A lucky few students—those cute, smart, and well-behaved ones—are accustomed to big smiles and open body language from their teacher. For others, though, it’s a half-hearted greeting and barely a glance.

Some students are afforded the privilege of helping out in the classroom before school or during recess, but others are rarely invited.

Some call-outs are answered without a second thought. Yes, Lily, of course you can sharpen your pencil. While others get an entire different reaction. Anthony, how many times do I have to tell you? We raise our hand in this classroom!

Some students are encouraged to go on and on about the time the family beagle had puppies. Wow, what a great story! Others are cut off at the knees. We don’t have time for stories, Jocelyn. I asked if there were any questions.

Favoritism is an insidious snake that wriggles unnoticed under your classroom door, poisoning morale from the inside out. Left unchecked, it will slither into every area of classroom management.

If asked, few teachers would admit, even to themselves, that they play favorites. Although plain as day for students to see, favoritism is often hidden from the teacher beneath a veil of justifications. I don’t play favorites. I just let those with good behavior know I appreciate them.

Make no mistake. Many, many teachers play favorites.

Maybe you do too.

No teacher wants to confront the possibility that he or she favors some students over others. It’s never easy to take a hard look at yourself and be honest with your heart’s intent.

But self-examination is crucial, because favoritism is not only bad for classroom management, it’s worse for your students.

Here’s why:

It creates a class system.

When you play favorites, you give rise to a class system—where certain students are socially grouped and labeled as special or entitled or somehow better than others. This causes hurt, confusion, and fist-shaking unfairness. It discourages teamwork and creates friction and jealousy among students. At its worst, it brings about bullying behavior.

It causes resentment.

Students are often underestimated. They may be short, gangly, or self-absorbed, but they’re real people with real feelings, and they’re more observant than given credit for. If you play favorites—affording special privileges or attention for some and not others—every student will know it. And they’ll simmer with resentment because of it.

It weakens self-confidence.

To see certain students given a level of attention you know is never reserved for you can be a blow to your self-confidence—particularly if you have a shy personality. Yes, kids are resilient, and we’ve all experienced hard lessons that make us better people. But favoritism can be especially hurtful, making students less trusting, less inclined to participate, and less willing to take healthy social chances.

It further alienates difficult students.

Some teachers have a quid pro quo relationship with their students. In other words, if you’re well behaved and likeable, you get my favorable attention. If you’re a behavior problem, however, or if you get on my nerves, you get eye rolls, sarcasm, and indifference. This is a highly manipulative and surprisingly common form of classroom management that reinforces outcast, rebel-like, and unruly behavior.

It creates an unhappy classroom.

It’s obvious to students when a teacher plays favorites. In most circumstances the only one unaware of it is the teacher herself. The resulting resentments, dislike, and distrust create an unhappy classroom—which is the death knell of classroom management. For if your students are unhappy, if they don’t like being in your classroom, you’re going to struggle with near-constant misbehavior.

It undermines your influence.

Playing favorites will undermine your efforts to increase your likeability, build rapport with students, and acquire behavior-changing leverage. To create a dream classroom, to create the teaching experience you really want, you must continually work toward a trusting and influential relationship with your students. Playing favorites makes this an impossibility.

A Notable Difference

It’s inevitable that you will connect with some students better or quicker than others. And there is nothing wrong with appreciating or admiring particular students—some will be more approachable, more willing to help, or more trustworthy with special projects.

But that doesn’t mean you’ll give them more time and attention than others or reward them based on their likeability, personality, or appearance. Doing so is flat-out favoritism—clear to anyone paying attention—and it’s wrong.

How To Avoid Playing Favorites

Avoiding even the perception of playing favorites isn’t complicated.

Follow your classroom management plan, regardless of who breaks your rules. Don’t yell, scold, berate, or take misbehavior personally. Be the same consistently pleasant teacher day in and day out.

Make every student a target of your heartfelt smile and kindness. Choose to see the best in each of them, despite how difficult at times that may be.

And when deciding who should go first or who should help out in your classroom…

Pull names out of a hat.

