It is part of the job of contemporary teachers to ensure that their students resolve conflict without verbal or physical attacks. You will need to teach the students that open discussion and empathy are the right ways to go about resolving conflicts. Instead of punishing students, you should try to share the power with students so that they learn to work on a resolution on their own. A peer mediation system is highly beneficial as it teaches students how to resolve conflicts and help others to do so.

Let your students know the consequences of their actions

Planning will definitely help you to minimize misbehavior in the classroom.  There will, however, always be students who will, sooner or later, cause problems that call for you to administer punishment.  Before delivering punishment, you will have to ensure that the student knows that they are responsible for being punished by choosing to misbehave.

Consider giving a verbal reprimand to your student privately

One common punishment is issuing a verbal reprimand, but many students may not respond well to this, as it may not be authoritative enough to make them reconsider the action. The best way to verbally reprimand a student is to do so in private.  When students are in private, they are more likely to listen to teachers, even admit their wrongdoings and/or honestly explaining the reasons behind their actions.

Take away privileges for students who continually misbehave

If the problem is severe or ongoing, opt for greater consequences such as loss of privileges. If this continues to be ineffective, consult the Principal to discuss harsher punishments, such as school suspension. Not all students have the same opinion of privileges and that might make maintaining the fairness of punishment difficult.

Don’t give extra work.

It may be difficult to maintain fairness as academically-challenged students will fall behind more, and extra work can make students stay up and come to school with inadequate rest, causing their concentration levels to go down. This may contribute negatively to student performance, which could be damaging for both the teacher and student in the long-term.

Never deduct marks from their grade when they misbehave.

This often gives students more reasons to harbor negative feelings not only the subject and school but also education itself.  Linking academics with behavioral mistakes will foster further negative attitudes and behavior in students.

Don’t resort to corporal punishment.

This has been made illegal in several states and overall, this type of punishment fails to address the problem. Students’ discontinuation of misbehavior would be linked only to the fear of physical pain, and no understanding of why the behavior was wrong results.