Surveys from experts in education indicate that the primary area of concern of new teachers today is their feelings of inadequacy in managing classrooms because of "challenging" students all around the globe. Teachers are leaving their jobs because they feel insecure and have little say in issues of classroom management and management of student behaviour that affect their daily work.Acting out, fighting, being off task, misbehaving, verbally abusing, yelling, screaming, swearing, racial and other slurs, bullying, drumming on the desks, and wilful disruption of learning: Many teachers are faced with problem behaviours like these at one time or another, some face them virtually everyday. And as every teacher knows, the educational costs of these behaviours can be tremendous. Lack of discipline is a serious impediment to learning in classrooms. As a PhD student, I had the opportunity to visit a few secondary schools in London recently and interviewed a few teachers randomly. The findings are really alarming. Lots of secondary schools in UKare painfully supporting the overwhelming daily assaults of "challenging" pupils. I witnessed the immoral behaviours of school teenagers who do not hesitate to bully their own classroom teachers for trivial matters. Despite clinical experiences, student teaching, and other observations in classroom settings, this problem is still persisting for decades. The situation is worsening day by day. Teachers, parents, or others professionals working with children with challenging behaviours often feel isolated or alone. Starting from dress-code violations: girls with very low necklines & short skirts to boys with the top of their jeans safety-pinned to the bottom of their underpants so that their pants bag down around their knees, a lot of punk-style spiked chains and extreme make up. Students inside classrooms are using their cell phones to cheat on tests and exams. Depending where you are and what track you teach, there are scattered problems with drugs, sexual misconduct and the illicit use of "some" weapons creating violence in schools. Some schoolshave recourse to the help of police resource officers stationed in the vicinity of schools to help deal with these problems and do random drug searches of student lockers and cars in the student parking lot. Teachers are not encouraged to be friends with their own students and contact is strictly limited to handshakes, taps on the arm, or pats on the back. They are also warned never to be alone with students at any time. In short, teachers are not encouraged to "enjoy" their students. The whole panorama of secondary schools around the world are suffering frommajor behavioural problems of general disrespect, trouble shooters from low socio economic backgrounds,de-motivated students and violence. Is there a magic elixir that can confer powers to teachers in this area of professional responsibilityin order to deal with such problems?

Classroom management and the management of student behaviour are skills that teachers acquire and hone over time. To be sure, effective teaching requires considerable skill in managing the myriad of tasks and situations that occur in the classroom each day. Skills such as effective classroom management are central to teaching and require "common sense," consistency , a sense of fairness, patience and courage. But on top of that the support of the school administration and parent involvement can help the teaching enterprise to achieve their goal. Researchers and practitioners have long acknowledged a strong link between parent involvement and children's success in schools. But despite this evidence, family involvement in schools throughout the globe remains a minimal. Why? Parents are often apprehensive about making contact with school staff: They may feel that they have no business talking to teachers whom they consider the "education experts." Another barrier is school staffs' failure to recognize or legitimise parents'role in their children's education. Also, school staff are not trained how to collaborate with parents. What can be done to overcome these barriers?

Also, due to increases in both student enrolment and teacher retirements and owing towidespread shortages, lots of teachers have joined the teaching service in scarcity areas as novice teachers and probably "under qualified" with no formal teacher training. Such teachers do leave the field, or, if they stay, get mean and nasty in their interactions with kids. Sadly, a great many of them can hardly "make a difference" because of a lack of skill in behaviour management. They are, thus, less satisfied than they expected to be with their teaching careers. This lack of skill in managing student behaviour create a gap between the image of a master teacher they had hoped to become, and the level at which they found themselves performing. The influx of these "under qualified" teachers into classrooms and in schools that serve the greatest numbers of poor and minority children is in itselfan interrogation mark. Even the Bush administration is calling the entire enterprise of teacher education into question, citing the shortages of qualified teachers. Research indicates that courses in how to teach a subject contribute more to a teacher's success that additional subject-matter courses.

Indeed, how well you manage student behaviour is crucial to your success as a teacher. The behaviour that is exhibited in your classroom affects how administrators, colleagues, kids, parents, and YOU view your competence as a teacher. "Problems with discipline" is the number one reason that administrators fail to rehire teachers or award tenure. It is the main source of career-related stress as reported by teachers, and the number one reason that former teachers report for having left the profession. The source of the problem is well known: The vast majority of teachers are sent into classrooms with absolutely "NO TRAINING" in managing student behaviour. Uninformed/untrained teachers often view discipline as being an iron-handed approach in which they control, demean, or berate students into compliance. However, negative disciplinary consequences are continually being removed from our "bag of tricks" by school boards, legal decisions and children's rights advocates. More importantly, research shows that while a punitive, coercive approach towards behaviour management may gain superficial compliance, students feel alienated from those teachers, lose motivation to achieve, and resist changing the undesired behaviour.

