Managing and enduring student misbehavior has become much more difficult since the pandemic. Major problems - violence, on-campus drug use, destruction of school property - are way up nationwide from everything I’ve read. Plenty of people are already writing opinions about how they feel like issues like these should and shouldn’t be handled, and I’ll let those speak for themselves.
What I don’t see much discussion about is more routine behavior problems. It would also appear that less severe issues like disrespect, distraction, and disengagement - along with all of the disruptions and behaviors that come along with these - are happening far more frequently than they used to as well. Student misbehavior takes an incredible toll on schools. It takes massive amounts of time and energy for staff to deal with. It reduces the quality of education that every student in the school can receive. It also causes students to feel on edge or unsafe when it happens frequently. It is on (or at the top of) every list of the big reasons teachers and administrators are quitting in record numbers. Student misbehavior is also the top contributor to an overall negative school culture, and it robs countless students of the sense of belonging and connection that they deserve to have at school. I think it is important to acknowledge that our actions as teachers can have an enormous influence on student behavior. Routine student behavior isn’t inevitable. It isn’t fixed. While students certainly should behave regardless of the actions of their teachers, it is becoming increasingly clear that expecting that in schools right now is certain to disappoint us. The good news is this - we can make positive behavior more or less frequent and we can make negative behavior more or less frequent. And how we do (or don’t) choose to do so has a huge effect on everything (and everyone else) at school. With that in mind, here are twenty ways that I think that our choices, actions, and mindsets as teachers can influence the behavior of students. 1. We can hold high expectations
High expectations are different from high standards. Most teachers have high standards for both academics and behavior.
Standards are what they say they are - the bar we set. “This is what constitutes good behavior.” “This is what constitutes A-level math/chemistry/writing/whatever.” Standards tell students what constitutes “good.” They communicate to students what is demanded of them. Most importantly, they are about the students themselves, their behavior, and their academics. Expectations, are also what they say they are. They are what we expect to happen and what we expect to accomplish. If we expect our students’ behavior and learning to rise to the standard we set, we have high expectations. If we expect our students’ behavior and learning to be poor despite our high standards, we have low expectations. Expectations are belief in ourselves as teachers. Expectations are about us.
High standards are useless without high expectations. It is imperative that we believe that - through our actions, choices, and mindsets - we can help students reach high standards for their behavior and their learning.
2. We can create classroom ENVIRONMENTs where students feel like they belong
If we want to influence students’ behavior, we have to give them a reason to behave better. If our classroom environment is going to be chaotic, unsupportive, and unpleasant whether they behave or not, what’s the point of behaving well? If they’re going to be treated with disrespect and disdain whether they behave or not, what’s the point of behaving well? If they’re not going to have the opportunity to do well academically whether they behave or not, what’s the point of behaving well?
3. We can teach for engagement
Much misbehavior rises from boredom. When kids aren’t involved in what they’re doing - or worse yet, when they don’t have anything to do - misbehaving becomes a great alternative to that boredom.
Engagement is a tricky word. It doesn’t mean fun (though it can mean fun). It means being mentally involved in - even absorbed in - what you’re doing. I’m engaged while I’m writing this - my attention is here and here alone, and I’m not distracted by or thinking about other things. I’m not exactly having fun, but I’m captivated by what I’m doing. Teaching for engagement is challenging, to be sure, but not as challenging as we tend to assume if we misunderstand what engagement is. Again, it isn’t about fun. Planning and delivering engaging lessons doesn’t mean playing games or being entertaining. It means planning in a way that keeps kids' attention where it belongs. Like everything else, it is a learned skill. Many of my previous classroom practices posts are about engagement. I also recommend this bookfor anyone, and this additional book for math teachers.
4. We can set rules that are extraordinarily clear and ENFORCEABLE
In my class, rules are the things you must not do - they’re the “don’ts.” Rules need to be absolutely black-and-white clear. One of the traps I had fallen into and had to learn my way out of after the pandemic was having positive, “fluffy” rules instead of black-and-white ones - things like “be respectful” and “do your best.”
