Perhaps one of the biggest challenges for teachers is managing difficult student behaviour. Nothing is more exhausting than ongoing disruptive behaviours that inhibit student learning. This is compounded a child displays challenging behaviour at home and school. Therefore it is necessarily to implement a unified plan developed in collaboration with teacher and parents. 123 Magic is an evidence based program that advocates a supporting and caring atmosphere with clear behavioural expectations. It is very effective in the school and home contexts. This post is second in a three part series. In my last post I wrote about:
In this post I will address:
Sorting behaviours is crucial as it helps you know how to respond. Minor but annoying behaviours can be tactically ignored. Focusing time and energy on minor but annoying behaviours is unnecessary and less impactful. Stop and start behaviours require different strategies. Stop behaviours shouldn’t require significant time to address if the child is motivated. The counting 123 strategy is used for stop behaviours. Start behaviours are very constructive and require time to build and develop. Encouraging this good behaviour is achieved through praise, simple requests, timers, natural consequences and positive routine.
Stop behaviours include:
Start behaviours include:
Consider the most important behaviour to target first. It is important to work on one behaviour at a time. You then have three choices to respond to the behaviour. Firstly you can ignore the behaviour. This is the best choice for minor but annoying behaviours. Secondly you can mange the behaviour through counting 123. Thirdly you can teach self-control (see Part 3 of this series).
Counting 123 is a signalling system that provides opportunity for the student to regulate their behaviour. It is important to communicate the duration for counting 123 to students. For example the counting might last for one lesson or between recess and lunch before resetting. When you signal to a student, ensure that you are calm and firm. After counting move away and give the student time to respond. There should be no discussion in between counting. When a student displays a ‘stop’ behaviour, hold your finger and say calmly but clearly ‘That’s 1’. If the student continues after providing take up time, hold your finger and say ‘That’s 2’. If you only reach a number 2, that is a success because the student had changed their behaviour.
Reaching the number 3 is a time out. It is important not to change your mind when you reach 3 as this is the class routine. Time out allows you to calmly ignore and detach emotionally from the student. It also acts as good circuit breaker. Time out is one minute for each year of the child’s life. For example a 6 year old has 6 minutes of time out. In older grades, time out can be sitting at a desk that is away from the other students or in the classroom next door. This removes the class as the audience for the misbehaving student.
After the time out there is no talking, no emotion, no lectures, no discussions. No further discussion is necessary. Too much talk will switch the child’s focus off the need for good behaviour and opens the avenue of and argument or debate. Also a long discussion or negotiation can be a reward for some students as they may want the attention. Sometimes teachers and parents can shift into ‘begging’ for good behaviour. In this mindset, the adult is trying to think for their child and take responsibility for their behaviour.
The benefits of counting are:
Next weeks’ post will be the last in this three part series where I will discuss:
