As teachers around the country are getting ready to go back to school I thought it was important to mention a huge classroom management mistake that many teachers are still making…
I want to make sure you don’t make this classroom management mistake!
If you are effectively using the “law of least intervention” – (using eye contact effectively, pausing when necessary, moving to proximity of the classroom disturbance, giving an inappropriate student the look, etc.) and still the minor disruptive behavior continues…you may feel the need to put your hand on a student’s shoulder to stop the disruptive behavior. This may very well add to the sincerity of eye contact and may actually communicate much more than words.
This is precisely what teachers did when I was a student and it worked. All I can say is, “Don’t do it!”
I work with a lot of teachers who are career changers and I am always surprised at how many of them ask if it is alright to touch a student. I assume it is because this is what they remember from when they were in school.
The answer is “NO!”
Sure 99% of the time nothing will come of it and it may very well stop the inappropriate behavior without much, if any, disruption to the lesson. However, it just takes that 1% of the time…that one time a student misinterprets your intended meaning…that one student who is a little sensitive or overly dramatic…it just takes one time to ruin your teaching career.
In the end it is just not worth yet.
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classroom management!
Adam Waxler, a full-time social studies teacher and adjunct education professor, has developed a FREE 5-part
Classroom Management e-Course…
Learn simple classroom management strategies that will result in an immediate and definite decrease in classroom management problems
To sign up for this FREE course visit:
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