At its best, classroom management is elegantly simple. Take, for instance, your room environment. A messy, unkempt, or clutter-filled classroom sends the message to your students that poor behavior and middling work habits is acceptable—regardless of how often or how forcefully you say otherwise. … Read more
Teacher burnout, which happens when stress and mental fatigue become more than occasional companions, strikes many thousands of teachers every year. Reports suggest roughly half of all teachers quit within five years. And it’s no wonder. Burnout saps joy from teaching, makes effective classroom … Read more
If you’re struggling with classroom management and wondering why, one of the first areas to examine is the personality you bring with you to the classroom. Many teachers become different people the minute their students walk through the door. Sometimes this is a good … Read more
Your lesson ends, the recess bell rings, and you release your students to the playground to let off some steam. But on the way you notice one of your students, call him Anthony, rudely shoving others aside on his way out the door. How … Read more
When you hear a teacher shushing students, it’s a good sign things aren’t going well. Behind tight shoulders, tired eyes, and index finger poised over puckered lips, you’ll find a teacher struggling to keep his or her head above water. Shushing students to quiet … Read more
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~Thomas Jefferson Have you ever taught a lesson in another teacher’s classroom? In other words, have you ever taught students whose classroom behaviors, attitudes, and habits have been … Read more
It is said that classroom management comes easy to a lucky few. That some teachers are naturals. They walk into a classroom and somehow, mysteriously, the students just know to be at their best. But here’s the thing. If you peek beneath the surface … Read more
One of the happy truths about classroom management is that you can always press the restart button. You can always call a do-over. Any time you like. So as soon as you notice your students becoming less motivated and more prone to misbehavior, that’s … Read more