There are two reasons why students continue to misbehave in the classroom.
The boundary lines are ill-defined.
Enforcement is inconsistent.
Let’s take these one at a time.
By nature, children as young as one and all the way up until adulthood will push and test for boundaries until they find them. If they don’t, if no one tells them no, then they’ll continue to misbehave.
Just the way it is and will always be.
No matter how vehemently you’ve heard it’s about needs and injustice, the underlying reason is immutable. It’s how we’re built.
The longer a child goes without firm boundaries, the worse they behave, the more entitled they become, and the harder it is to turn them around.
This underscores the importance of ensuring that your students know precisely where your boundary lines are. They must be defined exactingly and minutely. There can never, ever be a question as to what is and isn’t okay.
This is best established through modeling and highly detailed teaching of your classroom management plan.
What does each rule mean? What does following them look like? What does breaking them look like? It is through good teaching—like any other subject—that students understand your boundaries.
This is key. It’s only through knowing that students lose the curiosity and deep-seated urge to discover your limits. The reason students seem so intent on misbehaving is because they find comfort and safety in knowing where the line is.
They want you to say no. Though they can’t always put it into words, or even understand their conflicted feelings, students are happy in a well-run and well-behaved classroom is because it means that someone cares.
Knowing the boundaries enables them to let go and enjoy school.
Of course, this means nothing without the second reason students continue to misbehave. You can be as detailed as a watchmaker in establishing your rules, but if you don’t enforce them, then it’s all for naught.
Inconsistency tells students that you don’t mean what you say. It lets them know that you can’t be trusted with anything, academic instruction included.
It also says that you don’t care enough to protect their right to learn and enjoy school without interruption, bullying, being made fun of, and the like. It makes your boundaries as weak and as easy to cross as silly string.
To enforce consequences means that you can’t be afraid. Fear, and its close cousin, playing favorites, is the number one reason teachers look the other way or pretend they didn’t see what they just saw.
They think that somehow students will appreciate them if they give reminders, gentle rebukes, chance after chance, winks, special friendship, or nothing at all.
Of course, this leads to confusion and frustration. It leads to more and more chaos and misbehavior. It leads to the teacher losing their cool, raising their voice, and wondering if they’re cut out for the job.
So, teach your rules like your career and peace of mind depend on it (they do) and do not waver an inch. Follow through like a robot programmed to do so.
And you’ll rid your classroom of continued misbehavior.
PS – To learn how to do all this naturally, and more, please check out my new book Inspire.
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Thank you Mike! Even has a veteran teacher of 20plus years, I still need reminders of this, especially with a small class size where it is tempting to try to shortcut the management. 🙂
Great article! Thank you Micheal (from a new teacher)!
I recently had difficulty with only my 4th period class coming in, ignoring the bell and needing to be cajoled into being quiet, listening, and on task. I found myself wanting to preach, remind, and reprimand. Suddenly, my SCM kicked in. I simply said, “Everyone out into hall” and walked out. Once this got their attention, I reviewed my classroom entry expectations and we practiced together. Those who could not do it successfully, practiced again. The following day was better, but still not up to expectations. We practiced again. I now thank them for being ready for instruction at the bell. It works. Mr. Linsin, Thank you for these short emails that keeping popping up. They help keep me sane.
What consequences do you use? I need a list.
second that
Look up his classroom management plan. They are all laid out.
Where can I find it?
This in our K-6 building…
1 – Reminder
2 – Think Seat
3 – Think Seat and Parent Letter
4 – Think Seat
5 – Think Seat and 30-Minute Detention
Do they go back and forth to the think seat, or just stay in it for consequences 2, 3, 4, and 5?
Whatever your district allows. In my case, no much.
I’m thinking this article needs to be published in lots of places besides just in reference to teaching students!
Thank you so much, this is so helpful to me.
Fear, slightly, overcame me as one student got very upset with because I put him in timeout for faking an arm swing towards another student. He left the shop lab after sitting on the stool for a moment. I followed and spoke to him. He was very upset (hollering) and said that I was picking on him again. I reminded the student that this was about safety in the shop lab and someone could get hurt, that I cared about his well-being and every student’s. After a little more conversation, he accepted my explanation.
