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[C712]Classroom Management In Photographs

by Ruth Wells, Rut

Teachers, it's the ultimate challenge in classroom management, isn't it? If you find it challenging to teach and counsel students suffering from "hormone poisoning," here are some great interventions to help your teens use their heads instead of their hormones. All of these delightfully different methods are taken from Youth Change's Solution Center; there are hundreds more there if you need them:

On-the-Job Kissy-Face
When kids debate your site's standards regulating romantic contact, inform them that the standards derive from the work world, not your personal preferences. Advise your youngsters that as soon as business work places commonly permit hugging, kissing, etc., you will too. So, in our part of the world, we tell kids that the very instant that our large employers like Nike, the State of Oregon, and Intel, start offering Coffee and Kiss breaks, we'll do it too.

Work a Little, Kiss a Little
Ask students to name all the jobs they can successfully do and gaze longingly into someone's eyes while working; there may be none. Ask your youngsters to guess what happens to people who work a little, kiss a little.

That Other Fire Will Have to Wait
Have your students name the jobs or businesses they may one day wish to do. Ask them to identify the results of kissing, hugging, etc. while working these jobs. For example, what could result from a fire fighter, surgeon or air traffic controller being distracted by romantic activity at work? Have students answer that question humorously by determining what the distracted worker might say when asked to concentrate on work. Elicit silly answers, such as the fire fighter responds with "That other fire will have to wait."

Would You Ski in Class?
Ask students if they would ever cook breakfast during your class or activity, or practice the clarinet, or ski? When they say "no," ask why. When they tell you that those activities don't belong in class, you can respond that neither do kissing, hugging, etc. Note that you are not commenting on whether the romantic activity is good or bad, but that class or group is the wrong time and place, just like it's the wrong time and place for skiing or making toast.

Elbows to Fingertips
A quick and easy-to-remember guideline for interpersonal contact at your site: Touch only from the elbows to fingertips, and then, only after asking and receiving permission.

Someone's Sister
This intervention is designed for boys who view girls as mere toys. Ask the young man to describe how he'd react if someone took advantage of his sister (or mother or daughter.) Elicit answers that show that he wouldn't tolerate such behavior. Remind the young man that every girl is/will be someone's sister, someone's daughter, someone's mother.

In Case of Hormone Overdose
Years ago, families reliably taught their offspring what they needed to know about interpersonal behavior. Those skills are not always reliably taught at home these days. You may want to make it your job to teach what the family should have taught. Remember that telling youngsters "what not to do", may not be enough to change the problem behaviors. Be sure to teach them "what to do" instead. Be sure to cover these: Hand Control, Mouth Control, Distance Control and Clothes Control.

Our answer is that discipline and consequences are often ineffective. Yes, every school or agency needs both, but alone, they don't work. Alone? Yes, if you have a discipline and consequence structure set up, but have not first taught your students the skills, motivation and attitudes that they need to perform the desired behaviors, you will almost certainly find your discipline is ineffective.

Children and youth often can not do specific behaviors that they were never taught. Further, those youngsters who have bad attitudes and no motivation may have no interest in performing to your satisfaction. Yet, teaching students to have the desired skills, motivation and attitude is almost universally over-looked at most sites. If you want to remedy that oversight, here are the essential elements that must preface or accompany your discipline and consequences:

Got Skills?
Years ago, families taught their offspring the basic skills required in school and other settings. Now, many students have never been taught the necessary nuts-and-bolts behaviors that are essential to functioning. They may see bad behavior at home and bring it with them to your site. That's why many youth seem to have no sense of acceptable anger control, verbiage, or personal space and distance. Set up any discipline and consequences you want, but if the child lacks the key skills to comply, discipline can't make much difference.

Got Motivation?
If a child believes that your service is unimportant, their behavior is likely to reflect that belief. Children once learned at home about the value of school or your service. If contemporary students don't learn that at home, and you don't teach it at your site, the child's behavior may reflect their contempt despite any disciplinary efforts.

Got Attitude?
If a child has a negative attitude about your site, that's likely to be reflected in problematic conduct. Discipline usually can't compel a child to change, but adjusting the child's attitude to be more positive, can create results that by comparison, seem almost magical.

Want Discipline? Teach Skills-- and Attitudes and Motivation

Stop looking for the right consequence or discipline structure, and focus on building skills, motivation and attitude. All the consequences in the world can't compel a child to do behavior they lack the skills, attitude and motivation to do. But skills may be the most important of the three. There are so many skills to teach, here's a few to start with:

Show Up
You work no magic on an absent student. Attendance may be the single most important skill that most schools and agencies never teach. Worse, if a student doesn't show up, and is suspended, does that assist the child to improve their attendance? What works infinitely better: Teach the child the attendance skills they need, then perhaps they'll have the skills to improve. Without skills, suspension or other discipline can't overcome the fact that the child hasn't set their alarm, or doesn't know where their bus pass is.

Listen Up
If you can't communicate with the child, how can you provide your service? Teaching children to have "ears on teacher" (or counselor, foster parent, etc.) is a basic concept that many sites have forgotten to teach children. Discipline can't turn back the clock and compensate for the reality that the child never heard you in the first place.

Look Up
If the eyes are elsewhere, you may find it hard to communicate. "Eyes on teacher" should be universally taught, but is not. If the eyes aren't tracking, sanctions won't remedy that on-going gap in skills, but skill-building can.

Other Key Initial Skills to Teach First Anger control, and properly managing fists, legs, arms, mouth, actions.

Don't Forget Motivation and Attitude Would you like some great motivation-makers? There are some examples at our site (http://www.youthchg.com/nws3moti.html). Our Education: Don't Start the Millennium Without It, Turn On The Turned-Off Student, and Last Chance School Success Guide (http://www.youthchg.com/lessons.html) deliver dozens of maximum-strength motivation-makers.

Get free sample materials, 100s of free interventions, and our free Problem Student Problem-Solver magazine at our site, http://www.youthchg.com. Plus, you can find your solution to your worst student problems. We also have surprisingly different, must-see posters, books, instant ebooks, audio books, workshops and free Live Expert Help. For further information on this article or Youth Change's top-rated resources, call 1-800-545-5736.

Article Source : Classroom Management Articles

Ruth Wells has sinced written about articles on various topics from Education, Self Esteem and Teachers. Ruth Herman Wells MS is the director of Youth Change, (.) See hundreds more of her innovative, problem-stopping interventions at Youth Change's web si. Ruth Wells's top article generates over 40500 views. to your Favourites.