Eastern Washington University
Although it is often easy to get frustrated when attempting to redirect students that have gotten off task, it is important to remember that raising one’s voice or losing one’s composure is unlikely to help make the corrective process a positive experience. By staying calm and using a quiet tone of voice, redirection can be accomplished in a more constructive manner.
Using positive teacher language is when the teacher focuses on the good outcome of when a student does something right instead of focusing on what happens when the student does something wrong. The tool is useful to encourage students and the teacher gets to model treating others well through this tool.
Time Out is often used as a punishment, when in fact it is a way to stop bad behavior before it ever starts. Time Out can also be used as a short break time for students.
When misbehaving occurs, explaining to a student the difference between inappropriate and appropriate behavior will help a student rethink their actions. Offering different solutions to the issue will offer an alternative look on how the student could have behaved differently. By using this tool, student can then change how they behave in future situations.
Touch interference is a nonverbal way of communicating to a student that a behavior isn’t correct. This tool is a good way to prevent embarrassment by avoiding putting them on blast in the middle of the lesson.
Activity interference is a tool that teachers can use when students start to become disengaged and distracted by moving along to the next activity. This in short just means if a teacher sees students starting to get off task because of “dead time,” the teacher just needs to reevaluate if the lesson is moving along and engaging. This is helpful for teachers and students to keep everyone focused and engaged.
Writing a “note” to another teacher and allowing the student who is acting out to run it to the teacher. This gets (allows the student to leave class) the student out of class and gives them a break and time to take a breath.
This tool is used to get a whole group attention. It is helpful, especially when a undesired behavior is coming from the whole group. As a teacher you can use this tool to help correct more than one student.
Witness Circles are very similar to the idea of the Fishbowl tool, except it is a way to try and resolve larger group issues. The small inner circle consists of people that address the conflict, while the outer circle consists of observers; however, the smaller circle has an empty chair in it so that any of the observers can join in during the discussion. If the chair is occupied, the student sitting there will automatically speak next before returning to the outer circle (Smith, 2005).
This tool takes the idea of getting even, but making it positive. Instead of getting even, students and teachers are encouraged to get well. This means teaching the students to understand the arm they did, which will lead to them doing less of it.
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