Many people believe that children are less well-behaved than ever before, and if you are experiencing this problem in your elementary school classroom, then you know how difficult it can be to manage. Teaching a classroom full of rambunctious children can feel next to impossible. However, there are ways around this problem.
Applied behavior analysis (ABA) techniques can help, along with positive reinforcement. These tactics can even help with virtual learning and virtual classroom settings. But where should you start when it comes to classroom management?
Keep reading and learn more about how to manage children’s behavior in your elementary classroom.
Think About Your Classroom Seating
Many people don’t realize that behavior management and classroom seating are closely related. In some cases, students have the freedom to choose their seats. When this is the case, they are much more likely to cause trouble in the classroom.
Why might this be, you ask? It has to do with the fact that when students are free to choose their seats, they are more likely to group up with students that they already know. That way, students will end up grouping up with their friends.
This will cause students to be more likely to talk during class and be generally disruptive. On the other hand, children tend to be more well-behaved when their seats are assigned to them. That way, they are surrounded by not only their friends but other students.
The Details
As such, they will be less likely to chat and make a fuss with those around them. However, letting children choose their seats is not always a bad thing, but you may not want to let it happen all the time. Allowing children to choose their seats does give them a certain amount of freedom and time with their friends so they can improve their social skills.
This can also make children feel more at home in their learning environment. If children feel comfortable in their learning environment, they often will perform better in their academic studies. But if you find that some of the students are making too much of a fuss when seated together, it is best to seat them elsewhere for the rest of the class so everything can get back on track.
This will also enforce children to behave no matter where they might be sitting in the classroom.
Use Positive Reinforcement
Children often need a lot of attention and praise. Some children try to get attention through positive behavior while others try through bad behavior. Many don’t realize that paying attention to a child that is behaving badly will not help the issue.
For example, yelling at a student who has disrupted the class will not necessarily deter that student from continuing the same behavior in the future. This is because yelling at the student is, in a way, providing the child with the attention that he seeks. Instead, it is best to ignore bad behavior as long as the bad behavior is not causing too much of a disruption.
Ignoring this kind of behavior will make the child realize he will not get any attention when behaving badly. The opposite is true with good behavior. Positive enforcement is all about praising a child for good behavior.
What You Need to Know
By doing this, the child will understand that doing good things will be rewarded with positive attention. For example, if a student keeps his desk tidy, the teacher may praise him for this. That way, it will be more likely for the child to continue keeping his desk tidy in the future.
Other children may also notice this pattern of reward and behavior and also be more likely to behave well in class. This pattern of reward and behavior can be used in all sorts of facets of the classroom. It can also help students learn more efficiently than ever before.
By promoting good behavior while ignoring bad behavior, children will be more likely to listen to their lessons, stay quiet while class is in session, avoid talking with their friends during class, and so on.
Always Be Consistent
The key to managing student behavior in an elementary school classroom is consistency. Suppose you are a teacher and have scolded a student for making loud noises in the middle of the class. Then, the next time the student makes the same loud noises, you don’t do anything about it.
This mixed response will not do much to help manage any version of behavior in the classroom, because students will realize that they will face consequences from the teacher only sometimes. Therefore, they will not be discouraged from bad behavior.
Instead, they will continue because they know there is a good chance that there will be no real consequences for their behavior. As you can imagine, this would not be good for the classroom. Fortunately, you can solve this problem by always being consistent with your responses to student behavior.
What You Need to Know About ABA and Classroom Management
Managing an elementary classroom can be difficult, but it’s not impossible as long as you learn about ABA and the power of managing the behavior of your students.
An easy way to start is to sort out the seating situation for your students. You should also use plenty of positive reinforcement while ignoring most low-level disruptive behavior from students.
Finally, being consistent in your responses to student behavior is very important. To learn more about managing student behavior, don’t hesitate to click here.
