1. Students' Needs
1.1. Security: to feel safe without worry. Association: to be with and interact with others. Belonging: to feel a part of things, be valued, and have a place in the class Dignity: to feel respected and worthwhile.
1.1.1. Educators can help students meet these basic needs by removing threat from learning activities and social interactions, permitting students to work together, insisting on courteous treatment of others, involving students in planning and making decisions, ensuring that learning activities and personal interactions are satisfying, and making sure students learn important information. When teachers do these things well, student behavior is less likely to be a serious problem.
2. Students' Habits
2.1. Habits also play strong roles in student behavior, but they are different from needs and wants. Habits are patterns of willful behavior, ingrained through practice to the point that we repeat them without having to think. Habits are quite useful when they help us behave considerately and productively, but are harmful when they interfere with our progress or offend others. Thus, we hear the expressions “good habits” and “bad habits.”
2.1.1. In teaching, we try to help our students establish productive habits, such as automatically sitting down and getting to work, following directions, treating others with consideration, and striving for high quality. Classrooms become efficient and relatively free from disruption when students learn to follow class routines automatically. You will hear these routines referred to as classroom procedures; teachers who establish and teach their procedural expectations are setting a strong foundation for their classroom management system.
3. Students' Sociocultural Realities
3.1. Today, large numbers of our students come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Economic disadvantage is a term used synonymously with living in poverty. Students are considered to be living in poverty if they are members of households that must spend more than one-third of their disposable income for food adequate to meet the family’s nutritional needs. According to information from the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), in 2014, more than 15 million children under 18 years of age lived in poverty (Basic Facts about Low-Income Children: Children under 18 Years, 2014 – NCCP
3.1.1. Establish standards of class behavior that are sensitive to all cultures. Emphasize responsibility and respect. Consider where students are, developmentally and culturally speaking, and meet them there as you work to move them toward higher levels of academic achievement, self-management, and interpersonal skill.Demonstrate for students the behavior that helps them succeed in school; have them practice that behavior, and give them feedback about how well they’re meeting classroom expectations. These teacher behaviors are particularly important in classroom management; you can’t always assume that students come to you knowing what to do, how to do it, or why it matters.Teach your students to adjust their language use in different situations. Help them understand that in school, expectations for language use (spoken and written) may differ from expectations at home or in their neighborhoods. In the same way you almost certainly would use different language to text your best friend than you would to communicate an important message to your professor or your school principal, students should be able to consider the appropriateness of their word choice and communication style for their audiences.Keep family members informed about their child’s performance and behavior and ask them to work with you for the child’s benefit. Work to establish collaborative relationships with your students’ caregivers; many teachers make it a habit to, at the start of the school year, communicate positive news to their students’ parents. Some call parents in the first weeks to say things like, “I just wanted to tell you how glad I am to have Aisling in my class; she did a great job today as discussion leader, and I knew you’d be happy to know about that.” Teachers who make this sort of effort often find that if they should have to contact a caregiver later to ask for help with an academic or behavioral issue, the parents are more willing to be supportive.Be mindful of, but not intimidated by, language differences. You may have students whose home language is not the same as yours. Talking with the students or with their parents may make you feel a bit awkward—just remember, they likely feel awkward, too. A sense of humor helps in these cases, as does accessing resources (human, technological, or otherwise) that can help you bridge the language barrier. And when you’re feeling out of your element interpersonally, do your best to retain your focus on why it’s important to build relationships. Push through any awkward feelings; persist. Communicate that you want to work alongside students and their families for everyone’s benefit, and the awkwardness will likely fade; even if it doesn’t, you can feel confident that you gave it your best effort and that you didn’t avoid a situation that was potentially challenging.