There are times when you just want to give a student a piece of your mind, when your sense of justice causes a welling up of fiery indignation.

Your eyes narrow. Your heart beats faster. Steam billows from your ears.

You lock in on the little bugger who decided to brazenly interrupt the lesson you spent an hour preparing.

He looks back at you amused, without a care in the world, daring you to lose your cool. But just as you begin opening your mouth to let fly your frustrations… you stop yourself.

And you think of this article.

You’re reminded of all the benefits you and your students will miss out on, and the stress and heartache you’ll bring upon yourself, if you let your emotions get the best of you.

What follows are ten amazing benefits of following your classroom management plan. They’re sure to help you make the right choice the next time a student wakes up the sleeping giant within.

1. Fairness

Most of your class will privately cheer when you hold misbehaving students accountable. They’ll appreciate you for it. So much so, they’ll let you know in whispers, cards, and notes they’ll squeeze into your hands or sneak onto your desk. Following your plan satisfies their inherent sense of fairness and creates an environment that allows them to enjoy school.

2. Likeability

Because there is no need to rely on confrontational methods like glaring, lecturing, or scolding, your likeability will improve exponentially. And when students like you, they’ll want to get to know you better—which then makes building influential relationships an easygoing, organic process.

3. Peace

Your students will be calmer and more comfortable in their surroundings knowing they can go about their day without the nervous stress of interruptions, drama, and tension. Fair and firm accountability brings peace to your classroom quicker and more effectively than anything else.

4. Trust

When you’re true to your word, your trust with students will grow stronger every day. Going back on your word by ignoring your plan, however, either by taking matters into your own hands or by doing nothing at all, will cause your students to question your intentions and grow evermore distrustful of you.

5. Kindness

As a result of following your classroom management plan, you’ll no longer be tempted into angry confrontation or cutting sarcasm. This frees you to model kindness without being viewed as a hypocrite. Students will only follow your example if your words line up with your actions. They can spot a phony a mile away.

6. Respect

Students don’t respect teachers with poor classroom management or weak integrity. How could they? The room is chaotic. School is no fun. Their teacher is grouchy and noncommittal. And the students who cause trouble often get away with it. Following your plan is a guaranteed path to respect.

7. Concentration

With the elimination of noise, chatter, and interruptions comes better concentration and faster academic progress. Students in classrooms with strong classroom management are able to focus on their schoolwork without the ever-present possibility of yet another disruption.

8. Time On Task

Academic progress is largely a function of quality time spent on task and engaged in learning. In classrooms where classroom management is the top priority, where students are held accountable for every act of misbehavior, students enjoy weeks more in learning time.

9. Fair Accountability

When you follow your plan, you can be sure you’re holding students accountable in a way that is fair to everyone. Uncertainty is thrown out the door. You can know that you’re upholding the highest ethics while managing your classroom—without guilt or second thoughts.

10. Parents On Your Side

Parents appreciate the fairness of rules and consequences. A clearly defined classroom management plan makes sense to them. They’re reassured knowing that their child will be safe to learn and develop without the interference of other students. Further, should their child become a behavior problem, they know when and how they’ll be contacted.

A Smart Choice

Following your classroom management plan is a smart choice. The alternatives are always less effective, always more complex and stressful, and always give you less influence with students.

Yes, there is more to effective classroom management than simply following your classroom management plan, much more. But it starts with your plan. It is the foundation from which all other strategies and methods work.

So make no compromise. Allow yourself no escape hatch. Embrace the simplicity of knowing exactly what to do every time a student misbehaves or interrupts your classroom.

And let the giant sleep.

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

Teacher burnout, which happens when stress and mental fatigue become more than occasional companions, strikes many thousands of teachers every year.

Reports suggest roughly half of all teachers quit within five years.

And it’s no wonder. Burnout saps joy from teaching, makes effective classroom management virtually unattainable, and infuses dread into every drive to work.

It’s also avoidable.

No matter where you teach or who your students are, you not only can protect yourself from burnout, but you can wake up every morning refreshed, excited, and ready to teach.

