3.4.1 Using Reinforcement
For Effective Classroom Management

Review Question
Explain why punishment may be looked at as negative reinforcement. Try to give an example.
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Now that you're familiar with many of the strategies classroom teachers use to manage student behavior, it's time to learn how to put those strategies into practice. The first thing I want to introduce you to is called the Universal Principle of Classroom Management: put as much distance between each student and the door as possible. I don't mean geographically, I mean metaphorically. At the very beginning of the school year, some teachers make the mistake of saying 'In this class, I will accept no nonsense. The first time I hear a peep out of anyone, that person is out of here!' The distance between the student and the door is nearly zero. One offense and you are gone. If you send one student to the vice-principal, the student is in big trouble. If you send two students, then two students are in trouble. If you send three students to the vice-principal, you're in trouble. Vice-principals do not want to see your students. The most successful teachers, from a vice-principal's point of view, never send any students to the office for discipline. Every time you send a student to the vice-principal, you are creating a problem for him or her. The lesson here is that anything you do to put distance between your students and the door is going to benefit the vice-principal, the students, and you.

	According to the instructor, what is the Universal Principle of Classroom Management?	Answer Here
	How can any teacher in the country use the Universal Principle of Classroom Management in order to prevent temper tantrums in the classroom?	Answer Here