Elementary Math Discipline

 

Before you can really begin to have any kind of fun with your charges, most teachers know that it’s essential for you to lay down the ground rules for teaching elementary math to your students. Before you can begin to have some fun with elementary math games, there needs to be an effort on the part of the teacher to let the children know what is expected of them pertaining to their behavior. 

Tell them in a upfront but non aggressive or intimidating that that while teaching fractions or teaching decimals, you expect them to be attentive, and that you expect them to cooperate with you because you have an important job to do. Make sure they understand the consequences for breaking the rules at all times but especially when you’re teaching equivalent fractions or reaching decimals.

You ‘ll also need to make sure they know the consequences for breaking the rules and make sure they all know that you’ll be placing the responsibility for everything they say and do squarely on their shoulders. Teaching elementary math can be fun and there are variety of games that you can incorporate into the lesson to make things more enjoyable for the students, but they need to realize that you are in control and responsible for maintaining order in the classroom. Above all, don’t allow a student to blame someone else for his or her own actions.

Unfortunately, there are often teachers who don’t know how to maintain order in their classrooms in an efficient way. There are teachers who are prejudiced, power hungry or afraid to admit they are wrong. Still they are in the minority and all the experts suggest that the best way to help an unruly student out is to suggest over and over again that the reason they are being corrected is to make them a better person and not as a punishment.

Remember then, that it’s always best to explain why you are asking them to stop some unreasonable behavior. Telling them over and over again will pay off in the long run. As well, make sure that when a student acts out that you make it clear to them that it’s the behavior that you object to as a teacher and not the student. Again, don’t worry about stating the obvious and always remind them that you job is to help. It’s also a good idea after you correct a student to tell them something good that you like about them to offset any negative connotation from the correction.

Finally, it’s important to keep your aptitudes about your students to yourself. Remember that many children are like dogs and they can tell if you don’t like them. When they feel disliked, they get resentful and then they can really cause some discipline problems. If you’ve got a lot of unruly children in you class, this could be the source of your problems. 


   
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