Lecturing individual students is a common classroom management practice—just another tool in a teacher’s tool belt.

But it’s a colossal mistake, born of frustration, that does nothing to curb unwanted behavior beyond several minutes.

The reason?

When you lecture individual students, it’s done out of anger and not out of a pure intention to help improve behavior.

And students know it.

It causes them to dislike you, lose respect for you, and desire to get even with you—greatly diminishing your influence.

Whole-class lectures, on the other hand, can work miracles.

How To Motivate Their Socks Off

I prefer to call class lectures “motivational speeches” because that’s what they’re designed to do: to motivate students.

Done a certain way, a motivational speech can light a fire under a lazy class, reverse poor attitudes, inspire altruism, or stop unruly behavior in its tracks.

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Tell them what you don’t like.

Your students will behave/perform better when they know precisely what not to do. To that end, start your speech by pointing out what you’re unhappy with. What are you seeing from your students that you want corrected? Without singling anyone out, cite specific examples.

Step 2: Tell them why it’s wrong.

Explaining why is a powerful persuasion technique. Your students are much more likely to agree with you—and thus change their behavior—if you offer a clear explanation why their behavior is wrong. Make your reasoning brief, direct, and easy to understand.

Step 3: Tell them what you want.

Make clear to your students what you expect from them. In other words, how they should behave. Again, be specific. Show them how you want them to attend during lessons, raise their hand, choose a partner, greet their tablemates, or whatever behavior you want changed.

Step 4: Challenge them.

Ask your students, challenge them, to stand up if they feel like they’re not going to be able to do what you ask—for whatever reason. Tell them that, if this is the case, if they really feel like they can’t do what you expect of them, you want to know now. You don’t want to wait and find out later when you see the same old behavior again.

Step 5: Challenge them again, then finish together.

Challenge your class to stand and gather around you if they are committed to whatever you’re asking of them. If they’re not, tell them to remain seated (they won’t). Extend your hand into the center of the group. Ask them to do the same. Now glance around, looking them in the eyes, and say, “Now I want you to show me, prove to me that you can listen, learn, study, and become the best students you can be.”

Then finish with a bang: “Be the best on three. One…two…three… BE THE BEST!”

Add Your Passion

The above steps won’t work if you just go through the motions. It will be just another lecture, just another teacher droning on, unless you tap into that place deep inside you that believes in an individual’s capacity to overcome obstacles, to rise above their circumstances, to become more than the opinions of others.

You have to believe, to know beyond a doubt, that your students are capable of fulfilling the vision of excellence you have for them. Because if you don’t believe it, they won’t believe it either.

So don’t be afraid to let it out. Don’t be afraid to show your passion for helping students become more than they think they can. Don’t be afraid to show your desire to create your dream class, to make your classroom and this school year a once-in-a-lifetime experience for you and your students.

If you get goose bumps as you look into your students’ eyes, if they look back at you with intensity and determination to be better students, then you know you’re on the right track.

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

If you’ve been teaching for longer than say… three minutes, then you’ve no doubt been hammered over the head with the idea that enthusiasm is important to effective teaching.

In order to motivate students, you have to be passionate about your subject.

I don’t disagree.

Enthusiasm is important—critical even.

But what if it’s causing your students to misbehave?

Yin And Yang

Regular readers of this website know that calmness is important to classroom management success.

Students feed off of your energy, and excitability isn’t a good thing when it comes to classroom management. Yet, if your students are uninspired, then you’re not helping them grow academically.

So what do you do? Can you be both calm and enthusiastic?

Well… yes and no. You can certainly be calm on the inside while showing enthusiasm. But there are times when you need to show calm on the outside.

Effective teachers understand when it pays to be enthusiastic, and when it pays to be calm.

They work together—like yin and yang.

The key is to use both to your advantage. Below are a few guidelines to help you know when to use one, and when to use the other.

When To Be Calm

You should be outwardly calm during…

Transitions

Transitions can be opportunities for students to misbehave. So it’s important your students see that you’re calm and in control. During transitions, position yourself in a highly visible area of the classroom and silently observe.

Procedures

Like transitions, your students need to be focused on completing procedures and routines quickly and correctly, so you can get on with the business of teaching. Again, stand in one place and calmly observe.

Independent Work

During this most critical learning time, resist the urge to interrupt your students—enthusiastically or otherwise. Your job is to fade into the background, keeping the classroom peaceful and conducive to concentration.

