10 Easy Ways to Prevent Behavior Problems Before They Start [Fan Fave] [episode 175]

Heidi  0:05

Hey, there. One thing teachers often ask about is how to deal with behavior problems. And it makes sense, because dealing with student behavior issues can be one of the hardest parts of the job. We believe that the best way to handle behavior issues is to do everything you can to prevent them from happening in the first place.

Heidi  0:25

Keep listening to hear one of our most popular episodes, where we share 10 easy ways to prevent behavior problems before they start. You will definitely want to put these ideas to work soon.

Heidi  0:41

We start our episodes with a morning message, just like we used to do at morning meeting in our classrooms. This week’s morning message is, how do you connect with a hard to reach student?

Emily  1:19

And we have some awesome responses from our community. Matthew said, greet them every morning at the door when they walk in. Take every opportunity to give them praise by complimenting them on their work, following directions, etc, and create teacher helper work for them to build up their sense of belonging in the classroom.

Emily  1:37

Abby said, find what they love and try to incorporate that into learning. Take time each day to notice something non academic. I notice you have red shoes, not inserting my opinion about it, just noticing something and commenting on it.

Emily  1:51

Denise had several suggestions find out from parents and past teachers why they are hard to reach. Talk to them daily about things that interest them, compliment them and others in front of the whole class. Come up to them in class while they are working and quietly tell them what an awesome job they’re doing. Make sure to say five to 10 positive things to them daily. Give copying good notes and include them.

Emily  2:12

And Cami said, I make it a point to greet my students by name each morning and find things they are interested in as a way to connect. We had an interesting comment from a teacher who said, I know I will get so much backlash, but I am starting to believe that some kids aren’t relationship ish, sometimes the kid just doesn’t want it. It isn’t all on the teacher.

Heidi  2:34

And I do think that’s a valid point, that you can’t force a relationship with someone who isn’t interested, right? And like, kids have their own reasons for not wanting to connect, but however we are dealing with kids, so as the adults, I don’t think we ever get to say, Well, I tried. That’s good enough. As long as that child is in your class, it’s your responsibility to hold that door of connection open.

Emily  2:59

Yep, you got to keep trying and holding that space and showing we’re open to a connection if the child wants it.

Heidi  3:06

It reminds me of one year when I had this real challenging kid. Well, you know, I challenged kids more year, but this one particular kid that I struggled to connect with all year long, and then it was like, on the 171st day of school, I it was, it was like the last few weeks, I saw him doodling Doctor Who characters on the back of his paper. And I love Doctor Who so it was finally something we could connect on for those like last nine days.

Heidi  3:32

But as he moved up through the grades, every time I saw him, we had that little something special to chat about, and he was kind of a surly guy, so I’m guessing he didn’t have a ton of friends, right? So I think I hope I was like a friendly, smiling face that he could see at the school, even if school wasn’t always a happy place for him, even when he wasn’t in my class, like we had that connection.

Heidi  3:54

And I haven’t saved a lot of papers from my students over the years, but I did save that one paper with the drawings because I wanted the reminder to myself not to give up on a kid, even if it seems like it’s over at that point.

Emily  4:05

Yes, and that’s a great memory that you got to end the year on a positive note together, that solidified your relationship after a difficult year or so. That worked out perfectly.

Heidi  4:16

Yeah that did work out. That was, it was a nice way to wrap up a trying year.

Emily  4:20

We’d love to have you join the conversation over in our teacher approved Facebook group.

Heidi  4:25

Now that we have reached the part of the year where the back to school glow is starting to fade, or has totally faded, it’s likely that a few behavior headaches have maybe cropped up.

Emily  4:36

Or more than a few.

Heidi  4:38

And that is why we are devoting the next three weeks to discussing classroom management. Make sure you’re subscribed to our podcast so you don’t miss any of these episodes. We’ve got lots of quick strategies and good takeaways for helping your classroom run more smoothly.

