Kill'em with Kindness

One of my favorite classroom management practices is positive reinforcement.
It's  definitely not the only way to manage a band classroom, but it works for me :)

I try very hard to only acknowledge students that are showing the correct behavior in the classroom.  This is not to say that I don't address students that are completely misbehaving.  However, instead of yelling or scolding the kids that are talking while I am talking, I thank the students that are being quite and respectful.

You would be surprised at how many students of all grade levels then stop talking and want to be recognized for doing the right thing as well.
One of my favorite ways to get students to sit with correct posture is to say "Trombones, wow, thank you for sitting with such excellent posture today!"  Immediately following that comment, students around the room look at me and sit very straight!

I do struggle with this technique sometimes.  It is so hard to not correct every little behavior issue, I do think in the long run there will be more benefits to using positive reinforcement more!

Thoughts?

I've felt that if you dwell too much on your errors, you're dealing in the negativity of things. I don't like that. I'd rather work on the positive reinforcement, the things I did well.

Hale Irwin

Positive Attitude Tip: 
Giving positive reinforcement to others is one of the best things you can do if you want to see a change in behavior. Finding the good in something is much more effective than focusing on the negative. 

The same can be true for yourself. When you make a mistake do you beat yourself up or do you learn from the mistake. It is all in how you look at it. Keep your attitude positive no matter what or whom you are dealing with it will make your life much happier and you will accomplish more.

As Willie Nelson once said, "Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results."
(From site http://www.positivequotes.org/reinforcement/)