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- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

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 thing—if being around students makes you brighten like a Broadway singer or become as preternaturally calm as a mountain lake.

But for the vast number of teachers, the presence of a large and active group of students can, at least to some degree, bring about personality traits that are detrimental to classroom management success.

The good news is that with a simple two-minute routine you can condition yourself to eliminate those traits that work against you, and replace them with those that work in your favor.

The following six teacher personality traits make classroom management more difficult. You’ll do well to leave them outside your classroom door.

1. Impatience

Impatient teachers talk fast, move fast, and tend to either look the other way in the face of misbehavior, or react emotionally to it. They rush through lessons, gloss over instructions, and out of necessity have lower expectations for students. This produces a restless, excitable classroom that is primed to cause trouble.

2. Quick To Anger

A single flash of anger can undo weeks of rapport building with your students. When you yell, scold, use sarcasm, or otherwise lose your cool, you distance yourself from your students and undermine their trust and respect of you. You become less approachable, less likeable, and less influential—all critical keys to creating a well-behaved classroom.

3. Pessimism

Teachers who are pessimistic in nature are unable to create the well-behaved classroom they desire. Negative thoughts, feelings, and attitudes about students—particularly difficult students—are impossible to hide. They reveal themselves through your words, body language, and tone of voice and make building relationships with them an impossibility.

4. Irritability

Irritability (grouchiness, moodiness) communicates to students that they can’t trust you or depend on you. It creates resentment, confusion, and instability. It also causes you to be inconsistent—both with your classroom management plan and in your interactions with students—leading to more frequent and more severe misbehavior.

5. Overly Sensitive

Teachers with thin skin—those who take misbehavior personally—inevitably, and often subconsciously, seek revenge against their students. They can’t help themselves. Out of their resentment and spite they make the kind of classroom management mistakes like yelling, scolding, and holding grudges that result in a spiraling of student behavior.

6. Easily Frustrated

Frequent sighs, rolling eyes, red-faced lectures. Outward signs of frustration can cause enveloping, knife-cutting tension in your classroom. When you allow students to get under your skin, it not only makes your classroom unnerving and unpleasant, but it causes students to challenge your authority and test you whenever they get the chance.

A Simple Two-Minute Routine

The way you present yourself to your students has a monumental effect on classroom management—more so than most teachers realize. If you’re at all susceptible to one or more of the personality traits above, then you’ll be a more effective teacher if you get a handle on them.

The simplest way is to spend a couple of minutes before your students arrive each day with your eyes closed, visualizing your best self calmly and confidently managing your classroom.

Picture yourself responding to misbehavior with poise. Watch as you joyfully present your lessons to a responsive class. See yourself building rapport, loving your job, and following your classroom management plan to the letter.

Because when you choose to see only the best in yourself and in your students…

That’s exactly what you’ll get.

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- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

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 dare him, the little bugger.

So you run out, pull Anthony off the playground, and let him have it. You give him a fire-breathing, finger-pointing, he’s-got-it-comin’ lecture, topped off with a stern, “Do you understand me?”

He hems and haws, looks at his shoes, and mumbles an apology. Semi-satisfied, you send him on his way and head back to your classroom with a sigh.

Of course, not all lectures are so vigorous. More often, teachers lecture because they believe that with the right words their students will see the light and suddenly be transformed.

But does it work? Is lecture a viable classroom management strategy?

On the surface the answer appears to be yes. Lecturing often works in the immediate aftermath. But in the long run, it’s a costly mistake that makes classroom management more difficult.

Here’s why:

1. It’s stressful.

Using words to try and convince students to behave is perhaps the number one cause of stress among teachers. And because lecturing kinda-sorta works in the short term, teachers feel encouraged to keep on doing it—despite the tension headaches.

2. It replaces real accountability.

When you lecture students, they know that your talking-to is the accountability. And so if they can just endure it and tell you what you want to hear, then they can be on their way—free and clear and with no real accountability.

