The key to maintaining order in your classroom has nothing to do with tangible rewards.  In fact, you don't have to give food, toys, stickers, and pencils as rewards for a children, or spend any money at all, in order to gain their cooperation.  HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? There are 5 simple guidelines you can follow:

1.  Have a routine and procedure for EVERYTHING in place from the first day of school. 

Know all of your rules and procedures to the tiniest detail, and if a child streches those rules even a tiny bit, call them on it.  You can get a little more lax as the year goes on, but make no exceptions to any class rules at the beginning of the school year.  Not only do students have to learn your expectations, they have to UNLEARN those of their previous teachers, since everyone has different expectations and routines.  You may want to read about a technique called Students Make the Classroom by Laura Candler.  This simple class discussion can teach students how the way they behave affects the way their teacher behaves, and consequently, how the classroom runs.  Click here for an explanation of what to do; click here for a graphic organizer you can use with students to help organize the brainstorming that takes place during the discussion.

Don't assume anything!  I once said on the first day of school to my second graders, "Hold the door for the person behind you" and noticed that all day the kids would hold the door for the entire class.  I thought they just wanted to hold the door for the fun of it, but on the second day I realized that they didn't understand what I meant.  Unlike my third graders, they were used to having a door holder and did not know how to simply touch the door until the person behind them touched it, and then walk on.  We had to practice it for a week and do follow-up reviews throughout the year for how to 'hold for the person behind you'.  Take nothing for granted, and prepare for all situations.  You can plan out your procedures- everything from when students can sharpen pencils to completing make-up work to practicing fire drills to getting drinks of water- using my form or one from Kinderkorner.

There are step-by-step instructions for teaching kids how to get (and stay) quiet, walk in the hallways, and more in a collection of posts I saved from Teachers.Net.  I highly recommend you read them- I have never seen the methodology for teaching procedures explained in a more logical and supportive way.

Remember, with procodures students need PRACTICE, NOT PUNISHMENT!  It will take weeks to get your students to where you want them to be, and you will have to continually model and reinforce their behavior all the way through June.  Sure, you would think that by the second or third (or twelfth!) grade kids would remember to put the correct heading on their papers or to behave a certain way in the hall, but the fact is, they don't do it without positive reinforcement.  Don't get frusterated because your kids still ask where to turn their papers in- keep practicing!  It's NORMAL.  Don't ease up and let the kids get sloppy.  Having your procedures firmly in place will make teaching easier and more effective.  It is worth every moment spent.     

You can read more about discipline during the first weeks of school on my Beginning of the Year page.

Harry Wong's book, "The First Days of School" is an excellent guide for showing you how to set up and model routines and procedures.  A lot of it is common sense, but if you want help with teaching procedures, this is the place to get it! 

Here's the way Mrs. Fransceze, a teacher at my former school, communicated her behavioral expectations to her class of gifted second graders.   There are 4 class rules, displayed on the right, and the consequences are grouped on the right.  Click the photo to enlarge it.

2.  Have a very SIMPLE, positive class behavior management plan and use individual plans for kids with behavioral issues. 

I believe that the most effective whole-class plans are based on positive reinforcement for appropriate behavior, rather than punitive systems that only provide consequences or punishment for misbehavior.  The needs of more challenging students can be met through individual behavior modification plans as needed.  Please see the Behavior Plans page for more about positive vs. punitive systems and how to develop appropriate individual modifcation plans. 

Here are some examples of positive whole-class management systems that reinforce appropriate behaviors: 

--The World's Easiest Token System is the management plan I used for two years with third graders.  It is tied into classroom jobs: kids love to help out in the classroom, so why not let them earn the privilege?  This system was recognized by Education World in 2005.  Click the picture below to read more about how it works:   

--Token Economies/ Class Economies.  These differ from a token system like mine in that they are much more elaborate, with students earning tokens (or play money, etc.) for classroom jobs and other tasks, and spend their earnings on items from the classroom store or privileges.  While I don't recommend them for teachers who are looking for something easy to maintain, and I've never used them myself, I know many excellent teachers who have successfully implemented them and wouldn't use any other system.  The biggest advantage to token economies is that they have cross-curricular academic tie-ins.  Students have a practical application for math skills and the principles of economics they learn in social studies (opportunity cost, credit/debit, etc.).  The older the students, the more in depth you can go.  The best example of a token economy that I have seen is that of Mrs. Newington's mini-economy: she includes photos, instructions for setting it up and utlitizing it, downloads of related forms and activities, and ways to tie the system into classroom jobs. 

