Behavior Management — Online Conference

Topics: How to set limits, keep classroom control online and offline and manage student
behaviour.
Trainer: Mohan from UTS, Sydney, Australia
This document contains the notes I took, along with some pertinent screenshots and
comments from the chat. My notes are certainly incomplete, but I hope I captured some
important highlights, something worth pondering. The complete deck of slides is at the end
of the document.
“Sage on stage” approach may not engender respect.
Everyone wants to be liked. But that means boundaries will not be set and teachers will
comprise their standards. If students feel respected, they will be respectful.
GREAT QUESTION: If your class were filmed and broadcast all over the world, would you
be proud of what’s going on in your classroom?
You must have a very clear picture of what the environment of your class looks like.
TIP: Students come to YOUR space. Teachers should get to the classroom before students.
Question from participant: Do you think students should be allowed to have their mobile
phones? I've had experiences when students muck up with their phone.
Answer: Students’ identity is partly tied to their mobilephones. Set rules. Don’t use harsh
measures.

Question from participant: Would you consider removing a disruptive child from a
group?
Answer: If it’s just disruptive, many things can be done before removing them. Removing
should not be the first, second, or third option either. Collaborate with parents when it
comes to extreme behaviors from students.
Question from participant: Would you share your expectations at the beginning at the
term?
Answer: Having high expectations is necessary for students’ growth. Articulate your
expectations, but also what the students can expect from you. Remember that during the
first 30 minutes of your class, students quickly get the sense of what your class will be.
Shy students: Shyness can be overcome if we understand feelings. We can’t manage what
we can’t define. When encouraging a shy student, don’t say “You can do this”, but say “I
know it can be scary talking to someone you don’t know, but…” Make them feel
comfortable, safe, and understood.
From Jenny to Everyone: (4:32 PM) Can I add that we need to be very careful about
defining a child as shy or quiet. Internally, for that child it might be very different. They may
be afraid of failure, or afraid that that they will be "found out" ie can't do the work.
Students can have bad behaviors but they can be good people.
We must learn to separate the behavior from the child, e.g. We don’t call students lazy; we
address their lateness.
By conflating students behaviors and their character, we’ll never know who they truly are.
Don’t overpraise. “That’s amazing!” “I’ve never seen anything done that well.” “It’s the
best!” “High-five!”
It’s better to say “What I like about your work is this…” because it leads to growth. Be
specific about what they did well.
From Len Nixon to Everyone: (4:56 PM) It is about having an implicit growth model in
terms of giving feedback. Affirmation is the immediate but nothing about where to go in
the future. The teacher could say "great effort” and be explicit as to where the student's
focus in the future. It is concrete, relevant and provides direction.
Overpraise is as bad as underpraise.
Many parents complain “I keep reminding my child but he never listens.” Don’t just tell
them. Your child can think; they’re not dumb. They won’t listen to you because they know
you’ll tell them again. If kids don’t speak through rules, they won’t take ownership.
Protect a child’s self-esteem. Don’t draw everyone’s attention to their behavior. One way
is to use red cards and yellow cards: quietly put a yellow card on a student’s table to let
him know that he’s doing something inappropriate. From Jenny to Everyone: (4:53 PM)
Same with stickers! Kids love them, no matter their age.
Don’t call parents early before you’ve done things. A hit-and-run comment is not
acceptable. Don’t say “Your child’s not paying attention.” That says more about the
teacher/tutor than about the child. Responsible people have a plan.
Student: “Can I go to the restroom?” (and potentially stay there for 15 minutes)
Teacher: “Yeah, 2 minutes, leave your phone on my desk.”
When student comes back: “Hey, it’s 2 minutes and 5 seconds buddy.”
Book Recommendation
Mindset by Carol Dweck
Quiet by Susan Cain
Mr. Mohan Dhall’s email: mdhall@ata.edu.au
PRESENTATION SLIDES
 5/17/20

EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM
MANAGEMENT:
ONLINE AND OFFLINE
MOHAN DHALL 2020

WHAT WE COVER THIS SESSION

• Behaviour management
• Clarifying limits
• Understanding student behaviour
• Knowing when to step in and step out
• Scaling interventions

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ABOUT BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT

Definition
• Guiding and setting limits to student behaviour in
constructive ways so at to ensure compliance with
expectations
The purpose
• To create respectful, ordered and positive classroom
structures

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STEPS TO BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT

The plan
• Have a very clear picture of your successful classroom
• Distinguish between wanting to be liked and knowing
where respect comes from:
• Have clear expectations and well articulated rules
• Understand you own scaled levels of intervention
• Intervene early and take responsibility for remediation
• Be consistent
• Be respectful
• Know when to involve parents
• Know when to say no or get additional help

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WHAT EFFECT DOES POOR CLASSROOM

MANAGEMENT HAVE ON STUDENT OUTCOMES?

• Students feel uncomfortable

• The time on task is lost
• Time is allocated towards intervention instead of
learning and improving
• Quieter or compliant students can feel
overwhelmed/ignored and devalued
• The trade off means that in a class of 10, 10 students
may have compromised outcomes, because 1 or 2
students are not respecting the classroom space

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HAVING A CLEAR PICTURE OF THE

CLASSROOM YOU WANT
Tutors must always have thought of the kind of class they want to
run.