Entering & Leaving The Classroom

A high percentage of misbehavior occurs on the way in or on the way out of the classroom. So refrain from shuffling papers, talking to students, or making announcements. Instead, observe silently and be ready to enforce your rules with a consequence.

Misbehavior

When students misbehave, enforce your classroom rules dispassionately. This keeps you from losing your cool and ensures that the burden of responsibility remains with them.

When To Be Enthusiastic

You should be enthusiastic during…

Lessons

Whenever you stand before your students to teach a lesson, you must show passion for your subject. To convince students that the subject your teaching is worthy of their attention, they have to see that you’re excited to teach it.

Modeling

Modeling can be drudgery for students, or it can be an opportunity for an unforgettable learning experience. Which one depends on you. Detailed modeling in particular lends itself perfectly for having fun with your class—which makes classroom management a lot easier.

Read Aloud/Shared Reading/Guided Reading

Reading great books aloud with gusto will motivate children to read better than any other method, technique, or strategy. Your student’s love for reading will grow every day if you merely tap into your inner Meryl Streep.

Storytelling

I believe so strongly in the power of storytelling that I devoted an entire chapter to it in Dream Class. Nothing compares with the rapport-building, leverage-creating, and excitement-producing power of acting out stories for your students.

Learning Games/Science Experiments/Special Projects

Children will like and enjoy whatever you show enthusiasm for. The success of experiential activities hinges on the amount of excitement you can generate. So channel your favorite game show host, dance like an Egyptian, or throw on a lab coat and spectacles and really go for it.

Warning: Don’t Do The Opposite

Teachers who struggle with classroom management typically do the opposite of what is recommended above.

They get excited, stressed, and angry (enthusiasm of a different kind) when they should be calm and observant, and they become spiritless when they should be teaching like their hair is on fire.

Following the guidelines above, however, causes everything important to improve—classroom management, attentiveness, motivation for learning, and love for school.

Note: I was sad to learn of the passing of former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. He was an amazing teacher and an inspiration to many. Last September I wrote about him in an article called The Effective Teaching Secrets Of A Master.

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

Several years after beginning my teaching career, I went back to school to earn a second master’s degree. I wanted to reach the end of the pay scale and was hoping to learn something new in the process.

After researching colleges near my home, I chose a university that catered to working adults. You know the kind: gigantic national chain, classes held in an industrial park, no sports teams.

The first evening of my first class, I sat in the front row—hand raised, bright-eyed. But slowly, as the semester wore on, I inched my way to the back of the room.

The instructor was painstakingly boring.

A typical class period consisted of theory regurgitation and a slow, scratch-the-surface plod through the coursework. Before long, I found myself in the last row next to a special education teacher from Wisconsin.

Her name was Monica and she, too, was exasperated with the slow pace of the class. We became friends—she was hilarious—and I’m ashamed to admit that during lectures we often played meaningless games to pass the time.

She’d slide a piece of notebook paper over to me with the headline, “Hair Bands Of The 80s” or “Classic Cartoon Characters.” I would write Motley Crew or Fred Flintstone at the top of the list and slide it back over. Then she would add a name, and we’d go back and forth until one of us was stumped.

I had mixed feelings about doing this. On one hand, I felt I owed the instructor a level of respect and should at the least feign interest. On the other hand, I had to sit in a hard chair and listen to him paraphrase from the $65 textbook lying open in front of me.

But despite my mixed feelings—and no small amount of guilt—I continued playing silly pencil and paper games, passing notes like a seventh grader, and chatting under my breath with those around me.

I couldn’t help myself.

After class one evening, I joined my classmates for dessert at a local restaurant. There, I heard story after story about how the rest of the class was biding their time while waiting for the class period to end.

They, too, were passing notes, playing hangman, and watching the clock.

It didn’t matter that we were adults. None of us, 8 years old or 80, is immune to the force of boredom, which can make us do things we know we shouldn’t.

The only difference between my classmates and a group of fifth graders was that we were more covert in our bad behavior.

The fact is, if students are bored, misbehavior will follow.

The “Say Hello” Strategy

One solution is to use the “say hello” strategy. It’s a quick and easy way to reinvigorate your students, improve their attentiveness, and stem the tide of boredom.

Here’s how it works:

When you notice your students’ attention waning and boredom seeping in, simply let them get up, move around the room, and say hello to their friends and classmates.

