gain so much respect.

Answer 10

Honestly, you should find another job if you can't get them under control. If you don't get control of your class the first day, then it's going to be a tough year. It takes a lot out of you to teach and you kind of have to have natural talent. This is all stuff you go over in your credential classes. Some people don't have the personality to know when to be tough and when to lay off. Make sure it's something you have a passion for.