These, I learned, aren’t clear and they aren’t enforceable. What constitutes “respectful” or “your best” isn’t black and white clear, and it opened the door for students to manipulate and argue with me left and right. It became a sport for some of them. My rules this year have zero gray area. They are things like “your cell phone will be completely off and in your bookbag while at school.” There’s nothing to argue about. Either that rule is followed entirely or it is not. When it is not, you know and I know and there’s nothing else to say. Now, whether you follow rules is a choice you make, not an interpretation I make. 5. We can set Clear PRocedures and Routines
In my class, procedures and routines are the things you must do - they’re the “do’s.” They’re things like “go directly to your seat and start on the projected activity when you enter the room,” and “face your work partner when they are speaking to you,” and I have a ton of them. I have a procedure or routine for every little thing. I want everything done just right, and I let the kids know how.
A lot of student misbehavior (or perceived misbehavior) stems from students not knowing what TO DO. They know from most teachers what they can’t do, but they frequently don’t know what they should be doing. Should I be writing or listening right now? Does this go in my notebook or on blank paper? Is this one of the times I can go sharpen my pencil? They often just don’t know (even if you’ve told them).
6. We can be ultra-consistent with no surprises
The simplest - yet most difficult - key to managing misbehavior is to be ultra consistent. If talking in the hall isn’t allowed, then it isn’t allowed. I can’t tell the always-good student “please stop talking” when she talks in the hall and then give the frequently-misbehaving student a consequence for talking in the hall. That isn’t consistent. I can’t simply correct the behavior when I’m in a good mood one day, then dish out consequences for the same behavior when I’m in a bad mood the next. That isn’t consistent. I can’t address the kids who talk loudly in the hallway but not the ones who whisper. That isn’t consistent. Whatever happens when you talk in the hall happens every time to everybody on every day.
Consistency turns behavior into a choice. I see a lot of teachers take the “it isn’t a big deal until it’s a big deal” approach. One form of this approach goes like this - kids are told that talking in the hall isn’t allowed, but it ends up being permitted unless it gets to be “too much,” which is entirely subjective. Then you’re in trouble - not for talking in the hall, which was the rule, but for being too loud in the hall, which wasn’t the rule in the first place. This isn’t consistent. The other form "it isn't a big deal until its a big deal" takes is I simply nicely ask you to stop talking in the hall most days and most times, but eventually I’m in a bad mood or fed up with you so I go off the deep end about something I usually permit. That’s not consistent either. The other element that goes with consistency is “no surprises.” If students ARE allowed to talk in the hall, we can’t suddenly reprimand them for it. If missed recess is the consequence for talking in the hall, we can’t suddenly drop “and since you do it all the time, now you can’t go to field day!” on them. Surprises are not consistent. (*Confession* - I'm publishing this the day after I didn't follow my own no surprises advice. And it blew up in my face. Consistency is harder than it sounds.) Inconsistently breeds resentment, and resentment breeds even worse misbehavior. 7. We can resist the urge to get angry
Student misbehavior is often infuriating. Getting angry about it is normal and it is human.
It will also completely destroy our efforts to get student behavior on track.
No good.
The second problem with anger is that it becomes a sport for certain kids. Making you angry gets me big-time “cool points,” and even though I might have to deal with a consequence for it, the “cool points” are worth it. If I can make you lose your cool and waste class time yelling, count me in. And count me in again tomorrow. This is fun. Getting angry, while we might feel that it turns us into a teacher who “doesn’t play,” actually leads to more misbehavior, not less. We might feel like it is a sign that we’re “not playing,” but make no mistake, a handful of kids will totally be playing. 8. We can stop lecturing
Similar to anger, lecturing should also be avoided.
First, if my rules are black-and-white clear, I simply don’t need to lecture. There’s nothing to lecture about. Your phone is out, you know that’s not allowed, the end. There’s nothing to explain. In fact, if I find myself lecturing a student, I take it as a sign that I have a hole in my rules or procedures - it is evidence that something isn’t clear and I’m trying to make it clear after the fact. Second, lecturing will completely destroy your relationship with a student. They hate it, and it makes them hate us. Students can handle consequences. They understand them. Lecturing feels personal and pushes students to resent and resist us. 9. We Can Beware of the Perils of Correcting
Simply correcting misbehavior is tricky territory. For most students, it works fine. Back to my talking in the hall example, for the lionshare of students, simply asking or telling them to stop will end the behavior, and plenty of them will feel regret and feel like they “got in trouble” just from this small act.