Two things occurred in my mind:
1. I was dealing with a student of color.
2. I was wiped out by the nature of the situation and the student’s level of anger and frustration (he reacted the same way in another classroom recently t00). I had to regroup and be ready for the next classes that day.
The next day in class he was somber. During my instructions this student doodled on his project (just like on paper) during instruction. Normally I would give a warning but not this time as I felt this would trigger him to react the same way as the prior day.
Any suggestions as to how to handle this again if a student uses anger to change the outcome would be welcomed.
Why was he “somber” by your observation? Did you ask? Yes, many more kids are responding with extreme anger, and when considering the scope of the world they see it’s not entirely unreasonable, but there’s often a definable cause. Working in an alternative school for K-4th students, seeing extreme anger is a daily occurrence for me now, but I understand where most of it is coming from. If you don’t know the why that he reacted so extremely or why he was so somber the next day you can’t create an action plan to address his behavior in the future. If you haven’t discussed this with the school social worker, I strongly suggest you do. Understanding what’s going on can inform a response. It’s entirely possible he’s dealing with difficult things at home and how that may be playing out can affect how he sees reprimands. Sometimes kids get it in their heads that everyone is out to get them because they fall behind and seeds of insecurity are laid. Sometimes it’s because they genuinely were bullied by a teacher in the past and any consequence feels like that past trauma.
(Having survived being bullied by a teacher myself in childhood, I urge you to remember that there are bad people who go into teaching and as teachers striving to provide the best tools for our students to go into the world, we have to address the misdeeds of others, even if they’re not in the same area by way of providing a safe, healing environment. Teachers can be bullies and generally bad people, even if they are the exception, they exist and discounting a story of suffering only pushes students further away.)
More than one of my students dealt with openly racist teachers who addressed their acting out behavior by calling them abhorrent things. I know this because the social worker at that school left to come to our alternative program and has spoken of trying to get accountability for their horrifying treatment of students with little to no success. Some schools would rather have racist trash than face using substitutes or accepting teachers from nontraditional programs.
So when those students respond with calling me names or saying I’m picking on them, I know to remind them that the rules apply to everyone equally to ensure everyone stays safe and has an equal chance to learn. I’ve also tried pointing out that I’m actually mixed race, but some are not at a place where they can grasp that, so focusing on pointing out that others face the same consequences for bad choices is the biggest approach right now.
Also, if this student is experiencing extreme reactions in multiple classes, and fake hitting people, they may be dealing with undiagnosed developmental or mental health disorders because BIPOC children are grossly underdiagnosed and referred to as behavioral cases when a medical diagnosis and treatment could completely change their ability to handle school. There’s also those that are diagnosed but who have parents that refuse medication or therapy because they were fed the narrative that children are “over medicated” when studies show the opposite because access to assessment, treatment, and therapies is in extremely high demand. In my city, a city comparable to Detroit (or Denver a decade ago), we are seeing children on wait lists for autism evaluation that at best is 6 months, but averaging 18 months or more. Easter Seals is no less than 18 months wait now, even with extreme symptoms. Access to care is limited, so understanding if that is playing a role can make a big difference in creating an action plan. Understanding if that student is dealing with home domestic violence or a death in the family or homelessness, all have an impact. You can’t create an action plan without knowing his story, but frankly, you did the best thing possible when not knowing his story by giving him space. Also, he may be one that learns better by doodling, so maybe he needs scratch paper to focus.
TL;DR: Talk to the school social worker or counselor and talk to the student on a good day and explain you want him to succeed and if he needs a break he can go sit by himself someplace safe to get himself calm that doesn’t include running off and prevents risky choices. Students deal with a lot of trauma today and being responsive isn’t easy, so know you’re doing the best you can so far and it’s great that you’re asking for advice!
Thanks for the great reply Katy. Lots of good points that needs to be taken in consideration. Our district and maybe many others do not inform us the situations these children are coming from. This student is from a homeless background. How did I find out? Searched his home location and saw that address was of a private homeless center.
