It’s tough to be a teacher right now. Pressure from all sides. More and more and more on your plate.
Misbehavior and disrespect on the rise.
It’s no wonder that in a recent survey half of all teachers are thinking about quitting the profession.
Confidence in particular is at an all-time low. I hear it from my colleagues and coaching clients. I see it in the comment section of this website.
Teachers are angry, battered, and overwhelmed. The only way to fix it in this upside-down environment is to take control yourself. Don’t wait for the cavalry to show up. They’re not going to.
Overcome by creating your own confidence.
Here’s how:
Double-down on classroom management.
This is number one, by far. If you know for certain that your students will behave for you, respect you, and enjoy your class, despite it all, confidence will exude from every pore.
You’ll walk with equanimity, your mood untouchable. Peace within your classroom heals all.
Your understanding of what really works to transform even the most difficult class will give you an undeniable aura and effortless leadership quality, even if you’re not normally a confident person.
This is critical because students can sense fear and timidity from a mile away, and they’re sensing a lot of it these days. You must be confident, especially in this climate, or they’ll roll right over you.
But you must stop dabbling.
You must stop experimenting. You must stop throwing disparate strategies and contradictory approaches against the wall to see what sticks. It never does.
Instead, you must double-down on sharply defined boundaries and consistent accountability. You must be a pro who knows the why of what you’re doing and how it fits into a cohesive whole.
Your strategies must match. Your decisions must be informed and based on what is right for your students long-term. It’s the steady drip, drip, drip of what works in every season that will give you back your confidence.
Note: If you’re new to SCM, and want to know where to begin, I recommend The Total Classroom Management Makeover.
Own it.
My only desire here at SCM is to help. I know that anyone can have the dream class they desire, even now. Sometimes, this comes across as blaming teachers.
I assure you it is not. It comes from my confidence in you. I know what a joyful profession teaching can be with the right approach. It doesn’t have to be stressful. You don’t have to put up with misbehavior or be at the mercy of your students.
I live it every day—not only through my work here at SCM, but I still teach at a challenging public school. I still love it.
I want this for you.
But before you can get there, you have to make the switch from looking outside of yourself and at your students to within and your own knowledge and skills. I know it’s hard. I know students can be awful, disrespectful, and disinterested.
I know the world is in chaos and our students are feeling it. But the power is within you. It really is. And you must own it, accepting no excuses.
It’s the most important step to unlocking the riches of powerful leverage and influence and the secrets to intrinsic motivation and getting students to want to listen, learn, and behave.
You have to take responsibility before they will.
Once you decide that the buck stops with you, and you realize that it’s really possible to motivate stubborn students who do nothing to work hard, for example, or be silent while you’re teaching, you’ll begin to feel a level of confidence you didn’t know you had.
Manage your life.
Being mentally and physically prepared, energized, and refreshed every day has a strong impact on your overall confidence, especially when you step in front of your students to present a lesson.
Again, they can sense when you’re feeling beat down and afraid. They know when you’re walking on eggshells and hoping they’ll behave. It’s something you can’t hide. As sure as the sunrise, they’ll take advantage of it and crush your confidence along the way.
You must be bold. You must have pluck and audacity and the skills to back it up. You must focus and work efficiently so you can leave work at a decent hour.
You need to get away mentally and physically from school each day. Go enjoy your friends, family, and hobbies. Hike. Exercise. Watch your kid’s baseball game. Eschew the extra hour of Netflix and read or turn in early.
These success habits have a tremendous effect no matter your profession.
However, I think they’re a greater need in education because you have to be on all the time. You can’t let your guard down or fail to supervise closely.
You have to be bright and attuned and several steps ahead of your students. If you’re mismanaged in your personal life, you won’t be on the ball enough to have confidence in your work life.
Yes, You Can
It’s tough to look in the mirror.