Here’s how:

Lean on your classroom management plan.

The number one cause of stress among teachers is trying to convince students to behave. Lecturing, scolding, arguing, threatening, manipulating, and discussing misbehavior are all ineffective and terribly stressful.

Instead, when a student misbehaves, simply and dispassionately enforce a consequence, and then move on to more important things.

Be an early bird.

A common cause of teacher burnout is being crunched for time—time to prepare, time to organize, time to sit and gather your thoughts. The solution is simple but remarkably effective: arrive to school early and get down to business.

Don’t ease into your day. Jump in with both feet. You’ll work twice as efficiently and with fewer distractions before school than you will at any other time of the day.

Free your mind.

Being organized is the ultimate de-stressor. Just knowing where every file, set of data, and lesson idea is and how to reach them quickly will give you peace of mind and one less thing to concern yourself with.

Also, keep your room clear of needless materials, boxes, old projects, and equipment. A clutter-free classroom is not only more appealing and more conducive to learning, but gloriously freeing to your mind.

Leave school at school.

As soon as you pull your car out of the school parking lot, your workday is over. Leave it there. Although once in a while you may have to play catch up at home, those times should be rare and devoid of emotion (i.e., grading math tests).

If you’re in the habit of bringing the disappointments and dilemmas of your day home with you, then you’re on the fast track to burnout. You won’t sleep well, you’ll be less than your best for your family, and you’ll be no fun to hang out with.

Exercise.

Short of a daily massage, nothing will clear your head faster or more completely than exercise. 30-40 minutes most days per week is all you need to reboot the system and enjoy better energy for teaching.

Go for a brisk walk. Dance to your heart’s content. Join a swim club. Whatever you do, make sure it’s something you enjoy. Steer clear of the expensive gadgets and high-octane videos you see on late-night television. They do make excellent dust gatherers.

Eat for energy.

What you eat can have a startling effect on how you feel, how you look, and how much energy you have for teaching. I recommend a simple diet of smaller meals, whole foods instead of processed, and mountains of fresh and varied fruits and vegetables.

Try to cut back or eliminate your consumption of sugar, white flour, and foods high in saturated fat. You won’t believe how much energy you’ll have or how incredible you’ll feel.

Rest.

Every teacher needs down time in the evening—if only for an hour. And a good night’s sleep is a must. Teaching is one of the few professions that never lets you coast through the day—even when you’re not feeling well.

Up late the night before? Fighting a cold? Tough luck. Your students will still be there, waiting, lively as jumping beans. To match them, you need plenty of sofa-lying, good-book-reading, and blissfully-sleeping rest.

Focus on routines.

Classroom routines make everything easier, and the most effective teachers rely on them heavily.

When your students know what to do, and how to do it well, during every moment of the school day, then you’re free from the endless talking, explaining, stress, and misbehavior that affect those who are less routine-driven.

Become a classroom management expert.

Start any conversation about teaching and it’s likely to end on the topic of classroom management, because that’s what it all comes down to. If you have expert skills, and the right mindset, you’ll never be burned out.

When you have the ability to create your dream class, your students will energize you, inspire you, and make you feel like you’re exactly where you should be, doing exactly what you were meant to do.

It’s About You

Teacher burnout is not about the teaching situation you find yourself in. It isn’t about your crazy school, the unruly students on your roster, or the overloaded curriculum you’re saddled with to teach.

It’s about you.

You have the power to avoid the stress and fatigue that make you unhappy and ineffective. You have the power to create the well-behaved classroom you’ve always dreamed of. You have the power to grab hold of the rewarding, energizing career you really want—never to let it go.

Thankfully, wonderfully, it’s all in your hands.

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

Classroom management is easy.

Let me rephrase that.

Classroom management should feel easy.

If it feels difficult to you, if it feels like you’re straining and working to get students to behave and pay attention, then you’re doing something wrong.