I agree with everything, especially this: “The longer a child goes without firm boundaries, the worse they behave, the more entitled they become, and the harder it is to turn them around.”
At my school we’re currently dealing with an 11-year-old who is handling the transition to middle school (different teachers for every subject) very poorly, mainly because of a lack of firm boundaries at home and at school. The child was adopted as a toddler out of a very difficult orphanage situation and has some remaining trauma from that situation that is now playing out as impulsive and oppositional behavior at school and at home. (The behavior was also problematic in primary school, but being with the same teachers all day long helped a bit.) Teachers who are working hard to establish control in this class using consistent routines are finding it very challenging, because this kid basically sucks up all the energy and time, leaving hardly anything left for an actual lesson. Every single lesson, all the routines have to be taught all over again. Consequences are hard to apply, because the child is also a runner and tends to disappear if asked to take a time-out. Other calm-down techniques are very difficult to implement because the child is also a screamer. Messages to the parents don’t seem to make any difference. Is there any advice for the teachers in this situation, other than having the school counselor on speed-dial? We don’t want to choose exclusion as a consequence, but it’s starting to appear that this may be the only way we can offer the other students a “normal” classroom existence.
How do you deal with the consistency/inconsistency issue then when students snitch on other students for things that you didn’t actually see or hear? When can I look away from the class as a whole to work with an individual student?
Hi Michael,
I wonder if you might have any advice on integrating new (midyear) students to class rules and routines. I teach newcomer immigrants so we are constantly receiving new students with some peak points that we plan for, but students come up until the end of June. I set up the rules with strong modeling in the first days and I review the rules regularly (especially around peak influx points), but it’s unrealistic to do it every week or even once a week.
Awesome article! So true.
Mr. Linsin,
My name is Mark Porter, first time responder, long time reader. Our faculty and staff continue to keep your ideas and strategies at the forefront of our school’s student management plan. The CMS book is our student management piece of our instructional framework in our PK-6 building.
I have been evaluating an idea that has begun to develop in my head. I have come to understand that the part of the brain that controls rational thinking is in the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is yet to develop in youth and many young adults. (In some males it isn’t until they are ~30 that this part of the brain fully develops…)
I feel like I also understand that the brain has neurons that fire across a space called a synapse. These firings eventually ‘burn’ thought patterns and behaviors into a person’s brain. The more firings down the same path, the deeper the neural pathway gets and the more pronounced it is in the brain. Also, this makes the thought or behavior come with ease and a quicker response.
Daily, I think about this in relation to our students’ developments and how it connects to behaviors. Each student comes to us with a developing brain. They have found out what works for them in the ages before school and their brains fire and they react without even thinking from approximately age 1 and thereafter.
I have recently been saying to parents and fellow educators that this blank or slightly stenciled brain that comes to us needs boundaries, opportunities to follow or not follow those boundaries, and a group of relentless educators there to provide correction. Without misbehavior followed by consistent correction will students ever learn right from wrong? My children at home hear from me that they are supposed to do dumb stuff, get in trouble, and live with the consequences. Without this they won’t know what they are and are not supposed to do when they are adults.
Here is the point of this post… Is this right? Should I be telling my own children, parents, and educators that getting into trouble following misbehavior is just part of the process? It is okay to misbehave and get ‘in trouble’ but it is not okay to misbehave and not get into trouble. The latter just leads to an increase in behavior intensity, frequency, and duration.
I am a para-educator who works with 6th grade. I am also studying to get my degree after many years. Thank you for your instructions here. I totally agree that students want to push till they get boundaries, yet it seems the boundaries are being allowed to be pushed. Where I struggle is I am not the one who is in charge. I try to be consistent with my part of having kids follow the rules given, where I struggle is when I feel like I am the only one enforcing the rules. Any suggestions.
Thanks for the article. a really great one.
Two related to each other questions: [1] is it ok to ask the student themselves to create the list of “bad behaving kids” and “good behaving kids”?
[2] is it ok for me, as a teacher, to do something like that (lists)?