Back-to-School—Dealing with Unwanted Behaviors in the Classroom

There are a lot of external and internal influences that can influence a child's behavior in the classroom. Sometimes a student may require a more structured intervention plan to provide a unified approach to support them in the classroom setting. It may be necessary to call a meeting of the school/parent team to consider and devise an effective behavior management plan.

Help children communicate between school and home by circling the activities that they did during the day at school.

Please follow this link Behavior Management Plan and the links within the page to get more comprehensive information on how to begin to develop a successful and positive plan to improve unwanted behaviors in the classroom.

Many behaviors in the class can be handled with simple changes and accommodations and DO NOT require a behavior management or intervention plan.

• Misunderstanding of verbal directions—try this *Slow your rate of speaking *Use simple statements *Check for student's understanding *Use visual cues such as the one below

• Constant talking—try this *Seat student in a location with minimal distractions *Use a visual cue or “talking gauge” that can be moved to show when talking is too much with out adding to the noise, shown below

• Problems waiting to be called on in class—try this *Be specific about when the student will be call on “after I call on Sam, I will call on you.” *Establish at the beginning of the school year the importance of raising the hand and waiting to be called on and use a visual reminder such as the one shown below.

Please visit this page for more Strategies to assist in handling classroom behaviors.

Let's also remember that children are learning about their place in the world. They need room to make mistakes and grow in a safe environment. So we all need to keep our sense of humor because it can make a big difference in establishing and maintaining an effective and successful learning environment.