--The Bead System.  This is something I started a few years ago and the kids LOVE it!  The system is very simple and basically involves rewarding students for making good choices by giving them beads, which can be traded in at the end of the week for rewards.  I created a seperate page to show you exactly how it works- click here to go to The Bead System page.

--Team points and privileges.  When I did the token system, I would also use team points in the beginning of the year (and at Christmas time, in June, and other times when it was difficult for the kids to follow the rules) as an incentive for learning and following procedures.  Other years I used team points all year long in place of the token system (or alongside the bead system).  Basically, team points are useful no matter wheat else you have (or don't have) going on already in your classroom.  I use the top righthand corner of my board and just scrawled the row numbers on the board quickly, nothing fancy, and made tally marks.  I divide the desk arrangement into groups (or rows/teams) and award a point to the first team who has their materials ready, a team who is staying on task, etc.  If I see one student doing something exceptional, I often give a point to the team on their behalf, which makes the child feel really good.  In the past, students generated a list of possible rewards for me to consider.  The team with the most points at the end of the day got to choose a reward.  Examples of choices:  sit on the couch during DEAR time, bring something special to school the next day to show the class, get extra computer time at the end of the day, etc..  None of those cost me anything but were very motivating for the kids.   A few weeks into the school year, I would stop giving points because the procedures were basically in place and I would just use the teams for logical consequences and privileges.  For example, the first team who was ready gets to line up first or pick a book bin first.  Teams who talk and play around got called last.  In other years, I continued doing the points, with a reward each time a team earned 20 points (generally every 3-4 weeks).  You may have heard of teachers using The Lunch Bunch as a reward- letting kids eat with them.  Well, I need my 30 minutes away from kids to relax, and I'm a better teacher when I have that break!  So instead, I created The Snack Pack- the group who earns 20 points get to sit with me at the picnic table during recess and eat snack together.  They worked hard for this all year long, and I really enjoyed having the time to get to know the kids as individuals.  There are lots of ways to use team points and privileges: no complicated system id needed.  You can even allow the person on each team who has done the best job completing the task at hand (such as putting their materials put away quickly and quietly)  to have a privilege when appropriate, such as passing papers out to their team or putting the manipulatives back on the shelf.  All you have to say is, "I will be looking for someone from each team to..." and they will instantly sit up straight and tall with their hands folded!

3.  Have a low-maintenence method for regular communication with parents about behavior.

A great way to provide info for parents about incidents in the classroom is to send home the child's own reflection on what happened.  Filling out -sheets will document misbehavior (important for conferences, office referrals, IEP meetings, etc.), and more importantly, helps students reflect on their choices and responsibilities.  Students can fill them out or can dictate to you in they are unable to write independently.  I have a very plain form I made up in 5 minutes that you can view here or use my older version.  You can fit problem solving sheets into any behavior modification system you are using (whole class or individual)- just make completing one part of the consequence for a certain level of misbehavior.

There are lots of strategies for communicating with parents about behavior on the Family Outreach page, but  I'll share a synopsis here and you can check out the other page if you'd like more details. One way is through daily reports, in which you sign off on children's agendas or notebooks each day.  For many years I used a weekly progress report in the form of Weekly Evaluations.  I tracked students' behavior throughout the week using a 'strikes' or  'checks', marking off misbehavior and missing work as it occured and then summarizing on the weekly evaluation.  Some years, I did those solely to document student behavior and work habits for my own purposes and to update parents.  In other years (with more difficult classes), I also used it as a whole-class behavior management system, letting the kids know how many checks they had and giving rewards (Fun Friday) or consequences (missed recess) based on their performance.  You can read more on the Weekly Evaluations page, which also explains how I tracked students' behavior, grade it, and report it to parents.  Click here for a Word document that has a welcome letter for parents to explain the strike/checks system, a contract to sign, and handouts/mini-posters for students to view while you introduce the system.  I really don't like using punitive systems anymore unless it's really necessary, but I want to keep the details here as a resource for you, because only you can determine what is best for your class.