It’s so much easier to point the finger elsewhere, to complain and lash out and say it isn’t possible, especially when students are becoming a greater and greater challenge and our leaders are failing us in so many ways.
But taking responsibility anyway, despite it all, is what effective teachers do. It’s a required crucible, in fact, to reach the satisfaction and confidence awaiting on the other side.
It’s the first step to experiencing the epiphany that you have the ability to transform any class.
That kind of confidence can’t be faked. It can’t be discouraged or taken away by anyone. It can only deepen into calm and persistent self-assurance. So I’ll keep saying it. I’ll yell it from the rooftops and take a thousand slings and arrows.
“It’s possible, even now, to have the peaceful, well-behaved class you desire. You’re wrong if you think otherwise.”
PS – This is one of over 650 articles on this website. There are also six books and three e-guides available for purchase. I encourage you to discover for yourself why, along with tens of thousands of SCM readers, we believe the way we do.
Also, The Smart Exercise Plan for Teachers will be available Tuesday morning right here at SCM.
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.
Great article! I so appreciate how you get right to the point and tell it like it is. Thank you!
Keep shouting your message from the rooftops, Michael! These methods work – I use them every single hour of every single day. Kids are hungry for consistent boundaries from loving, confident adults.
Your articles are very insightful and useful. They always come at the exact moment I need them. Thank you!!
I so agree with all of this, Michael. Your writings give me confidence every week. Thank you!
I think your advice is stellar. Thanks to you. I have become a much better teacher. Feeling grateful. All pupils want boundaries. One area you focus on is respect. Sometimes low level misbehaviour can be seen from pupils disrespecting each other. I do not tolerate this. The three expectations of raise your hand before you speak, respect your peers, respect your teacher/s then the three consequences of 1. A warning. 2. A 5 minute detention for a restorative practice 3. A letter home work every time. Let’s face it. It is not the students fault that’s teachers don’t do what they say they will and are not held to account. I like your work. We need to protect all students right to learn rather than focussing only on a few pupils.
I have students that literally walk out of the room. A letter and phone call home every time doesn’t work. My principal has sent kids home and that’s a nice reprieve. I had one student (3rd grade) suspended this past week, what a lovely week we had – not really but better than ever. The mother says she can’t handle him at home either. Any ideas? And yes I’ve doubled down, and have phone numbers written down so at least I don’t need to look them up anymore.
My school has a level 5 letter for self exit. I had to give one student this letter home 4 times in one term. He soon stayed in the room after 4.
Have you tried restorative practice? I do this in the 5 nibute lunchtime detentions (we call it Payback)
It is a non judgemental conversation where you ask what the student thinks? It starts by asking them what happens from their perspective. 90% of students own up to the poor decisions behaviour at that point and take responsibility. 10% don’t. Then you ask who you think was affected by what happened? Then you ask what they are going to do differently next time? It is all in order to repair the relationship. Then you hold them to the solution they give (it is usually that they decide to apologise or move seats to manage distractions)
Good luck. Feel free to ask more advice. You can read Clasroom Management Secret and follow it like a guide book! Take care.
Michael,
Thank you for this and the many excellent articles over the years.
I think an old commercial jingle says my thoughts the best,
“Like Mike
If I could Be Like Mike
I wanna be, I wanna be
Like Mike”
Michael Linsin that is.
Thank you once again.
Thank you Michael I really struggled with CManagement a few years ago until I read your books. Today’s blog really rang true with me… I discovered my kids are scared of me! I was surprised. But That gave me more confidence….your methods are working. So I press on and am now enjoying teaching.
Thank you, Michael!
Do you have any articles on effective management while tutoring small groups? I’m a tutor in an elementary school and tutor grades K-5 three days a week. I have no groups larger than 6 students. Thanks.
Thank you, Michael! I’m consistently refreshed with these articles!
I heard a saying once: there are two things you should NEVER complain about… the things you cannot change and the things you can.
