Classroom Management – Helping Teachers Grow

This has nothing to do with classroom management.  At least I think it doesn’t.  You decide.

We’ve been testing all week.  You know, those practice standardized tests our county uses to gauge how much the students have learned and how well the teachers have taught.  It’s a long week, to say the least.  Typically, we test from 8:30 in the morning and don’t get a break until around noon.  Ugh!  What a long time to spend cooped up quietly in the classroom.

On the first day of testing, when we finally got to go to the cafeteria and pick up our bag lunches (double Ugh!), I decided to take my students outside to get some air and enjoy our food.  It was a tad chilly, being the first day of spring in the mountains of western North Carolina.  Most of the outside tables were tucked neatly into the shade, making for a very chilly lunch.

I found a spot a bit away from most of my students but still close enough that I could see everyone.  This sunny spot felt just about perfect as I settled into my lunch (which I’d brought from home- never eat in the cafeteria…).  A couple of peaceful minutes passed and I heard a student yell, “Hey, Mr. B! Are you lonely?”

I replied jokingly, “Extremely lonely.” At which point that student and his group of about five other guys sprang up, came over to where I was sitting, and grabbed a seat around me.

Now, truth be told, these guys were probably just hoping to warm up a bit in my sunny spot, but even still.  That group of guys coming over to eat their lunch with me…  Let’s just say that even if it’d been a lot colder, I’m sure I wouldn’t have noticed it.

Here’s to warmer weather and appreciative students!

Darren

“Do you need me to fuss at you to get you to behave?”

“Do you know what is expected of you when you come in my room?”

“This is a great opportunity to practice your listening skills.”

I think every teacher develops a short list of key phrases they turn to time and time again.  I know I do.  In different situations for different reasons, these key phrases can help a class regain its composure without you losing yours.  I guess that’s why they call them “key phrases.”

“Do you need help controlling yourself?” … with the follow-up, “…because I can help you if you need it.”

“Focus please.”

“Having trouble focusing?”  …again, with the follow-up, “…because I can help you if you need it.”

I think why these powerful classroom management phrases help my students is because they are aware of my clear expectations and my clear consequences when they don’t meet those expectations.

What are some of your key class management phrases?  I’d love to hear them!

Darren Barkett

I have laughed more with my students this year than I have ever laughed before.  It’s not that these kids are any more hilarious than the rest of the students I’ve taught.  It’s that I’ve allowed myself to open up in front of the kids and just laugh.

This sounds a bit strange, I know.  But think back to the last time you really laughed out loud with your students- a laugh that was so real that you had to stop what you were doing and just… laugh!  Sure you might have chuckled here and there, but when it comes down to it, I realized that I had been so concerned with presenting a strong image to the students that I wasn’t taking the time to laugh.

I remember my favorite teacher in high school laughing with us.  Someone would say something silly or maybe something came out sounding much less intelligent than the speaker (me) had hoped.  This teacher, Mr. Lambert, would hold his belly and just laugh!  I still remember that to this day.

And now that I’ve allowed myself the opportunity to laugh with my students, I find more and more chances to laugh.  And they feel more like laughing too!

You’d be amazed how far a laugh goes to help shape the classroom environment.  A class that can laugh together (and definitely not at each other) is much more likely to be enjoyable, to have fewer discipline problems, and a much lower level of stress.

In our stressful jobs, doesn’t that sound good?

It always amazes me to hear teachers steeling themselves at the start of the year by saying, “I’m not going to smile until Christmas!”…as if their resolve to be unfriendly will help them with their classroom management problems.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.  Teachers who use fear tactics to manage student behavior will find their task of educating their students much more difficult.  Students naturally want to succeed, and when you’re the only adult in the classroom, these students will want to share their successes with you.  If you are unaproachable and distant from your students, you will find that over time, your students’ performance and motivation will decrease.

I take the opposite approach.  I smile broadly, especially when I’m feeling a bit stressed out by my students behaviors.  I find that when the students see your refusal to become flustered, over time they will stop trying to get you flustered.  When your students see that you approach a defiant student will a calm yet firm manner and a distinct refusal to become upset, your students defiant behavior will decrease.

I think what teachers are trying to say by their refusal to smile is that they are going to be very strict in the classroom.  I have no problem with strictness or, as I like to say it, consistency.  In fact, consistency must be the foundation of any classroom management system.

It’s when you combine your consistent implementation of your class management system with a calm, peaceful, and happy demeanor that you will be able to motivate your students to be their best.

