10 Behavior Management Ideas as a Guide for Your Classroom

Having effective behavior management will make a BIG impact on your classroom. You can plan and prep a fabulous lesson, but your students will not get to fully participate without behavior management.

Finding a behavior management style that works for you is a process. Use these tips to help you get started and create a management plan that empowers you and your students.

Creating a class identity is a great way to build engagement, community, and investment. At the start of the school year, decide on a class name. Base the name on your theme for the year, like Superheroes, a suggestion from your students, or a few names.

In the past, I have polled my class for suggestions allowing everyone to have input. Then, we vote until we have decided on a class name.  Remember to keep it fun—your students will come up with great ideas.

Here are a few names my class has come up with over the years:

• Avengers
• Ninja Warriors
• Pumbs (a combination of Pirates + Thumbs)
• Dynamites

After you have a class name you can come up with a class chant or a class affirmation that talks about all the things that make your class special.

Building genuine relationships with students shows that you care about them and are invested in their well-being. At the start of the year, surveys and get-to-know-you activities are a great way to build a relationship with students. As the school year continues, group circles can help maintain your community and create a space for open dialogue and familiarity.

Once students realize you are invested in them as individuals, you can build respect, which will make a difference when holding students accountable for their behavior.

Some other ways to build relationships include:

• Positive phone calls home
• Getting to know older or younger siblings who go to your school
• Home visits
• Personalized notes
• Supporting students in extracurricular activities
• Eating lunch with students

When teachers and students collaborate to make rules, they cultivate a great classroom environment together. Create rules that address how students are expected to interact with each other, with the teacher, and with the physical space. When you allow students the opportunity to contribute to the rules that will govern their class, they develop a sense of ownership of their classroom.

Set clear routines for everything you would like students to do in your classroom. Although it can be tedious, be explicit about everything. Do not assume that students know the expectations for your classroom and be sure to show them how you would like things to be done. Give students multiple opportunities to practice the classroom routines, provide ongoing support for routines and behaviors, reinforce expected behaviors, and explain the consequences if they do not meet expectations.

Teach your routines and expectations in a way that allows you to differentiate ignorance from defiance. Students often get in trouble because they genuinely do not know the expectations. Once you are sure that students are aware of your expectations in all classroom areas, administering consequences becomes much easier because you know students are aware of all routines.

Here are some routines to consider establishing:

• Transitions between activities
• Asking for help
• What to do after work completion
• Lining up
• Sharpening pencils
• Turning in homework or completed work
• Using the restroom

Pro Tip: Positively narrate students who meet expectations right away. Doing so rewards positive behavior and repeats the expectation for students who may not have heard the first time.

Rewards can be individual-, group- or class-based. In the same way students contribute to the class rules, allow them to contribute to the rewards. This will create buy-in and motivate students to work toward rewards they really want.

Students are very creative. One year, my class suggested watching a movie on the ceiling as a class reward! Choose a reward system that is easy to manage. Consider rewards that do not require additional preparation or a burdensome financial investment on your end.

When a student is off task, they are often seeking attention, so it is important for teachers to remove the stage when addressing them. Use a silent signal, or proximity, to address a behavior.

If that still does not work, quietly and quickly bend down and whisper to the student what you would like them to do and the consequence they will receive if they do not meet expectations, and then move away. If the student still does not comply, administer an appropriate consequence. Avoid using shame and intimidation to correct a student. Quiet corrections allow you to control the situation and keep the public stage out of the student interaction.

While corrections should be quiet, praise should happen often and publicly. I often use “shout-outs” to call attention to a positive behavior that a student is doing or the way they are working. Praise focuses on the specific behavior the student is doing correctly. Praise students to other students, teachers, and administrators. Highlight positive behaviors enthusiastically— students love to be acknowledged for a job well done.

When administering corrections, be sure to stay calm. Giving a behavioral consequence should not be emotional. Rather, it should be a response to the clearly outlined rules and routines of your classroom.

Avoid threats like, “If you don’t…then I will…”, but instead deliver consequences firmly, as they have been outlined to your class. Consistently give consequences to all students 100% of the time if they are not meeting expectations. Students will quickly notice if you do not always give a consequence or if you give consequences to some students more than others.

Set high behavioral and academic expectations for all your students. Have a clear vision of how you want your classroom to look behaviorally and how you want your students to perform academically, and then plan backwards from your vision.

Be prepared to scaffold students behaviorally and academically, if needed. Students will work to meet your expectations, so keep them high. Creating an academically engaging, rigorous class is a great way to manage behaviors. If you make your class engaging, students will be more likely to invest in the learning experience and less likely to be off task or misbehave.

Model the behaviors you would like your students to display. Be open to the fact that you make mistakes and be humble enough to admit your mistakes to your students. I have had to apologize to students in the past for assuming they have done something that they did not do. Remember that respect is reciprocal so be sure to show respect to students if you expect them to show you respect in return.

Get Started with Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS)

We have seen school culture transform because of effective implementations of PBIS. With the right tools and resources, you can support your school team as they begin to implement PBIS to promote positive school culture. Watch the demo below to learn more about how PowerSchool Behavior Support can help you support PBIS in your school.