3. It sabotages real accountability.

If you send a student to time-out but give a lecture along the way, then from the student’s perspective your not following your classroom management plan as promised. It feels like a double consequence. So instead of sitting in time-out and contemplating their mistake, they’re simmering with anger over the injustice.

4. It tempts students into argument.

When you lecture, you all but dare your students to argue with you. In fact, it takes a strong-willed student not to. When backed into a corner and forced to listen to something they already know, they’re going to want to fight back.

5. It causes resentment.

Few students respond well to a lecture. More often than not, even the most genteel dressing-down causes resentment. Whether they deserve it or not doesn’t change this fact. Truth is, teachers who lecture struggle to build behavior-influencing rapport with their students.

6. It’s time-consuming.

If you rely on lecturing as a classroom management method, then teaching and learning will be affected. Lecturing students takes time, brings tension into your classroom, and takes you away from preparation, instruction, and the joy of teaching.

7. Actions speak louder.

Your words will never carry as much weight as your actions. And the longer students are in school, the more this is true. By the time they get to you, they may have been on the end of dozens of lectures—making it unlikely yours will have the desired effect.

Speak Less, Act More

The next time a student misbehaves, try saying as little as possible.

Simply tell the student what rule was broken, then enforce a consequence and move on to more important things—like teaching your class. This ensures three things:

1. You won’t be stressed-out.
2. The misbehaving student won’t be resentful.
3. Accountability will do its job.

Instead of lecturing and telling your students what lessons they ought to learn, which go in one ear and out the other, let accountability work…

And they’ll soak up those lessons on their own.

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- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

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 them down is associated with shaky-at-best classroom management, chronically distracted students, and a mountain of stress.

And because it becomes progressively less effective the more you do it, shushing promises more and more frustration as the school year rolls on.

Though not as self-sabotaging as yelling or scolding, shushing similarly makes teachers less likeable with students.

It also makes you look like you don’t know what you’re doing.

Follow the steps below and you’ll never feel the need to shush, hush, or plead for silence again.

1. Decide

Before starting any activity, decide the voice level you want from your students. It’s important you consider this ahead of time. After all, if you don’t know what you want, your students won’t know either.

2. Model

Gather your students around you and model precisely the voice level you expect. Make your modeling exercise as detailed and realistic as you can. Your students need to see and experience what you want before it makes sense to them.

3. Practice

Ask your students to turn to the student(s) next to them and discuss their favorite movie or other topic using the voice level you modeled. Have them practice and prove to you they understand what you expect.

4. Observe

Good teachers observe a lot to make sure their expectations are being met. Start your activity and monitor their voice level closely—especially within the first several minutes.

5. Stop

If at any time their voice level gets louder than your expectation, instead of shushing your students, stop the activity by signaling for their attention. Do this whenever they exceed the level you’ve asked for.

6. Remind

After getting your students attention, remind them what the voice level expectation is and put them on notice that if anyone goes beyond it, there will be a consequence—as promised by your classroom management plan.

7. Enforce

Listening and following directions should be one of your classroom rules. As such, if any single student is unable or unwilling to keep his or her voice level as modeled and practiced, then enforce a consequence.

Note: With group discussions, voice levels tend to increase as students attempt to talk over the other voices in the room. If it becomes loud enough to distract individual groups, simply stop them, ask them to take a few deep breaths, and then restart the activity. Do not, however, enforce a consequence.

8. Standardize

Consider standardizing the speaking levels in your classroom. For example:

• Level 0: No Talking
• Level 1: Whispering
• Level 2: Small Group Discussion
• Level 3: Whole Class Sharing

Create a small poster for reference and before every activity say simply, “For the assembly today, we’re at level zero.”

Effective At Any Grade

It may take a week or two for your students to get the hang of it. But when they do, controlling noise and voice levels in your classroom is easy and becomes something you never really have to think about.

Setting voice level expectations—for partner sharing, group work, browsing in the library, or just a walk across campus—through the super-effective one-two combination of detailed modeling and student practice works at any grade level.

