Positive Reinforcement

I am a firm believer in using positive reinforcement rather than punishment whenever possible. More often than not distruptive students are looking for attention. If you can show them that attention will come to them for doing what they are supposed to do, you will have less problems. This can be done in simple ways, like saying "I like the way Katie is working hard without talking to her neighbor." It can also be done in more material ways like choosing a "student of the day". This placement I am in a fourth grade classroom and I have instigated a "good sportsmanship" program because this class had problems with being good sports at recess and in the classroom. I believe this could be used in other situations as well. Have a form that students can fill out (so they are the ones catching others doing what they are supposed to) whenever they catch another student being a good sport (or whatever it is you are having them look for). Then on Fridays I read all the slips of paper and we celebrate all the students that are caught being good sports. Then I put all the slips of paper back into the bucket and I draw one- the person who was caught being a good sport and the person who caught them each get a candy bar. I also did something similar to this in elementary but we used lifeskills (integrity, responsibility, etc.) so each student writes what lifeskill they caught the other one using.