Saturday, December 21, 2013

Tips on behavior management

Behavior Management Tips

As a teacher I know that sometimes the most difficult part of teaching is keeping student's behaviors under control. So I thought I would make a blog about some strategies I have used to help curb some of these disruptions.

First let me tell you a little bit about my teaching background to help you understand where I received some intense knowledge/experience in behavior management. 

When I was in grad school, I was on a grant program and had to work a certain amount of hours in the field each week to  fulfill my grad school requirements. In this program I worked a decent part of my hours at a k thru 12 school for the emotionally impaired. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and this experience would impact my behavior management techniques greatly. In this program I had was fortunate enough to be able to teach adapted physical education to the students at this school. 

We had a large range of reasons of why the students ended up at a center based school for the emotionally impaired. Reasons ranged from being defiant, fighting all the way to sexual assault. To say the least, when I first arrived to the school I was pretty intimidated by the school, the students and their "baggage". Quickly my  feeling of being intimidated led to intrigue. I saw how well the students behaved when they were given consistent rewards and consequences. I started to see the students and their "baggage" in a different light as well. I viewed the students who had experiences that I could never imagine, and who needed someone that they could rely on more than anything else in the world. Then I finally learned enough techniques I could use to help prevent behaviors, redirect behaviors and give appropriate consequences to shape behaviors.

Now that I have given you some of my background story on how I have had an unique experience with behavior management, let me give you some tips and advice on how to best prevent and deal with behaviors.
Something my mentors, Dr. Davis and Dr. Dillon once told me, there are 3 parts of a child when it comes to their ability to learn, there is the child's natural abilities, their environment and the learning styles. You can only adapt their environment and the way you present the information, so focus on those components to try and make a positive impact on the child. Something to consider when looking at how to adapt your environment and teaching style to help students be successful when looking at their behaviors.




The first thing you need to consider before you start trying to shape a child's behaviors is who that child is. Taking the time to get to know the child, building a relationship and letting them know that you value them and their opinion can sometimes solve behavior issues. Once you have established a real relationship with a child, they will be more motivated to try and help you to solve classroom behavior problems. When getting to know your students you will find what motivates them, what sets off their behaviors and how to deescalate behaviors once they have begun. 

Preventive Strategies:

Let's now discuss preventive strategies. In the education field, there is a big push for preventive strategies. There is very good reason to have this big push. If you set up an environment to decrease the incidents of disruptive behaviors then of course this is a huge component of behavior management. 

Here are a few preventive strategies that you might consider using in your classrooms/gyms:

• Give a student a seat closer to the teacher
• Do not confront the student openly in front of their peers
• Give the student frequent hall talks to review expectations
• Put up visuals of classroom expectations
• Use a stop light system, where when the stop sign is up, no one is able to talk, or they get a strict consequence
• Put in a reward system that can be earned for good behavior
• Give student's sensory breaks
• Planned ignoring
•Have a chart for a student to monitor there own behavior

Another important aspect of shaping behaviors and motivating students to be successful in your classroom/gym is to monitor their behavior closely. Using behavior chart to tally their behaviors or giving a comment about why and how their behavior occurred can give you real insight into why they might have acted out. Here is an example of a very simplistic behavior chart.


Behavior Systems:

Now as I said before, every student is completely different. What strategies work and don't work will depend on the student, the environment, and consistency. I can't stress enough the importance of consistency for students who exhibit extreme disruptive behaviors. 

Now let me describe to you the system that was used at the school for students with emotional impairments. It was extreme, but I have adapted for my classrooms for students with Autism, Intellectual Disabilities and Physical Disabilities. 

The system is broken down into 5 levels. Every level that a student climbs up, they receive more privileges and independence. An example of a privilege is the ability to go to the bathroom without an escort or eventually going to a general education setting for parts of the day. Students would gain points to advance levels by not receiving either a reminder, breaks or being sent down to a center (a padded room where they would be closely monitored). This program is extremely motivating for students who lack the self control to be successful in unstructured situations. 
Obviously, I'm not suggesting that you utilize a behavior system where you use a padded room as a consequence. But nonetheless, there are some valuable points to be made from this example.
First, students being knowledgeable about their behavior expectations and consistency are key. The students in this program were all very aware of the system and knew how to follow the rules. Students will test boundaries, it is just human nature, but when they test boundaries it is important that they get the same consistent message for behaviors every time. Otherwise it can be confusing and the bad behavior is at risk to being reinforced.
Second, not all behavior systems need extravagant reward systems. Simply giving students jobs like cleaning equipment, erasing the board, or passing out paper can be quite motivating. Just remember that it is key for them to know how to earn this reward and that you are proud of them when they succeed. 
Lastly, a 1,2,3 and your out! warning system works great for a behavior management plan. For my classroom, I have adapted a students behavior plan and have applied it to the entire classroom. There are different consequences at every stage and the last one is being sent to the office. 

Reward Systems:

Now that I have discussed with you preventive strategies and consistent consequences, let's discuss the most important tool to use when creating your behavior management plan. A reward system! 

Reward systems can be created for individual students or for entire classrooms. Using intrinsic rewards is proven to provide more sustained motivation. Getting your students to feel good about what they have done and to work hard for their own reward is always the ultimate end goal. When struggling to motivate students, creating a reward chart where the student picks what they earn is a great idea. Have the student help design their own reward system, so that you know it's highly motivating. Then give out tickets that the students can earn for good behavior. I have found that using rewards on an intermittent basis is quite helpful if the behaviors are not too severe. Using rewards intermittently gives the student a message that the desired behavior is rewarded and praised from others. Although in real life, a good behavior will not always be met with a physical reward.

Other interventions:

There is a wide variety of different methods that one may utilize to help students be more successful in their school environments. I personally I have found that peer mediation sessions work very well with students who are having conflicts with another student. I have used peer mediations for students with mild to moderate cognitive disabilities and students who have Autism.  The peer mediation interventions have been very successful. What I have done for these individual cases is I created feelings sheet with pictures that they could use to point to when they are discussing their feelings.

Here is an example of a simple peer mediation sheet that the students could use to express themselves to one another:
 
I have found that using peer mediation is usually very successful because the students are the one's trying to find solutions to their problems. They start by each student having time to tell the other person how they are feeling and why they are feeling like this. The students than have time to discuss with the other student and a peer mediator how to best solve their problems. They than make up a contract and all the parties involved are given the choice to agree to it and sign it. Because this puts all the responsibility onto the students, I have noticed that this strategy works quite well.
 
Something else that I have left out of this blog is the importance of getting parents to agree with your behavior management techniques and be on board with your behavior plans. This may not work every time and it may take sometime for the parent's to understand and accept your techniques. Just remember that it is a huge asset to have the parents back you up at home when the students are misbehaving. Trying to build a strong and positive relationship with the parents is vital to the success of your behavior management plans.
 
Here is a list of other interventions that may work with some of your students:
  • Student contracts
  • Student planners to communicate effectively with parents
  • Student to Teacher conferences
  • Conferences with Parents
  • Staff meetings about individual student's behaviors

After thoughts/Resources:

Looking back at this blog, I realize that behavior management is a huge part of teaching and cannot be summarized in just one blog. I hope some of this information is helpful for you while you are teaching in the field.

Here is a list of different web sites that pertain to behavior management that may be quite useful for you:

Quote of the day:

"He that would be a leader must be a bridge."

- Welsh Proverb





 

Posted by at