And it’s so much more effective than having no clear picture of what you want, no expectation to model for your students, and no sound strategy to modulate the voices in your classroom…

Other than a great big ugly, “Shhhh!”

Note: I wrote an article this month for teachers.net. It’s called, Are You Rejecting Your Neediest Students? I hope you’ll check it out.

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- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

Without spot-on classroom management, dealing with unruly students can be maddening.

It’s easy to lose your cool.

And when you do, when you yell, scold, and wag your finger, you’re often rewarded with immediate improvement.

A thorough dressing-down can stop misbehavior in its tracks. But the price is exorbitantly high.

Yelling is a costly mistake.

Here’s why:

1. Improvement is temporary.

Yelling only works in the moment. Like a playground bully, it’s used to intimidate students into compliance. The only reason why it works is because the teacher has an unfair size and/or authority advantage.

2. It doesn’t change behavior.

Behavior only changes when students want to behave better–which is the result of strict accountability combined with a teacher they like and trust. In the end, yelling causes more misbehavior, not less.

3. It weakens your influence.

Yelling will cause students to secretly dislike you, distrust you, and desire to disrupt your class. Let’s face it. Even one revengeful student can make your life miserable. You need your students on your side.

4. It replaces real accountability.

Teachers who yell tend to do so instead of following their classroom management plan. Students learn quickly that if they can endure their teacher’s outburst, they can be on their way without being held accountable.

5. It sabotages real accountability.

Teachers who lecture, yell, or scold while escorting students to time-out, drive a wedge through the teacher/student relationship, causing anger and resentment. So instead of sitting in time-out and reflecting on their mistake, your students will be seething at you.

6. It causes students to tune you out.

When you yell, you train your students to listen to you only when you raise your voice. In other words, they learn that unless you’re shouting, you must not really mean it. Before you know it, you’ll be giving directions like a carnival sideshow barker.

7. It’s stressful.

Yelling is a sure sign that you let misbehavior get under your skin. It’s an expression of frustration, of taking behavior personally, and of trying to get even with students. It’s also terribly stressful. It’s bad for your health. And it makes teaching a cheerless slog.

8. It’s difficult to defend.

Yelling at students is near the top of the list of parent complaints. And it’s difficult to defend. “I’m sorry, I just lost my cool” is about the best you can do. The fact is, no misbehavior, and no level of disrespect, warrants yelling at students.

9. It’s graceless.

Have you ever seen yourself on video losing your cool? Probably not, but one thing is for sure: it ain’t pretty. You might as well grab a megaphone and shout, “Hey everybody–students, fellow teachers, administration–I don’t have control of my class!”

10. It provides a poor model.

Students are more influenced by what you do than by what you say. When you yell, react emotionally to misbehavior, or otherwise lose your composure, you provide a poor model for your students for how to behave when things don’t go their way.

Instead Of Yelling…

No matter how frustrated you may get with your students, yelling should never be an option. Although it often works in the moment, the cost of gaining momentary control is much too high.

So instead of being that teacher, the one with the reputation for yelling and for “being mean,” why not be the one that every student wants as their teacher?

To start, create a classroom management plan that works–and stick with it. And then work on building influential relationships with students; the kind of personal leverage that causes them to want to behave.

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- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

All the things I thought I knew, I'm learning again I've been tryin' to get down to the heart of the matter -Don Henley, The Heart Of The Matter

Teachers cause much of the misbehavior in their classrooms.

True, students come to class with behavior issues and personal agendas. Some are prone to misbehavior and are difficult to deal with. A few may even enjoy trying to disrupt your class.

But more often than not, the teacher is the problem.

If you were a fly on the wall of teachers who struggle with classroom management, you would find many commonalities. Among them are teacher behaviors that actually encourage students to misbehave.

Teaching is challenging enough. Putting yourself behind the eight ball by your own doing can make it unbearable.

Let There Be Light

The only classroom management-related problems that don’t have solutions are those we’re unaware of. Once illuminated, there is always a way to solve the problem or make it manageable.

In that spirit, the following list represents things teachers do unknowingly that encourage misbehavior.

