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I recently started working at a childcare learning center as a pre-school teacher. The students' ages actually range from 6 weeks old-12 years old, so sometimes I am with different groups of students. Anyways, I was wondering if any teachers had any advice on how to get many misbehaved students in one class to listen to you. Sometimes, I am the secondary pre-school teacher so the former one takes the lead. Yet, this group of students does not care to listen to either of us. We have established rules, praised them for good behavior, and constantly put them in time-out. It is hard to get the students to respect me since I only lead them on Fridays. The other teacher is much older than me and responds to situations differently. I do not like to yell at the children or nitpick what they do. I try to reason what the students and I will take a disciplinary course of action if it is needed. I usually work with four-year-olds and they constantly need attention, any advice? 

Hey Mallory, 

Something I noticed with kiddos that age is they are usually wanting attention because there is a lapse in it somewhere else. I also noticed that many children at that age are usually positively reinforced for certain behaviors at home and that breaking that connection for them is very hard. I think learning to ignore certain behaviors and award others is key. I also had a teacher who used a tally system in which she did not even have to communicate with a student, she simply walked to their desk, put a tally for their positive or negative behavior, and walked away. By the end of the week, depending on the tallies in each category, they were either rewarded or had to do an independent study while their peers got to have fun. 

Hi Mallory, 

 Over the summers I teach 2-year-olds some of the things I find helpful are using I statements (I know you can do better), positive reinforment (sticker charts), and instead of time-outs finding something else for them to do (they are not playing nice in the sandbox then they can go play on the playground or hold a teacher's hand). The most important thing is student-teacher relationships when students know they can trust you and you are not out to get them their behavior changes. When working with other teachers I think it is important for both teachers to trust each other's decisions and back each other up in front of students. So if you tell a student they cannot play in the sandbox the other teacher needs to be aware of that and reinforce that rule till you tell the student they can play in the sandbox again. It can be really tricky with young students but, I have found there is always a reason behind their behavior and when you take time to listen to the student they listen to you better. Hope this was helpful. 

All the best, 

  Lizzy Inselmann 

I have to second the positive reinforcement strategy. Most students who know that they will be praised for having good behavior will strive to have good behavior. I praise good behaviooir all day long, such as 'I love the way Johnny is sitting.' And then in turn all my students try to sit up and look their best. Also, it helps that students know exactly what you expect from them.