Just when I’m feeling beat down by all the bad behaviors and lack of leadership this year, your article gives me hope and motivation to not let it get to me. Thank you.
This is exactly the “pep talk” I needed to hear! The struggle is real right now, and it has become easy just to give in or not follow through. That is so dangerous though, and I know I need to stay the course. It pays off. I cannot express enough how valuable your insight is and how much I look forward to your new posts.
I have a logistical question regarding sending a letter home. Do you have letters on hand that you sign and hand to the child on departure from school?
I have no time in my school day to write or print a letter. I would appreciate some ideas for this .
Thank you
I have some preprinted and just have to fill in the student name and date
Same here. I created a preprinted form letter after re-reading Classroom Management for Specials Teachers (I teach art to 500 6th graders one quarter at a time, 10 total classes, A/B schedule, only 22 total classes per quarter). I explain my plan to the class on the first day, “Don’t worry , if you get this letter I will have already contacted home before you arrive and have to explain it & have it signed.” (Looks of surprise) I use Google Voicemail to TEXT home & simply attach a photo of the letter. Often there is no email address, or it’s not checked. Often regular voicemail is not set up or full. The nurse will have other contact info if needed. I follow up with GOOD NEWS. Often parent/guardians say, “Thank you, you made my day.” Good luck!
Hi Helen,
Depending on the grade you teach, this might help: learners who are at consequence #3 sit at our “private office” and complete a respect reflection form. Once done, I quickly review with learner, ask them to make adjustments if necessary, then have them place in their take home folder. Minimal work for me…responsibility stays with learner.
Do you have any information on what some of your ideas look like with Kindergarteners?
Thank you,
Hello Laura, I have been wondering the same thing. I teach Kindergarten at a small private school. I have 19 students with no aide, and there is no guidance counselor. I have read many of Michael’s books, and had cultivated a wonderful classroom rapport with my littles. That is, until this year. I have never encountered so many students who are not fazed by correction and follow through. They serve their time and go right back to doing what they were doing. There is a palpable energy in my previously very calm room. I walk slowly, I talk slowly and low. There is a group of 5 boys that have been together since they were 1 in early childhood care. Their parents hang out together and allow the most outrageous behavior. They are on a basketball team together and have made practices impossible because of the out of control behaviors and not following directions. They are so cued into each other and what they want to do that they don’t even notice what is happening in the room. The backtalk, out of control behavior, yelling in the classroom, acting in an inappropriate manner in the bathroom (which is down the hall and I cannot leave the room), etc. is appalling and is upsetting to the rest of the students. I never used to raise my voice, but now I have lost that battle. These are 5 and 6 year olds, and I am flabbergasted at what has changed. I know the principles in these books are supposed to generalize to all grades; but I would greatly appreciate more guidance with the younger children.
I agree with you that the behaviors this year are particularly difficult. Some of my students don’t seem to care at all about following a class plan and learning. They just want to talk and play. I too follow the excellent advice Smart Classroom Management gives but I do wish there was a chapter and examples devoted to the younger students!
As some others have said, learning classroom management skills here has been a godsend. What is killing me this year isn’t so much me making changes all the time, as much as admin making changes all of the time. I think that their perception of this year being “normal” rather than still pandemic has them panicking about scores not being what they want them to be. Every few months we are given something new to try and/or told that what we were told was good 3 months ago is no longer allowed to be used. Sadly, I just told my husband that I feel like all of the changes has totally knocked the confidence to teach out of me. I feel less confident as a teacher now than I did the first year I came out of grad school.