1. Talking over students.

Talking over students breeds inattentiveness, side-talking, and poor listening. If your students have trouble following directions, this is often the culprit. The simple solution is to wait until you have the full attention of your class before speaking.

2. Rushing around.

Being in a hurry creates tension in the classroom, causing restlessness, excitability, and poor behavior. This common mistake is easily corrected by trimming the fat from your curriculum, being better prepared, and then slowing down.

3. Answering call-outs.

Answering students who don’t raise their hand encourages disrespect and communicates to your students that your classroom management plan is no longer valid. Condition yourself not to respond no matter who asks a question or how insightful it may be.

4. Moving on.

Continuing with lessons or instructions when students are inattentive–or worse–lets them know that less than their best is good enough. Wait until your students are giving you exactly what you want before moving on.

5. Negative thinking.

Negative thoughts about students always bubble to the surface–body language, tone of voice, sarcasm–causing resentment, misbehavior and, ultimately, revenge. Choose to see the best in your students… and that’s what they’ll give you.

6. Irritability.

Showing frustration, taking behavior personally, reacting emotionally. These self-sabotaging behaviors will weaken your influence and undermine your ability to control your classroom. Instead, keep your cool and lean heavily on your classroom management plan.

7. Clutter.

Classroom clutter shows a lack of pride that rubs off on students and leads to unwanted behavior–the broken windows theory at work. A pin-neat, attractive classroom, on the other hand, is congruent with, and transfers to, values like hard work, neatness, respect, and character.

8. Self-defeat.

Believing that students decide whether or not you have a good class is a belief that virtually eliminates the possibility of creating the teaching experience you really desire. The fact is, we create the class we want, not our students.

The Heart Of The Matter

These eight teacher behaviors cut straight to the heart of why so many teachers struggle with classroom management.

Rules and procedures. Incentives and consequences. They’re important, to be sure.

But they alone are not the answer.

You must get to the heart of the matter, which is deeper than stickers, strategies, charts, or time-outs. It’s more than outside circumstances. More than names on a roster.

The heart of the matter is you.

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- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

There are a number of popular notions about classroom management that are widely accepted as gospel.

But reality doesn’t always match perception. This is one reason why classroom management can be so confusing.

“I just want to know what does and doesn’t work so I can get on with teaching.” is a common, and frustrating, refrain.

I hear you.

So I prepared a list of 12 classroom management myths.

Are you ready to turn convention on its head?

12 Classroom Management Myths

1. You should never smile the first two months of the school year.

Your smile should be the first thing students notice about you. It sets the tone for the new school year and gives you a jumpstart on building rapport. Being stern and severe will cause students to dislike you, which will severely limit your ability to influence behavior.

2. If you’re nice, they’ll take advantage of you.

Students will only take advantage of you if you say you’re going to hold them accountable and you don’t. Being kind and having a pleasant personality—while always holding students accountable—gives you many classroom management advantages.

3. Too much fun causes students to misbehave.

The opposite is true. If students are having fun learning in your classroom, your rules and consequences will have more power to dissuade misbehavior. If students are bored and uninterested, however, what incentive do they have to behave? A sticker at the end of the day?

4. Time-out should be less than ten minutes.

The length of time-out depends on the offending student’s level of contrition. If your students leave time-out without having learned a lesson, then what’s the point? One look into their eyes will tell you whether they’re ready to rejoin the class or not.

5. Catch students doing something good and then praise them for it is an effective strategy.

Praising students for expected behavior sends the message that doing what you’re supposed to do deserves special recognition. It also lessens the impact of praise given for behavior or performance that is truly worthy of it. If you want to acknowledge expected behavior, a thank you will do.

6. You need tougher consequences.

You don’t need tougher consequences. You just need to strengthen the ones you have. You do this by creating a classroom that students want to be a part of. This gives you powerful leverage—the kind that causes students to loath receiving even warning.

7. Spending time with students builds rapport.

Not if they don’t like you. Being likable builds rapport—whether you have time to play foursquare at recess with your students or not. Work on being yourself in the classroom. Tell stories, use humor, and don’t be afraid to show your personality. Your students will love you for it.

