How to Maintain Order While Respecting Students in the Class

Do your students hang from the rafters? Do the other teachers on the hallway complain as you have the loudest classroom on the hallway? If your class appears to act more like a circus than students engaged in a learning environment, then you may want to change the way you go about bringing order to your classroom.

Personally, I do not think that learning can take place until your classroom is disciplined enough for that exchange of information to occur. I understand that sometimes teachers do activities in their classroom that encourage students to interact with other students, thus creating noise, etc. However, I am primarily referring to students who are out of control in a learning environment, one in which a teacher is attempting to instruct his or her students.

Every teacher loves to have that perfect class in which everything seems to be running smoothly until that one student walks in who challenges the teacher's patience level. Now, you have that one student who will disrupt and disturb your class constantly and habitually. It is to the point in which the other students are politely asking the student to avoid interrupting their learning experience. If you have this situation, there is an effective measure that you can take to quiet the disturbance.

Sometimes a student who is continually being disruptive needs some time away. Speak to the student and tell him or her how the distraction is affecting his or her learning and the learning of the whole class. Have a designated place in the classroom for the student to go when he or she needs to regain focus. This may mean a different table or quiet area of the classroom. This is not to isolate the student, but to give him or her a choice about where to go when focusing becomes difficult. You may find that the student will willingly go there.

When there are no other students around, the student may be able to regain focus on the work at hand. Be sure when using the SmartBoard, blackboard or dry-erase board that the student is in full view of the teaching instruction being presented.

After allowing the student some quiet time, most students will want to return to the class when they have regained focus. Students can return to the rest of the class when they are ready. Eventually the student learns self-discipline in the classroom.