Classroom Management requires us to tap our heads, rub our bellies and tap dance all at the same time.
We set our procedures and consequences into place from day one! We work hard to establish a positive atmosphere in our classrooms so that students want to do their best for us. We create a highly structured atmosphere with our daily rituals, and we vary our routines when we feel it is time to do so in order to keep things fresh. We communicate with parents. We set up reward systems. We acknowledge positive behaviors publicly, and we only correct in private whenever possible in order to maintain the dignity of the child. When we encounter a child who is acting out in ways that concern us, we reach out to meet directly with the child and the parent for a conference.
In settings like we've created, most of our students would never want to disappoint us by misbehaving, and that is an awesome place from which to work and to create a positive learning environment.
But some children are more difficult to manage than others.
These children push us to the edges. They challenge us. It can become a game for them.
We go through our normal procedures and consequences and reward systems, but nothing is changing.
Ask yourself this question:
How many times have I made eye to eye contact with this child while I am correcting his/her behavior?
Am I looking away when I do it?
Start to notice your pattern...
The students definitely notice, and they respond to it as weakness.
Students in the middle notice everything about us, and they make decisions based on how serious we are or are not based on our body language while we deliver the correction. Eye contact is a key component of our body language that contains enormous power.
Many times in my life, I've heard my friends say, "When I was a kid, I never would have done xxxxxx because my parents would have killed me."
Well, of course their parents wouldn't have killed them!
But the child knew his/her parent was serious.
I imagine that the strength the parent delivered to their children included direct eye contact.
It makes all the difference.
Give it a try.
In my own classroom, I use it with the "strongest" of my students who need me to set super clear boundaries for them in order to help them be successful.
...And they know that when I do it, I am serious.
Hope that helps you in your classroom!
