There is an attitude gifted teachers carry with them every day of the school year.
It’s extremely rare.
But it gives them a remarkable level of authority, presence, and leadership that students strongly respond to.
This attitude is comprised of two deeply held viewpoints. At first glance, these viewpoints appear contrasting, even impossible to hold at the same time.
In the classroom, however, they’re perfectly complementary.
Anyone can acquire this attitude. It takes mental discipline, as well as an understanding of its power, but it’s there for the taking.
As mentioned, it consists of two seemingly opposing viewpoints. The first is to care deeply about your students. So deep, in fact, that you’re only willing to do what is best for them long-term.
Meaning, you refuse to use any strategy that . . .
- May work in the moment but doesn’t improve behavior over time.
- Is manipulative or dishonest.
- Feels good/seems right but doesn’t actually change behavior.
- Isn’t intrinsically directed.
Some examples:
- False praise
- Catching students being good
- Rewarding in exchange for good behavior
- Token economies
- Lecturing and scolding
- Narration
- Redirection and reminders
- False disappointment
- Over-the-top praise
- Prize boxes
- Behavior contracts
- In-class counseling/SEL practices
- Restorative justice
- Threats and intimidation
- Community circles
- PBIS and similar approaches
All of the above are short-term, external, feel-good, manipulative, and/or don’t change behavior.
Note: Each has been written about previously and often extensively. Please see the archive or use the search bar at top for more info.
So what is best for students long term?
Accountability. Clean, honest, undeniable accountability is the only thing in the classroom that changes behavior. It’s the only thing that makes an impact internally, where actual transformation occurs.
It’s the only thing that causes students to conclude, all on their own, that they are the problem and only they can fix it. No amount of talking, lecturing, counseling, rewarding, pep-talking, false praising, or explaining can do this.
In fact, the strategies on the list interfere with and delay students reflecting on their misbehavior and taking responsibility for it.
To sum up, the first viewpoint is to care enough about your students and their future to hold them consistently accountable.
The second viewpoint is to not care if your students misbehave.
No, this doesn’t mean you will allow misbehavior. It means that it doesn’t affect you emotionally. It doesn’t raise your ire, frustration, stress, blood pressure, or disappointment.
No matter what happens from opening bell to dismissal, therefore, you’re as calm and cool as an Artemis astronaut. Mentally untouchable.
How is this possible? By shifting responsibility for handling misbehavior over to your classroom management plan in full. Meaning, your only responsibility is to follow it like a Super Bowl referee.
- consistent
- accurate
- dispassionate
The unusual attitude of gifted teachers is to care enough to do what is best for students long-term (accountability), yet not care one whit if a student breaks a rule.
This is real power and authority.
Now, it’s important to mention that here at SCM we have hundreds of strategies that support and enhance this attitude and ability, including detailed explanations of everything related to them.
Please check out our archive or books and guides to learn more.
In the meantime, if you adopt this two-viewpoint attitude, you’ll have the ability to take over any group of students, no matter how out of control, and transform them into the motivated and well-behaved class you really want.
PS – Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. The latest video is Stop Building Relationships with Students. I highly recommend checking this one out.
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Yes, absolutely. I completely agree with you Michael Linsin. I hold this attitude. And yes, I do consider myself a gifted teacher.
I work in a school that only allows positive reinforcement. Class Dojo can be used but only for giving points, no deduction of points. Having used your strategies in a different school, I know how well it works. Do you have any pointers or articles for how I manage the behaviour in my classroom with these restrictions in mind?
I have been reading SCM for several years now and recommend it to every new teacher I meet. I also have purchased a couple books as well to reread and loan out.
I have transformed the way I teach and lowered my stress. I can attest that these strategies do work and I have not used a ‘reward’ system for a couple years now. When my kids ask ‘if we do this…can we get…’. Most often my response is “Why would I give you something for doing what I expect?”. They stopped asking.
My students KNOW I care about them. I am honest with them upfront about my one of my goals being to help them bridge from elementary to Middle School with great success. (I teach 5th) It’s a repeated message all year. My standards are high for myself and for them. My classroom strategies can be directly researched back to SCM. I am by far from perfect, but when I find myself spiraling, SCM concepts flood my brain and get me back on track.
The only problem I have with this article is the reference to NFL referees being “consistent, accurate and dispassionate.” Personal experience has taught me otherwise!!😂
(But the point is not lost on me!)
Thank you for continued good advice week after week!!
Ha! True about NFL referees.
Please write an article specifically geared to kindergarten teachers and behavior strategies. It would be appreciated!
I know that I cannot keep records ongoing for the points system for high school. It keeps me from teaching because it continually breaks up the flow of teaching as I stop to find and then mark the appropriate student with the right mark. Has any high school teacher come up with an alternative way of hold students accountable without the points system?
I’m a Junior High Choir teacher and I have classes of 50-120 students at a time (grade 7-9). I have found a system that helps me find the students and mark them correctly. It’s not perfect, but it has made a huge difference. I have a seating chart on my iPad (it could also be a printed out seating chart – see below). When I need to give a student a warning, I mark a green dot on their spot in the seating chart. If I ask them to talk to me after class I mark a yellow dot. If I let them know that I will be contacting their parents I mark an orange dot, and if I need to have them be part of the school discipline plan I mark a red dot (all of this is outlined in the high school plan – In the past 3 years I have only needed the red dot a few times). Then at the end of the class period I email myself the seating chart and clear it for the next day. Then after the day is over I go and enter that in the grade book.
If I needed to do it on a printed seating chart, I would do one tally mark for the warning, a second for talking after class, etc.
Hi Michael,
Beautifully written and expressed as always!
I had exactly this experience today, as some kids tested the boundaries to see if I would still hold them accountable, did some pretty goofy stuff, and I calmly followed through without getting upset at all. It did not bother me a wit that they were misbehaving. One of the kids in the room raised his hand and said, “Wow, you are really nice!”:). Sure enough, the second half of the morning was way calmer, as the kids saw that I was going to hold them fully accountable, and yes, care deeply about them, and not care at all about their misbehavior.
Thanks!
Binyamin Stoll
I have been very successful with my middle school Mild/Mod Special Day Classes using SCM. Indeed, my classes are the calmest and most academically successful in our SPED department. This year, however, we have a new SPED director who 1. wants me to do many of the things you listed that do not benefit students and 2. has written me up for embarrassing my students by naming which rule they broke and letting them know that this is their warning or if it’s time for a self-regulating break, our class’ very effective version of a time out (second instance of breaking a rule that period). About half my students exhibit behavior problems in their other classes but don’t in mine. Have you, Michael, or other readers ever run into a situation in which a teacher is written up or non-renewed for following SCM?
Yes!!!
I have always gone with the school of thought that children are intrinsically motivated. Extrinsic rewards undermine that motivation. Stickers, table points etc. may work in the moment but are fleeting.
“YES I DID IT.” These are the words I want to hear from children.