8. You need to reward students for good behavior.

Bribing is a short-term fix that doesn’t change behavior. Having fun together and meaningful praise from a teacher they admire are the greatest rewards. This gives your classroom management plan teeth and you the leverage to influence behavior.

9. You should send students to the office for misbehavior.

Sending students to the office weakens your ability to manage your classroom. It communicates to your students that the buck doesn’t stop with you, that you aren’t the ultimate authority in the classroom. And they’ll continue to test you because of it.

10. Lecturing individual students improves behavior.

You may not hear teachers actually say that lecturing students improves behavior, but nearly everyone does it. The fact is, lecturing will cause students to resent you, which will increase the frequency and severity of misbehavior. Instead of pulling students aside for a “conference,” simply follow your classroom management plan.

11. Who is on your roster determines if you have a good class or not.

You decide whether you have a good class or not, not the students. You have the power to create the class you want, regardless of who is on your roster.

12. You need to work on building community.

This is a case of the cart coming before the horse. You can’t work on building community. You must create conditions so it happens naturally. Holding students accountable (which protects each student’s right to enjoy school), pursuing challenging goals together, and making learning fun will build a community that students respect and care about.

There you have it.

12 classroom management myths, sure to help you stay on the right path and away from the crowds.

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- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

If you can eliminate this one mistake when responding to misbehavior, you will lower your stress level, save time, and have a more influential relationship with your students.

What is it?

The mistake most teachers make is asking students why they misbehaved.

Example:

Mr. Shoemaker glances across the room and sees Jeffrey standing on a chair.

Mr. Shoemaker (yelling): Jeffery! Get down from there right now!

Jeffery gets down. Mr. Shoemaker pulls him aside.

Mr. Shoemaker (exasperated): Why were you standing on your chair? Please explain it to me, because I don’t understand. What were you thinking?

Jeffrey hems and haws and, like anyone caught behaving poorly, is not sure how to answer.

Mr. Shoemaker (becoming more frustrated): Answer me, Jeffrey. The class is waiting.

Jeffrey still doesn’t know what to say, but Mr. Shoemaker is determined to pressure an answer from him in the false belief that by doing so he is holding Jeffrey accountable.

Jeffrey must learn a lesson and therefore should explain himself… right?

So Mr. Shoemaker waits on Jeffrey until Jeffrey mumbles an acceptable response. He then lectures Jeffrey on why he shouldn’t stand on chairs, and the incident ends.

But not without lingering effects.

Mr. Shoemaker walks away tense and frustrated. And Jeffrey is angry—though not with himself.

He’s angry at Mr. Shoemaker.

Why This Is A Mistake

You should never ask a student why he or she misbehaved because…

You already know the answer.

The reason Jeffery made the decision to stand on his chair is the same reason any of us behaves poorly: because, at the time, he wanted to. Ultimately, this is the reason any student misbehaves.

It’s hard to answer truthfully.

Few students answer truthfully because (A) they have difficulty putting into words their desire to misbehave, and (B) they know their teacher doesn’t want to hear the truth: because I felt like it.

So they make something up, blame someone else, or tell you what you want to hear—something like, I was bad, I made a mistake, and I won’t do it again.

It replaces a real, effective consequence.

The reason teachers ask students why they did this or did that is not because they really want to know the answer. The reason is because they’re angry and want to teach the student a lesson.

But in doing so, they’re undermining their classroom management plan. Consequences remove the need to pressure, browbeat, or intimidate students into behaving.

It causes resentment.

Forcing an explanation from students causes resentment. To them it feels like humiliation. Yes, you have a right to handle misbehavior this way. But you’ll pay a price for it.

When your students dislike you, you have little influence over their behavior choices.

It’s stressful to you.

Asking why results in tense, frustrating conversations that rarely end well. Why subject yourself to that? Especially because, in the long run, it will increase bad behavior.

You don’t have time.

