Behaviour Management
As a teacher, you must use different teaching strategies to control behaviour managament in your classroom. Here are some simple but useful strategies for behaviour management and class control:
As a teacher, you must use different teaching strategies to control behaviour managament in your classroom. Here are some simple but useful strategies for behaviour management and class control:
- Catch them being good: It is always useful to provide feedback to students when they are successful. The students will feel personally involved when they receive positive feedback for being good. Then, this could help you manage your classroom if you are able to catch every student being good. There will be less off-task students and it will positively reinforce the appropriate behaviour.
- Expect them to follow directions: The instructions you are giving at the beginning of the class should be short, clear and positively structured in order to expect students to listen to them. Wait for everyone to be attentive for the instructions as it will avoid unnecessary repetitions.
- Keep your cool and address problem quickly: As a teacher, you must be the first one to set the right example and represent a role model for students. You must behave well to expect such behaviour from your students. Moreover, you must not allow behavioural problems to persist and must step in as fast as possible.
- Be consistent: Consistency from one day to another and from one situation to a similar one will help students understand how you act and what you expect from them. No exceptions should be made for any student, as it would crease opportunities for students to model the same actions. For instance, you allow a student to miss class because he had a bad day. Then, students will come with other reasons to skip physical education class as well, pointing at the previous situations where you allowed a student to miss class. So keep in mind that consistency is a useful teaching tool.
- Assign varied tasks: We all know that students don’t progress at the same rhythm and this is why it is important to provide different progressions and layers in a single activity. You can always turn in a task harder or easier if necessary or introduce a new activity when students are progressing faster than others.
- Play music: You can always integrate music to your classroom to heighten students’ motivation and interest. However, make sure to select music they will like and music that is appropriate for the warm-up, cool down and activities.
- Create a positive environment: The gymnasium is your classroom and it needs to be attractive for students. Post rules, paint the wall, glue pictures, post sport heroes every week, etc. These are all different ways to create a positive environment where students will want to learn.
- Choose your words carefully: Words can have a significant impact on your students, so remember to choose them very carefully. Try to speak in a positive ways for most of the time and keep your cool when there is a problematic situation. You can also use the following technique: giving advice, passing judgment, trying to persuade, playing psychoanalyst and using diversionary tactics.
- Teacher stereotypes: Our thoughts are all affected by stereotypes and as a teacher, you need to be very careful with these. Know your stereotypes and deal with them. For instance, if you are more likely to help boys than girls, try to give you an objective for helping at least 10 girls during one class.
- Creating an emotionally safe environment: It is really important that student feel safe and accepted when they enter into your classroom. Sarcasm should not be tolerated and students should understand that physical education is for everyone. Make sure you discuss these subjects at the beginning of the semester to reinforce positive behaviour toward these rules. Moreover, you should also make it clear that there are no stupid questions by being consistent between what you say and what you do.
- Determining management protocols for your class: Protocols and routines should really be part of your teaching, as it saves a lot of time and energy. If you teach student how to use several protocols such as leaving and entering the classroom, holding the equipment, selecting partners and starting and stopping signals, they will understand that behaving appropriately might let them practice and play more time. Good protocols will make it easier for you and the students to set and understand what is expected for specific situations.
- Teaching behaviour protocols: In order to fit and match your routines and protocols, you sometimes need to use several teaching behaviours. First, you must be firm but warm at the same time with your students, because they must know that you are there to teach, but also to represent authority. Second, you can use critical demandingness. This is when you expect and insist that children follow directions. For instance, when a student runs into the class without following the entering and leaving protocols, you must insist and ask him to go back and enter the gym correctly.
- Rules-Clear, positive, posted: When rules are posted and often remind, children will assimilate them faster and with more ease. Use posters as reminders to the rules and ask students to read them regularly. Moreover, practice the rules at the beginning of the year, so the students will be able to follow them faster.