Effective classroom management is knowledge based. Unlike most successes in life, it doesn’t reward those who work the hardest. It rewards those who work the smartest.

It takes poise, self-discipline, and mindfulness—to be sure. But it doesn’t take being exhausted at the end of the day.

Today’s article is the 80^th written for this website. If you look through the articles, you’ll find strategies that anyone can do, that are simple to implement, and that take minimal planning.

Students react predictably—both good and bad—to certain teacher behaviors, techniques, and strategies. Knowing which is which is like having a key that unlocks the secrets to happy teaching.

And that’s what this site is about. Being happy in your job, fulfilled, and blessed with the freedom to inspire students—without interruption, disruption, and disrespect.

A Lot To Learn

Rules and consequences are an important part of classroom management. There is no getting around it. You can’t be an effective teacher without an unwavering commitment to following them. But they’re only a small part of classroom management—just a sliver.

The rest is your relationship with students—how you speak, interact, and communicate with them, the way you respond when they misbehave, how you carry yourself, how you praise them, and the strategies you use to get them to do what you ask.

You have to know how to create leverage, how to build rapport, how to get students excited about coming to school, how to be an effective storyteller, and how to get students to want to behave.

There is a lot to learn.

But once you have a solid understanding of smart classroom management principles, strategies, and techniques, you’ll have the confidence to control, and thrive in, any classroom on the planet—regardless of who the students are or the behavior problems they’ve had in the past.

Goodbye To The Old Methods

Classroom management shouldn’t feel like hard work.

You shouldn’t have to persuade, bribe, yell, argue, debate, negotiate, lecture, scold, glare, or threaten students to behave. You shouldn’t have to use elaborate incentive systems or praise students who don’t really deserve it.

You shouldn’t have to manipulate students or play mind games, walk on eggshells or merely hope your students will behave. You shouldn’t have to spend more time and energy on some students than others. And you shouldn’t have to be concerned about parent complaints.

But most important, classroom management shouldn’t be stressful.

If it is, or if it feels like hard work, or if you find yourself using any of these old methods, then you’re doing something wrong.

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

Maybe it’s the weather.

Or a full moon.

Or maybe a holiday is around the corner.

Whatever it is, there are times when your class just can’t seem to get it together. They’re unfocused, squirrelly, prone to misbehavior. And no matter what you do, you can’t get them back on track.

So you raise your voice, lecture, and become more stressed and agitated as the day plods on.

Just hang in there… right?

Wrong.

Don’t waste another minute being frustrated and waiting on students. Get the train back on track in a hurry with these seven proven strategies.

Seven Back-On-Track Classroom Management Strategies

Use the following strategies whenever you feel like pressing a restart button on your class. They’ll shake things up, calm things down, and focus students back on you.

1. Sprint

Take your students outside or to the school gym, line them up on the end line of the basketball court, and run. Have them sprint down to the other end line, rest for 10-15 seconds, and then sprint back. Continue for five or ten minutes.

This isn’t a punishment, and you shouldn’t run them ragged. They should feel energized when finished. They may even ask if they can do it again on another day. Intense exercise has a way of calming nervous energy and focusing the mind. Often, it’s just what the doctor ordered.

2. Redo

Have your students grab their backpacks, jackets, and lunches, walk them outside the classroom, and start your day over again. The farther you can retrace their steps—outside the entrance to the school is best—the more effective the exercise will be.

Once you have them lined up and waiting to come inside, tell them exactly what you expect. Not a lecture, mind you, but simple, direct reminders of the way things are done in your classroom.

3. Fun

You should always have a fun game or activity in your back pocket for moments when your students need an energy, motivation, or focus boost. Go outside and play capture the flag, act out scenes from a read aloud, or organize a learning game.

4. Yoga

Occasional five-minute exercise breaks throughout the day stave off restlessness, daydreaming, and sleepy brain syndrome. Light stretches, standing yoga poses, and calisthenics like jumping jacks, push-ups, and burpees are a great way to get in some extra PE and wakeup your class.

