Hello Teachers & Principals,
Thank you for your support of Smart Classroom Management! 2025 was an especially productive year.
The number of schools and districts fully adopting SCM increased dramatically. Unstressed: How to Teach Without Worry, Fear, and Anxiety was published and has become our highest rated book.
And after years of requests, we finally started a YouTube channel. Please subscribe when you get a chance and give our videos a thumbs up. It’s a great help!
What follows are the very best articles of 2025.
Cheers! And enjoy.
How to Handle a Disrespectful Class Clown
11 Things Teachers Should Say NO To
Why You Should Never Allow Students To Make Up Work
How to Get Every Student to Participate
How to Handle a Student Who Doesn’t Do Their Work
The Secret Classroom Management Strategy of Highly Effective Teachers
Your 2024-25 Smart Classroom Management Report Card
Why You Should Stop Using Video to Teach
Why Sending Students to the Principal is a Mistake
Why You Should Never Share Social Media With Students
How to Handle a Student Who Yells “But I Didn’t Do Anything!”
The Yin and Yang of Classroom Management
Have a wonderful and safe holiday and a Happy New Year!
-Michael
PS – We’re off next week off to celebrate Christmas, but will be back with a new article on January 3rd. Also, be sure to check out our latest video How to Guarantee Effective Student Accountability.
Finally, if you haven’t done so already, please join us. It’s free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.
Your content is gold, thank you. I am homeschooling after coming from 7 years in the classroom, but I am finding ways to include these ideas at home too. Someday if I return, I hope to have practiced it well and go forward with full SCM force!
Thanks Aubri!
Thank you for the SCM approach. It works!
I have been reading your books and following you on YouTube.
Well done Michael.
Thanks Stefano!
Thanks, Michael. I loved Unstressed! My favourite tip from it was the “flush it” technique. I actually do use it, and it really works.
My favourite article from this list is the “yin and yang” article. It’s something that proved a stumbling block in my applying SCM and so I’m always glad when you write about the issue of marrying firm and fun.
Thanks Rowan! I like flush it also. I’ve gotten better at it the more I practice.
Michael, thanks for all your wonderful advice. I am an elementary specials teacher. I have read your orange book 3x over the last few years and have experienced great success using your strategies. My principal even commented positively on my beginning of the year plans for teaching procedures! Of course, there is always room to improve. I do have a question. I have several homeroom teacher colleagues who do not display the composure/temperament you suggest. To be sure, these are colleagues who are more experienced than me, that I respect, and that I do believe care about their students. But, for example, they might come to pick up their class and if I announce that the class lost a point for not lining up to leave quickly, they might yell at their class for “being so disrespectful,” “acting differently in this room,” etc., or even berate individual students that I inform them were sent to time out, such as “you never listen,” etc. It makes me nervous to be honest with those teachers, knowing they might yell at their students when I simply want to inform them and I don’t take the misbehavior personally. Sometimes I also worry that those teachers will think that because I’m not overreacting, I don’t care, which is not true! My guess is you will say to just keep doing what I am doing, or be more explicit with these teachers that I’ve handled the misbehavior and I am simply informing them. If you have any more nuanced advice to this situation, I am interested to hear it. Do you think homeroom teachers should enforce consequences for misbehavior that occurred in specials, whether the specials teacher has handled it?
Thank you for all the time you spend writing and sharing your knowledge; you are making a difference!
Hi Alice,
It can be frustrating but you can’t control how other teachers react. You also can’t control what they think of you. However, they don’t think you don’t care. Instead, over time they’ll be impressed at how you handle classroom management. Finally, you don’t have to tell them who was in time-out etc. unless they ask and no, homeroom teachers should not (and cannot accurately) enforce consequences with students on your watch.
This is a thoughtful and encouraging wrap-up that does more than celebrate a productive year—it reinforces why Smart Classroom Management continues to resonate with so many educators. The curated list highlights a consistent throughline: clarity, accountability, and calm leadership, even in the most challenging situations. It’s especially powerful to see how the work has expanded across articles, books, and now video, making the principles accessible to teachers at every stage of their journey.
The comments from readers say it all. From homeschooling parents to veteran teachers and specialists, the strategies are clearly transferable, practical, and confidence-building. Alice’s question and your response, in particular, underscore one of SCM’s most important lessons: focus on what you can control, lead by example, and don’t dilute effective management by outsourcing it.
Thank you for another year of grounded, experience-based guidance that cuts through noise and trends. This collection is both a celebration and a strong reminder that effective classroom management is built on consistency, composure, and trust.