Hello all,

Hopefully some teachers will read this post as well. I was wondering, as a new teacher, how to deal with attention seekers in classroom settings. I know there are many kinds of attention seekers, but, what to do when a kid is craving attention from others. What to do with the typical kid who likes the 'spotlight' and the attention from others? What to do with a kid who loves to make others laugh all the time, but always disrupt the class?
Any advice?

Here is my opinion if that can be useful. I have always categorized disruptive classroom behaviors in two: positive and negative ones. The positive ones are somehow only disrupting the teacher's good order. They may call out answers all the time, speak with other classmates, speak loudly, read another kind of book during a lesson, etc. I say 'positive' because their behavior isn't wrong or harmful to anyone. Just not right for the time being. I think I don't need to explain the 'negative' behavior: sitting on the floor, running around, throwing papers, etc... I would categorize this kid's behavior as positive, since he wants to participate a lot, but I can see that his crave for being accepted and seen as a 'funny' boy by others will rapidly affect his learning process.