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THE CLASSROOM

Classical and Operant Conditioning are two common forms of conditioning that shape and mold behavior. Classical focuses on pairing a neutral stimulus with a non-conditioned stimulus to elicit a learned response. Operant Conditioning relies on rewards and punishments to promote or discourage behaviors. The following are a few suggestions that you can use in the classroom based off of these two conditioning techniques.

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For younger students especially, sometimes it can be a challenge to simply have them walk silently through the halls. On days when they all accomplish this successfully, add a marble to a jar kept on the teacher's desk. When the jar is full, bring in a snack to reward the children for their good behavior.

SILENT HALLS

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If your students struggle to turn assignments in on time and they are responsible for cleaning tables in the cafeteria, you can always try this trick. Every Friday, evaluate if everyone in the class has turned in their assignments on time for the week. If yes, you take the dish duty and provide the students a day of extra long recess instead of chores. They will be quick to hold each other accountable to homework! 

DISH DUTY

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If a certain student is particularly disruptive and continually disobedient in a way that elicits a detention, give them the option between detention or skipping recess in order to stay and help in the classroom (cleaning the board, desks, etc). Although both are punishments, giving the student the option to choose can communicate a continued level of trust and respect between teacher and student.

DETENTION SUBSTITUTION 

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This is a great strategy for elementary students. Set up a green, yellow, red cards system on the wall. Every time a student disobeys the rules of the classroom, they go down a card color. At the end of the day, keep track of the colors for each student and reset the cards. At the end of the month, if the students have a certain number of "green days" total, throw a pizza party to celebrate their attentiveness and obedience!

RED AND GREEN

TEACHERS

MATTER

Benedictine College

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