Pulling students aside after they misbehave wastes time. It also breaks up the positive momentum in the classroom, creates tension, and forces the rest of your students to wait on you.

A Better Way

A better way to handle misbehavior is to hold students accountable with a consequence.

Example:

Mr. Shoemaker notices Jeffery standing on his chair. Unhurried, he moves into Jeffery’s sight line until Jeffery sees him and gets down.

Mr. Shoemaker (motioning to Jeffery): You have a warning. (Or a time-out or whatever your classroom management plan calls for.)

Mr. Shoemaker then turns and continues on with whatever he was doing.

That simple.

Jeffrey already knew he was wrong, so Mr. Shoemaker didn’t need to point it out to him. There was no reason to ask why, because Mr. Shoemaker already knew why. There was no reason to make Jeffery explain himself, because the consequence took care of that.

Mr. Shoemaker communicated to Jeffrey in a way that students best understand. And he did it without wasting time, feeling stressed, or driving a wedge through his relationship with Jeffrey.

Four words, three seconds, one consequence and Mr. Shoemaker was done with the interaction.

Note: If later in the day Mr. Shoemaker wanted to explain to his class the dangers of standing on chairs and remind them that it’s a violation of classroom rules, then this would be perfectly appropriate.

But there is no reason to discuss the situation further with Jeffrey.

One Exception

There is one exception to the no-asking-why rule.

If you notice a student lashing out against others, you may have to ask why in order to rule out retaliation against bullying—which can never be taken lightly.

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- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

Much of your classroom management success is dependent upon your ability to avoid making big mistakes. Make them often enough, or repeatedly, and you’ll lose control of your classroom quickly.

Before long, you’ll begin to believe teaching in a chaotic environment is just part of the job.

It’s not. At least, it doesn’t have to be. The truth is, you have the power to create the class you really want, regardless of where you teach.

But classroom management must be a daily commitment. It must be your top priority if you hope to build a classroom of happy, well-behaved, and motivated students.

Use the following list as a way to evaluate how close you are to reaching your classroom management goals. When you’re finished reading, you can score yourself on a five point scale.

Some of these items have been covered in previous posts, so if you’re interested in more complete explanations, I’ve included a link.

1. Not enforcing classroom rules 100% of the time. This is by far the biggest mistake, and it’s a common problem for a majority of teachers. For every time you let something go, you create more misbehavior in the future.

2. Lecturing, pleading, scolding, and reminding students instead of letting your consequences do the job they’re intended to do. Lean exclusively on your classroom management plan, and you will eliminate the need to use these ineffectual methods.

3. Taking poor student behavior personally. Revenge isn’t sweet, it’s self-sabotage. Letting your emotions get involved in classroom management will cloud your judgment, make you do things you will regret, and alienate your students.

4. Yelling at students. Raising your voice creates tension and ruins rapport. It also provides a poor model for your students by showing them the wrong way to behave when things don’t go their way. Most important, it communicates to your students that you only mean what you say when you raise your voice.

5. Preaching your classroom management plan instead of teaching it clearly through detailed modeling, role-play, and practice, practice, practice.

6. Not smiling or showing your personality the first month, semester, or, for some, the entire school year. Likability is the key to building rapport. And rapport makes everything easier, especially classroom management.

7. Praising students for what is a common expectation or praising them in order to influence other students (i.e., caught being good). These are dishonest methods. Teachers who rely on false praise typically do so shortsightedly to get through the day, the week, or the year. But false praise doesn’t change behavior; it’s a momentary fix devoid of meaning. Students are perceptive and see right through inauthenticity.

8. Having weak consequences. This is often dependent on who the teacher is and the amount of leverage he or she wields with students (i.e., likability, orderly room environment, honest and direct classroom management, exciting lessons, and many others. See Dream Class). This is one reason why time-out works well for some and not for others.

9. Talking too much. Having clearly understood routines and procedures is critical to effective classroom management. Not having enough of them results in constant explanation and a boring, teacher-centered classroom. Your students should know exactly what to do, and be busy doing it, every minute of the school day. Otherwise, their eyes will glaze over, and they’ll grow tired of you and your shtick. Inattentiveness and troublemaking will ensue.