Emily  4:54

I think classroom management strategies is the number one requests we’ve had, so I’m glad we can in the next three weeks talk all about it. A lot of teachers think they have a management plan, when what they really have is a consequences plan. If you Google Classroom Management Plan, the first thing on most of the pages is a list of rules and consequences, and those have a place. But rules are only effective if you have lots of other pieces in place first, roles and consequences should come in the middle of a classroom management plan, not at the start.

Heidi  5:27

If your class is struggling with unwelcome behaviors, it might be because your plan leaves you stuck, doling out consequences instead of managing behavior. The purpose of consequences is to influence future behavior, but that’s really like putting anti itch cream on a mosquito bite and hoping it keeps you from being bitten by another mosquito, right? It’s not really going to help solve the problem.

Emily  5:52

So instead of treating the problems as they crop up, a truly effective management plan is proactive, instead of reactive. It’s like bug spray because it prevents most issues from happening in the first place.

Heidi  6:05

Our ideal classroom is one that bolsters the social, emotional, behavioral and academic development of all students, and the purpose of classroom management is to create a space that nurtures that development.

Emily  6:20

So let’s imagine if we were giving this podcast as a presentation, this is the point where we’d project the iconic three pillar slide. Right?

Heidi  6:30

Absolutely. I googled pictures of three pillar slides, and yep, there’s lots of them. So if you don’t mind playing along, please imagine a charming PowerPoint slide of a structure with a triangle roof labeled positive student development.

Emily  6:45

And what’s holding up that roof?

Heidi  6:47

Well, we’ve got a pillar labeled prevent management problems. That’s our first pillar of classroom management support. Then we have pillar two plan for management problems. And our third pillar is predict management problems.

Emily  7:02

That first pillar preventing problems supports us, because we don’t have to manage problems if they don’t crop up in the first place, right? They’re like our bug spray. But even with the best prevention, we’re still going to have some friction in the classroom, so we need to plan for addressing that in positive ways.

Heidi  7:20

And that’s why the second pillar is planning for the problems that will still occur. This is when rules and consequences come into play.

Emily  7:28

And that third pillar is predicting problems. This means anticipating the times when your normal management plan isn’t enough and accounting for that deficit beforehand. We’ll talk a lot about this pillar as we head into the craziness of the holiday season, so that you can be prepared.

Heidi  7:45

But we aren’t there yet. Yeah, so today we’re going to take a deep look at how we can prevent classroom problems. Remember, we are all about being proactive with our management, not reactive.

Emily  7:57

To help you be proactive, we are sharing 10 key things you can do to prevent classroom management problems from occurring.

Heidi  8:06

So the first thing you can do is to maximize student engagement. We just talked about this in Episode 99 so go back and check that out if you want to deep dive.

Emily  8:15

Teachers often default to thinking that engagement only relates to lessons, but a truly engaged student is positively involved and willing to participate on a behavioral level and an emotional level as well as an academic level.

Heidi  8:32

Student engagement can prevent management problems because it’s the glue that holds a class together. All aspects of student learning and growth depend on student engagement. If you don’t have it, nothing works, especially not your management plan.

Emily  8:47

So how do you maximize student engagement? That requires you to balance the novelty and structure in your class, which is something we’ve talked about a lot on the podcast. A productive classroom has both novelty and structure, but too much of either one leads to problems.

Heidi  9:03

Right. That’s because unengaged students are tipping into overwhelm or boredom, and either way, they’re creating disruptions. Unless they’re hard.

Emily  9:12

The key to maximizing engagement is to pay attention to what’s happening in your classroom at any given moment. Is everything running smoothly? If not there is either too much structure or too much novelty. If there’s too much structure, and students are getting off task because they’re bored, increase the novelty.

Heidi  9:31

In episode 35 we share lots of tips for increasing novelty. It’s one of our favorite episodes. But if you have too much novelty, you need to tamp it down by increasing the structure of what’s going on in your room.

Emily  9:45

The second way to prevent classroom management problems is to use active participation. Students who are participating aren’t causing problems. So we want to use lots of active participation throughout our lessons, not just at the end.

