Thomas J. West Music

I ride a commuter bus to work each day. This morning, the bus was standing-room-only - so much so that I couldn't even get past the driver's cabin to cling to the rails in an illusion of safety. In one of those strange phenomenons of human social behavior, people forced to stand only traverse to the middle of the bus, leaving enough space in the aisle behind them to make room for a half-dozen more riders. So, I asked loudly enough for the middle of the cabin to hear, "Could you move back so I can get in the door?"

Now, admittedly, I forgot the "please", but before I even has a chance to add one, a man sitting three rows back decided that I was a rude, selfish person and told me point-blank that if I didn't like it, I should say "excuse me" and move to the back of the bus. When I pointed out that I already asked them to move for me, his response was, "Stop talking to me." Who's the rude one now?

Sometimes the way we quickly label people based on their behavior says more about us than it does about them. Let's apply this to teaching, shall we?

Do You Pre-Judge Students?

The answer to that question is "yes." You have to.

As teachers, we have to quickly assess the environment with dozens, if not scores of young people simultaneously, diagnose problem behaviors, and address them as quickly as possible. This leads to certain individuals being labeled quickly as "problem children". The bottom line in classroom discipline is creating the least restrictive environment where children can learn, and sometimes that means labeling a kid.

Teachers as mere mortals, however, tend to attach that label to the child, not the behavior. Rather than seeing it as an opportunity to help a young person learn to be more productive and a better social contributor, teachers roll their eyes and complain about "that kid" in the teachers lounge.

Suggestions For Dealing With Students With Chronic Disruptive Behavior Patterns

• As a wise teacher once told me, "Deal with the deed, not the ego." Don't label the child, identify the behavior and address it.
  
• Document, document, document. Chronic behavior problems need a paper trail. It demonstrates just how pervasive the disruptive behavior is and can be essential when a parent conference is called.
• Reprimand in private. Obviously, the verbal reprimands in class are only effective for about five minutes. Step outside the room with the student. Keep it brief - 30 seconds. Based on their previous chronic behavior, plan out a few stock reprimands to use and adapt them to the situation. Removing them from their audience is key.
• Focus on what they should do. As teachers (and parents), we tend to say "Don't do that". I prefer, "That's not ok" and a one-sentence "do this instead".
• Don't wait to communicate with parents. As a parent myself, I want to know when my sons are disrupting the classroom so I can reinforce the teachers' efforts at home.
• Make them do it over. If they chronically don't follow a rule, require them to go back and follow it rather than just telling them about it. It's called re-teaching and even if you get a lot of lip because of it, persistence will get your point across.

Am I successful at implementing these suggestions all the time? Certainly not. Sometimes the effort that goes into it takes more time than you are willing to give at that juncture. But when their chronic behavior problems are only addressed with "stop that" to save time, you find yourself saying "stop that" the entire school year, which in the long run wastes more tiume and adds to your stress level considerably.

As I have said in my articles about No Child Left Behind, people are not widgets. You can not put them on an assembly line, subject them to a list of modifications, and create identical finished products. Every one of them is a "precious snowflake" (he says with tongue firmly planted in cheek). Consistency and patience are the hallmarks of effective student behavior management.

This article (c) 2011 Thomas J. West. All content on ThomasJWestMusic dot com is licensed under a Creative Contributions Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Please contact the author before publishing on or off-line.

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