I teach preschool and kindergarden and sometimes its almost impossible to get kids to sit still and listen. Does anyone have any ideas on how to control them?
Don’t expect a three-year-old in his first school experience to be able to sit down.
That being said, if they are four years and older, barring a learning disability or a lack of structure at home, they should be able to sit down for about 10 or more minutes of large group time.
I am teaching a group of children between the ages of 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 years. For almost all of them, this is their first time away from mom and dad so I spend a lot of time these days drying tears. To help calm them down I talk very quietly so they have to stop screaming to hear me…not whispering, but in a very low voice. I also have different things to indicate when it’s time to listen. I sing a certain song when it’s time to come sit on the carpet to listen. On just the third day of school, over half of them came to the carpet when I began singing it. Today was the fifth day of school and almost all of them came right away, and not all of them are English speakers, but they picked up on the cue right away. Routine is so important for making your life easier. For those who are running around, they do not get reigned in unless they are being disruptive or doing something inappropriate or dangerous. My teaching assistants are in charge of keeping an eye on them and intervening whenever necessary. If a kid gets up and runs away, NEVER EVER chase them to make them come back. It only makes their bad behavior a game. Ignoring them when they don’t act the way you want and praising them when they do is the way to go. Then there are some children who are still hesitant to join us on the carpet. They get a chair to sit on and something quiet to hold (a balloon filled with cornstarch is good for this) and manipulate. When those children feel comfortable to sit with us, I enthusiastically welcome them to the circle and let them know how happy I am that they joined the rest of us. They almost always smile at this and become regular members of our circle.
For older ones, have a special chair away from and behind everyone else if they are being disruptive, send them there so that a) they can still listen,
b) they can’t touch or hurt anyone from there, and c) if they are trying to attract attention, they won’t get it visually because they are out of everyone’s line of vision. Have your teaching assistant sit with them. Have her take the child out and talk to him or her if they are being noisy and instruct her to not return with the child until they are ready to be quiet.
If your kids are getting to be too loud, drop your voice or better yet, stop talking. They’ll stop talking when they realize the change, and will be tuned into you. By talking quieter, they have to stop talking to hear you. Yelling is only a challenge for them to be louder themselves.
I use positive reinforcement when possible. At the beginning of each class I make a list on the board with each childs’ name. Throughout the period I will stop what I am doing and look around. Every child who is behaving well gets a star, smilies, whatever beside their name. When I note that a certain child or children are acting up I will stop again and reward the ones who aren’t with another star… I do not make an issue of misbehaviour unless it is a pretty major action as I have found that they all want the stars and will over a period of time begin to conform to what is expected of them. This works for most of my kids… the couple who don’t seem to get it or behave unacceptably must time out or go spend some time with the principal or office person - who ever is available.
Electric dog collars also work well.
Give them “special” asignments. Like holding up posters and cleaning stuff. They think it’s fun 
Holding up posters? 
“But teacher, my arms are going numb. Can’t we just get some Blu-Tac?”
totallytika, I totally agree. When a few get out of hand, pointing out the model behavior in others helps bring them around. If Student A is lying down on the carpet instead of sitting up, a good “I like how _____ is sitting and _____ is sitting, nice and tall…” and then overpraising them when they do the correct behavior too. Let us know how it goes, MoS.
Well, I was gonna post a nice-sized post, but everybody already said all the good stuff. 
Ah, why not go ahead and run my mouth (or keyboard) anyway:
I’m really starting to believe in positive reinforcement. Some schools use a system of “prize cards” and some use stars. I’ve used both. When I had a small class but no Chinese teachers, I worked the star system into a major bribery ring. I mean I gave them some pretty neat stuff about once a month–little toys, etc.–depending, of course, on how many stars they had earned.