5. Breathe

Use the one-minute of silence strategy followed by belly breathing. This sends oxygen to the brain, lowers blood pressure, and calms the mind. A few deep breaths helps students turn their attention away from distractions and onto their responsibilities.

6. Model

Detailed modeling is a remarkably effective teaching strategy and is perfect for when you feel like you’re losing your class. Students need refreshers; reminders of how you expect things to be done in your classroom.

Have your students follow you as you model, for example, how to enter the classroom, how to work independently, how to participate in small groups, or how to listen to directions.

7. Gab

The say-hello strategy is as easy as it gets. Allow students to stand up, walk around the room, and say hello to their friends. Give them a full five minutes to chat away.

You, however, should take a step back, recede into the background, and let your students be kids for a few minutes. Your class will love doing it, and they’ll be refreshed and ready to learn when they’re finished.

Just Do It

Don’t give your students an explanation of why you’re using any of these back-on-track classroom management strategies. Don’t lecture them or tell them how awful they are. Just do it. Get their attention, wait until they’re quiet and looking at you, and then announce, “Let’s go outside and have some fun!”

You’ll have to decide which of the seven is best given the situation. There are times when it’s best to start the day over from the beginning and other times when you just need a minute of silence.

With experience, you’ll get a feel for what your students need and when, and you’ll be able to dial it up in a hurry—saving your students from malaise and misbehavior and you from another stressful day.

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

It’s natural for teachers struggling with classroom management to try to do more.

They talk more, move around the room more, and meet with students more. They raise their voice and micromanage. They hover and pace.

They race through lessons hoping to finish before losing students to the hum and distraction of a rowdy class.

They create another chart, try out another incentive, and have another go at behavior contracts.

Before long, they become so accustomed to the frenetic pace that it becomes normal, the cost of being a teacher.

But what else is there to do but something more?

Doing Less Equals More Control

Take a deep breath…

If you slow down, move less, talk less, and at times do absolutely nothing, you will gain more control.

And classroom management won’t be such a challenge.

Here’s how to do less:

Slow Down

It’s always smart to take your time. If you rush or get ahead of your students, you’ll lose them—and control of your class. By slowing down, you’ll cover more material, get more done, and have better behaved students.

Move Less

You’ve probably been told that teachers should move around the room a lot and avoid staying in one place. But unless you’re checking in on students working independently, this is poor advice.

Your students need to focus on you and your instruction and nothing else. This is best accomplished by staying in one place. There should be no misunderstanding about where their eyes, ears, and thinking ought to be.

Talk Less

Most teachers talk too much. The reality is, the more you talk, the less your students will tune in and the more likely they are to misbehave.

If you want your words to have meaning, be brief, get to the point, and move on. Save your voice for inspired lessons, readings, stories, and activities.

Pause Often

When giving directions or providing information, pause often. Allow a beat or two of silence between sentences.

This helps students focus on your message, allows them to process what you’ve told them, and gives you a chance to see how well they’re following along.

Do Nothing

If your students aren’t giving you what you want, stop whatever you’re doing. Stand in the most prominent place in the classroom (I like to stand on a chair) and do nothing.

When your students are silent and looking at you, wait some more. Gather your thoughts. When you’re ready, tell them again precisely what you expect and then have them do it again.

Lower Your Voice

When you raise your voice, you train your students to listen to you only when you get loud and to tune you out the other times. It says, “Okay, I’m yelling because I really mean it this time!”

If you want your students to listen, speak softly. They should have to lean forward ever so slightly in order to hear you.

Trust Your Classroom Management Plan

You created a classroom management plan for a reason. So use it. Let it do the heavy lifting. Pull yourself away from the drama and frustration of trying to plead, persuade, counsel, manipulate, intimidate, bribe, and will your students to behave.

These methods, all examples of trying to do more, don’t work.

A New You

Decide today that you’re going to start doing things differently. Gone are the days of trying to do more, of chasing trends, of being stressed and in a hurry, of hoping your students will behave.

Instead, decide that you’re going to do what really works.

