Teaching is very demanding, but teachers (yours truly included) make mistakes on the basics. We can usually agree that teaching is a very difficult job, but sometimes teachers (including me) make situations worse on the approach. Which of the following sounds familiar? Teacher: stop hitting the pencil on the desk! You are irritating me and disrupting class! Teacher: we need pencils placed on the desk, please. Now this may seem basic and obvious. However, teachers get stressed out and we allow our emotions to get the best of us. The important distinction to make here is recognizing bad behavior with misbehavior. Students are sometimes just like adults and consumers; sometimes they are just looking for some understanding. This approach won’t reduce behavioral disruptions 100%, but it may change the atmosphere of the classroom.