Heidi  9:59

In each lesson engage your students by asking questions in ways that get them thinking. Look for ways students can interact with the content instead of just hearing the content. And if your students can handle the novelty, look for ways your students can engage with each other during a lesson.

Emily  10:16

And if you want more tips on active participation, check out that episode 99 we mentioned for all our tips and suggestions.

Heidi  10:24

The third way you can prevent classroom management problems is to plan for the trouble spots. No, you don’t need a crystal ball for this. Ooh, but cool if you have one, but you might need some experience, and if you’re a new teacher, just consider what happens when students are outside of your classroom? Which of those times are likely to result in problems?

Emily  10:47

Well recess is probably number one on your list, so make a plan for how to address that. Maybe that means setting up specific recess rules and consequences. Maybe that means teaching kids what to do at recess.

Heidi  11:00

One of our favorite back to school tips is to teach recess games so kids have fun options that don’t result in fighting, but you don’t have to save this for the start of the school year. You can teach recess skills at any point.

Emily  11:13

Yet now might be the moment when everybody’s having problems.

Heidi  11:17

And we talk about this in Episode 92 if you want more information.

Emily  11:21

It’s not just recess, though. Consider any time of day when expectations are unclear or unenforced, and do what you can to prevent those times from becoming chronic problems.

Heidi  11:33

All right, so you are maintaining student engagement, increasing student participation, and planning for the trouble spots. Emily, what else can you do?

Emily  11:42

Well our fourth strategy for preventing problems is to be strategic about your seating your seating chart is your cheapest classroom management tool. Now, it’s not effortless, but if you’re willing to put in the 20 minutes of time and energy that it takes to craft a strategic seating arrangement that serves your needs and your students needs, you can enjoy the positive behavior results for weeks.

Heidi  12:05

For the low, low price of being intentional about where you put your seats, you get better behavior, increased learning and fewer hassles.

Emily  12:15

Time out of bargain. We talk about seating charts in Episode 97 so make sure to check that out. And if you want a step by step guide on how to create strategic seating assignments for your students, make sure to check out our digital seating arrangement planning tool, and we will link to that in the show notes.

Heidi  12:33

And that brings us to our next tip. And if you have listened to us before, you had to know that this is going to be on the list.

Emily  12:41

Don’t do a drinking game on our podcast with this, especially for your school. Yeah, don’t. Yeah, please don’t.

Heidi  12:49

Our fifth suggestion for preventing problems is to clearly teach procedures and routines and hold students accountable for meeting your expectations.

Emily  13:00

Now hopefully you’ve already taught your procedures and routines at the beginning of the year. High five for you, if you did, but if not, go back and check out episode 75 where we break it all down for you, it’s never too late to teach procedures if you have taught your procedures.

Heidi  13:17

Now comes the tricky part, holding students accountable for following directions.

Emily  13:23

Really holding ourselves accountable for holding our students accountable, can be the hardest part, but if you allow something sometimes that becomes the accepted behavior. And every parent knows what this is like. Fred Jones has a great quote about how the standard of behavior in any class is, what can I get away with?

Heidi  13:43

And you don’t want a classroom where the answer to what can I get away with is a lot.

Emily  13:49

When we’ve got so many things we’re dealing with at once, it’s so tempting to let little things slide with our procedures. We’ve only got so much time and energy. So when an occasional kid was sharpening their pencil during work time. Maybe I just let it go, but then it snowballed into everyone sharpening their pencils all the time.

Emily  14:08

Now, pencil sharpening is interrupting things left and right. If I had cracked down on the behavior early and reminded them of our pencil procedures, a small problem wouldn’t have escalated into a big one.

Heidi  14:20

If you feel like you need a procedure, refresh in your classroom check out episode 32 where we help you pinpoint why your procedures might not be working and what you can do to fix it. I love that episode, and we also have a resource to help you teach your procedures so students actually remember them. Check out our tell try tally talk slides for a step by step lesson for each of your procedures, and we’ll link to that in our show notes as well.