The problem with doing this is that there is a small group for whom this doesn’t work, and then it puts us in inconsistency territory. A few years ago, I had a student who would break the dress code every day, multiple times a day. If I asked her to put her jacket on, she would. And then she’d take it off again. And we’d do that over and over and over again. She was willing to be corrected eternally since no consequence came with it. Here’s the really crazy thing about that dress code student (and correcting in general) - I felt like I was doing her a favor by correcting instead of consequencing the behavior. She had a discipline record, and I was giving her a chance to avoid extending it by merely correcting her. I felt like that would improve our teacher-student relationship. She, on the other hand, felt like it destroyed that relationship. If I had given her a minor consequence the first time, she probably would have fixed it and rarely done it again. We would have had exactly one conversation about the dress code all year, and that’s it. Instead, she felt like I was down her throat all the time, constantly nagging her about the dress code all day every day. Which I was. And which made her hate me, and hating me led to her doing a whole lot of other misbehaving to get back at me. It seems like consequences would destroy student-teacher relationships and correcting is a humane and relationship-preserving alternative. But the opposite is true. 10. We can teach how (and how not)
One of the surest ways to increase the number of students following rules and procedures is to obsessively teach them how to do so in detail. While the details may seem obvious to us, they often are not to the students who we expect to follow them.
A couple of examples. First, a procedure example. When I want kids to transition from their seats to the floor area for instruction, there are a lot of details about this transition that seem obvious to me:
All of those seem obvious to me, but I have to teach the students these details every single week. Not just “here’s what I want you to do,” but “here’s how I want you to do it.” When I take the time to teach those details and remind students of them regularly, they happen more often. When I don’t, students inevitably don’t do them (why would they? How would they know?), and I perceive poor intention to a behavior that I simply wasn’t clear about.
11. we Can Teach Why
I’ve taught students of almost every age from kindergarten to college. Once students approach their teenage years, teaching them the “why” behind rules goes a long way. Students begin to test and question rules at this age, and they often assume that rules are made with no purpose other than to control them. Explaining to them why rules and procedures are in place really helps.
The explanation can be mature and honest. When I tell my students why cell phones must be all the way off and in book bags all day, I’m perfectly up front about why. I tell them about brain mechanisms involved in distractions. I tell them that enough students do such really, really awful things with their phones (with selected examples) that I simply can’t allow them at all. I tell them that students report being MUCH happier, more connected, and mentally healthy not only when they don’t have access to their own phones at school, but when they trust that no one else does either. And I tell them that all of this applies to me as an adult as well.
12. We Can acknowledge situationality
One of the hardest things in dealing with student misbehavior is finding the reason for it. Not every act of misbehavior (and not even most of them, in my experience) is an act of defiance. It can be, but it can also be simple forgetting, an act of impulse without thinking, or a lack of clarity on what is allowed or expected.
Another thing to keep in mind is that, at school, we are constantly asking students to act, speak, and behave in ways at school that may not be expected of them elsewhere. My examples thus far have involved how students dress, when they can talk, and not using their phones, none of which are likely to be expected of them anywhere other than school. Countless other rules, procedures, and policies fall into this boat, too - they are situational rules.
13. Allow Time
One of my new favorite tactics with addressing misbehavior is to place time between when I inform the student that they’ve misbehaved and when I explain what the consequence will be. For example, if I catch a student with a phone in his or her lap, rather than dealing with it on the spot, I’m now inclined to say “please put the phone in your book bag and see me ______________ “ (at the end of class, at lunch, or at some other time in the future). There are two reasons I’ve found this to be effective.