Students respond predictably to certain teacher behaviors. You can’t just wing it. You can’t just do what comes naturally or what feels right.

More than any other area of teaching, effective classroom management requires you to work smarter, not harder.

Today’s topic is a perfect example. Rather than doing more and having little to show for it, do less and become more effective.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for sharing this website and these articles with your friends via Facebook and Twitter or by other means. I appreciate it!

-Michael

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

I’m frequently asked whether I recommend giving a warning as a first consequence.

My answer is an emphatic yes.

Giving a warning eliminates the need for three commonly used strategies that make classroom management more difficult.

Teachers who struggle with classroom management tend to lean on one or more of them.

What about you? Do you do any of the following?

Reminding

The teacher reminds students when they don’t follow classroom rules.

Example: Mrs. Fowler asks a question during a lesson. Eric calls out an answer. Mrs. Fowler says, “Good answer, Eric, but next time raise your hand.”

Mrs. Fowler often reminds her students to follow classroom rules. Predictably, they break them often.

Glaring

The teacher glares at students when they don’t follow classroom rules.

Example: Mr. Penn sees Michelle and Elsa giggling during writers’ workshop. He positions himself where they can see him and then, with arms crossed and eyebrows raised, gives them “the look” until they get back to work.

Mr. Penn is proud of his ability to stop misbehavior in its tracks with his well-practiced “look” but has grown tired of the constant battles to get students to follow his rules and focus on their work.

Correcting

The teacher corrects students when they don’t follow classroom rules.

Example: The class is lined up for lunch. But one boy, Terrence, is out of line and acting up. Frustrated, Mr. Stallings barks, “Terrence, close your mouth and get in line!”

Mr. Stallings is a ball of stress at the end of each day. The burden of having to command students to do this and don’t do that is causing him to reevaluate his career choice.

Giving A Simple Warning Is Easy

Instead of the stress and frustration of reminding, glaring, and correcting, all three teachers could save themselves a lot of trouble by giving a simple warning.

A warning works best as a first consequence because…

It’s easy to be consistent.

When you have a classroom management plan that includes a warning, it takes the guesswork out of handling initial misbehavior. Student breaks rule…teacher gives warning. It’s as easy as that.

It’s not personal.

By consistently giving a warning whenever a student breaks a rule (for the first violation), you avoid the drama that can result from a direct and personal confrontation.

It builds trust.

Doing exactly what you say you will do builds your students’ trust in you, which makes it easier to influence behavior.

It’s quick and easy.

There is no interruption when giving a warning. You just give it and move on without a second thought.

It’s stress free.

You don’t have to rely on persuasion or intimidation to stop misbehavior. You don’t have to yell, remind, glare, or use any of the other stress inducing methods so many teachers feel trapped into using.

It makes sense to students.

When you follow your classroom management plan exactly as stated—which includes a warning—there is no confusion for students. They know exactly what to expect, which gives them a sense of safety and frees them to be their best selves.

Note: A warning is only effective when backed by a strong, take-action consequence.

Next week we are going to continue with the same theme. The topic will be how to give a warning so it has the greatest effect on student behavior.

Thanks for reading.

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

I have a technique you can start using tomorrow that will eliminate stress from your teaching life.

This no-stress method is so effective, in fact, that many professional athletes use it before a competition.

For them, keeping their composure can mean the difference between winning and losing, success and failure.

For teachers the stakes are equally high.

It’s the difference between having a pleasant day and a miserable one, between loving your job and counting the days to retirement. Plus, teachers who are able to keep their cool have fewer behavior problems.

The technique is easy to use, takes just a couple of minutes, and works surprisingly well.

The Decide-First Method

It’s called the decide-first method of stress relief. I stumbled upon it many years ago while still a wet-behind-the-ears student teacher.

My first student teaching assignment was with an unruly group of fifth graders.

As is often the case, the teacher in charge of the class was looking for a way to take a break from her responsibilities. The students were bouncing off the walls, and she was pulling her hair out. Soon after I arrived she handed the class over to me.

