How to Deal With an Annoying Student

It never fails that each year you have at least one student who pushes your buttons and gets on your last nerve. Educators have a great deal of responsibility when it comes to the well-being of students, but dealing with an annoying student can test even an A+ teacher's patience. Follow these steps to help you keep your sanity and connect with an annoying student on a more effective level.

Instructions

1. Do a background check. Read the student's file, talk to previous teachers, his parents or guardians and ask him questions that tell you more about his life. Once you know where the student is coming from, it is much easier to understand why they do the things he does. After a month of entertaining an excessively clingy child, your patience may be stretched thin, but if you know that his parents are busy professionals who don't have time for hugs and tender moments, you may not feel quite so irritated next time he clings to your hip at story time.

2. Set boundaries. Much of the time, annoying students aren't intentionally trying to be annoying. They just want, and possibly need, attention. Unfortunately negative attention is still attention to these children, so they never have their hands to themselves, and they are constantly doing things such as asking unnecessary questions and shouting out answers instead of raising their hand. Give them a little lee-way to behave like a child, but set a limit as to how far you will allow them to go. Kids like boundaries because they give them a sense of safety, understanding and purpose.

3. Give lots of hugs. Although this can be tricky in today's age of what is appropriate and what crosses the line, you may be able to determine whether a hug is within the child's boundaries by the information obtained in Step 1. A hug can break down walls in an instant, especially when that child is desperately seeking comfort or adult affection.

4. Redirect their attention. You've probably noticed that constantly saying "Please stop that," "Hands to yourself" or "Raise your hand" looses its effectiveness after the hundredth time. Instead of barking out commands to make them stop doing something, steer them in a different direction as you grab a puzzle off the shelf and say "I would love to see you and Tim work on this puzzle. I've never seen it complete before!"

5. Use positive reinforcement. Instead of saying "Face forward, lips sealed, hands at your sides!" say "I love the way Kristin is quietly facing forward with her hands to herself." Buy a roll of carnival tickets and keep a stash in your pocket at all times. When you see someone behaving properly, reward that person with a ticket and make sure the whole class knows. Have the kids put their names on the tickets and enter them in a weekly drawing for prizes or special classroom roles, like line leader. The kids who aren't behaving desirably catch on quickly and all you have to do is wave the ticket for them to see.

6. Have a token "look." Make your eyes real wide and serious, wink or close your lips tightly and give them a look that says "I'm waiting." This way you aren't constantly verbalizing your expectations for the child and he feels more in control of his behavior.

7. Assign him a special role or task. Ask him to be the line leader, pass out papers, run a note to the office or erase the board. He feels helpful and responsible and you get a little break.