Gone are the days when a stern teacher who kept students "under the thumb" was respected . Today, skilled behaviour managers have learned to entire rather than coerce their students into behaving appropriately. Research indicates that behaviour is more likely to change for better when kids are guided and directed to show appropriate behaviour and then positively recognized for having done so. Such an approach also promotes a more cooperative andproductive atmosphere in the classroom and builds a positive emotional bond between teachers and students.

Teaching is a heroic act. When asked why you want to become a teacher, the number one answer is no doubt: "I love children and want to help them." Noble stuff. But don't kid yourself. We believe that we have the ability to make the difference in the lives of children and thus can make a positive, long term impact on society. As the first day of our new career approaches, we're nervous, but believe deep inside that we are going to have a great year. We have studied hard think we have plenty of real life experiences. We have the skills and we also have the personal approach. We are certainly going to be different than those teachers who were so rigid back when we were in schools. We are going to love our students and they are going to love us. We are going to create a wonderful, nurturing, supportive, and productive learning environment. After an initial two or three day "rodage" period, the students' behaviour starts to take a turn for the worse. Some kids are unable to manage themselves for very long. They start to test the rules to determine limits and discover exactly how strict you are going to be about that regulation. Your attempt to reason with the youngsters aren't having impact. You find your lessons disrupted by some students while others complain about their misbehaviour. You are having a heck of time trying to keep structure and order. Being unable to teach at that level you expect, you are frustrated and humiliated. This is exactly where you have entered the early stages of burnout and you imperatively need help. You start to look for answers and seek mentors. You ask questions to skilled colleagues and even drop by their classrooms during your planning period to observe them dealing with kids. You start looking for books on behaviour management. You decide to follow training courses on behaviour management.Damm! You are feeling enthused again. Things are improving.

We should not forget that we are dealing with kids and that it is our motto , as a teacher, to keep teaching and learning going on.The educator who yells or demeans, needs to learn more about effective positive techniques that make kids feel good about school teachers and themselves. Those who have been told by their former teachers if they implement well planned lessons based on a strong curriculum, the kids will sit with their hands folded and say "Teacher, please tell me more" are diverting from reality. Today, we need more in our behaviour management bag of tricks. We need to be trained in this area of behaviour management as it is so vital to teaching success and satisfaction. The threat from behaviour problems to career satisfaction is greater today than ever before. The topic of discipline is cutting a wide swath across today'smost important educational debates. Everyone seems to agree that better discipline is needed in our schools.

All too often, when a student violates a rule or misbehaves our immediate reaction is to exclude the child from the activity and/or withdraw our positive attention. In so doing are we really helping our children? I agree that this may solve the immediate problem of having a disruptive student in the classroom, but it does nothing to change the long term behaviour and does not engage the child in the class. The goals for most educators, parents, and other professionals is for ALL students to be successful in school and in life. There is no question that students who exhibit challenging behaviour also experience academic failure. Just like individuals go through fairly predictable developmental stages as they grow, students also go through typical behavioural phases throughout the year. As Researchers and Practitioners we cannot associate these generic behaviour changes to ultimately lower the esteem of the student . I strongly believe that there is always a means to go back and teach the child a different way to get his/her needs met without misbehaving. Getting parents/guardians/caretakers positively and actively involved in the education of their children can be difficult and frustrating at times, but behaviour change happens when homes and schools work in concert.Adopting proactive measures make students feel valued, respected and welcomed in their classroom. They are more likely to behave better and demonstrate respect towards you. If today, the teaching profession is fearing a nation at risk, who is to be blamed. Students or teachers themselves? My advice to the entire teaching enterprise would be : if you are not yet a consummate behaviour manager then be prepared for the worse, if you cannot handle the present then look in the mirror, you will find the solution to your problem. Neither the teaching profession is turning confrontations, nor students encroaching limits. If you have chosen to become a teacher then be prepared to give up the ghost. In this profession we are like the banks of a river: our management skills guide our students' energy flow. If the banks become weak, the undirected flow can cause disaster.