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Every teacher, sooner or later will have problems in class, regarding bad behavior. Working with larger groups of students can get even more complicated if the group has one or more difficult students. Younger students are more likely to have troubled behavior because of their high energy. There are many reasons for problem behavior. Students coming from bad family environments tend to act out, not respect the teacher or their peers. This can also happen if the student has low self-esteem, is bored or wants more attention. The first step of avoiding punishment is to prevent problem behavior. If we plan ahead, act immediately while keeping calm, we will avoid the need for punishment. We cannot control all the external factors, but we can control the environment in the classroom, by setting standard and firm rules at the beginning of the class, and keeping the class interesting and dynamic, so that students are engaged in the content. Punishment leads to focusing on individual students and not on the behavior itself. Punishment makes children and young students associate negative feelings with the person who punishes. Furthermore, in many cases, it does not teach the punished person a lesson, but makes him act in a way that is acceptable until the teacher has his/her attention on the student. It can also make the student form negative association with the subject and demotivate him/her completely. So, one good way to deal with problem behavior is by rewarding good behavior instead of punishing the bad one. If the students get rewarded for being active and well behaved in class, they will likely get more motivated to do better. One way to reward students is to keep a track of their activities and finished tasks on a small board during class, and then, give stars or stickers at the best behaved students, and add them to the class clip chart. The teacher should be able to notice what is the reason for the way a student is acting. If the reason is the feeling of lack of attention, then instead of punishing the student, the teacher should give him/her extra tasks, by making the student the “teacher’s assistant”, or “a small teacher”. Just by handing out worksheets or holding the toys and handing them to others during games, or writing on board, the student’s need for extra attention will be filled. If the reason for acting out is low self-esteem, the teacher should point out when the student is doing well on some exercise, so that she/he does not feel like he/she is wrong all the time. If there is more than one student who is behaving bad, we should make sure that at the beginning of the class we separate them. Paring more quiet students with energetic ones can make the class energy more balanced. Another alternative to punishment is a talk. Talking with our students about their behavior should be discrete. Pointing out someone in front of the whole group can make the class atmosphere very uncomfortable for everyone. We can do it after class in private. When we talk with a student we should not tell them what they are doing wrong, but use questions to guide them to figure out the problem on their own. Sometimes we are going to deal with students that have problem behavior no matter our efforts of making it better. In this situation we must make the difference between punishment and logical consequences. For example, if we have a class with toddlers, and one kid breaks a toy because it is too excited and uses too much force in the game, the logical consequence is that we will not have that toy anymore, because it is broken. That will be an example that we must take care of our toys, because if we don’t, we will not have toys to play games with. It is not easy to deal with problem behavior. A good teacher will have patience with his/her students and will try to get the best out of them no matter what. With establishing rapport at the beginning of the course we reduce the need of punishment during the course. Punishment has never been a good way to “teach a lesson”. We must have that in mind and be understanding of our students’ needs.
