Response: Classroom Management Suggestions From My Colleagues

A passion for flying is what drives most pilots into aviation, and although “flying” remains the top motivation, pilots learn to make safety the most important priority. As a result, they protect their lives and those of their passengers. Every flight begins with a strict, safety focused routine, and this focus is maintained through all phases of the flight.

Educators become teachers because they have a passion for teaching, but just as pilots value safety first, teachers must make behavior management their top classroom priority. Although it may seem counterintuitive, to do so allows more time and energy to be placed on designing and delivering high quality instruction as opposed to managing student behavior.

If I were to make a specific recommendation, it would be to establish a management routine, one that will be consistently and thoughtfully implemented. With practice and time, your routine will become an effortless, established pattern of behavior. Consider the following suggestions:

• Scan the room for off-task “behavioral sparks.”
• Address “sparks” calmly and immediately with one of your tools (eye contact, voice, proximity, etc.)
• Give or post short, specific instructions.
• Circulate throughout room during student practice while continuing to scan and address off-task behavior. Never let the sparks become flames.

It would, perhaps, look like this in a math class:

“Class, I would like you to ... James.” (James is starting to turn to his neighbor. The teacher waits a moment for James to comply) ... “Thank you, James.” “I would like all of you to solve for X in this equation. You have ____ seconds/minutes before I call on one of you to work the problem. If you finish early check the problem I have on the board to see if you can find the mistake.”

The goal is to reach a level of automaticity in the execution of your routine that allows you to perform it almost unconsciously. This keeps the priority of management from distracting you from your passion for instruction. While not ignoring the other steps of your routine, pick a single step to focus on, and work at it until it becomes habit. Once you have mastered it, move on to the next.

The most successful classroom management tool I’ve found is showing students from day one that I am concerned about them as individuals, and that success in my English class is possible. Since an accurate, and detailed knowledge of the students is vital for all good teaching, I immediately involve students in pre-assessment, while establishing classroom protocols.

The pre-assessment activities, which I have re-designed over several years, include a motivational timed reading; a free writing response to the reading; a note-taking and oral response exercise using an equally motivational audio recording or podcast, and an I-Search essay that includes questions such as, “What goals would you like to accomplish in this course?”. All this usually takes a few days.

By the second week of school, we begin analyzing the results together and developing personal English plans (PEPs) which is part of the course portfolio. Several items in the portfolio are negotiable. The final pre-assessment step is to identify a significant adult of his/her choice who is willing to act as a mentor for the school year. Students must explain the portfolio to the mentors and get them to sign a contract. I contact the mentors to introduce myself, answer questions, take suggestions for adjustments in the PEP or portfolio, and open the door for communication throughout the year.

Most students start the school year with good intentions, like New Year’s Resolutions, of doing well, or at least better. We should meet them at that moment prepared to build on those intentions.

The summer before my first teaching assignment, I received the same classroom management advice from several experienced teachers: “Don’t smile until after winter break.” A decade later, my advice to new teachers is a bit different. After all, I finally gave in and smiled before winter break and was still able to create a dynamic, engaging, and learner focused classroom environment.

My advice about classroom management is much more positive: Be passionate about your students; be passionate about your subject matter, and be passionate in your belief that every child can learn.

The best teachers walk into their classrooms each day excited and energized about who and what they are teaching. They make the period go by fast. My students often ask at the start of the school year: “Why do you love history this much?” By the end of the second semester, they not only know the answer to that question but love history almost as much as I do.

Teaching students in poverty, I also encounter students who have been written-off by others as failures. I never waver in my belief in each student who enters my classroom. I don’t lower standards, but push for excellence. I don’t play it safe, but encourage intellectual risk-taking. In the end, it is important for teachers to model the dispositions they want to foster in their students. Students will respond to a passionate teacher who challenges them, listens to them, and is an advocate for their success.

Confidence is everything!

More than anything else, how you handle yourself will set the tone of your classroom, and lay the foundation for everything else you’re attempting to do. Working with kids in various settings over the years, I’ve observed that three of the biggest reasons children misbehave have to do with anxiety, boredom, and needing to test the boundaries of their social environment. Confidence speaks (at least partially) to all of these issues. Kids who feel anxious will feel more at ease if you seem in-control. And while it’s certainly not a replacement for engaging activities and content, confidence makes you watchable. (Ever notice how your attention is drawn to people who project an aura of security and comfort within themselves?), That ‘watchability’ undermines the impulse to tune out and do something else instead. Finally, if you exude confidence in what you’re doing, students will get the message that you mean what you say, reducing their need to figure out just how much they can get away with.

I find that the best way to cultivate this kind of confidence is to know your real purpose in the classroom. Your purpose in the classroom is the big picture ‘what I hope to accomplish with these learners’, as distinct from your particular lesson objective at any given time. Keep a firm grip on the objective, but hold tightest to your actual purpose. If your bottom line is “I HAVE to teach Skill V to meet Standard X for Y minutes on Z date,” you will probably come unglued if Johnny Troublemaker chooses that time slot on Z date to cause problems.