Clip charts, prize boxes, incentive systems, seating arrangements, stickers, pep-talks, noise makers, red cards, table points, trinkets, tokens, awards, erasers, free time, computer time, first in line, contracts, privileges, and… enough!!!
It can make you want to scream.
For many, classroom management has become too complicated.
It doesn’t need to be. All you need are a few guiding principles.
So clean out the clutter and confusion and stop putting your faith into mere “ideas.”
Strip your classroom management program down to what works.
And cut out the rest.
Simplify
The following principles simplify classroom management and allow you to focus on what’s really important.
Together, they represent an approach that works regardless of where you teach or who your students are.
Rules
You need a set of classroom rules that cover every possible misbehavior. These rules need to be posted prominently, taught thoroughly, and reviewed frequently.
Consequences
You need to enforce every rule violation with a consequence. A warning followed by time-out is standard fare.
A Willingness To Enforce
You have to be willing to enforce a consequence every time a rule is broken. This is critical to effective classroom management. Most teachers don’t follow through consistently.
Calm, Quick Interaction
You must communicate with misbehaving students in a way that doesn’t cause friction (i.e., anger, hurt feelings, dislike) between you.
This means be calm, quick, and then move on. Never argue with students, scold them, or take a student’s behavior personally.
Interest & Enjoyment
Creating a fun, stimulating learning environment covers up a multitude of classroom management mistakes.
Kids who like school behave better—a lot better. This holds true regardless of who the student is or what their problems were in the past.
Rapport
Building rapport through humor, trust, and likability gives you leverage, allowing you to wield powerful influence with students.
Classroom Environment
A clean and peaceful classroom, student freedom and independence, and a sense of belonging to a special group, create classroom leverage.
If your students like/love being in your classroom, they won’t want to be separated from it. This is what makes time-out work.
A World That Makes Sense
Your students must know what to expect every time they enter your classroom. Therefore, you must be consistently pleasant.
Decide never to engage in yelling, scolding, sighing, sarcasm, or other reactions of frustration. They will undermine your ability to manage your classroom.
Check your whims, bad moods, and negative thoughts about students at the door.
Knowledge
Our goal at Smart Classroom Management is to help you become proficient using each of these principles.
Although the approach simplifies classroom management and removes the confusion about what really works and what you need to focus on, it takes a depth of knowledge to implement these principles effectively.
Every week we’ll share shortcuts, strategies, and techniques that will increase your ability to do just that. So keep reading and learning, and you’ll never again struggle with classroom management.
Instead, you’ll thrive. Your students will thrive. And you’ll be the teacher you always wanted to be.
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Teaching 2nd grade, 6 subjects a day & trying to cover all state standards, I have difficulty making everything fun. Where is a good place to look for the fun stuff? I’m not good at coming up with games, etc.
Hi Jana,
I’ll be writing about ways to create more leverage in the future, but a good place to start is with you. You don’t always–or even frequently–have to have fun learning games planned. Storytelling has been the single most influential thing I’ve ever done to make kids love/want to come/enjoy school. It doesn’t take much planning and the more you do it the better you’ll get. Start with simple stories, just 3-5 minutes, about your life–experiences you’ve had, funny moments, childhood memories, vacations. You can also use storytelling to introduce lessons and units of study. Retention and interest will skyrocket.
Also, be willing to add humor whenever you can. I’m convinced that you can make anything, any subject and any activity, more enjoyable simply by the way you interact with students. You can find more on storytelling and using humor in the classroom in the book Dream Class. There are chapters devoted to each.
Michael
Pure genius.
Stories are something common to humanity going back to cave-drawings.
i am teaching tenth grade. students often make comments about me vulgarly as i am very strict towards them .whenever the other students tell about their classmates who comment about me it makes me very angry.this has been happening and i shout at them..whats the solution to this ?
Hi Dinesh,
Vulgarity is remarkably disrespectful, so I would definitely contact parents and consider having them in for a conference. Shouting, however, is a mistake. It solves nothing and plays right into their hands.
Michael
Hi Michael, I am teaching 4th grade this year. What is the best way to set up desks? Is it better to have the desks attached to each other (side by side), or separate, as in columns?
Hi Marcia,
For purely classroom management purposes, it’s best to arrange them in columns/rows. However, with effective classroom management skills, it shouldn’t matter. In which case you can set them up in whatever way that best suits your needs.
:)Michael
Do you have an opinion on flexible seating? You know giving students choices about where to sit and offering all different types of chairs, stools, pillows, etc.
My opinion is that BEING flexible is the best approach.
Put another way: maybe you and your students can rearrange at will when it makes sense to y’all.
When Buckminster Fuller suggested as much in the 1930s, he meant in terms of the building (movable walls, which some schools do have) but the purpose was to make the classroom “adjustable.”
Hi Michael!
I’m Rana, a second grade teacher, I have been teaching for exactly a month and 14 days and it has been very challenging so far. Let’s just say I don’t have my Dream Class, yet. But your articles have been very helpful. Anyway, I started using a Reward Chart, and it worked the first week or two, but now only 5 out of 22 students are interested. I want to stop using it…I just don’t know how. Help?
Hi Rana,
Just make a quick and honest announcement: “Class, we’re no longer going to be using the reward chart. It wasn’t working as well as I hoped.” Then move on with your day. There is no need to explain any further.
(When you get a chance, be sure and read through the Incentives & Praise category of the archive.)
:)Michael
Thanks!
I will do that 😀