Handling the annoying behavior of students is an informal job description of every teacher. But handling such behavior is not enough, you have to have the ability to turn it around. As a teacher, it’s a responsibility to ensure the positive growth of students.
Get Best Free Student Apps (Check it Now)
For that, you need some great strategies and actual actions. This article will help you do it all.
Make Strategies
Some of the annoying behaviors can involve rudeness, disruptive nature, disrespect, and other forms of bad behavior. Such natures are a part of every person and they occur every now and then. Mature people know how to deal with it, some students don’t. You have to have that clarity in heart and mind first of all. Only then, you can set aside all your anger or frustration and think straight to turn around the issue.
With a calm and sorted mind, you can make some concrete strategies to tackle the problem:
1. Understand the core reason for Annoying Behaviors
First and the foremost, you need to find why those students of yours are behaving annoyingly. You can’t take any valuable action without knowing what a student is going through. Talk to the parents and find out if there has been any tragedy or a change in the life of the student. A divorce, disability, death, a new baby and other reasons can cause a change in the behavior of a student.
With a thorough understanding of the emotional and mental state of a student, you can decide actionable steps to help him or her.
2. Decide a goal
In your head, you can think of a step-by-step goal to resolve the problem. Give yourself a time period and a set of efforts, you can make to improve your relationship with the student. Also, think if there is a need for psychological, educational or any other professional counseling to tackle the issues.
Take action
After creating a strategy, you can start taking actions to manage an annoying student and help him or her at the same time.
1. Learn to respond in a composed manner
An annoying behavior has less to do with students and more to do with your mindset. It is completely natural to feel frustrated or angry when a student behaves in a bad way. But that anger or frustration shouldn’t guide your actions. You have to learn to acknowledge your frustration and calm yourself down before responding to such an action.
Why is this important?!
When you calm yourself down first, you can think of a positive approach to resolve the problem. At the same time, you can set an example for all students as well.
So, whenever you face an annoying student, give yourself a few seconds or minutes to calm down and think. Then, talk in a positive tone.
2. Dislike the Misbehavior, not the Student
It is difficult for many people to distinguish between behavior and the core personality of other people. Hence, we tend to judge a person due to his or her one misbehavior. If that happens between you and a student, that student can start feeling distant from you.
Make sure that you tell the student that you only dislike his or her misbehavior only. So, you can say, “You know you’re a great student, but this behavior of yours is unacceptable.” This approach helps the students understand that they just need to change one bad behavior and not their whole personality.
3. Allow the student to explain his or her actions
If you simply call out an annoying behavior, it won’t help in the process of turning it around. Instead, you should give a chance to the student to respond. Ask the student to explain his or her actions. Let them explain what they did step-by-step. Then, ask how their actions were wrong.
Know More: 7 Difficulties Modern Teacher’s can Face
This approach allows students to evaluate their behavior and understand how they misbehaved. Many times, emotions of a student don’t allow a clear perspective of mind. But when they revisit their actions, it helps in understanding the problem. Hence, you can effectively change the annoying behavior of students.
4. Choose a Problem-Solving Approach over Punishment
A conflict with annoying students can’t be about winning. As a teacher, it is easy to punish and feel that you have done the right thing. But punishment is not always the right way to turn around misbehavior. On the contrary, it can further increase the problem. A student can’t punish you, but he or she can keep annoying you with the same behavior. That’s what happens if you take the road of punishment.
Instead of punishing, present yourself as a problem-solver. Ask your student, why he or she is behaving that way. Also, present yourself as a solution. Say that you are there for them and you want to help them correct their misbehaving habits.
5. Listen, Respect, and Then, Respond
If you want students to listen to you, it’s necessary that you listen to them as well. Always be open to a conversation, so that, students can convey their concerns and feelings with you. Listen without making immediate judgments. Students can sometimes take time to express everything they want to say to you. So, give them enough time when talking.
At the same time, you have to respect their feelings too. Just because you have a mature mindset, doesn’t mean they have it too. Students worry about all those things which you have already dealt with. But you can’t tell them that their problems mean nothing. Their problems are real to them. So, respect what your students say.
If you follow the process of listening and respecting your students, the responding part gets easier. You can offer ideas to tackle problems. And, at the same time, tell students about the annoying behavior and how it’s bad for them as well.
6. Set disciplinary Rules in your Classroom
When you are trying to understand your students, it’s good to let them understand you as well. We all have some trigger points in our mind. Certain actions or activities can make us frustrated or angry. It naturally happens to you as well.
To resolve the problem, you can make a list of annoying behaviors you see in your students. Keep that list to yourself only.
Now, make a list of rules to counter all those annoying behaviors. Set those classroom rules, so that, students become aware of what you expect from them.
7. Understand if there is a cultural difference
Education has become a global sector today. So, students from all cultures are everywhere learning and getting degrees. This can create cultural clashes in some scenarios. And those clashes can happen between a student and a teacher as well.
For example, if a student looks down when you are talking to him, can have two meanings in different cultures. You might take it as annoying and disrespectful, but for the student, it can be a way of showing respect. You see, in many cultures, students don’t directly look at their teachers.
Such cultural differences can also create problems. So, understand about the culture of your students, especially if you have a diverse classroom.
8. Help Students Cultivate Social and Personal Skills
You can replace the annoying behavior of students with social and personal skills. No matter what subject you specialize in, a teacher can always help students learn better social and personal skills. You can share your experiences, tell stories and allow students to talk in the classroom. All these steps help in improving communication, sharing nature, kindness, and other skills in students. And all those qualities don’t allow a student to misbehave.
9. Acknowledge and Reward Acceptable Behavior
While punishment is not effective, rewarding acceptable behavior helps a lot. No matter how old your students are, they look up to you and want to impress you. So, you can let them know when they behave correctly.
For example, if a student helps to stop a fight between two other students, acknowledge the effort. Also, give a treat or some other form of reward to the student who stopped the fight.
Now, you are punishing the students who fought, only rewarding the one who stopped the fight. This way, students know that you are all about solving a problem.
10. If a Strict Talk is necessary, Have it Privately
Some annoying students are hard to handle. So, disciplining them requires some strict talk too. You can follow that approach in certain cases. But make sure you offer a private and safe environment. A strict talk with your students is about making them realize the depth of the problem. It should not become humiliating. So, you should not shout at a student in front of the whole class, or right in the middle of the hallway. This puts a negative impact on the student.
Get Best Free Student Apps (Check it Now)
Now, you can begin your approach with the help of given strategies and actions. Hopefully, you will succeed in creating a perfect classroom.
Know More: How to make Homework Less Stressful for students?