Last week I discussed why it is so important to NOT touch a student as a means to stop minor classroom management problems.

Well, here is a simple classroom management strategy you can use (instead of actually touching a student) which is just as effective, but without the potential repercussions…

So here it is:

Combine your teacher’s “look” (mentioned in a previous post) with body posture and gestures…

For the student who is out of his seat, giving him the “look” and then simply pointing to the student’s desk may be more of a positive reminder of the appropriate behavior (and much less disruptive) than interrupting the whole class to tell one student to get back in his seat.

This works for many minor classroom disturbances…if a student puts her feet up on a neighbor’s desk simply give that student your “look” while at the same time pointing your finger to floor (where her feet should be).

By all means point, lean, even touch a student’s desk, but just don’t touch the student himself…it’s just not worth it…especially when the above classroom management strategy works just as well.

******
A new school year is right around the corner…will you be ready?

To gain an arsenal of effective classroom management strategies that you can start applying to your very first class make sure read eTeach: A Teacher Resource for Learning the Strategies of Master Teachers @ www.TeachingTeacher.com

*******

Share