Here's how a very creative kindergarten teacher uses a strike system (click to enlarge).  Each child's name is written on a clothespin.  The children move their clothespins from Homerun to Strike 1, Strike 2, and Strike 3 according to the class behavior management plan.  Be sure to read the Behavior Plans page for more about positive vs. punitive systems to make sure a strike system or something similar best meets the needs of your class.

4.  Make general rules and consequences that are related and logical, and enforce them in ways that are appropriate for individual children.  

The chart below is NOT a list of hard-and-fast rules that should be hung up in the classroom.  Take incidents on a case-by-case basis, because each child and situation is different, but there should be a common thread: all kids should see a clear connection between what they do and what the consequences are.  Taking away recess or centers isn't neccesarily effective when the child wasn't having problems at recess or centers: I recommend tying the consequence as directly to the action whenever possible.

*Just like with material things, students lose access to what they show disrespect to-

it is a huge punishment for most kids to leave the classroom. 

While consequences are set up for the entire class, it's unreasonable to expect all kids to act the same way, and therefore it's unfair to try to treat them all the same way.  Remember when you were young and your parents told you, “Life’s not fair”?  It’s true!  Rather than striving for equality, work for equity- treating students in a way that is appropriate and reasonable for their personal situations.  Every child brings a unique personality and set of experiences to the classroom, therefore, not only will each child have different capabilities, each will need to be disciplined differently.  There's nothing scientific about what follows, but in my experience, there are several basic responses to discipline that you will see children exhibit in the classroom.   I put in parentheses approximately how many kids of each type I personally have had in my classroom in a typical year.  I would probably expect more kids of the first two types in more affluent areas and more of the last two types in tougher neighborhoods, but that's just a general steroetype.

"You CAN Handle Them All!" is a terrific resource if you really want to find out what makes individual kids tick and learn how to get to the root of the problem.  The discussions of how students try to meet their primary and secondary needs is much more research-based than what I've outlined above, yet still manages to weed out the psycho-babble and clearly explain what's going on in the minds of your students.  While you have to purchase materials to find out ways to address the problems, just understanding where your students are coming from can be extraordinarily helpful.  Over 117 common misbehaviors are addressed- The Defier, the Destroyer, the Do-Nothing... and that's just the D's! 

5.   Master a repertoire of great one-liners.

Every primary-grade teacher needs a quick response to the repetitive complaints we hear daily.  The goal is to reassure the students that they are in a safe and orderly environment; encourage them to take personal responsibility for their actions; and teach them to problem-solve independently… all while spending as little time as possible addressing the problem.   Here are some of the lines I have used that seem to be the most effective in terms of satisfying the child and allowing me to resume teaching:

DISCLAIMER: These lines have worked in MY schools, in MY classrooms, with MY kids, as part of MY personal teaching style.  They will not be a good fit for all teachers.  Some will sound too harsh, some too lenient, and some just won’t make sense to you.  Choose the ones that you think will be right for YOUR situation, and use them consistently.  Soon your kids will already know what you're going to say before you open your mouth, and that consistency will work wonders in preventing further problems. :-)

And of course, learn what lines DON’T work in your classroom.

These are things that I have heard or heard of other teachers saying (or have said myself in desperation) that I personally feel are ineffective.

Never under-estimate the importance of reinforcing behavioral expectations throughout the year and consistently modeling problem-solving strategies and good character. 

Practice procedures instead of punishing!

