Effective instruction is at the heart of teaching. But what do we do when student behavior constantly interrupts our instruction? Few things are as stressful or disruptive as having repeated behavior problems in class, especially when they seem to be coming from the whole group. Unfortunately, many of us in education weren’t trained to address…
Getting students to follow directions consistently is a classic challenge in the classroom. Fortunately, for the vast majority of our kids, explicitly teaching students to follow directions is enough. There will always be some, though, for whom compliance is a challenge. A challenge for them and for us! Research has demonstrated that how we give…
If only there were a classroom management strategy that was incredibly easy to implement and instantly wiped away all of our misbehavior woes. Well, spoiler alert: there’s not. I always say that anyone who tells you otherwise, who suggests they have a silver bullet for behavior problems, is probably selling you something. However, there are…
Choice making is one of my favorite practical behavior intervention strategies. It’s so simple, yet remarkably powerful. Perhaps it’s related to what many teachers cite as the reason for student misbehavior—control. Although control may not be a useful function for developing interventions, it’s a concept I run across often when supporting educators. “He does it…
Sometimes the simplest barrier to better student behavior we can address is student motivation. With the right incentive, we can improve a wide range of behaviors. If we use that incentive well. Behavior contracts set us up to use incentives wisely to maximize student motivation to improve their own behavior. And using a contract to…
Sometimes it feels like a student is just stuck. Frozen. Nothing we do can get them to move. At least not in the direction we’re trying to go. Non-compliance and defiance from a student are like this. When a student doesn’t follow directions—or just flat out refuses to—we can quickly realize how little control we…
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were a strategy you could always have in your back pocket that worked for improving nearly any appropriate behavior you want to see with almost any student? Wouldn’t that be lovely? Well, there is no silver bullet for behavior, no practice guaranteed to produce positive outcomes. Anyone who tells…
Challenging student behavior can be one of the most exhausting and stressful parts of teaching. Especially when it just keeps happening. Unfortunately most of us didn’t receive much training on what to do in our teacher prep programs. We need classroom and behavior management strategies we can put in place tomorrow. Things that are practical. …