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Hello,  I will be starting student teaching within the year, and I was wondering what tips teachers might give me for managing behavior, specifically during science lessons, which can and perhaps should be predominantly hands on, especially for elementary school students. What do you do if the students are not behaving during a hands-on lesson? Are there other options, rather than just having them sit out, and perhaps missing out on a learning opportunity? 

Hi, I implement roles within my science practicals. This gives each student a job and they tend to take ownership which minimizes behaviour issues. I teach high school students and it seems to work for them. The roles are as follows: - Group manager (ensuring the group in on track, completing the set work) - Scribe (recording observations and results) - Safety adviser (ensure PPE is worn and experiment is being completed safely) - Director (in charge of the equipment and its use) I also think that routine is key, spend time setting up your expectations and develop a routine you will implement every practical lesson. Hope this is of some help.

Hi there! When I do a science lesson with my first graders, I remind them that they are young scientist participating in an exciting experiment. If they are going to be a part of my experiment, then they must act like great scientist, otherwise it will be taken away. You will have the occasional students who will grab or pull something when they aren't supposed to, and it's a good learning lesson for the whole class. It helps the students realize that kind of behavior is not acceptable! I hope this helps!

Students usually rise to the occasion when they are given more responsibility. Hold them accountable and they will be more likely to behave!

Dont forget to always state the classroom rules before any hands on activity and hold students accountable for their actions. It is very helpful if you create a Classroom Contract where the students and their parents will have to sign off saying they have read, understood, and agreed your classroom rules. It is a great form of documentation to have when you have a behavior management problem arise.

There are so many different views on behavior management inside a classroom in general. I believe that it is important to maintain consistence when it comes to behavior management. At the beginning of your lesson, it is important to state the expectations. Allow students to come up with the expectations, help guide them if there are things you want as expectations throughout that they are not coming up with. If students are still not following the expectations, you can have another activity for them to work on that is less hands on. Therefore, when you have an activity that is hands on again, they hopefully will see how much fun their classmates had and control their behavior. Also, it is really important not to positively reinforce behaviors that are not desirable.