Interacting with friends has a unique way of energizing tired synapses. It feeds and revitalizes the brain, gets the blood flowing, and releases the pent up urge to engage in minor, though disruptive, unwanted behaviors.

Surprising your students with the strategy works best. Just blurt out, “Stand up and say hello to your friends!” And then leave them alone and let them visit for a couple of minutes.

Like everything else, your students need to know what your expectations are, but I’ve found students to be appreciative of the break and thus exceedingly respectful of the gesture.

You can also use this strategy shortly before a lesson that requires prolonged attention, or right after. But be careful not to over do it or it will lose some of its effectiveness.

Few students can sit and attend for very long without active engagement. Sometimes the solution is as simple as giving them exactly what they want: A moment to talk with their friends.

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

Gordon Cooper courtesy of NASA

Among the traits that make a great teacher, enthusiasm is near the top. Your passion for delivering captivating lessons and activities to your students largely determines your success in motivating students.

We’re all attracted to people who live their lives with zeal, and students are no different.

One of my favorite movies is Braveheart, which tells the story of William Wallace, a 13^th century knight who fought for the resistance in the Scottish Wars of Independence. His rousing speech to his fellow freedom fighters tingles the spine.

Although we don’t need to bring this level of intensity to our classrooms, there are times that call for us to rally our troops and remind them of the importance of their daily task.

Motivational speeches, to be sure, can be a well-needed shot in the arm.

But when it comes to classroom management, it’s better to be more like Gordon Cooper than William Wallace. Gordon Cooper was one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, and he gave new meaning to the phrase “cool as a cucumber”.

On the morning of May 15, 1963, Cooper squeezed into a tiny capsule—about the size of an old Volkswagen Bug—perched 10 stories off the ground. Beneath him was the 255,000 lb. Atlas rocket, which was little more than a reconfigured ballistic missile.

While waiting for launch and listening to the rumbling of the rocket beneath him, Cooper did something remarkable.

He fell asleep.

While most of his fellow astronauts, vetted for being calm under the most trying conditions, were sweating in their pressurized suits and failing to keep their heart rates under control, Cooper had to be awaken during countdown.

Think of sitting on a roller coaster as it clicks upward to the top of the first breathtaking drop, and then multiply your nervous anticipation by 1000.

Cooper’s cool-headedness saved his life later in the flight when major mechanical problems disabled his navigational instruments and forced him to make manual calculations to avoid burning up in earth’s atmosphere. Using the stars as his guide and sketching on a small window, Cooper guided his craft to a near perfect splashdown.

Although we’ll more than likely never have to face a circumstance as daunting as being launched into space, classroom management poses its own unique challenges. Students disrupt class, rules are repeatedly broken, incidents happen, and we have to be able to remain calm and clearheaded to resolve them effectively.

I realize this can sometimes be a challenge to put into practice, so I compiled a short list of strategies to help you stay cool when students raise your ire.

1. Trust your classroom management plan. In a related article on the main cause of teacher stress, I wrote that when teachers rely on their words to curb bad behavior, they become stressed and angry. Having faith in your classroom management plan and allowing it to do its job will help you be a picture of cool.

2. Rather than using willpower to stay in a peaceful state, think of handling behavior and classroom management issues with cold detachment. When a student breaks a rule, enforce it with the same matter-of-fact way a mail carrier might deliver your mail.

3. Consider golfer Annika Sorenstam. The winner of 72 LPGA events, Annika is personable and outgoing off the course. On the course is another story. Showing little emotion, even after a bad shot, Annika crushes her competition with a peaceful smile on her face. She has long been called machinelike and robotic. But this is the most effective mental state for golf—as well as classroom management.

4. Act like firefighter. Firefighters are quiet and appear to walk casually when arriving on scene. This often surprises bystanders. They expect them to rush to the aid of the injured, yelling excitedly into walkie-talkies like they do on television. But what they’re doing is purposefully staying calm so they can think clearly and make correct decisions. If their adrenaline is pumping, they inevitably make costly mistakes.

5. My friend Rick Morris, the creator of New Management, recommends pretending that the offending student’s parents are standing right behind the student as you speak to him or her. Or think of having a camera on you, broadcasting your every move into your students’ homes and throughout the school.

Handling classroom management without getting worked-up and feeling angry or stressed is a great benefit for you and your students. Try these strategies and let me know what you think. I would appreciate your comments.

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