Teaching Tips and Discipline Ideas

1. Never take roll in opening exercises. Leave it in your classroom. The children will understand that you are not paying attention. Do not allow the children to take roll, either. It detracts from the lesson prepared by the Presidency.

2. Keep seats separated if possible. This makes it harder to touch other children. Minimize distractions by facing children away from windows.

3. Let your Primary Presidency help you solve discipline problems. Many children have deep-rooted problems that have taken years to develop. It will take time, patience, wisdom, and understanding to solve them. In the meantime, the child may not respond to ordinary methods of discipline. He may be a constant cause of disturbance in class, but you should never feel that you must cope with such a situation alone. The Primary Presidency can give you help that will shorten the time to solve discipline problems. They may also have information about the child that you do not.

4. Remember, many children have never had to be a part of a group, and as such, do not know how to respect the standards of a group.

5. Never shout or out-talk children. Use your voice calmly. Never lose your temper. You can't teach children self-control if we have none ourselves.

6. Never call upon a child whose hand is not raised. If a child calls out an answer without raising his hand, ignore it. Ask the question of someone who has raised their hand instead.

7. Accept all answers children give to a question. Comment positively on each answer a child gives when you ask him a question. Even if it is not the answer you wanted, it will encourage them to keeping trying and keep answering questions.

8. When doing a question-and-answer activity, try passing a ball around to keep attention on the discussion. You could also try a picture or cutout of an apple tree or a fishing game. Each apple or fish has a question on it. You could also try seasonally appropriate visual aids, such as snowmen and Valentines. Put questions under chairs before class and have children answer the questions they find.

9. Get children's attention at the beginning of class using an Attention Getter. As soon as attention wanders, use another. Use an attention getter before the class becomes chaotic. This is much easier than trying to restore order.

10. When a child's attention wanders: place your hand on their shoulder without comment as you continue with the lesson, insert their name into the lesson or story, move them to another chair, or use class signals (established previously) for certain behaviors.

11. Make it clear that you accept and love each child. It is his behavior you don't love or accept.

12. Use individual praise when a child does something well (sits quietly, folds arms, answers questions well). Even if a child is only good for a few minutes, compliment her. Try to compliment every child every lesson. Reward positive behavior immediately.

13. Standing behind or next to a table while teaching makes you seem like an authoritarian figure. Sit on their same level. If you have the children seating in a semi-circle, be a part of the semi-circle as well.

14. Let the children help you with the lesson, or with cleaning up afterwards.

15. If you have more than one discipline problem in a class, work on one before addressing another. One thing at a time.

16. Use construction paper to create ears, mouths, hands, etc. If a child is a good listener, they are given an ear. If they stay a good listener throughout class, they get to take it home. Don't do this two weeks in a row. Don't overuse any good idea.

17. Don't make idle threats. If you threaten, it should be something on which you can follow through. Avoid threats because it takes the discipline out of the children's hands.

18. Be honest enough with the children to reprove them sharply when necessary. When a child endangers himself or a class member or disrespects something sacred, they need to be reproved sharply. You can try something like, "What you have done is very wrong. I like you too much to let you act like that." A reprimand should always be followed by an increase in love.

19. Unite in love and prayer to help your children. Love is the greatest power in the world; it cannot fail. If you love every child in your class, you will be able to meet his needs and teach him the gospel.

20. Interest is the key. The interested student, the one who is actively involved in the subject, is rarely a problem.

21. You are an adult; don't try to be "one of the kids."

22. Be enthusiastic about the subject.

23. Don't confuse punishment with discipline.

24. Good discipline is long range and depends on the harmonious relationship of the entire group.

25. Don't speak too quickly, talk down to the children, speak monotonously. Your voice is a teaching aid; use it!

26. Don't ridicule, use sarcasm, or name call. You may temporarily gain a child's attention, but it can lead to much worse behavior. Even the child who is severely misbehaving cares how others feel about them. Children do not respect a teacher who name calls. Do not be rude or cruel.

27. A child's attention is short; therefore, use transition periods. Transition between stories, games, activities, songs, etc. which break your lesson up into segments. Don't take too long between transitions, or you may lose their attention. Announce transitions in fun, enthusiastic ways, such a visual prompts they understand to mean certain activities, or tape the name of an activity under a chair.

28. When you begin a new calling or start a new year with a new class, set up class rules/expectations with the children. This reduces the chances of misbehavior because you have set forth the expectations before any have had the chance to occur.

29. If a discipline issue arises, you could try having the children problem solve. Try saying, "This is our problem. (State the problem.) What are we going to do about it?" Encourage the children to use their best thinking to come up with some workable solutions. You could also have them role play.

30. Be fair. Children are quick to sense favoritism.

31. Sometimes it can be appropriate to hear a child out. Their frustration at something else can be related to misbehavior, and sometimes problems can be solved.

32. Redirection can work well for misbehavior, especially in younger children.

33. Use positive sentiments (sit quietly) rather than negative ones (stop fidgeting).

34. Sometimes ignoring unwanted behavior can be the best approach.