Teachers are tasked with planning and executing those lesson plans to deliver quality education. But a major variable in that process is the children’s classroom behavior.
Just like adults, children have good days and bad days, and the teacher’s role is to ensure that even during the bad days, their behavior is not so disruptive that it impacts the other students and their ability to learn.
Managing classroom behaviors is an essential role for any teacher. So here’s a list of management strategies to guide your entire classroom in learning.
6 Ideas to Help Manage Classroom Behavior
Teachers must be equipped with behavior management strategies to succeed in early childhood education. Depending on where your teachers are at in their careers, you might want to host a workshop or discuss these ways of managing classroom behavior during your next staff meeting.
- Create a Routine
A daily routine is one of the most effective behavior management tools you can use to make your expectations clear. Routines help children anticipate what is coming next and prepare for it. Teachers won’t have to give as much instruction when children can anticipate upcoming activities, allowing more time to complete work.
Allow children to be involved in the daily routine. And on days where you plan to change the routine, let them know in advance so they can prepare for that change.
Involve children in the routines and give them tasks they are responsible for to get them more hands-on with the flow of the day. And if you have students notorious for being disruptive in class, include them in the daily tasks. Excluding them out of fear that they’ll further disrupt things can have a negative impact on their behavior.
If you see a student, not in line with the planned routine for the day, try to use hand gestures and facial expressions to get them back in line with what they should be doing. Using verbal cues could interrupt lesson flow, which is not ideal for the other students.
- Involve Children in Setting Rules
While children might not like the idea of rules, this is another essential element of a high-functioning classroom. Work with children to set classroom rules for best results because they are less likely to reject the rules.
Have children take ownership of the rules and use peer pressure to enforce the rules without having children call one another out. Make it clear what happens if a child disobeys the rules and the consequences.
Do your best to enforce rules impartially and consistently so that no one feels you are playing favorites with some students. You should not stop an activity because one student is acting out. And never discipline the entire classroom because one student broke a rule. After all, it could lead to wrongfully punishing students for behaving well.
- Ensure Lessons Stimulate and Engage Children
Perhaps you’re struggling with student behavior because lesson plans are not age-appropriate or are not engaging children as much as they could and should. Just like adults can get bored with pointless meetings where the organizer drones on far too long, students can feel disengaged with lesson plans that involve little activity or aren’t clear.
The more stimulating your lesson plans, the more children are likely to engage with them, which prevents unwanted behavior.
Involve and engage your students in their classes for the best results. Build lesson plans designed around building knowledge in specific areas by including practical activities based on the ages of your students.
Vary teaching methods and incorporate games and actions to ensure children remain engaged throughout the day.
- Engage in Positive Language
Negative language can potentially reinforce the wrong behavior because children tend to gravitate toward engaging in behaviors teachers tell them not to do.
Instead of telling a child to stop throwing toys, invite them back to the activity you were teaching. Positive language helps children feel respected and teaches them to use the same language when conversing with others.
The voices of adults will also become a child’s inner voice. So instead of saying they can’t do something, they might say they will try their best because that’s a more positive way of approaching the topic.
When bringing a child back to the activity and behavior you want, do your best to keep your demeanor and body language positive. Smile as you instruct a student to avoid creating a combative environment.
- Build Student-teacher Relationships
Take time to get to know your students truly. Ask about their interests and observe the activities they tend to engage with less. That way, you can center your lesson plans around the students in your classroom for that school year. This will lead to better engagement and less disruptive behavior.
The more you get to know your students, the more you’ll be able to spot activities that tend to trigger behavior issues. Behavior issues could be because a child doesn’t enjoy a certain type of activity or because they find it especially challenging or frustrating.
Knowing this going into an activity can help you focus your time on the students who you know will need more assistance with certain tasks.
- Document Children’s Behavior and Share Improvements with Parents
When talking about a child during pickup and drop-off, use the positive language since the child can overhear you. Reserve discussing problematic behavior in your childcare app or parent-teacher conferences.
If you can document behavior throughout the day, you’ll also start to see trends and improvement areas. Documenting behavior also makes for a seamless transition of care back to parents. Parents can then see what activities the child struggled with that day to discuss the behavior and reinforce positive language at home to continue guiding disruptive children toward engaging more at school.
Parent-teacher communication reduces disruptive behavior in the classroom and at home. Using a team approach to behavioral improvements will have the best results. But parents can’t collaborate with teachers if they don’t know what’s happening at school.
Learn how iCare Software helps teachers document behavior changes and share insights with parents through its industry-leading communication tools and apps. Schedule a demo now to learn more.