RELIEVING CLASSROOM STRESS

CHAPTER 4

THE S.T.A.R.T. SYSTEM OF
BEHAVIORAL MANAGEMENT
(SUCCESSFUL TEACHING
AND RESPONSE TECHNIQUES)

Managing the behavior of a classroom of children is a skill that must be learned. If learned and practiced consistently, the teacher will have rewards beyond expectation. You, as an educator, will be in full control of your class at all times. Your energy will be spent toward teaching the content of your lesson. You will create a safe and healthy learning environment where children will thrive and flourish. Larry and Franklin are still around; the difference is that today they are bullying others with weapons. Creating an organized and well-managed classroom environment can give back the teacher to the children. Let's START now.

Critical situations arise every day in almost every public, and private school in America. The crisis may arise any time and be instigated by any number of extraneous factors. Any time a group of people is immersed in a contained area, any number of problem situations may develop. More often we perceive a crisis as one of major importance having an impact upon a large population, but critical conditions and situations occur every day in classrooms throughout the United States. Dealing with these critical situations in an organized and systematic approach will further add yet another tool to the educators' arsenal of proactive teaching techniques.

When they use a strong behavioral management technique, teachers are better able to derive the benefits of their profession- that is: teach so students will learn in a healthy environment. Handling behavioral management in an organized and efficient manner allows the teacher to be in command of her class at all times during the course of the school day.

Experienced teachers recognize the fact that students are subjected to various moods and outbursts. Classrooms today are microcosms of our complex society. Surely, one recognizes the fact that as society grows more complex; as media brings our problems to the forefront; as the close knit nuclear family becomes a vestige of our past, dealing with behavioral management in the classroom and the school is as relevant as the teaching of all curriculum areas.

Offering a simple approach to all teachers and administrators in dealing with any situation affords them an opportunity to further organize their school day and send their students home a bit safer and more mentally healthy then the previous day. Compartmentalizing a system into an organized approach that can be utilized in any situation (at any time during a school day, in any classroom, school and district) allows for true behavioral management.

The first word in the mnemonic S.T.A.R.T is strategic. When you are in a classroom, everything that you do with children-your lessons, your discipline, your classroom management, and lastly, your very demeanor, must be thought out and strategically planned. Your students look you at as “larger than life”. This may sound trite and somewhat corny, but just think about what happens when you run into students outside of the school. If they are with a parent, they usually act very shy and withdrawn and wish they would be anywhere else in the world, except where they are now. You, as the teacher, have the power to change the world-one child at a time. Use that power judiciously and you will make a difference. Learning to strategically teach and respond to your children will add greatly to your professionalism, and help you toward alleviating classroom stress.