There’s a method called “precision teaching,” that’s based on B.F. Skinner’s ideas about positive reinforcement. I’ve never tried it, but it was comforting to find out that somebody had developed a system in an area in which I had merely goofed around, and that it worked. It was also comforting to think that there was some kind of solution to the problem–not a perfect solution, but one that made it possible to have an English class!
Great thread!
Handing out some sort of little trinket like stickers can do wonders. For slightly older kids, I sometimes like to divide the class in two and give a demerit to a side if one person does something bad. At the end of the class, whichever side has the fewest frowny faces gets a boatload of stickers/brownie points. This induces peer pressure to keep them in line. Sometimes this doesn’t work when the kids become more concerned with being vigilant about the other side’s perceived infractions than the lesson on hand.
Ministryofsound:
[quote]Does anyone have any ideas on how to control them?[/quote]Make them eat blue toilet bowl cakes. I love the look on their faces after they take that first bite.
Actually, it is not your job to “control” them. They don’t even know how to speak or write Chinese very well yet; how do you expect them to sit still for something as irrelevant to them as English. Your job is to teach “at” them.
Have you ever given a talk or speech? Some people will talk through it. That’s just the way it goes. It is not your place to try and “control” everyone listening. If they aren’t paying attention then it is their loss, not yours.
Between your different activities, do a phonics drill. Keep it short, just about one minute. Everytime they are getting rowdy or having trouble paying attention, do a phonics drill, and once it’s over begin a new activity.
Use whatever phonics you’re doing that day for the drill - maybe you’re teaching the letters A, C and E today, so you can write the three letters on the board and point to them or use flashcards.
Stickers? Toys? Ugh. Just more cheap plastic things that don’t last long and have nothing to do with the behavior. Why not just put a slice of chocolate cake on a string and hold it out in front of them? Same kind of motivation and you can rot their teeth out while you’re at it.
Sorry, but I have a big problem with rewarding positive behavior with temporary material possessions instead of teaching children to behave for the fact that it’s good for them. How does getting a sticker have anything to do with sitting still for 10 minutes? Have meaningful rewards like sitting still and listening means you get an extra five minutes of play time later or you can pick a favorite book. You’ll get better results than kids screaming for a sticker because they did what was already expected of them and then screaming for another sticker when it falls off three minutes later.
I rarely have discipline problems because I am such a sweet heart old bear of a guy that they all want to hug and kiss me instead of having a class. Anyway, in the past I usually just picked the little jerk (aren’t they always boys?) and carried him to the front office and told the secretary that I wanted to speak with his father. Sometimes the dumb bitch actually called his father, and other times she just mumbled and pushed some papers arou nd on her desk.
In any event, slap the shit out of them, hang them on a few well placed hooks on the wall, throw boiling oil on them, stick them in the butt with a few sharp sticks. After all the screams have subsided, you can then begin to adopt the lovey touchy approach.
As for stickers, slap’em all over their stupid young asses! It builds character!
BTW Imaniou (what ever that means) it is obvious that you have a lot of problems dealing with yourself. You failed to address the OP with any sense of intelligence.
Whatever happened to good old fashioned spankings?
[quote=“Big Thumb”]I rarely have discipline problems because I am such a sweet heart old bear of a guy that they all want to hug and kiss me instead of having a class. Anyway, in the past I usually just picked the little jerk (aren’t they always boys?) and carried him to the front office and told the secretary that I wanted to speak with his father. Sometimes the dumb bitch actually called his father, and other times she just mumbled and pushed some papers arou nd on her desk.
In any event, slap the shit out of them, hang them on a few well placed hooks on the wall, throw boiling oil on them, stick them in the butt with a few sharp sticks. After all the screams have subsided, you can then begin to adopt the lovey touchy approach.
As for stickers, slap’em all over their stupid young asses! It builds character!
BTW Imaniou (what ever that means) it is obvious that you have a lot of problems dealing with yourself. You failed to address the OP with any sense of intelligence.[/quote]
:newbie:
Because your post was so chocked full of useful info… 