Emily  14:48

If you have clearly taught your procedures, then make sure you implement our sixth strategy for preventing problems, and that is to remind students of your expectations every time before you walk in the hall. Always remind students of your behavior expectations. Before you turn kids loose to work in groups, remind them of your behavior expectations. Before getting out the glue, you guessed it, remind them of your behavior expectations.

Heidi  15:13

Reminders are a simple way to hold students accountable, like we mentioned in Tip five, but the repetition of the information is also useful. When we hear information that we’ve already heard, it signals to the brain that this is something that’s important to pay attention to.

Emily  15:30

Plus doing things in the same order every time, helps create an automatic response. Our students brains learn that when we walk in the hall, these are the things that happen. They don’t even have to think about it. All right. That brings us to our seventh strategy. Tell us about that one Heidi.

Heidi  15:46

Our seventh strategy for preventing problems is to master transitions. A classroom transition is simply the ending of one activity and the beginning of another. But transitions involve managing behavior, managing time, and often managing materials. All of that has to occur in a very short window with maximum efficiency and minimum supervision. So really, there’s nothing simple about transitions.

Emily  16:15

You can see why transitions become the point that can make or break your classroom management, and that gives us a choice. We can either be blown over by transitions or learn to harness them.

Heidi  16:25

I’m going to guess that you want to harness your transitions, and in order to do that, keep in mind that there are three characteristics of efficient transitions. First, they have clear beginnings and ends. Second, they are rapid. And third, they minimize the amount of downtime between activities.

Emily  16:44

So we address each of those characteristics in its own episode. So go back to episodes 48, 49 and 50 for a deep, deep dive on how to master transition so they support your classroom management instead of harpooning it. It’s worth the deep dive. It is all right, we’re up to strategy eight to prevent classroom problems, minimize your students downtime, and always have a plan for what’s next.

Heidi  17:10

This is so important. If you don’t plan for what students should do, they will find ways to keep busy, and the ways they find probably won’t make you smile.

Emily  17:20

It’s unlikely, I guess, that they will entertain themselves in productive ways. So by always planning for what students should do next, everything flows easily in your class, and you don’t have to waste time and energy trying to get things back on track. This is an easy strategy to implement, and it makes a big difference. So always be thinking of what’s next when you assign students a task.

Heidi  17:43

Our ninth strategy is to teach behavior skills. I came across a quote recently that said something like, when kids can’t read, we teach when kids can’t swim, we teach when kids can’t multiply, we teach when kids can’t behave we… If you look at how our education system functions, we often have to end that sentence with punish instead of teach. But obviously that’s not the most helpful response to a behavior problem.

Emily  18:13

That’s why teaching social skills should be a frequent, ongoing part of our instruction. Kids don’t automatically understand how to ask to join in, or what comments are okay to make about someone else’s lunch, or how to disagree appropriately.

Heidi  18:27

I know a lot of adults that don’t have those skills. So of course, kids are going to need some guidance on how to behave in positive ways.

Emily  18:36

Probably not every teacher would agree, but I would rather make time to teach behavior skills than to lose time correcting behavior problems. And that brings us to our 10th strategy, which is focus on relationships.

Heidi  18:49

I think this is probably the most important way you can prevent classroom management problems, having a positive relationship with each of your students and helping your students have positive relationships with each other, is probably the most valuable form of classroom management.

Emily  19:06

If those relationships aren’t there nothing else that you do will be very effective. Kids who know they’re seen and valued for who they are are less likely to feel the need to cause problems.

Heidi  19:17

So it’s worthwhile to put in the time to create and nurture those connections, not just because your students will behave better, but because that’s where you find the joy of being a teacher. But you guys already knew that, didn’t you? Of course they did.

Emily  19:32

This week take a look at how you manage your classroom. Are you doing what you can to prevent problems from occurring? Keep in mind our 10 strategies for preventing behavior problems, which are get ready, maximize student engagement. Use active participation. Plan ahead for the trouble spots. Create a strategic seating plan. Clearly teach your procedures, remind students of your expectations, Master transitions, minimize downtime. To teach behavior skills and nurture relationships.

