Visualization is a powerful tool that can improve your classroom management.
And now is the perfect time.
Summer break allows you to reflect on the previous school year with fresh eyes and an unclouded look to the future.
Journaling and diagraming can help. But visualization in one fell swoop can catapult you from a mediocre teaching experience to a great one.
Why?
Because it solidifies in your mind what you really want. It provides a three-dimensional motion picture from which you can create the conditions and strategies to recreate it.
It allows you to beam yourself into the very classroom you’ve always wanted.
You see, if you don’t know what you want and what it looks like, then you’ll never achieve exceptional classroom management. Good behavior doesn’t materialize out of thin air.
My method when I was first creating SCM was to visualize what I wanted in my mind’s eye first. I viewed my perfect classroom from start to finish.
I saw my future students entering the classroom happy, polite, and eager to learn. I saw them fist-bump a poster I had affixed to the door.
I saw them gently hang up their coats, align their backpacks behind their chairs, check their mailboxes, place their homework in the top right-hand corner of their desks, and immediately begin the daily grammar work.
I watched the perfect ten-minute routine play out on a movie screen.
Then I went on to the next scene. And the next. All the way until dismissal. Perfect behavior. Hardworking students. And me, stress-free and enjoying each moment.
Once the picture was clear, I went about recreating it in the classroom. This is how SCM was born. Envision what you want. Teach it to your students. Hold them and you accountable for its execution.
The good news is that you don’t have to build it from scratch. The principles and strategies you need to create your own dream class are right here in the SCM archive. They’re in our books and on our YouTube channel.
It’s important to note that everyone’s dream class looks different.
How you want your students to enter your room is unique to you. We created SCM with this in mind. Use it to build out your own vision and satisfy what you want.
Also important to note: Real-life time and visualized time aren’t the same. Visualization is a lot faster. For me, I visualize a ten-minute beginning-of-day routine in about 30 seconds.
You get better the more you do it, but you should be able to “see” your day from start to finish in just a few minutes. Work on it for several or more closed-eye sessions this summer until you have a clear representation of what you want.
The exercise doesn’t take much effort but the benefits are massive.
PS – Check out this week’s YouTube videos:
1. Why Good Classes Suddenly Fall Apart
2. How to Handle Entitled Students
3. How to Teach Your Classroom Management Plan
Also, 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.
During the week before students come, I spend hours sitting in the room, staring at the tables and chairs, the magic Kinder carpet, and imagine my day, the classroom flow, just like you said. It helped me so much! That and meticulous planning so that I have a plan – and a goal – when everything goes a different direction!
I love your emails, and your videos! They help me to keep focusing on what I want for the class and how to get them there.
Thanks Heather! Glad to hear it.
Your articles and books are very helpful. Visualization is a great tool that I use to good effect. One of the best things it does for my lesson plans and classroom management is to allow me to think out ahead of time what could go wrong. I can “see” the questions or off track behavior students might use and that allows me to 1. not be caught off guard and 2. have a plan to head it off before it starts. Of all your helpful tips and techniques I think this one might be the most transformative in a classroom because it is the very first and a very productive step in your proactive rather than reactive approach to classroom management.
I’m glad you think so. Thanks!
Spot on. I use it before, during , and after class. I have had students whisper out, “look Zen man”.
I like it, John.
For the fist-bump routine, what if after you explain the purpose and try to get them to buy in-they still don’t do it? I know you don’t glare or force them to, but 6th graders don’t do anything their friends don’t do and I can see this becoming an ignored thing if it doesn’t take hold. Then what?
This is addressed in the article linked “fist-bump a poster.”
It’s a simple practice, but it can make teachers more intentional about routines, expectations, and student behavior. The step-by-step example of imagining the morning routine was especially helpful because it turns an abstract concept into something practical. Thanks for sharing such an insightful article