Most adults do not realize that children are constantly making decisions about themselves, about their world, and based on those decisions, about what to do to survive or to thrive. (The four categories of decisions are covered in Chapter Five)

Positive time out is based on the understanding that children "do" better when they "feel" better.

On the other hand, positive time out can help children learn many important life skills, such as the importance of taking time to calm down until they can think more clearly and act more thoughtfully.

When human beings are upset, they function from their reptilian brain (the brain stem) where the only options are fight or flight. I joke with people by saying, "When children push your buttons, you react from your reptilian brain, and reptiles eat their young."

First of all, refuse to take the disrespect personally.

Keep in mind that the child does not really know you as a person and is responding as a child would—childishly

Next, work to minimize the disruption in your classroom. Depending on the degree of disrespect—from rolling eyes and heavy sighs to loud remarks, you can choose to keep everyone else as on task as possible. Deal with the misbehaving student personally and in private whenever you can. When you do speak with the student, resist the urge to engage in a verbal battle.

Instead, take a problem-solving approach. Work to solve the original problem and usually the student will volunteer an apology. Even if the child does not apologize, when the behavior improves, be glad. You won. Even better, the child is on the right path.

A craving for an easy life seems the undercurrent- any activity designed for a learning task is taken as ‘boring’. This translates into noise making, disrespect for class orders and teachers. what other means does the teacher have hold the class in control for the benefit of the serious students?

In order to reach students, we need to reach them where they are

While you should not pander to their whims, it is important to help them see the importance of learning. I work with my students to set short and long range goals (some of my students can be as unruly as yours, I believe, and for the same reasons). I make sure they know WHY they have to do the work—how they will benefit.

As for the students who care—try to focus on them more than you focus on the misbehaving students. Sooner or later, you can turn it around. Try every single trick you can to motivate and then keep on trying some more. Your students need you.

What do you do with a child who continually has outbursts in the class that interrupts lessons?

First, you need to find out why the child is making these outbursts

Even though it is almost impossible, try to ignore as much as you can.

There are many different reasons as to why children misbehave and it is important that as educators we understand these reasons and know how to prevent them.    Sheila Milnes once stated, “If you learn why your children misbehave, it will give you new ways to try to prevent problem behaviors” (Milnes, 2004).

Children misbehave for various reasons.  Due to many behavioral disorders, because of their lack of attention or love at home, boredom, confusion about their school work, lack of confidence, bad home life, low self esteem, need for independence, lack of social skills, lack of guidance and psychological problems or disorders.

“Children need to feel that they belong to you, to
 the family, to the class at school, to a group of friends. They may misbehave to gain
 membership or to find out if they will still be accepted. Thus, it is important to let
 children know you love them and that they are still part of the family, even when they
 behave badly.”  (Richardson,     Oklahoma State University) 

The top two reasons why children misbehave is due to their boredom and lack of attention.

This is not an easy task.  Educators are often too busy, have no patience or interest in why the children are misbehaving. They often just want the behavior to stop and punish without further investigation. This leads to further misbehavior in the future. If we, as educators, take the time to investigate the cause of children’s misbehavior, we will save ourselves a lot of time and frustration in the future and genuinely help these children succeed.

This seems to be the one thing that teachers worry about the most regarding the classroom. Any teacher can teach children the information they need to learn, but it takes a good teacher to be able to control their class and deal with misbehaving students.

Nurturing students who misbehave is an interesting point. I think they need to feel that the teacher is not going to give up on them just because they misbehave.

Also, we as teachers need to be aware of our teaching demeanor. We need to prepare captivating lessons, which will entice our students with a desire to learn.

I believe being aware of these hierarchy of needs is essential for teachers. The five different steps that must be completed before the next needs are taken care of are physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.