Question for elementary school teachers?

Question

I'm an elementary education major and lately I've been hearing a lot about behavior management. Several of my instructors have mentioned ignoring bad behaviors and rewarding good behaviors from students. The reason for ignoring bad behaviors that they gave, was that many students are just looking for attention. My question is, how do you determine what kind of behaviors to ignore? Are there certain behaviors that you can't ignore?

Answer 1

I teach special ed and deal frequently with kids with all sorts of challenging behaviors. Many people beleive that students' behaviors all fulfill some sort of purpose. Some kids do exhibit certain behaviors because they want attention, and often one way of dealing with that is to focus more on positive than negative behaviors so the student learns to get attention from more positive behaviors. For students with significant behavior problems we often do a functional behavior analysis to determine what the "payoff" is for a student. Is he trying to get power, trying to avoid work that is too hard, etc.

That said, I think each teacher needs to establish their own comfort level of what they will and won't accept in their classroom. I think 80% of my students are ADHD along with their other issues. If I spent all day getting worked up over them wiggling in their seats, I wouldnt get a whole lot done. BUt I have other teachers peep in and say they wouldnt stand for that. To each his own.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

This is a great question. It's good that you're learning about classroom management in college--too many people enter the classroom with no idea about approaches to discipline.
The best answer to your question is a sketchy, "It depends." Everything depends on how you feel the class is going at a certain moment in time. There are, of course, behaviors that must always be addressed. Anything that makes another student feel unsafe or unimportant should be dealt with immediately. Any instance of hitting, for example, should not be ignored.
But it's a slippery slope, because things in the classroom are not always as they seem. Consider that you see two kids that look like they're hitting each other across the playground. When you reach them, you find that they are laughing and "just pretending." Do you let it slide? I've found that I need to tell the students what I perceived and restate the school rule--"From across the playground, it looked like you were fighting. I'd like you to both come with me for awhile and have a seat so you can think about more appropriate ways to play."
Or you told the class they need to work silently. You look up and see that C is helping B, who is an ESL student, with a math problem. Do you intervene and enforce the rule? But you don't want to squelch the positive helping. Okay, so you let it go. Then you see that K is looking like she's helping M, both of whom are good math students. Do you let that go? If you tell them to stop talking but allow C and B, are you being fair? Does it matter if you are fair? These are issues to grapple with. Every teacher has to face these decisions A MILLION TIMES A DAY. (Just to let you know: I'd send C and B out to the hall or to the back table to work together, thereby legitimizing the behavior, and tell K and M to stop.) Or let's say that you're giving a spelling test and L misses a word, so T whispers it to him. Let it slide or not? (I'd probably ignore it once, so as not to stop the flow of the test, but speak to the students if it happens again.)
If you're interested in more, check out Tools for Teaching by Fred Jones--there's a book and a website. He talks about how 80% of the discipline problems in the average classroom are not the "big bad" problems of fighting and insubordination--they're the little problems of sharpening pencils while you're giving instructions, wandering around, talking and not getting back on task, and so forth. It's how you deal with this 80% that will determine how your classroom functions.
If you are using planned ignoring, it doesn't hurt to let students know about it later. This will reinforce your ethos as being all-knowing. "I noticed that you got up out of your seat six times while I was working with a guided reading group. Can you explain this to me?" Gulp! The student was caught....but you didn't have to interrupt your small group lesson.
EducationWorld.com also has some good classroom management links that represent a variety of styles and ideas.

Answer 3

I have been a teacher for four years. I am very strict with discipline. If you want your class to run smoothly, you must have an effective discilpline policy. I do not ignore bad behavior. If there is bad behavior, there must be consequences. The same with good behavior. If you work hard, you can be rewarded. If students see bad behavior being ignored, they will all think they can get away with it. It is very important to remain consistent in the classroom. The first 2 wks of school are crucial. If you set an example for what is expected and stay consistent with it, your class will run smoothly. It is unacceptable to ignore bad behavior.

Answer 4

I believe that your instructors to be right. The student just want to be noticed. Good, or bad. So if you can reward the good behavior they will start doing it more. The only bad behavior you can not ignore is something that may hurt you or others.

Answer 5

You need to be prepared for the fact that what you learn in college will help you very little in the actual classroom. Of course, you learn teaching techniques, but if you can't get your class to listen, it won't matter. I learned more as a teacher than in school. Make sure that you do an internship. Try to get one in a rough neighborhood. (Odds are as a new teacher, you will not get hired in a good school. Sorry, that's how it is.) Make sure that the person you are working with has good management techniques. You will eventually have to come up with your own system but your internship advisor should be able to help you make that first year a little easier.