After you’ve taught, modeled, and practiced your classroom management plan the first week of school, there is a strategy that locks it in place for your students.
It takes timing and keen observation.
But it’s extremely powerful. Because it sends the message to your students that yours is no ordinary classroom. The strategy is simple and takes just 10-15 minutes.
So what is it?
Well, the first step is to watch for the honeymoon period to end. You’ll know it’s over when you start to notice mild testing—subpar routines, loss of focus, or general lack of urgency.
The signal is subtle but clear and typically comes the third week of school.
The moment this happens be ready to stop whatever you’re doing and clear the schedule for the next 15 minutes. If your students are up and about, send them back to their seats.
Now, after a 30-second pause, you’re going to reteach your classroom management plan from the beginning. This time, however, with a few key additions.
- Be bolder in your intention and clarity.
- Be more vehement and direct.
- Raise the bar on what you expect even higher.
In other words, you’re going to let your students know that you really did mean what you said. The standards of behavior you set on the first day of school are indeed and forever in play. You are who you said you were.
This is critical because most teachers back off when the honeymoon period ends. Their boundaries sag and weaken. Their standards slide. They allow sloppiness and mild testing.
Students come to expect it because it happens every year.
So by stopping at the first sign of waywardness, and reteaching your plan with greater emphasis, you’re affirming that the guardian is wide awake and will never leave the gate. Your word to protect their right to learn is sacrosanct.
And here’s the best part: They’ll embrace it. Because deep down, they want it. Despite social media, cultural rot, and all that conspires to bring kids down into failure and discontent, they all want to be part of something special.
They all want something better and bigger than themselves.
And once locked in, once your students experience the exhilaration of excellence, nothing else in their lives can give them the same feeling.
But you must force it upon them. You must overcome their resistance and teach it in bold detail. You must demand it, expect it, and never, ever let it go.
PS – Check out this week’s YouTube videos:
1. Why Your Students Ignore Directions
2. The Problem with Giving Difficult Students Breaks
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