Darren Barkett

For the next couple of posts, I want to take a moment to highlight some of the classic classroom management failures that plague many teachers.  Heck, I’ve been guilty of some of these as well.  And it’s usually the source of frustration for me, those moments when I failed as an effective classroom manager.  I end up going home thinking over that situation over and over and over, regretting a split decision or a comment made that can’t be taken back.

The classic class management failure I first want to speak of is the “Empty Threat Syndrome.”  If you set up a consequence for your student dependent on their behavior, you better follow through with your threat.  If you tell that student that you’re going to call that student’s parents if their behavior doesn’t improve, you better call that mom the next time that student doesn’t meet your class behavior expectations.

If you habitually threaten your students with some sort of consequence and you don’t deliver on your promise, what are you teaching your students about you as a teacher?  What are you saying about your word, your promises, as a teacher?  Is that what you’re trying to communicate to the students?  It seems like common sense, but in the thick of a stressful classroom management moment, if you don’t have a solid classroom management plan, many teachers fall back on the “old standby” – empty threats.

This just highlights the need for all teachers to have a simple and effective classroom management plan.  When you have a plan in place, it’s easy to avoid getting into the “Empty Threat Syndrome.”  With a solid class management system, you no longer need to threaten.  At most, you would need to remind students of expectations and consequences.  But once you’ve taught these class behavior expectations and consequences, you no longer need to threaten.

All you do then is consistently implement your behavior management system.

Coming next… “The Inconsistent Implementor”  A shocking tale in one part of a teacher torn asunder!

Thanks for coming around.

Darren B.

They just keep getting worse and worse!

Have you ever heard a teacher say that?  If so, run in the other direction!  A teacher who has resigned himself or herself to seeing the students as getting worse and worse just hasn’t realized that the only thing getting worse and worse is that teacher.

My experience has been that it only takes one or two students to jade how you look at your entire year.  But for the most part, the students all want to succeed.  The vast majority of students want to do well.  It then becomes a matter of motivating the class to do what you want them to do and minimizing the negative impact of those very few students who simply won’t buy-in to your class.

The teacher who let’s their perspective be perpetually focused on those few negative students misses so much of what makes teaching great- those precious students who really are inspired by what you’re doing in the classroom, those students who look forward to a kind word from you all day, those students who take the time to write you a nice note telling you how much you’ve meant to him or her.

Wouldn’t you rather have your perspective of your students crafted by those positive moments instead of dwelling on those few negative students?  Wouldn’t you rather enjoy your teaching job instead of dreading getting up in the morning?

Each year it seems my students are getting better and better.  Could that be possible?  I hope so, because that means next year is going to be awesome!

Darren B.

More than almost anything else you can do as a teacher, the first lesson you should teach is really quite simple.  It won’t take you long to plan it.  It won’t even take long to teach it.  But failing to teach this simple lesson can doom you to another year of frustration.

What am I talking about?

It’s quite simple.  You must teach your students how to listen.

Yes, you read that correctly.  The first lesson you teach your students needs to be how to listen in your classroom.  Can’t you hear your students already?  “I already know how to listen!”

But, as we all know, hearing and listening are two entirely different things.  Hearing happens unconsciously.  Listening takes an active thought process to happen.

If you don’t teach your students how to listen, you’ll spend so much of your year repeating yourself to your students that you won’t be nearly as effective as you could be.

How many times have you taken the time to give very clear directions for a class lesson and then told the students to get to work, only to have a student or two say, “What are we doing?”

Clearly that student wasn’t listening.  Yes, he or she might have heard you, but the active listening process just wasn’t happening.

Yes, our students should know how to listen.  It seems silly that we, as professionals, would need to teach our students such a simple concept.  But take it from me.  When I look back on the two years I spent teaching without having taught my students how to listen, I remember so many more frustrating moments than in the following years when I took the fifteen minutes to cover this vital lesson.

So, how do you teach your students to listen?

My free online classroom management videos will walk you through the process.  Just click on the following link to be taken to our class management video download center.

Classroom Management Videos

Don’t make the mistake so many struggling teachers are making.  Take the time to teach your students how to listen.  It will make all the difference for you this year.

 Darren

If you haven’t been to our forums in a while, you should stop by.  Things are picking up over there.

I’ve always been so impressed by the combined experience of our forums collaborating to help teachers trouble shoot and problem solve the difficult situations we face in our classes.  Even though I feel pretty secure with my classroom management, I love picking up a trick or two from the other pro’s out there.

And if you’re not a pro and just want a bit of help with something you know you’ll be facing in the class once our students come back, post it in the forums.  I’m sure someone will help you see a way through.

Here’s the link to our forums:  www.helpingteachersgrow.com/forums

Darren