Avoiding these nine mistakes will help you attain the classroom you’ve always wanted. A worthwhile exercise is to rate each one on a scale of 1 to 5.

A score of 1 = The mistake is a daily occurrence.

A score of 5 = You never make this mistake.

Work on raising each score to a 5, and I think you’ll be a happier and more successful teacher.

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- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

I took my class on a field trip to a beautiful aquarium one year, and as we made our way along a circuitous passage of small caverns loaded to the gills (sorry) with exotic sea creatures, we found ourselves sharing viewing areas with another class of students.

The aquarium was located on a cliff overlooking the ocean, providing stunning views of the Pacific, and we were enjoying ourselves immensely. That is, until a loud and ugly sound interrupted our contentment.

“Anthony! Get your hands off the glass right now! And Taylor! I said to walk!” The teacher accompanying the class of excitable students just ahead of us was reacting to every misdeed with the screech of her voice.

Soon, a student of mine leaned over to me and whispered, “Mr. Linsin, do we have to walk near them?”

“No, we don’t.” I replied. So I pulled my class aside to review what we had seen and stall long enough to provide distance between our two classes.

After the self-guided tour of the aquariums, we moved on to a lecture about sharks, and then finished our trip outside among several man-made tide pools. While looking at the starfish and enjoying the ocean breeze, we heard the voice again, “Room 35! Keep your voices down and enjoy the view!”

At that, her students stormed the tide pools, elbowed elderly couples aside for better views, and more or less behaved as if they were raised by wolves.

Their teacher was appalled and embarrassed by their behavior, but other than increasing the volume and intensity of her voice, she was ill-equipped to do anything about it.

Her students only modestly listened to her admonitions. Anthony kept his hands off the glass for a few minutes, her students merely jogged from one display to the other, and they lowered their voices just temporarily.

Teachers yell at students for one or more of the following reasons:

1.    They don’t know a better way.
2.    They don’t trust their classroom management plan.
3.    They don’t enforce their classroom rules each and every time.
4.    They take poor student behavior personally and feel the need to scold.
5.    It works initially (though the effect lessens over time and comes at a high cost).

Regardless of the reason, yelling at students is symptomatic of inadequate classroom management.

The fact is, there is nothing to be gained from raising one’s voice above what can be heard by students. There is much, however, to lose.

Whenever you raise your voice, you’re communicating to your students that you only mean what you say when you yell. And to them, the louder you are, the more you mean it.

Therefore, when you speak in a normal voice, whatever you say is deemed by your students to be less important and to carry less weight (i.e., they will tune you out). They come to believe that you only really mean what you say when you shout, yell, or raise your voice.

Yelling also shows a loss of control, which provides a poor model for your students. When you yell or fail to conceal your frustrations in front of them, you’re teaching your students how to behave when things don’t go their way or when they don’t get what they want.

In the majority of circumstances, yelling is the result of not having a solid classroom management plan marked by a faithful adherence to rules and their intended consequences. Thus, yelling, much like lecturing, takes the place of real and effective classroom management.

Your students should always know what is expected of them and exactly what will happen if they don’t meet those expectations. This creates a safe world that makes sense. Yelling, on the other hand, creates distrust and resentment in students because it’s arbitrary, it’s based on intimidation, and it chisels away at a child’s dignity.

It’s also undignified for the teacher. If you watched a video clip of yourself yelling, “Slow down!” or “I said to walk!” across the lobby of a museum or in front of a lovely aquarium, I don’t think you would like what you saw.

Is it really possible to have well-behaved students and, at the same time, be a respected leader who doesn’t raise his or her voice? Not only is it possible, but keeping your voice calm works much more effectively.

Try it. Resolve to never raise your voice in response to misbehavior, and instead, focus on clearly communicating your boundaries of behavior to your students and then enforcing those boundaries 100% of the time. This simple approach to classroom management will make teaching a lot less stressful and will engender admiration and respect from your students.

- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.