Responding Effectivley to Disruptive Student Behavior

To be a successful teacher at any capacity, you must first have a way to deal with student behaviors and how to respond effectively to behavior problems. Within this blog I will go over strategies that I will use in my own middle school art room and the outcomes I want to happen. Finally, I will explain how these strategies will help my students learn to make responsible choices about their behavior.

The first strategy is to avoid being an inappropriately angry teacher response that would cause tension and increases disobedience and disruptive behavior. (Jones, 2007) To be able to implement this into my classroom I must be able to identify when a situation is getting out of control. I must remain calm and non get into a war of words with the students. For this will cause a bigger distraction than it already has. If the teacher does not remain calm and keep his or her voice down in a calm tone and use non-confrontational and non-threatening body language to maintain a level of professionalism and saying or doing something that a teacher would regret. Students will then see to handle a situation in the right manner within my classroom and be respectful about someone needs. By promoting this type of behavior, students will not allow their behaviors or the behaviors of others disrupt their creative flow within the art room.

The second strategy is to remind students of the classroom rules or procedures they are not demonstrating. (Jones, 2007) Implementing this is an easy technique, especially with middle school age who is adjusting to the work load of school and they do not want any more work than what is needed. The classroom rules are written and set in place for a reason, classroom control and safety that insures that creative and imaginative flow stays flowing. In order to do this, I want to make a hard copy of the rules , that are posted in the front of the classroom, and when a student acts out and does not follow the class rules, then the student is not allowed to create anymore art work and write out the rules of the class and then explain what rules he/she has broken and explain why. This will be part of their classroom participation grade. In the end, the students quickly adapt their behavior so they do not have to complete this writing assignment. It teaches them a lesson, but a lesson that only they control if they do not want to write again.

The third strategy is to provide students with choices. (Jones, 2007) Teachers are there for the good times, the bad times, and of course the sad times. We have to have open minds, hearts of gold, and skin of leather to deal with some of the problems that come through our classroom doors. If a teacher shows compassion in a time of mental breakdown or anguish, the teacher must maintain that student’s dignity and show compassion to the student, all the while maintaining his/her composer to their class not to make a big deal of something private. Showing this behavior to students allow them to have and show respect for other people and their problems that do not concern them and give them the space and privacy that they need.

Fourth and final strategy is the increase interest by using humor or connecting to the lesson to some topic in which the student may be particularly interested. (Jones, 2007) Being a teacher, this is the easiest for me to implement in my art room. Humor un-restricts the creative flow of students that are self conscience about who they are and what people would think about them and their work. It is a powerful tool for teachers to use and relax a very tense academic attitude that students have when they come in to the art room. Humor can make light of a serious situation is a positive manner and increases the morale and motivation of the students within the classroom. The students will ultimately learn that humor makes the creating art easier and allows the class to bond together and makes friendships that will last for years.

Overall I feel that the implementation of these strategies is going to benefit the over attitude and classroom environment in my art room. The atmosphere in an art room has had many components for a successful classroom. There are the organization, materials, the environment itself, and yet all this doesn’t matter is there is no classroom management plan in place for the teacher. The behavior problems, no matter how small or big, will happen without warning. Teachers must be prepared and know how to deal with these situations when they arise. How we teacher as react to these situation is how students will see and feel that they should react also.

If teachers incorporate such strategies as these it will help bring the attention back to the society that we live in. If at school students are being taught to behave in such ways and they bring that home. It could very well have a positive effect on the student’s home life and how he/she treats and reacts to situations at home.

References:
Jones, V., & Jones, L. (2007). Comprehensive classroom management: Creating communities of support and solving problems (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.