Most teachers respond to losing control too late.
They wait until they can’t even get their class quiet and seated before making changes. But trying to gain control of an already out-of-control class is exceptionally difficult.
It takes expert knowledge, skill, and a wholesale restart of your classroom.
It’s far easier to recognize the signs that you’re headed toward a cliff than it is to wait until you’ve reached terminal velocity.
So what follows are 17 signs you’re definitely, 100 percent losing control of your class.
- Your students talk during instruction.
- Behavior worsens as the day goes on.
- Transitions take longer than 30 seconds.
- Your students are messy and don’t clean up after themselves.
- Your students don’t get along well with each other.
- Your class can’t walk in a quiet line.
- You have to bribe your students into compliance.
- Your lessons are frequently interrupted.
- Your students are often confused.
- Your students laugh while you’re serious.
- Your class is disruptively energetic.
- You often repeat yourself.
- The same students misbehave every day.
- Your students don’t listen well.
- Independent work time isn’t silent.
- Behavior has gotten worse as the year has gone on.
- You’re stressed-out at the end of every day.
You must act now.
The moment you notice your class going off the rails, you must stop everything, return to the previous transition, and reteach what you expect in exacting detail—which may also include your classroom management plan.
This is the secret to never losing control.
Great teachers always have their wet finger in the air. If they sense anything amiss, however small or subtle, they reverse course immediately and fix it.
In other words, they never move on until they’re getting exactly what they want from their students.
It’s the relentless pursuit of success from one moment to the next that not only negates the possibility of losing control, but assures a calm, well-behaved classroom every day.
PS – Check out this week’s YouTube videos:
1. How to Handle Students Who Give You Attitude
2. Why Students Stop Listening to Teachers
3. The Fastest Way to Regain Control of Your Class
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I’m inspired and gained knowledge in your articles.I will also share this to my teachers.Specially with our diverse and inclusive learners.Thanks and God bless.
Michael, my focus is drawn to your description of great teachers. I love your phrasing of having a “wet finger in the air”. These teachers have a pulse on every moment. They can discern and see things that are not recognizable to most.
Sort of like how a master chess player can observe another player’s blunder or poor move and, unless a certain move is carried out immediately, have ensured eventual checkmate in exactly 8 moves.
The way that masters of their craft interpret and act on information is truly remarkable. This ability to “see” several steps ahead seems magical and unattainable. It is not, though. Not to the master craftsperson. This vision is not something that an individual simply acquires one day. I believe this vision is built from hours of deliberate practice.
Consistency.
Intention.
Reflection.
Being with discomfort.
Deliberate practice involves engaging in our craft with a commitment to these things. Two people can practice a craft for the same amount of time, yet one pulls ahead in terms of mastery.
As a new teacher, I do not have this vision yet, nor do I expect to possess it in a week, a month, or a year. Perhaps this vision is not something to finally attain, though. Instead, it is built over time through deliberate practice. It is helpful for me to recognize that this takes time and is indeed hard work.
At the moment, I am taking my reflection practices, and how I respond to these reflections, very seriously. This is what I can do and what I believe in. Every moment, be it a small noticing that we might respond to with swiftness and intention, or a big, messy alarm signal that things have gone off the rails with no clear sign of how to get back on track.
These moments, all moments, provide us with an opportunity to reflect and develop in our craft. At the start of a journey, these moments might skew bigger / out-of-control. Steadily, over time, we can learn to notice the smaller signals that inevitably occur en route to these seemingly out-of-control scenarios.
True Ben. And with this approach, you’re going to make fast progress.
Michael,
I appreciate the knowledge you’re passing on. Your information is clear and direct which isn’t always true for all information these days in education.
I have an interesting situation where I coteach with another teacher in a classroom of 50 kids. Also, my classroom is part of a larger room that is the shape of a capital H with 2 other classes on the other side of this space and a total of 100.
I have 13 years of teaching experience and teaching this way has been the most challenging and I’ve done it for 7 years. I am always looking for ways to improve and not leave feeling overwhelmed and with a headache. However, when you are outnumbered 50 to 2 at a time, it is difficult to not feel like you’re losing control of the class.
Do you have any advice for my unique and overwhelming situation?
Hi Jonathan,
I’d have a lot of questions before I could give you accurate advice. I will say that the number of students isn’t the biggest issue. It’s coteaching and the critical importance of being on the same page.
Michael,
I am trying to work on one of my classes. “#10 your students laugh while you’re serious” is happening to a degree in one of my classes.
It’s not laughing but instead a small cohort of 2-3 students holding back laughter. I can see their faces go red. They turn their heads and sometimes put their arm in front of their mouth to keep from laughing. What happens is I will go back and reteach what I’m looking for yet I notice two, sometimes three, students trying to hold back laughter while I am serious. This, in turn, lowers my confidence level and I am sure I do not get my point fully across to students and therefore they do not take my expectations seriously. These students also send a message to other students that they do not need to take me seriously.
We are nearing the end of week 2 and I know I need to do something about this.
I have two courses of action in mind:
1) I address the holding-in-laughter-behavior directly and discuss with students how this breaks our rule about respecting me.
2) The next time it happens I pause and wait for as long as it takes for students to calm down. Then I address the behavior.
Curious about your thoughts. I am wondering if this holding-in-laughter behavior deserves a consequence once / if I address it directly. I believe it is disrespectful. Yet there is also an element of students not being able to control this behavior. For instance, if one student starts the holding-in-laughter behavior and another student can’t control their response to the student who starts it. I do not have a way of knowing who started it. Perhaps that does not matter, though.
Hi Ben,
I would wait until they break a rule – as you clearly defined for your class – before enforcing a consequence. In the meantime, ignore and keep teaching.