I couldn’t have been happier.

Dirty Little Secret: teachers who frequently volunteer to host student teachers often need mentoring themselves.

When I made the decision to become a teacher, I decided that I was going to love my job no matter the circumstances. I wasn’t going to sit back and see if I was going to be fulfilled, happy, or having fun.

I was going to make it happen for myself.

So when I was thrown to the wolves as a new teacher, this attitude led me to start using the decide-first method.

Every day before walking into the chaos of my first teaching experience, I sat in my car, closed my eyes, and decided that no matter what happened that day, I wasn’t going to let it affect me emotionally.

A herd of elephants could come crashing through the door, but I committed myself to being as calm as a Tibetan monk.

At the time I didn’t have experienced classroom management skills. I knew few of the strategies and techniques that are now second nature to me.

But a funny thing happened.

The students began to feed off of my calm energy. And every day I gained greater control and respect. Within a couple of weeks I was indeed enjoying—loving—what I was doing.

A Lesson From Sports Psychology

I was watching the Tennis Channel recently, and during a segment called Fit To Hit, sports psychologist Dr. Allen Fox was asked how tennis players can best control their emotions on the court.

He said that, before a match, if they will make a conscience decision to keep their composure—despite the adversity they may face—then remarkably, they will.

It’s that simple.

Being stress free in the classroom, as well as on the tennis court, is a decision you make. Stress doesn’t happen to you; you let it happen to you.

But you can’t wait until you’re feeling stressed. By then it’s too late. The key is to decide beforehand.

How To Use The Decide-First Method

The following is a three-step plan for eliminating stress from teaching. Do it every day before your students arrive in the morning, and you will be happy with the results.

Step #1

Close your classroom door, sit down in a comfortable chair, and allow yourself a minute or two of silence.

Step #2

Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and relax your body.

Step #3

Decide that you will stay calm and relaxed no matter what happens that day. Commit yourself to handling every situation, every unforeseen circumstance, and every behavior with poise and confidence.

And you will.

The Benefits

The most obvious benefit of using the decide-first method is that you’re going to like your job a lot better. Here are a few more benefits:

• Your calm, confident demeanor will sweep the negative and excitable energy out of your classroom.

• Your students will respond to you differently. You’ll appear more in control, more confident, and more like a leader they’ll want to follow.

• Your students will become calmer. Your state of mind has more effect on students than you realize. What you’re feeling on the inside reveals itself clearly on the outside.

• Behavior will improve. You’ll begin relying on your classroom management plan instead of trying to force or convince students to behave—which is ineffective and stressful.

Try the decide-first method tomorrow. It could be the best day of teaching you’ve had in a long time.

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

A reader posted a question this week asking what to do if a student, in this case a kindergartner, crawled on the floor and under tables after being sent to time-out. Playing, straying, and not sitting quietly in time-out can happen regardless of grade level.

And this problem can be especially frustrating. It pulls the teacher away from his or her responsibilities and diverts the attention of the class away from the lesson and toward the misbehaving student.

To make matters worse, how you handle a situation like this can negatively affect the behavior of the rest of the class. More specifically, if the student in time-out gets away with behaving poorly, or is able to get under your skin, then others will follow.

So in that moment, what are your choices? How do you respond without demanding, lecturing, or yelling? Do you have another recourse?

These are important questions because they go straight to the heart of a teacher’s job satisfaction. The worst position to be in as a teacher is one where you feel you have no leverage, no recourse, and no options other than responding out of anger and going home stressed and discouraged.

Many teachers leave the profession because of it. And I don’t blame them. If I felt that students controlled my fate, that they decided whether I enjoyed my day or not, I’d consider another line of work too.

When a student misbehaves in time-out, it’s a blinking sign that your time-out isn’t working and won’t effectively curb misbehavior. Furthermore, it’s an act of defiance and shows a lack of concern over your consequences.

