The best way to get your students to want to learn and to like your lessons is to make the lessons interesting and engaging. If they are interested in the subject, they are more likely to want to learn about it. Having students engaged in the lessons through fun learning activities will take care of 90% of your discipline problems. For the rest of those behavior problems, I use a combination of "Discipline without Punishment, Stress or Rewards" by Marvin Marshall, and the Responsive Classroom model. Both of these behavior management models center around teaching students to be responsible for their own behavior. Dr Marshall teaches children the levels of behavior and how to make good choices. Responsive Classroom teaches responsibility through community building, among other things. Check out their websites. These methods have helped me survive a violent kindergartner who hit and kicked me on a daily basis. Good luck. School's almost done!
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