Behavior Crisis Management Tool #8

Set Control Boundaries Several Times a Day

Purpose

The purpose of this tool is to establish behavioral boundaries with your students in a realistic manner several times a day.

Examples:

Mrs. Jones’ class is very excited to get into school in the morning and everyone runs in to get to his/her locker first. As a result everyone is pushing and teasing.

Mr. Williams’ class can’t wait to get to lunch and closely watch the clock for the bell to ring. Once that happens the class rushes out of the room to lunch.
Mrs. Ortiz’s class can’t wait to get out of school and as a result they pack up and run to the door before she has a chance to speak with them.

Mr. Samuelson’s class is “every one for him or herself” and never seems to be centered. His style is loose, and as a result, his class is unstructured and pretty much does what it wants without direction or plans.

What May Not Work

When working with children with special needs, one must always be aware of the number of students that do not possess internal controls and self-monitoring qualities. As a result, if left up to their own devices, they will often operate on impulse, self serving behaviors, control and resistance to tasks. When a class is not focused or grounded, you will have 8, 10, 15 etc. students all operating on their own schedule or needs. What they need is a focus, a center, and a person in charge who leads the way and establishes boundaries.

Try This

Four times a day you will want to pull the class together in a group so that you can create a feeling of control and a central starting and ending place for the day. This procedure should occur at the beginning of the school day, before lunch, after lunch and before the end of the school day. These four boundary periods led by the teacher and the assistant will provide the necessary boundaries, priorities, structure and leadership from which many students with special needs will benefit. During these group boundary meetings, you will want to lay out the morning routine, discuss what will be done after lunch, structure the afternoon, and provide guidance about what needs to be done or brought in for the next day and a brief overview of the next day’s activities. This may also be a good time for handouts to parents, to go over homework required for the next day, and to provide a positive thought for the day.

Next Part – Step IV in the Building Self Confidence in the Classroom Series will be: