The classroom environment teachers create (through expectations they set) will influence students more than outside factors do.  Therefore, if the teacher sets classroom expectations from the very beginning, it can strongly affect student behavior for the entire class.  This allows teachers to take control and influence the students' behavior in their classrooms.

When disruptive behavior becomes a pattern, it is important to take a look at what is happening immediately after the behavior occurs.  Attention from a teacher is a powerful motivator for most students.  If you pay more attention to students who are behaving appropriately, you will be encouraging appropriate behavior.

If an appropriate behavior is repeated, it has been reinforced.  If an undesirable behavior is repeated, it too has been reinforced.  If an undesirable behavior has discontinued, it has been properly disciplined.  This means that both positive and negative behaviors can continue depending on how the teacher responds to the behavior.

The only way to tell if a response to a behavior is pnishing or reinforcing is to watch what happens to the behavior in the future.  What is considered a punishment to one person may reinforce and perpetuate a behavior in another. 

Class Expectations

As a substitute teacher, your first objective should be to model the expectations of the permanent teacher.  Try to determine the classroom rules and strategies used by the permanent teacher to get the attention of the class.  These may be in the lesson plans or posted somewhere in the classroom. Be prepared to set your own expectations if you can't figure out what the permanent teacher usually does. 

Procedural Expectations

Each assignment and activity throughout the day will have its own set of expectations.  As you develop and explain these expectations, realize that students need four things in order to successfully meet the expectations you establish:

• What they are supposed to do

• How they are expected to do it

• Where the necessary tools are

• How much time they have to complete the task

Anytime a student behaves inappropriately you will probably find it annoying.  However, the type of behavior - rather than the annoyance level - should be your guide for implementing an appropriate teacher response strategy.  Inappropriate student behaviors can be classified as either consequential or inconsequential. 

Consequential Behaviors

Consequential behaviors have a significant negative effect on the learning environment and interfere with the rights of other students to learn. 

Inconsequential Behaviors

Inconsequential behaviors are behaviors that the classroom environment would be better without, but their negative impact on student learning is minimal.  Inconsequential behaviors, such as tapping your pencil on the desk, can become consequential if they escalate or persist over a period of time. 

When responding to consequential behavior, the pattern that should be followed is to:

1. Stop the inappropriate behavior

2. Redirect the student to an appropriate behavior, which is typically back on task

Follow these steps when a student doesn't want to work:

1. Positively praise students who are on task and 

2. Give positive encouragement for the student to continue doing the task

3. Acknowledge the student's feelings and

4. Restate your expectations for the activity

5. Restate the consequences if the activity is not completed

It may be helpful to note that many times students may refuse to work simply because they don't understand the task. If this is the case, you may need to restate the concept or provide extra help for the student. 

The Criticism Trap: Giving too much attention to negative behavior, which actually highlights and encourages that behavior.

The Common Sense Trap: Common sense, reasoning, or logic are used to try and persuade students to change their behavior.  The strategy is ineffective because students don't learn anything new and are not offered a reasonable incentive to change their behavior. 

The Questioning Trap: There are three reasons why questioning students about improper behavior is unproductive. 

1. You want students to change the behavior, not just to talk about it.

2. One question usually leads to more questions that simply waste learning time.

3. As you question a student about an inappropriate behavior, you are actually calling attention to and reinforcing the behavior you want to eliminate. 

Avoid the questioning trap by not asking students about their incorrect behavior, unless you really need the information to redirect the behavior. 

A better approach is to:

• Restate the expected behavior. 

• Make sure students understand the expectation.

• Positively reinforce the expected behavior.

The Sarcasm Trap: When a teacher resorts to sarcasm by belittling or making fun of students, it destroys the positive classroom environment and may prompt students to lash out with inappropriate remarks of their own. 

The Despair and Pleading Trap: There will be days when nothing you do seems to work.  As tempting as it may be to confide your feelings of inadequacy and frustration to the students and please for their help in solving the problem, don't do it. 

The Threat Trap: When teachers resort to making threats, they are just one step beyond despair and pleading on the scale of helplessness, and the majority of threats are either unreasonable or unenforceable. 

The Physical and Verbal Force Trap: The use of physical or verbal force is absolutely unbefitting to a professional educator.  Avoid the physical and verbal force trap by concentrating on restating the expectations in a practive way. Then, have the student restate and demonstrate the expectation.  Keep calm, as you can only control your behavior.