Heidi  20:04

That’s a lot to remember. Yeah, you may need to re listen to this episode, and don’t forget that we have a transcript of each episode available on the episode page if you want to read it. But if you are part of our teacher approved membership, you get a handy cheat sheet with these 10 strategies so you can reference them easily anytime you need them.

Emily  20:25

We’d love to hear how you prevent classroom management problems. Come join the conversation in our teacher approved Facebook group.

Emily  20:32

Now let’s talk about this week’s teacher approved tip. I thought we just did 10 tips. We’re doing another one each week. We leave you with a small actionable tip that you can apply in your classroom today. This week’s teacher approved tip is move around the room while you’re teaching. Tell us about this tip Heidi.

Heidi  20:47

So the number one deterrent to students goofing around is proximity to the teacher. That’s so important to consider when you’re planning your seating arrangement. But another way you can maximize teacher proximity and minimize behavior problems, is to move around while you’re teaching and while students are working. You got to be working the crowd. It can be tricky to do this while you’re teaching.

Heidi  21:13

If you’re relying on slides, you might need to invest in the clicker that lets you control the slides without having to be near the computer, or maybe you can only move a few steps away from the board for a few seconds at a time, but every time you can move closer to your students, their desire to goof around somehow mysteriously drops.

Emily  21:32

That’s magic. This is also important during work time, it can be tempting to get the students started on an assignment and then let them work while you deal with some of your own work. We know you’ve got plenty, but if you’re having behavior problems during work time, try increasing your proximity to the problem by walking around the room and see if it helps.

Heidi  21:51

Crowd control unfortunately, won’t create the perfect classroom, but it will get most of the students to do most of what they should most of the time. That’s pretty good, and that frees you up to deal with the problems that are left over.

Heidi  22:07

To wrap up the show, we are sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily  22:12

I’m giving extra credit to something called One Tab. It is a Google Chrome plug in that you can install if you use the Google Chrome browser, and it will help you manage your tab. I have a sickness where I have multiple windows open at a time, and each window is full of a dozen or more tabs that I am certain I cannot close, because I’m working on so many things at the same time, and partially because I’m like, well, that’s open because I need to not forget it. But that can be really overwhelming to have all this going on.

Emily  22:42

So what this plugin does is condense all those browser tabs into a clickable list on a single tab. So if at any point you want to reopen one of the tabs or a whole window full of tabs, you could just do that with one click, and then when you’re done with that window, but you’re you don’t want to close it forever, you can just condense it back down again to the list.

Emily  23:01

I’ve only been using it for a week, and it is like life changing. If you have the multiple tab sickness that I do, which I think so you’re one or the other, you either like, I don’t hardly have any open or you have 75 like me, then you will appreciate this and you’ll understand it. If you if you’re Heidi, you will be like, who needs this?

Heidi  23:19

Because I don’t do because it overwhelms me, so maybe I can have all these tabs open now,

Emily  23:24

Yes, so give it a try. We’ll put a link to it in the show notes. What are you giving extra credit to Heidi?

Heidi  23:30

Well, you know, I have a fondness for Christmas picture books. What try not to look at the bookshelf behind me that’s breaking from the weight of the Christmas picture actually is. And I also love books by Mack Barnett and John Classen. So my extra credit goes to their new book. How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? I pre ordered it, just because I love them so much. But I was maybe a little worried that this might be not quite the right tone, because some of their books can be a little bit have a darker sense of humor.

Emily  24:00

I love it, but I find that sometimes the kids don’t get it.

Heidi  24:03

Yes and I don’t really want that in a Christmas book, yeah, but I shouldn’t have worried. It’s quirky, funny with lots of silly pictures of all of the ways that they’ve imagined that Santa might fit down the chimney. Plus it’s not too wordy, which is the golden rule for me with picture books. And the illustrations are delightful. I promise any children you read this to are sure to get a kick out of it. Oh, I can’t wait to get it.

Heidi  24:26

So that’s it for today’s episode. Try our tips for preventing behavior problems, and don’t forget our teacher approved tip to move around the classroom while teaching.