One Simple Strategy for Dealing with Disruptive Behavior in the Classroom Artwork

The Teaching Behavior Together Podcast

The Teaching Behavior Together Podcast provides teachers with strategies to increase their classroom management while incorporating behavioral and social emotional learning strategies in their classrooms. Gone are the days of frustration and tearful rides home. Each episode will provide teachers with actionable steps to creating a classroom they look forward to going to each morning! Your host, Maria, has 10 years experience helping teachers set up successful classroom management plans that increase student success. She has a PhD in special education and applied behavior analysis and has her dream job supporting teachers with classroom management and incorporating behavioral and social emotional learning in their classrooms. So sit back, listen up, and start watching your students succeed!

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The Teaching Behavior Together Podcast

One Simple Strategy for Dealing with Disruptive Behavior in the Classroom

April 05, 2022 • Maria • Episode 64

Hi everyone and welcome to this episode of the teaching behavior together podcast. Today we're going to be talking about one simple strategy you can implement in your classroom tomorrow to start seeing a decrease in disruptive behaviors.

This simple strategy is called proximity and what it looks like is continually moving around the room while you are teaching.

I know this sounds super simple, how can just moving around the room decrease disruptive behavior? But when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Think about a time you were at a professional development or maybe a staff meeting and you had a text message and you checked your phone. If your principal or whoever was leading that PD walked over to you, you probably would put your phone away. this is the principle of proximity.

So what could this look like in your classroom? Essentially all you have to do is walk around your classroom while you're delivering content or students are engaging in different activities either independently or collaboratively with each other.

Yep it's that simple all you have to do is walk around your classroom and continue to circulate. If a student is engaging in disruptive behavior you might want to hang near that spot a little bit longer and allow them the chance to engage in that appropriate behavior.

Being in close proximity allows you to do two really important things and the first is probably the most important. First, it allows you to provide direct reinforcement, praise, or acknowledgement for engaging in that appropriate behavior when that student starts engaging in that appropriate behavior. Because you're in really close proximity you're able to give that feedback really quickly.

This also allows you to provide a really quiet redirection towards an appropriate behavior or a prompt towards appropriate behavior. This gives the student an idea of what they should be doing and then once they start engaging in that appropriate behavior you're in close proximity and can provide that reinforcement, praise, or acknowledgement.

Resources Discussed in this Episode
Free Behavior Intervention Guide
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