Small things can make a big difference.
Tweaks here and there. Changes in perspective, in temperament. Fine-tuning the dial to a clearer, cleaner signal. Improved classroom management doesn’t have to be hard.
If it feels hard, if you’re straining and striving but reaping little more than stress, then you’re doing it wrong.
Everything we recommend here at SCM must be doable, effective, and best for students and their social, emotional, and academic well-being.
But it also must be best for you. It must make your job easier, less stressful, and more enjoyable. If this criteria isn’t met, then you won’t see it on our website.
With this in mind, I compiled a list of seven small, simple resolutions anyone can employ and see real, sustainable results.
They take zero extra work or planning. They need only your commitment.
Resolution One
Stop all friction with students. Resolve to never lecture, scold, or show an ounce of displeasure. Even while enforcing consequences, be only pleasant—and nothing more. This alone can be career-changing.
Resolution Two
Let your classroom management plan do all the work for you. Relieve yourself of the profound distress of having to rely on the perfect, unattainable alchemy of words and expressions to curb misbehavior, and instead do the most effective thing you can: Lean on your plan.
Resolution Three
Shift all responsibility for listening, learning, and behaving over to your students. Allow none of it to cling to you. Instead, double down on your job, which is to provide great instruction and protect every student’s right to learn and enjoy being in your classroom.
Resolution Four
Become as calm as a mountain lake. Believe it or not, keeping your cool both inside and out is a decision you make every day, nothing more. In the few minutes before school begins, decide that no matter what happens that day you’ll float above it.
Resolution Five
Hold no grudge. The secret to influential rapport isn’t to try to get to know your students better. It isn’t to ask about their hobbies or show how cool you are. It’s to be consistently pleasant to all students. Do this and rapport comes naturally, organically.
Resolution Six
Focus on setting your students up for success from one moment to the next and from opening bell to dismissal. This is done through detailed instruction of every transition, movement, heartbeat, and object of concentration so that there is no question what is expected.
Resolution Seven
Accept only excellence. This is a mindset, not a task. If your attitude is one of expecting the best, finest, and highest quality, then that’s what you’ll get it. It’s a law of nature. Every student will know it and adjust to it by your attitude alone.
Paso Fino
Notice that each resolution requires commitment. Full-on determined resoluteness. This is a good thing because it’s easy to know what you must do and whether, when, and if you’ve gotten off track.
If you decide on just these few things, you’ll find unusual success.
You’ll find transformation and rejuvenation. You’ll discover that your students aren’t who you thought they were and that you have far more power and control than you ever thought possible.
It’s in your hands. Truly. The naysayers who caw and caw that you’re at the mercy of your students are heralding a message from the pit of Hades.
So right now. This moment. Review the list once again. Print it out if need be. Read it every day. Focus and commit.
If you stumble, if you fall and scrape your knee or bloody your nose, get right back up on that Paso Fino. Dust off your chaps, right your Stetson, click your tongue and never look back.
Those days are gone forever.
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Thank you!
I needed this. Especially with the start of the new semester. Great reminders.
Thank you!
Great advice! Thank you. As a teacher who is frequently criticized for being too ‘soft’, I never thought about the difference between pleasant but firm correction and unpleasant firm correction. I’m thinking about it now, and this gives me a deeper understanding how the Instructional Assistants in my classroom are more effective with correction than I am.
Perfect timing for this article. Your resolution #1 is exactly what I just started working on. This article can be my daily reference. Awesome!!!
What is your intention to the reference “Paso Fino”? Just curious. Isn’t that a type of horse? I looked up translation and it says “fine pitch”.
It is a type of horse. Later the author references it in an image of getting back up on the horse you fell from.
Hi, I think he refers to a horse that moves in eight times; reminding us to do the same steps over and over without forgetting the resolutions.
Resolution One really strikes a chord. These are all such potent reminders. Thanks.
Also, nice horse analogy; the Icelandic horse tölt gait is equally apt – conditions are much more harsh in Iceland.
Cheers,
Windy
These are really helpful and, for those (like me) who are new to SCM it would be helpful to read examples for some of these. For example, #2 “let your CMP do all the work for you”. I would appreciate an article that shows this in action through common yet big issues that arise.
Thanks for the work you do.
These are all very good, though I do think some are more important than others.
I believe the 7th one to be the most important one, and by a large margin. I wonder if Michael intentionally placed #7 last for this reason.
I’d agree with you – though I’d say the first is the first one that needs to be addressed. And perhaps that’s why it’s number 1!
Thank you for the wonderful and helpful posts! I have a question, though. What do I do about a child (I actually have two this year like this) that will not participate. They are not outwardly defiant or rude, they are not disruptive, but they do absolutely nothing in class but sit, sometimes try to sleep, read a book, or draw?
Only if I know practical ways to achieve resolutions 2 and 3, then the rest will be a work over. Can you help please?
Exactly. Need some more precise advice.
Hi, what should I do if my students resent my classroom management plan and therefore resent me. Even though I am consistently pleasant and positive, they are angry that they get “punished”. Do my consequences need to change so that they don’t feel so punitive? If you can help me here I would really appreciate it! Thank you for your good work.
Hello AS,
I think what Michael might say is that teachers should explain the rules clearly to the children, including why they are there (hands up, for example, is so that everyone can have a turn at being heard) and what the sanctions are for breaking them.
Once this has been done, and the teacher is sure the students do know the rules and why we have them, students who break rules should be given a warning (I use two warnings myself) and then, if a rule is broken again, a consequence follows (this does not apply for serious rule-breaking, of course, like hitting another student or stealing).
I would say myself that the reason students get angry when being punished is not the fact that they are being punished per se; but rather a sense of grievance about unfairness. Perhaps they feel the punishment is arbitrary, or they had no warning, or they didn’t understand they were breaking the rule. This may or may not be true, but if the rules are explained and modelled for the class fairly and fully, they will not be able to tell themselves that they are being unfairly treated.
Michael also suggests – as I’ve read several times – that a teacher should give sanctions like a referee; that is to say, with as little emotion as possible. The student knew the rule; the student broke the rule; the student was warned; the student broke the rule again; and so there is a pre-agreed sanction.
Michael has written a lot more about this, and you can find article on this in the Rules and Consequences section. https://smartclassroommanagement.com/category/classroom-management-strategies/rules-and-consequences-classroom-management-strategies/
I hope this has been of help. Good luck with your class!
AMAZING, MANY THANKS FOR THESE REMINDERS.
Dear writer
I am learning a lot of techniques in classroom management. You are requested to share more content.
Regards
These are really very helpful.
Thank you!