An effective seating arrangement can help head off behavioral issues. It might take a few class sessions to get the mix right, but do not neglect this. Mix high achievers with moderate and low achievers. This tends to prevent a low or moderate achiever from getting bored and isolated, which can precede inappropriate behavior. Mix talkative students around quieter students. Make sure the talkative pals are not seated too close together. Also, advise students during the seating assessment period that you are watching their behavior to determine more permanent seating arrangement. Give some seating preferences to the best-behaved students. Also, have designated timeout and isolation areas.
Make every effort to include parents in a child's educational and behavioral plan. Early in the school year, send a copy of your classroom rules to parents for a signature. Establish classroom rules and have the parent and student sign the rules and bring them back to you for an extra-credit grade. Make sure you have correct phone numbers, email addresses and best times to call for each student's parent or guardian. Maintain contact with each parent on a regular basis, giving periodic positive feedback to best-behaved students, and more frequent, perhaps weekly, reports for more troublesome students. Understand that some parents will not participate, but do keep a copy of all of your communication efforts. Set up parent conferences as needed.
Make sure all students understand the classroom rules. Go over them in class, with the students taking turns reading and explaining what the rules mean. Establish rules such as no eating, no chewing, no getting up or speaking without raising their hands, no touching things on the teacher's desk, bringing needed materials such as pencil and paper to class, coming to class on time and being in their seats when the bell rings. Establish a reward system to apply positive reinforcement to students who obey the rules, such as a ticket for a student who is well behaved for a week. Tickets can later be redeemed for a small reward such as a pencil or eraser.
Don't overreact to less serious classroom indiscretions. Children will be children. Sometimes an invasion of their personal space or comfort zone is all that is needed to stop behavior, such as speaking out of turn. First, make eye contact with the individual. If the behavior continues, call on them to answer a question. If it persists, move closer to them to invade their personal space. Other steps include writing their name on the board, time out and behavior essays. Use all the tools to keep the student in class and the lesson moving before taking steps to remove a student from the classroom.
When all else fails, show the students that bad behavior has consequences. That means that good teachers sometimes have to write referrals for students to attend in-school suspension, after-school detention or out-of-school suspension. This should be done in connection with communication with a parent or guardian. The student must understand the severity of her actions and what she needs to do to prevent further action. If this type of action is not used, other students might begin to think there are no consequences for bad behavior.
Also, show students that good behavior has consequences. Ron Walker, an educational consultant, says positive reinforcement has a greater chance of changing permanent behavior than negative reinforcement, for many students. Positive behaviors help students develop a value system that helps them later in life. For instance, students coming off a punishment can be put on a reward system with such tasks as passing out papers or markers or taking up papers. Establish that student-adult relationship.
Also, remember to work closely with other professionals in the school, such as the special education and guidance departments, to work with students who have special needs and behavioral issues beyond basic classroom management.