Classroom management shouldn’t feel difficult. If you’re straining, trying hard, and feeling heavy burdened, if you’re stressed-out and exhausted at the end of the day, then something is amiss. You see, exceptional classroom management is knowledge based, not effort based. It’s knowing what works … Read more
It happens for no apparent reason. You send your students off to recess and a troop of Howler Monkeys returns. Or a visit to the library turns into an embarrassment of unruliness and misbehavior. It could be a direction you just gave your students … Read more
For classroom management-related instruction, the most effective teachers rely on modeling more than any other strategy. Because showing students what you expect is infinitely more powerful, more meaningful, and more memorable than voice instruction will ever be—by a long shot. Do it well and … Read more
It’s easy to get careless with classroom management during the last ten or fifteen minutes of the school day. This is why it’s so common to see misbehavior at dismissal—swinging backpacks, chasing, shouting, pushing, roughhousing…students wound up and tuned out, oblivious to your warnings … Read more
“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” -Obi-Wan Kenobi There exists a quiet cadre of teachers who can take over any classroom—out-of-control, disrespectful, or otherwise—and get the students under control, quiet, and working within minutes. They have a certain presence about them, a certain … Read more
When students get bored their minds drift. And while some settle on daydreaming, tile-counting, and general inattentiveness, other students are drawn to more…ahem…destructive pursuits. For where there is boredom, there is misbehavior percolating just under the surface, ready to pounce. Although there is a … Read more
Most teachers talk to difficult students too much, because somewhere along the line they’ve gotten the idea that the more attention they give them, the better teacher they’ll be. So they pull them aside for pep-talks, reminders, and lectures. They warn. They scold. They … Read more
Building rapport with students can be a remarkably effective way to improve classroom management. But there is some confusion over what rapport is and how one goes about building it. Rapport is nothing more than a connection you make with your students based on … Read more