Balancing discipline with responsibility
Helping students manage their own behavior in ways that help them learn is every teacher’s goal. Here are some ideas to try:
1. Be friendly. Be the kind of person children like and trust: firm, fair, friendly, with a sense of humor.
2. Keep an orderly classroom. Maintaining a cheerful, organized classroom encourages good behavior.
3. Get to know your students. If you do, you’ll develop a “sixth sense” for anticipating trouble before it begins.
4. Make learning fun. Make students’ days in school interesting and fun, as well as relevant to their lives.
5. Avoid arguing. Discussions are invaluable, but arguments aren’t.
6. Keep the rules simple. Establish only a few classroom rules and state them simply and clearly. Be consistent when applying them. Make sure consequences are
appropriate.
7. Don’t threaten or humiliate. Try not to use threats to enforce discipline and never humiliate a child.
8. Let your students know you care about them. Determine mutually with your students what is acceptable behavior and what’s not. Don’t talk about students’ misdeeds with other students. Admit it if you make a mistake and apologize if you’ve treated a student unjustly.