Happy Kids, Cathy Glass [best ebook reader for ubuntu .TXT] 📗

frightening for more sensitive children and those who experience it at home. Use voice modulation – i.e. vary the strength, tone or pitch of your voice – for full effect, but don’t raise your voice above an acceptable level. If you usually use a normal speaking voice to address the class (or individual), then if you raise your voice slightly to regain attention or for discipline it will have greater effect. If you shout the whole time, not only will it be ineffective but the children will be more likely to shout too. ‘I’m waiting for quiet, class,’ said in a firm and slightly higher tone, together with an authoritative posture, will be far more effective, and command respect.

Be positive

Start each lesson afresh and assume positive behaviour, both from the class and individual members. Because you had a shocking time with 5H, or little Jimmy, on Thursday afternoon, don’t assume it will be repeated on Friday morning, or else very likely it will. If you send the message, through your body language and the way you speak, that you are expecting trouble, then the message will very likely become a self-fulfilling prophecy and trouble will be what you get. Be positive yourself, assume that all the children will behave positively and deal with disruptions on an individual and one-off basis, as and when they occur.

Be aloof

When meeting a class for the first few times, be pleasant but firm, and slightly aloof. This will help you establish your separateness and therefore authoritative presence. If I am going to foster a child with very challenging behaviour I put a bit of psychological distance between us at the first meeting, which encourages the child’s respect. You can always ease up later, but to begin with, while you are getting to know the class and all its members, make sure they are in awe of you.

Avoid over-familiarity

Likewise don’t be over-familiar with individual children or the class as a whole. It is a big mistake (and one I have often witnessed in the classroom) to try to be the children’s friend and equal. You are the teacher, and will never be the children’s friend, although you can be warm and approachable. And don’t let the children be familiar with you. Some children can easily cross the boundary into familiarity and it is a form of control. If a child asks you how old you are, where you live or what you did last night, deflect the enquiry with a smile or ask them a question. Your private life is private, and it’s not a child’s place to ask an adult, particularly a teacher, for personal details. Even at home, there are some things my children don’t need to know about me or what I do.

Keep your distance

Don’t touch a child unless you are administering first aid or comforting a child who is upset. Nothing oversteps the boundaries into familiarity more quickly than a well-meaning pat on the shoulder. And don’t let a child touch you, for the same reasons. Distance equals respect in the teacher-pupil situation and should always be maintained, even if it is your natural manner to touch people as you speak.

If a child is very challenging, possibly with a reputation for physical assault, put more distance between you and the child than you would do normally. As well as protecting you physically, it enhances your personal space, which underlines your authority. I had to deal with an incident recently when a supply teacher bent down to discipline a child I was looking after and received a thump on the nose. The child’s behaviour was inexcusable, but the regular teacher knew (from years of experience) not to put himself in that vulnerable position.

Always stand when addressing a child who is challenging you, so that you are physically higher than the child, which emphasises your authority, as well as being safer for you. If you are disciplining a teenager who towers over you, have them seated while you stand. Being ‘taller’ than the child means that the child has to look up to you, and if he or she is looking up to you physically, he or she will be more inclined to look up to you psychologically.

Use the 3Rs

Use the 3Rs (as described throughout this book) to see through your Requests, whether you are dealing with an individual child who is proving very difficult or a whole class refusing to settle. Request, Repeat and Reaffirm, with a sanction if necessary, which should be in line with the school policy on sanctions.

Deal with all incidents of unacceptable behaviour as they arise, and impose appropriate sanctions as soon as possible after the incident. It might be that the whole class stays in at break time or one or two children do. Don’t issue idle threats. If you do, individual children and the whole class will very quickly realise that you don’t implement your sanctions, resulting in loss of your credibility. Only threaten to keep children in at break time if you are willing to sacrifice your break to see it through.

Obviously, verbally praise positive behaviour, and give rewards in accordance with the school’s system of team points etc. And don’t forget to praise the child who beavers away at the back of the class, getting on quietly with his or her work and not demanding attention.

Use the closed choice for a child who is very challenging and not doing as asked. It works in school just as it does at home, but I would not use it with the whole class, as you are unlikely to get a consensus of opinion.

Don’t reward bad behaviour

Although it is obviously a basic rule for managing children’s behaviour that bad behaviour is never rewarded, it can happen unintentionally, particularly when a teacher (or teaching assistant) is dealing with a very difficult child week after week. Disruptive children are often placated, either in the classroom or outside it, by giving them different, more appealing