Classroom Management

Keys to Classroom Management

In order for students to be able to engage deeply with content, the classroom environment must be orderly; the atmosphere must feel business-like and productive, without being authoritarian. In a productive classroom, standards of conduct are clear to students; they know what they are permitted to do and what they can expect of their classmates. Even when their behavior is being corrected, students feel respected; their dignity is not undermined. Skilled teachers regard positive student behavior not as an end in itself, but as a prerequisite to high levels of engagement in content.

The first step towards creating a classroom environment as described above, is to develop meaningful relationships with students. While this may seem obvious, teachers can forget the importance and power of good relationships when faced with challenging behavior.

Expectations

It is clear, either from what the teacher says, or by inference from student actions, that expectations for student conduct have been established and that they are being implemented. Shared values, norms, and agreements should be set at the beginning of the year, and revisited often. Class mission statements, publicly displayed, are tangible artifacts you can point to and reference in moments of behavior corrections.

Setting the Tone at the Door

Where are you before the class period begins? Are you at your desk? Are you running down the hall for coffee? If so, you may miss an important opportunity to set the tone for class before class begins11 . Greet students at the door. This not only allows you a moment of one-on-one time with each student to enhance your relationship as well as assess a student’s mood and readiness, but it gives you a chance to have an initial positive interaction with every kid in your room. Here’s one teacher’s method for greeting kids at the door.

Monitoring and Preventing Challenging Behavior

Experienced teachers seem to have eyes in the backs of their heads; they are attuned to what’s happening in the classroom and can move subtly to help students, when necessary, re-engage with the content being addressed in the lesson. At a high level, such monitoring is preventive and subtle, which may make it challenging to observe. The holy trinity for avoiding interruptions and off-task behavior: 1. Participation strategies, movement and group work.

Responding to Misbehavior

Even experienced teachers find that their students occasionally violate one or another of the agreed-upon standards of conduct; how the teacher responds to such infractions is an important mark of the teacher’s skill. Accomplished teachers try to understand why students are conducting themselves in such a manner (are they unsure of the content? are they trying to impress their friends?) and respond in a way that respects the dignity of the student. The best responses are those that address misbehavior early in an episode, although doing so is not always possible.

Interrupting and Off-Task Behavior

Keep in mind that impulse control is developmental and most students will likely grow out this behavior. In the meantime, though, you need some tools.

Public vs. Private

Defiance

Boy, does defiance get our blood pressure up. According to Response Classroom, the student is not trying to goad us, but he’s trying to feel significant. Unfortunately, we have our own need to feel significant. Here’s some advice.

First Day of School

So you have your own classroom. Now what? One teacher demonstrates some activities to help set the tone of the first day of school.

Resources

PBIS

Responsive Classroom

Big Take-Aways

1. Connections with kids should outweigh corrections by approximately 5:1.
2. When corrections are made, reconnects with students as soon as possible.
3. Set expectations that are authentic and real, and connect corrections to those norms.