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Quote sanjajerem  Hi everybody,
I am rather new to teaching and I have a problem with discipline. |
Do no despair, Sanja. I'm sure the kids love you and you are trying your best. It's never too late to establish ground rules with your class. But to dictate to them what the rules are is like you imposing your thoughts on them. Try this activity with the children - have a class specially dedicated to something called "Ground Rules"
What you do is tell the class that they have to come up with rules for the classroom that everybody has to follow -including the teacher. Write down their suggestions on the board. (Make sure you come to the class prepared with rules you think you should follow and then subtly hint at these in case the kids themselves don't come up with it. For example say "What do you think about not making noise in the class?" etc.) And this is the masterpiece, ask them to suggest punishments. They will come up with things that would horrify them and so they will keep from doing things they're not meant to. Write down these rules in a giant sheet and pin it somewhere everyone can see. It has to be a permanent feature of your classroom. If children dwindle, you can always have a 5 minute refresher asking them if they remember what the ground rules are.
Keep the rules to 5 or 10 and have these as assessment criteria. Meaning you can create a sheet for each student with these ground rule items. For example, if paying attention in class is a rule, then under that child's name, under the paying attention column, put a smiley face or a star. These individual assessment sheets should be put on display somewhere where everyone can view it.
And since it is always important to balance punishment and reward, you could say something like how you will allow the top 3 students to play video games for an hour (educational video games, mind you, like
School of Dragons ) . Or if technology is not a resource you have, think of something they will love.
Hope this helps!