Word on the street is that many teachers are surprised by the misbehavior they’re seeing now that more and more students are returning to school.
They shouldn’t be.
After all, the students you saw online aren’t the same ones you’re seeing in person. Oh, they have the same names. They look the same.
But the dynamic has changed.
The upside down has turned right side up. That virtual reality environment you taught in, along with the two-dimensional relationship you had with your students, is gone. The mute button is gone. The extreme social buffer is gone.
Sure, there may be a vestige of goodwill at the start, but after the initial honeymoon it means very little.
So when you’re caught off guard as your students call out in class, scroll through their phones, and chat during lessons, what do you do? What do you do when they ignore your reminders, lectures, and calls for respect?
What do you do when you find yourself white-knuckling the steering wheel on your way home from work and wishing you could go back to teaching online?
You remember.
You remember that for all practical purposes the day your students returned to the classroom was the first day of school. And it needed to be treated as such.
You should have spent the first week teaching and modeling your classroom management plan in great detail and perfecting every routine from start to finish.
How to enter your classroom.
How to greet you and each other.
How to hang up their backpacks.
How and when to open their laptops.
How to sit and listen.
How to participate politely.
How to transition to another activity.
How to turn in work.
And so on . . .
You should have laid everything out on the table so there were no misunderstandings or questions left unanswered about what is expected and what is and isn’t okay.
But what about now? What if you didn’t do this and your students are climbing the walls, being disrespectful, and rejecting your kindness? What do you do now that they’re doing what they please and you’re stressed beyond belief?
You call a do-over.
You pretend it is the first day of school. You say simply, “I’m not happy with how things are going. It’s my fault, not yours, and here is what we’re going to do about it.”
And you start anew. No, it’s not too late. No, it doesn’t matter if some students are hybrid and others are online full time. No, you’re not being harsh or too demanding for the times.
Just do it.
Start with your classroom management plan and teach the heck out of it. Then teach a single simple routine like entering the classroom in exacting detail. Send the message that politeness, good behavior, and hard work are non-negotiable and essential to their success.
Take control of your classroom with boldness and good cheer. Throw a happy shock to their system by setting a sky-high bar of excellence.
Be a good teacher.
And they will be good students.
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Hello Michael. I am a Grade 1 to 3 teacher in an ‘alternative’ Reggio Emilia inspired school, and your posts are priceless for me. Full of very clear, doable wisdom. They are just wonderful. Every single time. Thank you for giving us so generously of your wisdom. Blessings.
Fantastic insight, how do you go about this when you have students coming back one at a time from e-learning? I started with 8 students in person and 10 online. Now I am up to 16 in person, and 3 online. Having a new student each month be taught these procedures would take up too much class time in my opinion.
Make a video for them about the in-school rules and expectations.
Love this one! Thank you for the reminder. Our students have had the choice to return since the beginning of the year and have been trickling in to the classroom all year. Now that we are half capacity, the majority were not here at the beginning and have not “picked up” from social cues. I have paired them up with students who can “share how we do it in this room.” But it is time for a Large group refresher course.
I transferred to a middle school 6 months ago. I didn’t use your high school plan because things were so unusual at the time. The students didn’t (and many still don’t) care about grades, so using a point system wasn’t realistic. The school was hybrid, using a M/T and Th/Fri rotation for students who chose to come in-person. I had 0-8 students per class for in-person learners. There wasn’t much misbehavior going on.
Now we have opened up the school to more students. I have 10-15 per class in person every day. I could see things going downhill quickly. I decided to use a modified version of the elementary plan because it is simple, and it doesn’t use the participation points. I just don’t think the points will be effective right now in this climate. I had to find some other form of leverage. ( I am hoping to use the full high school plan for the next school year.)
What I have noticed is that my teammates don’t have a solid step-by-step plan. They do a lot of lecturing, yelling, and pulling kids to the side. I just can’t do it. After using your methods for the last 5 years in elementary, I can’t go back to the days when I used to call a student’s name 10 times while they kept repeating the same behavior. I can’t use up all my energy and precious instructional time lecturing the students.
Your website and books have been a MAJOR reason why I still enjoy teaching and interacting with the students. Your advice has allowed me to push my emotions and ego to the side, which then allows me to be fair, consistent, and have a genuine relationship with each student. At the end of the day, when I say, “Have a good afternoon”, to that student who wanted to break all the rules, I say it with a smile and I really mean it.
In my opinion, classroom management is more important than the curriculum.
Hi Kami, I was reading your comment and I am going through the same thing. In the school I work in, teachers do not have a classroom management plan. They just expect them to be ”good”. And if the are not, then teachers do not have a back up plant. My question is I am having to deal with students who show attitude and talk in a very disrespectful tone. They also try to challenge expectations by laughing at me when I give students consequences. What do you think I should do?
Have a one-on-one talk with each stud as they rejoin the group.
Great article with plenty of kindness, thanks.
I am a veteran teacher, with a pretty good classroom management style.
What did surprise me, even the kids that showed up online fairly consistent, I did not really know. Kind of like, you can watch an actress or actor online, but you do not know them personally. And I wonder if they thought the same about me. The online personification is incredibly fake.
And what was is blatantly obvious, is that how much material, how much content really has only a superficial understanding. The students of the US that were online for the last year will pay a very steep price for this social experiment. Turns out, kids really do need us …LIVE and in person.
Mrs K
This has helped me greatly on managing my class.
Great reminder, consistency is the key to good classroom management. Thanks for sharing, the information is helpful.
Thanks so much for your great advice. You help me stay ahead potential problems. My daughter just finished her student teaching last week. I already have been forwarding your articles to her. I want her to get the same great advice.
You are agreed with.