First, it gives the student time to “sit with” the misbehavior. They know what they’ve done, and they must spend some time with that weight on their shoulders and process it alone. I find that this is overwhelmingly positive for the student from a maturity standpoint. Second, it drastically reduces the chances that the student will argue with me or act defensively when we do deal with the situation, minimizing any escalating misbehavior. If I deal with the cell phone on the spot, I’m likely to get any number of impulsive lies, excuses, and disrespectful words from the student, making the situation worse. My experience so far is that if there is time before the conversation, this usually doesn’t happen. Mostly I get a simple apology and acknowledgement, they receive their consequence, and that’s it. On occasion it gives them time to craft a more careful excuse, but those are much easier to deal with (read: ignore) than arguing or defiance that happens in the immediate heightened state that comes with getting caught. 14. We can take a few minutes to have positive interactions with chronically misbehaving students
My current principal introduced me to a fabulous and easy tactic for getting chronically misbehaving students moving in the right direction. He calls it a “2-by-10.” The idea is that, after a certain number of infractions, we intentionally spend two minutes a day for ten days creating a positive interaction with the student. That can be as simple as talking to the student when they arrive or while walking to lunch or whenever there is time about anything positive - how they’re doing, something they’re interested in, or anything but their behavior, essentially.
As I said back in #8 and #9, kids who misbehave frequently can get stuck in a trap where every single time they hear from me, the interaction is negative. Misbehave, argue, consequence, correction, warnings, and so on can become all they hear and all they associate with me, which can breed an irrational desire to act out further, to get under my skin, or to get positive attention from classmates for wasting time and providing them with entertainment. This 2-by-10 tactic interrupts that cycle with positive interactions. They also show the student very clearly that we don’t hold grudges and haven’t simply reduced them to being their misbehaviors. If I initiate a conversation about something else, the student gets to see that I’m not hung up on their misbehavior, and maybe they won’t be either. 15. We can supervise appropriately
An incredible amount of misbehavior can be prevented all together with supervision. If kids think they can’t be seen or won’t be caught, the percentage who will do what they otherwise wouldn’t goes through the roof. Plenty of well-behaved kids can go off the rails if unsupervised.
Think of where most of the worst acts of misbehavior happen - in the bathroom, on the bus, in the crowded hallway, behind a closed door, etc. Kids will do what they normally wouldn’t if they don’t think anyone can see them. It is basic psychology. Want to improve student behavior in one easy step? Supervise them with vigilance. Behavior getting bad in the cafeteria? Change where you sit and where you look. Certain corner of the room getting off task or getting squirrely? Go stand over there. One of my favorite tactics in this regard is to stand behind the class when I teach them. I’ve got a device that lets me control my computer remotely, so students face the screen and I stand behind me so that they don’t know where I’m looking. They feel like I’m watching their every move. It works wonders.
16. We can Assure that these practices are done with the intent and belief that students can improve
I think it is important to pause here and point out that all of these practices need to be done with a certain mindset. Rules, procedures, and consequences are all in place so that students can learn to control their behavior, access the education being offered to them, and allow other students to learn and enjoy school, too. My intentions and belief in trying to positively influence students’ behavior in all these ways needs to be practical. I don’t have rules and procedures just so I can punish students for not following them. Students who are behaving poorly can, in almost all circumstances, learn to get that on track just like they can learn anything else. Managing behavior needs to be done with the student’s best interest in mind - I want them to improve and I believe they can. Misbehavior isn’t a permanent state of being. Going back to #1, I expect that students will get it together, and I expect to be able to help them do so.
17. We can thank students (and parents) for good behavior
I’m not a huge fan of excessively incentivizing good behavior with rewards, but I am a huge fan of thanking students for good behavior. When an individual, group, or class does a great job with rules or procedures, thanking them is humanizing and acknowledges that I appreciate what they’re doing. As I mentioned earlier, I understand that I’m asking a lot of them, and that I’m often asking them to behave in ways that are unique to school, and I really do appreciate their willingness to do so. “Thank you all for doing great work with your group while I help a few students out with something.” “Thank you so much for walking quietly in the hall on the way back from lunch.” “Thank you for getting those notes written down in under four minutes so we can move on to better things.” It is very easy, very quick, and very humane.
