Teachers may prevent disciplinary concerns by focusing on creating relationships with their students from the beginning of the school year.
HOW TO PREVENT DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS IN FOUR WAYS
1. On the first day, make a seating plan.
Make a seating map even if you don’t know their characteristics or talents yet. Don’t seat bluebirds with groups of pupils according to their standardized test results or any other skill-based method. On the first day, they’ll see straight through it. They’ve been here before. They know what to expect.
Seating charts may be set up in several ways. It may even be amusing. Greeting them with a card with an open-ended question, remind them that their desk has the correct answer on it.
It’s also a good idea to teach them that they must alphabetize their names first. As they discover their place in the world, they begin to pick up a few names.
In the event that these tactics don’t work, remember that seating assignments may and should be changed during the school year, allowing children to get to know one another. This is the first step in showing kids that you are in command and that you know what you’re doing.
2. Know their names. Fast.
It’s less likely that kids would draw attention to themselves by behaving badly if they know you recognize them. So that you can catch the student’s attention more quickly and effectively. As an extra bonus, learning each student’s name will let them know that you care enough to do so. For the most part, we don’t want to create trouble for those who share our views and values. This also applies to college students.
Play a name game to acquire the majority of the names memorized. Make a circle with the pupils. The student to your immediate left introduces themselves and then answers a simple question like, “What is your favorite animal?” to spice things up a little. Once student 1 has spoken their name and animal, student 2 (to the left of student 1) must repeat the name and animal of student 1.
For each succeeding student, they must keep track of all those who came before them. It eventually reaches the final person on the list. By this point, you’ve heard almost all of the names. And who gets to name all of the pupils at the end of the round? Right on cue, sir! The time has come for you to learn their names, and if you’ve been paying attention, you probably already know them all by heart from the first day of class.
3. Find out who they really are.
I want to utilize a non-threatening, clear method to discover what pupils’ own interests are or what they consider significant in their life. To begin, I want to invite students to write out five things they believe I should know about themselves.
For lower-level students who may struggle with the discipline of writing comprehensive replies, I will invite them to shoot a Flipgrid video to tell me about themselves instead. I allow students to do the written assignment in class, but I need them to do the video recording at home. It’s not something I’m going to share with other pupils. This is not a test of your writing or speaking abilities. It’s a time when I get to know my pupils better.
As a teacher, I’ve seen that most students like writing about themselves, and those who don’t enjoy writing enjoy talking about themselves.. During a grammar lecture, I would have learned nothing about them. When I inquire about how their piano recital went or whether they had a good time skiing last weekend, I’m nearly always met with a grin.
4. Make a welcoming entrance.
Having learnt their names at the end of day 1, it’s time to use their names when they enter the room on day two. Forgot yours? When you meet someone new, ask them immediately away and then repeat their name three times, “Thanks for telling me your name, Eric. Eric, please have a seat. Eric, I wish you a wonderful day. Eric will think you’re strange, but you’ll remember his name. The welcome is really important. To demonstrate your appreciation for them, it’s human nature to avoid arguing with someone who likes you. ”
Teachers had to develop new strategies to deal with disciplinary concerns because of the limitations of Covid’s distance learning program, which made it difficult for them to maintain meaningful relationships with their students. Hopefully, this year we can go back to the fundamentals of proactive classroom management in order to have a more typical fall semester.