Now that your school year is over, it’s time to make a commitment.
By commitment, I mean never going back. Never giving in. Never allowing yourself any other possibility. Iron-clad locked, guaranteed, and assured.
What’s done is done.
The commitment I want you to make is to follow your classroom management plan to a T by enforcing a consequence every time a student breaks a rule.
—Regardless of who, what, when, where, or how.
This commitment is one you make to yourself. Although you’ll benefit with well-behaved students, and your new class will benefit from the peace it brings, this commitment is deeper than the benefits.
It goes to the heart of who you are as a teacher and leader and what you’re capable of. Yes, I know the idea of following your plan without wiggle room can be daunting.
I know there is fear and trepidation. I know the desire to please students in the moment and that some days giving a warning for a minor infraction is the last thing you want to do. Resistance can be a powerful foe.
Do it anyway.
Do it for your self-respect. Do it for the thrill of boldness and the growth of your influence and abilities. Do it for a shot at being great at what you do.
Supervise, witness, and act without hesitation. Then repeat and endure. Press on until it becomes a habit. You and your class will be rewarded beyond your imagination.
Now, it’s important to point out that before you can follow through successfully—that is, without drama, resentment, and massive pushback—you have to teach, model, and practice your classroom management plan with your students.
You have to eliminate all gray areas so that you both know precisely what does and doesn’t constitute breaking rules. You also have to know how to follow through.
But the reason I want you to make this commitment now is so that you can sit with it. You need time to think and get used to the idea of the new you. You need time to gather your courage.
You need time to marshal your mental fortitude and determination over the summer to get you through the initial moments of weakness and second thoughts.
But there is good news on the other side.
Once you get through the challenges to your authority, the immature reactions, and the skepticism that you really do what you say, you’ll begin to experience the rewards of your commitment.
And they’ll be amazing, regardless of where you teach or who is on your roster. This, in turn, will keep you on track and far from the temptation to ever go back.
Before long, being a leader your students deeply respect and admire will just be who you are.
PS – The Kindle version of The Smart Classroom Management Way is 50% off this weekend. The promotion starts early Friday and ends Sunday at 11pm PT.
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This was exactly what I had been telling myself to work on! I was practicing in my head how I was going to enforce this straight off the start of the year no matter who or what and to remain calm. Great piece of advise and thank you for a well articulated thought process, I hope I can do it!
Michael,
This post was so very timely. I am at a middle school where students are unaffected by consequences. They do not care about grades, suspensions, detentions, calls homes, etc. They do not care about a relationship with teachers. Nothing affects them and their apathy is astounding. As you said in your post, stay true to classroom management expectations no matter what. Mine are violated five-to-six times every class period, every day. It is exhausting to say the least. I would love to see a post that talks about continuing on each and every day in the face of this changing world of education. Many of the teachers in my building including myself, have been physically ill because of the stress. I am tired of admin blaming covid. I look forward to your posts every Saturday. Help us stay true to our calling!
Debi, do you work at my school? This sounds exactly like my classes. Covid is not any excuse by now. I totally agree with that!! I spend more time correcting behavior than actually teaching. Then I get, “You don’t ever teach us”. The only time they care about grades is 2 days before they are due.
I second this. I am a high school teacher and my school deals with the same as Debi described. It’s a win when I get most of my students to do one thing for me during class with a block schedule. And if they actually turn it in to be graded, we are really doing good.
Middle school. Me too and ditto. I try to keep a sense of humor about the nonsense. I stick to my word. Usually they come around…even though they seem not to care. And their behaviour is infuriating. You are not alone.
Hi Debi, I hear you. I have covered this topic of not caring a lot over the years in various articles and videos, including post-Covid, however things indeed have only gotten worse. I will put your comment on the list of upcoming videos. I’ll be sure and get to it soon.
I’ve retired and am working as a substitute. Can you address how subs and temporary teachers can use Smart Classroom Management strategies successfully?
I think a great future article would be to list maybe 25 behaviors and where they fall on your recommended rules plan.
For example, a few weeks ago you had an article saying we should let students who don’t do their work just be, but isn’t that breaking the rule of “Listen and Follow Directions”?
Another example would be yelling in the classroom. This year I taught and retaught the expectation of using an inside voice to no avail. But which rule would this violate? Happy summer to all.
Hi John,
I’ve covered both topics extensively. However, I know because of the size of the website it’s hard to find the right article. I’ll cover them again soon – perhaps in an upcoming video. Also, these are great questions for Facebook Live, which I’ll be doing next month (date and time still to come).
Thank you Michael, I read your posts every Sunday evening and it helps to prepare me for Monday. I put them into practice in my Art room and I find that they really do work. Thank you for doing this, as a teacher of over 25 years I find that you really do have the best advice I have come across.
Here in the UK we have another month of school, so I hope that you will continue to write your posts, as they are a great help, even though you have finished for the summer already.
Thanks Georgina! Yes, I will continue posting all summer.
All of this is so familiar! My question is, what are the consequences we can reinforce? I am at a loss…some students leave the classroom whenever they feel like it and wander the hall, for example. They miss lessons and instruction, and they don’t care. I have called their parents, with no back-up or support from them. Any suggestions for real consequences would be welcome. 🙂
I teach virtually. I do not see many options for consequences. Our new principal MAY permit me to turn off the student’s camera if the student is disruptive and other teachers have put children in “the lobby” for a few minutes. However, that removes them from instruction. We rely heavily on parental intervention. This is not always helpful. Any suggestions?