My teammate is particularly great at doing this when our kids continue to follow rules of ours even when they see other students in the school not being held to those same rules. I’ll hear her say things like “thank you for remaining quiet in the hall even though the class we passed wasn’t doing so. I know that’s hard and I know it can feel unfair to be held to a standard that you see others not being held to.” What an incredibly respectful acknowledgment!
18. We can hold no grudges, ever
This is a companion mindset to #16. If we believe in students’ ability to improve and we have crystal clear, black-and-white, well taught rules, there is no place for grudges.
I use the word grudges, loosely. Most teachers would say they don’t hold grudges and that every kid gets a fresh start every day, but that’s often not really the case. If a student has a permanent seat in isolation or next to the teacher, that’s a grudge; we are telling the student that he or she doesn’t actually have that fresh start. If we tell a student, “let’s make sure we make this a good day” when he or she arrives every morning, that’s not a fresh start. If we brand kids as behavior problems or “bad kids” when we talk to our colleagues, that’s a grudge. The clean start has to be real. The day, or class, or hour after an incident, that student has to feel like he or she is being treated like everyone else. They can sense if you expect them to misbehave again or not in many cases. Kids who get in trouble a lot get used to low expectations. In fact, many of them use it to their advantage. Kids with major behavior problems often learn to manipulate their teachers with the fear that they’ll act out. They learn that they can get away with small misbehaviors that others can’t because their teachers are relieved that it isn’t worse. “You expect me to act really bad, don’t you?” Don’t play that game. When there is misbehavior - no matter who - address it and move on. 19. We can partner with parents early (but not too early)
A balance I’ve wrestled with for a long time over the years is when misbehavior at school becomes something to report to parents. On the one hand, 90-plus percent of the time when I contact parents about misbehavior, that ends it for good, and since that’s what I want, it can be easy to play that card early. Call home, behavior better. Move on.
On the other hand, calling home means the parents fix the behavior, and not the student. If my goal is to teach and motivate students to behave better themselves, I have to give them a chance to do so. This is a tough needle to thread. Call too early, forfeit a learning opportunity. Call too late, risk a (rightful) “I can’t believe you let it get this bad before you told me” call, and that’s not fun (not to mention it means that I and the rest of the class have had to endure more misbehavior that I could have easily prevented). I don’t have a magic answer on threading this needle, other than to say I think too early and too late both have substantial trade-offs. For the time being, I’ve settled on the second time for the same misbehavior. The student gets one chance to deal with it on their own. After that, I’m too practical not to just play the card that usually ends the game. 20. We can Sweat the small stuff
SO many major incidences of misbehavior I’ve experienced in my career could have been prevented if I’d sweated the small stuff before it got bad. Discipline and consequences aren’t about being “bad” or doing something “bad” - they’re about breaking rules and procedures. If I address a phone being in a student’s pocket (against my rules), then I’m way less likely to have to deal with a major misuse of that phone a few minutes later. If I address a student playfully touching another student in some way (against my rules), I’m far less likely to have to deal with a fight a few minutes later when that touching leads to a major misunderstanding. If I address a student failing to stop writing and look at me when I give that instruction (against my rules), I’m way less likely to have to deal with that student not following instructions that have bigger implications down the line.
It's about Influence
Teaching a well-behaved, motivated, and engaged group of children has to be the most rewarding career that a person can have. Like many of you reading, I’m sure, the pandemic robbed me of a year of that reward. Behavior, motivation, and engagement all changed in ways I wasn’t ready for, and I had to re-learn how to influence them. If you’re interested in going deeper, my best learning on the matter came from:
What’s been the most interesting to me about it all is that, believe it or not, it isn’t really about what specific rules and consequences we have. Those can be personal and practical. Its about influence. There are tactics we can follow and beliefs we can hold that influence behavior in the right direction. And that’s the goal. Education is all about influence - how we influence students' opportunities, how we influence their attention, how we influence their motivation, how we influence their confidence, how we influence their sense of belonging, and in this case, how we influence their behavior. 
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About MeI'm an award-winning teacher in the Atlanta area with experience teaching at every level from elementary school to college. Categories
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