Ask, “In the ideal world, what does my perfect class look like?”
• This is the class the tutor should create
• The features of the class must be absolutely clear. This means that
the following at least should be understood/answered by the
tutor:
• Is it an active class?
• How much student chatter is evident?
• Do students raise their hands?
• Are students using technology?
• How will ‘shyness’ be managed?
• What will they call you?
• How is the class set up?
• Are they allowed to enter or leave the class? If so, how?
• If there homework? How is this given? How is it followed up?

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KNOWING WHERE RESPECT

COMES FROM (I)
• Respect is evidenced in different ways:
• A child who follows rules
• A person who respects ‘authority’
• A person who does what they are told to do
• Compliance may be a sign of respect – however it may also
come from fear
• We need to be clear about the essence of respect
• People who feel respected tend to respect
• Put aside the notion of wanting to be liked, create future enrolments,
get positive feedback, any any other externalised measure of tutor
worth
• The essence of respect is high personal standards, a focused
commitment to student learning and a clear sense of what is
acceptable
• Focusing on doing the best by all students, individually and
collectively, will mean that tutors are ‘liked’.

© Mohan Dhall 2020 7

KNOWING WHERE RESPECT

COMES FROM (II)
• Separate the child from the behaviour
• The student has a need for self-esteem, approval, support,
respect and inclusion
• The behaviour is NOT the child
• Sanction is not to be vengeful, but should reflect action-
consequence (cause and effect)
• Do not conflate
• poor handwriting with an academic issue
• behaviour with intelligence
• Lateness with laziness
• Poor social cues with a learning difficulty
• The past with the present:
• “You always…”
• If this is the case it hasn’t been properly addressed prior – a failing of
the tutor

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HAVE CLEAR EXPECTATIONS AND

WELL ARTICULATED RULES
• Tutors must always hold in mind what they find
acceptable and what they do not
• This means they must be aware of their own
expectations.
• Generally they should have high expectations of
themselves and their students as low expectations
lead to mediocre outcome.
• Consider for example lateness
• How long it takes for students to get marked work back
• Low expectations are evidenced by over praise,
poor attention to detail (noticing things that matter)
and poor follow up

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UNDERSTAND YOU OWN SCALED

LEVELS OF INTERVENTION
• Ever tutor must have considered different levels of
scaled discipline responses:
• This means
• No going from zero to 100 in 1/3 of a second
• Eg Christmas and toys
• Start gentle:
• State the rule (articulates the expectation)
• Have the child say the rule back to you (NEVER just tell them)
• If this fails, have them state the consequence of breach
(moving, time out, and the like)
• Escalate the intervention
• Involve parents – without judging the child

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INTERVENE EARLY AND TAKE

RESPONSIBILITY FOR REMEDIATION
As a general rule, make an intervention early
• To do otherwise is to undermine your own authority
(the locus of control) and shift it to the student(s)
• You can be playful:
• S: Can I go to the bathroom?
• T: No…. (pause)…yes
• But how can this be managed…?
• If you notice a behaviour you want to correct –
take personal responsibility – do not:
• Ignore it and hope it goes away
• Outsource it to the parents in a ‘hit and run’ comment

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BE CONSISTENT

• Be consistent
• Find ways to manage student self-esteem. This can
be done through:
• Direct reinforcement
• Setting up opportunities for successes
• Public praise
• Unexpected affirmation
• Individualised attention and support
• Treat all the same
• Even your ‘favourites’ otherwise you seem arbitrary
• This applies to the children of friends the same as those you
do not know

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BE RESPECTFUL

• Understand how to set limits and how to speak when

addressing behavioural concerns
• Be proactive about managing the issue
• Intervene without shaming or embarrassing (eg removal of
iPad/phone without drawing attention or using a card system)
• Talk about feelings but
• do not ask how others feel
• Tell them the effect of their actions on you and others
• Do not belittle or mimic
• Know when to apologise - and also when not to
• Do not say, “I’m sorry but….” or ‘this hurts me more than
it hurts you”
• Why is this not recommended?

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KNOW WHEN AND HOW

TO INVOLVE PARENTS
• Involving parents may need to be done very early and is
probably preferred
• The notion of ‘truth in reporting’ is important
• This addresses the academic observations
• The behavioural observations
• What YOU will do as a professional and how it will be managed
and followed up by YOU. Take ownership in assisting to
remediate the issue – with timelines and follow up plans
• Let’s discuss shyness….
• Understand how to level feelings
• “I understand how you feel DOES NOT indicate empathy or
understanding at all

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KNOW WHEN TO SAY NO

• As a last resort a child or children or family may

need to be excluded
• How this is done is important
• It should come with recommendations to other
places – such as a child psychologist or other
behavioural interventions that you are allied with
• Be gracious
• State that the child is welcome back in future
• Upskill staff and provide training for future –in
including role-modelling interventions

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