Most teachers are faced with at least some misbehaviour in every lesson they teach.

The
key to preventing, or at least lessening, the stress this misbehaviour causes is to have a
number of strategies for dealing with any problems. In addition to helping you cope
with stress, these strategies will also make it less likely that the misbehaviour recurs in
the future. When the child sees you dealing fairly and rationally with their action, they
quickly come to realise that it’s not worth messing with you.

Use ‘I want’ statements

The effective teacher tells the child exactly what he or she wants. Rather than asking:
‘Would you mind stopping that chatter now?’ use the more assertive statement: ‘I want
you to stop talking right now and listen to me please.’

Stay calm

However natural it is to get wound up by poor behaviour this will only add to your
problems. A calm teacher will deal more effectively with the problem and will
encourage the child to stay calm too.

Remove the audience

It can be tempting to address a child’s poor behaviour in front of the whole class.
However this makes it far more likely that the situation will escalate into a
confrontation. Instead take the child to one side, or even out of the room, before you
have a chat.

Defuse, don’t escalate

It is an institutive reaction, when faced with rudeness or confrontation, to start a ‘tit for
tat’ battle with the student concerned. However a relentlessly calm and polite approach
will be far more likely to cool down the situation and it will also demonstrate
appropriate behaviour to the child. Bring your vocal tone and volume right down, until
you are speaking with an almost hypnotic calm.

Don’t rise to the bait

Much misbehaviour is designed to get a rise out of the teacher. If you refuse to rise to
the bait of a child whose aim it is to wind you up, the tactic becomes meaningless and a
waste of time.

Build a ‘wall’

A very good way to avoid rising to the bait is to build a metaphorical ‘wall’ between
you and the behaviour. Imagine that a barrier stands between you and the child.
However badly he or she misbehaves you are completely impervious to its effects. That
way you are in a far better position to deal calmly and rationally with the situation.

Make them decide

When you do have to use sanctions, keep reminding your children that they have a
choice at every stage. They can start to behave, accepting the current level of sanctions.
Alternatively if they decide to repeat the misbehaviour they will earn a higher level of
punishment.

Sanction the behaviour

If a child feels that the punishment is a personal attack, this is far more likely to create a
confrontation. Make it clear that it’s the behaviour, and not the child, that is being
sanctioned. Keep the whole situation as depersonalised as possible.

Follow it through

Every time you apply a sanction, you must follow it through. For example chasing the
child to serve the detention. Otherwise the sanction is meaningless and not worth
imposing in the first place.

Make the sanction count

If you set a detention spend time during that detention actually talking to the child about
their misbehaviour. Often children don’t really understand why they are being punished,
and they need things explained clearly. Hopefully, this discussion will prevent a
recurrence of the behaviour that earned the sanction in the first place.

This article is an excerpt from Sue Cowley's Guerilla Guide to Teaching (2nd
edition) published by Continuum. You'll also find the latest on Sue's books on the
Continuum blog