The Ten Most Common Discipline Mistakes to Avoid

Although there are plenty of places where classroom discipline can go wrong, it is not too difficult to figure out that there are some mistakes that are absolutely going to cause problems for you and your students whenever they appear. Here is a quick list of the ten most common discipline mistakes. If you find yourself (like many of us) involved in one of these, try your best to avoid that mistake.

1. Don’t take student misbehavior personally. Distance yourself emotionally from student misdeeds and remain objective.
2. Don’t lose your temper; you will only appear foolish. Calm down and think before you act.
3. Don’t create problems by tempting your students. Don’t leave valuables lying around, don’t leave the room unsupervised, and don’t allow opportunities for misbehavior because you are not monitoring.
4. Don’t ever touch an angry student. Your innocent touch can be misconstrued.
5. Don’t confront a student in front of the class. Not only will this create a disruption that will upset everyone who watches, but the misbehaving student may act even worse to avoid more embarrassment.
6. Don’t neglect to intervene when a problem is small enough to be handled easily.
7. Don’t label students negatively. Their behavior may be bad, but they are not bad people.
8. Don’t be confrontational or order an angry student to comply with your demands. Adopt a problem-solving approach instead.
9. Don’t assign academic work as punishment. The consequence should match the misbehavior.
10. Don’t be too quick to send a student to an administrator. Handle your own problems as often as you can.