Here's an example of choosing procedure practice over punishment:  I once had my kids doing their word wall work in journals.  It was the 5th week of school (2nd grade, inner city Miami).  We had practiced DAILY where to write: on the page that says Word Walls for Sept. 13-17.  They *should* all know that they do not use a new blank page every day because it wastes paper.  So of course, I saw a child who had started on a new page just seconds after I reminded the kids where to write.  Now, kids are never going to be perfect and we'll never have the whole class 100% on task all the time, but teachers aren't perfect either and sometimes we lose it!   I wanted to scream, "What did I just say!?!  We've gone over and over this for 5 weeks!  Why don't you follow directions!  LISTEN!!!!".  Fortunately I was able to control myself because that obviously would have been embarassing for the child and just plain ineffective because he still wouldn't have known what to do.  I took a deep breath and reminded myself that he was not purposely disobeying- even if he wasn't listening to my directions, that fact would be irrelevant if he didn't understand the procedure.  Clearly he needed more practice with this.  If he's not going to listen, maybe I could at least put him on auto-pilot eventually for routine tasks!  :-)  So I said, "Which page should you be doing this on?  A new page?  Okay, so where should you be doing it? Let's find it" and I stood at his desk and waited until he found it.   This is the life of a primary-grade teacher: repeating and rephrasing and reinforcing and reminding EVERY SINGLE DAY until the last day of school (and I assure you, they'll still need reminders in June about how to walk in the hallways and to turn in their homework everyday!)

"I've done everything they taught me in college, and everything other teachers tell me to do. 

Why won't my kids listen to and respect me???"

This happens to thousands of new teachers every year.  They're doing it by the book, but their students still run, yell, fight, talk over them, and generally create such a chaotic atmosphere that it is impossible for any real learning to take place.  Clearly these students do not respect their teacher.  My theory on why is that the teacher simply does is NOT BEING FIRM ENOUGH.  Too many teachers worry about being percieved as 'mean' and having their kids not like them.  I PROMISE YOU that if you teach elementary school and show your children that you genuinely care about them by listening to them and valuing their ideas, they WILL like you, no matter how often you take away privileges and discipline them!!   I remember my parents saying before spanking me, "This hurts us more than it will hurt you..." and that absolutely applies to discipline as a teacher.  (Good grief, I have become my mother!).  But there are times when I listen to myself like, whoa, I really wish I didn't have to do this, but here goes... and really lay into the kids.  IT HAS TO BE DONE. 

If you are teaching in the inner-city or another very low socio-economic area,

you WILL need advice beyond what you were told in college and during your district training.  Please click here to visit my page on

TEACHING CHALLENGING POPULATIONS.

Please visit the FMAP (Kids Off Task?) page

for more ideas on actively involving children during instruction.

FMAP Tip #1:   Do the least amount of teacher-directed instruction as possible

FMAP Tip #2:   Ask students to do little things during direct instruction.

FMAP Tip #3:  Whenever someone writes on board (including you), have the rest of the class also write at their seats.

FMAP Tip #4:  Ask students to write for you on the board whenever possible.  

FMAP Tip #5:  Whenever asking a question that requires a simple number answer, have children SHOW their answer on their hands.

FMAP Tip #6:  Have kids make specific hand gestures to represent different needs or responses. 

FMAP Tip #7:   Use songs to teach and get students' attention. 

FMAP Tip #8:  Periodically have students stand up as part of your lesson, not as a break from it. 

FMAP Tip #9:  Try using Think-Pair-Share. 

FMAP Tip #11:  Move students’ seats often.

FMAP Tip #12:  Choose your seating arrangement carefully.

FMAP Tip #13:  Develop a repertoire of very short, kind things to say to refocus kids without further distracting them or yelling.

FMAP Tip #14:  Use proximity control and teach around the room. 

FMAP Tip #15:  Know when to abandon a lesson.

More Resources

Here are some songs (lyrics and tunes with sound clips!) about:
 Friendship, getting along with others, character, and conflict resolution

Teaching respect for diversity

Reinforcing positive attitudes 

Below are links to some of the most popular behavior management resources on the market.  Lee Canter's "Assertive Discipline" has been nationally considered one of the most effective and practical guides for over 25 years.  The books in the top row are guides for teachers, and the bottom row has practical poems, games, and activities to use with kids to build social skills.