How to Reinforce Positive Behaviors in the Easiest, Most Effective, and Bizarre Way Possible

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I’ve always used Class Dojo to give positive behavior points, and I’ve had a class store as well to cash in their points for activities and prizes. I’ve never felt great about flooding the kids with prizes for expected behavior and it rarely works for difficult students anyway, but where do the rewards stand in the world of Behavioral Leadership?

When we train teachers and administrators around the country, we let them know that our strategies and procedures for building relationships, sharing control, and teaching positive behaviors are easier and more effective in doing these things than any other method of trying to elicit positive behaviors. The fact is that educators are all doing the jobs of at least three normal people, and they are using traditional discipline, which doesn’t work.

So, let’s start off with easier- is giving out points (entering them on a computer or let’s say giving out tickets as many teachers do) easier than not doing that? Well, no, of course not. It’s an extra thing. It involves at least briefly pausing your teaching to give a kid a point on the computer or placing a ticket in their hand.

It also costs money and time to get trinkets and treats for kids. You must take the time to go to Walmart to buy these things with your own money. Now you have lost both money and time: two things that teachers don’t have much of.

Easier? Nope.

Is it effective? You have already mentioned that it’s not effective with difficult kids. That is correct. I would add that it’s not effective with any kids, but it’s most obviously not effective with tougher kids, since with easy kids, anything seems effective. That’s why we say that those kids are “easy.”

The reason that’s it’s not effective is that it doesn’t break the “Bad Kid” Cycle. Of course, those are sarcastic quotes and there are no inherently bad kids, but this refers to a cycle in some kids’ lives whereby they get attention and control immediately after using negative behaviors (behaviors that cause problems for others). As you already know, these negative behaviors have become so habitualized in tough kids that the possibility of some trinket in the future will never be as appealing as the rush of getting attention from her peers and teacher and perhaps being able to control the color of her teacher’s face.

More effective? Not even close.

So, what is both easier and more effective in breaking the “Bad Kid” Cycle? How do we create an environment whereby all kids get more attention and control when they use positive behaviors instead of negative behaviors while doing something that is easier than what you are doing now?

The answer is to do something that is bizarre and will make you very uncomfortable but will change and even save the lives of kids in your care. Students will think that you doing this is weird, and I mean very weird. Only try this if you care more about helping kids than you do about being comfortable.

This is the single most important Behavioral Leadership strategy, and it will change you, your students, and perhaps the world: instead of just teaching, and waiting for something to go wrong with student behavior and then giving that behavior attention (“Sit down!”, (“Stop it!”, “Quit touching her!”) spend your time pre-emptively givingzfi attention to all of the behaviors that you want to see the moment you see them. This involves no tickets, points, prizes, or trips to your keyboard to type in a kid’s points.

Remember, it is weird, but this is the number one strategy that I used during my career as a teacher to break the “Bad Kid” Cycle:

Kid Whisperer: I noticed Kid #2 is seated. I noticed Kid #19 has already completed four out of five problems. I noticed Kid #9 is being pleasant.

Kid #9 has had a habit of punching other kids in the face. So, I need to make sure I give that kid what he wants (attention and control over me) when he’s exhibiting the behavior of not punching people, which he’s almost always doing.

Is this weird and will it be uncomfortable? Yes. Is it revolutionizing the world of education for thousands of teachers while saving them from having to go to Walmart to buy stuff to bribe kids to act like decent human beings? Absolutely.