I have had trouble with my counties approach to reading instruction since I was hired. There was/is less focus on phonics and more focus on guilded reading using F&P. I finally felt like I could breathe when we were able to use the Quick Phonics Screener to assess our kids and teach appropriately. This led me to a summer of learning about reading based on phonics and the debunking of the F&P system. I jumped deeply into the Science of Reading camp and was able this year to work with my kids using their strategies…..until this past week, when we were told all of our kids were going to be leveled by F&P. To say that I had a small mental breakdown over the weekend is an understatement. I don’t believe in the system and think that it is detrimental to my students reading progress. I have talked to my admin and am trying to do some negotiating, but just feel like the ability to teach the way I believe in is slowly being pulled away. If I could find a job that I would be interested in and paid comparably, I think I’d be one of the ones ready to jump out.
This is true and I’ll tell you why: When I first arrived at this public school in China, my classes were noisy and the kids could hardly hear a word I was saying during my 40-minute classes. I talked to other foreign teachers about it and they just said that that’s how foreigners’ classes in China are. They’re just entertainnent. I was ready to throw in the towel. I searched the net for advice and found, amongst others, , Michael’s website. He said that a badly behaved class is “always” the teacher’s responsibility. I didn’t feel offended but I felt hopeful. Maybe I could turn the classes around. And believe me, they did turn around! Now my kids listen (mostly) and teaching is 75℅ better and improving by the month. Thank you thank you thank you. Best, Gerhard
I agree with your advice especially that we need to know what we’re doing and be several steps ahead of students. I find this very difficult as I am a casual teacher in around seven different schools. Most schools have no casual handbook, the handbook is outdated or what is stated in the book is not what is, in effect. For example, bell times, where classes assemble after breaks, if I supervise eating times, lunch order procedures, procedure for students going to the toilet, classroom management systems and on and on. Each school, even each classroom, have nuanced practices and it is impossible to keep up with all, particularly where I might not return to the school for some weeks. Students know I am uncertain and need to ask questions and take advantage of it, telling me whatever they like. I try to be confident and proactive and say things like ‘Well I’m the teacher today and we’re doing . . .’ However, I will inevitably come up against something I can’t fake my way through. What advice would you give?
So true about being “on” continuously during the workday when you are a teacher. Probably the #1 reason that the tank is empty by 5:00 pm.
You are always on point. Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom and being such an encouragement!
The past two years have been mentally and physically draining in an already spiraling educational system. One thing that has helped me is to make relationships with my students the number 1 priority. Academically, they are behind. Unless state standards change, I don’t see that getting better. So I pick the battle I can win. You can be a good teacher if you have structure, high expectations, routines , and RELATIONSHIPS. You have to get them to connect with you. Restorative conversations are so important. Not every day is perfect. We all falter. Kids have bad days and so do we. But more than ever, we need to give ourselves some grace and just do the very best we can.
I read Natalie Phillips’ comments above about Kindergarten and feel the same way. This is my 31st year in the classroom. I have read a couple of your books. I always prided myself on having clear and consistent expectations with follow through. I just can’t believe the behaviors of the students in Kindergarten this year! The disrespect for property and each other in the classroom is at an all time high. I’ve never had so many things broken or destroyed by students who then seem unfazed by it. Some parents buy a new item to replace something their child broke but many do not. I’m also shocked by the physical aggression against others. I know you teach high school which is so different, but please know those of us teaching small children are really struggling this year. Thank you.
Yes! And so a good chunk of our educational time is now spent teaching basic social skills, empathy, responsibility, respect for authority — it’s beginning to feel like a losing battle. Michael, please speak to this. So many of us who follow your Smart Classroom Management plan are struggling in ways we never thought we’d have to with the littlest learners. I went back and re-read your article on the quick ways to stop toxic excitability in a classroom: breathe, speak slowly, stay in one place, slow down. My class doesn’t even notice when I do these things. They just keep on talking and playing. How can we stop the tide?!
So insightful as always and what a graceful way you responded to the many disappointing comments last week!
Sorry to leave this comment on the wrong post. I would really like to buy your exercise plan, but do not want to use playpal. Ever again. When I click on credit card, it still goes straight to playpal.
No problem, Chris. PayPal will still processes it but you do don’t have to create an account.