What To Do

In response to students who don’t sit quietly in time-out, there are six things you can do to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

1. Show your students a complete picture, from start to finish, of what they’re expected to do if told to go to time out. Use detailed modeling. Demonstrate how to walk to time-out, where to sit, and precisely how you expect them to spend their time there.

2. Use the “how not” strategy and be sure to include any unwanted behaviors you’ve seen from your students (i.e., crawling under tables, making loud noises, leaving the time-out chair).

3. Have them practice. Choose students “randomly,” one at a time, to show the class how to do it.  Make them prove to you they understand the ins and outs of going to time-out.

4. When a particularly difficult student is sent to time-out, if at all possible, ratchet up the fun. Have a learning game or activity in your back pocket for such moments. Time-out is only effective if the student feels he or she is missing something.

5. Back up your time-out with a consequence. Think of the one thing you do as a class repeatedly, every day or every week, that your students love the most. It can be a certain lesson, game, song, story, or anything you wish. Whatever it is, missing that activity should be your consequence for not sitting quietly in time-out.

If you’re thinking, “I hate that they have to miss such a great activity. They love it so much and I feel bad taking it away from them,” then you know you’ve chosen the right one.

6. Follow through. Do what you say you will do, and do it every time.

If you discover that a student you sent to time-out isn’t sitting properly, or is otherwise not following the time-out directives, don’t overreact. Better yet, don’t react at all.

I know this is difficult to do at times, especially if the student is disrupting your class. But, at this point, it’s too late. If you try to “win the battle” by yelling, demanding, or lecturing, you’ll lose the war (so to speak).

Wait until the time-out is over and the student has settled down, and then calmly approach. Lean in and say, “Evette, because you didn’t sit quietly in time-out, you will have to miss the Jeopardy vocabulary game this afternoon.”

Don’t wait for a response. Turn and walk away.

When the time for the game or enjoyable activity arrives, show your enthusiasm for the event and allow your students to get excited. But just seconds before the start, when the room is silent, walk over to the offending student and remind her that she won’t be allowed to participate.

As you increase the interest, excitement, and enjoyment in your classroom, as well as your likability, classroom management becomes an easier proposition. Add to it an unbending commitment to accountability, and you have an unbeatable combination.

Everything you do—how you speak, the classroom environment you create, your relationship with students, and much more—affects classroom management. The entirety of how you can use these to your advantage can be found in the book Dream Class.

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

Receiving complaints from parents can be stressful and make you lose confidence in yourself, especially if they’re leaked to other parents or fellow teachers. Worse yet is when a parent goes over your head and complains to your principal.

The best way to handle parent complaints is to listen politely, and then take action. Fix their problem, allay their fears, and do whatever you need to do in order to restore their confidence in you and your program.

Teachers who bristle and become defensive when a parent questions their teaching practices are making a mistake. If they’re not careful, they’ll find themselves in a protracted battle they can never really win.

Your reputation in your school community is critical and is never worth tarnishing, regardless of how “right” you may feel. Parents want you to do well, and it’s best to treat them like valued customers.

Still, it never feels good to hear from a dissatisfied parent. The best strategy, then, is to never give them a reason to complain in the first place. What follows is a list of eight ways to eliminate parent complaints forever.

1. Send a parent information packet home the second week of school detailing your classroom management plan, homework policy, and restroom procedure. Most complaints come from these three. Make the information contained in your packet clear-cut and simple to read. The reading time should be no longer than ten minutes. Send it after a full week or more of teaching the information to your students.

2. Include a signature slip at the bottom of the last page of your packet. Ask in the cover letter that both the student and his or her parent(s) sign the slip. It should read, “We have read, understood, and discussed Room 22’s parent information packet.” Use a dotted line and clear instructions that the slip must be signed, detached, and sent back to school. The parent, then, keeps the packet for reference. Allow your students a few days to return the signed slips, and then file them in a safe place.

3. At back-to-school night, thoroughly review the parent information packet and allow a Q&A period to clear up any areas of confusion. Tell your parents exactly under what circumstances you will contact them. Many complaints start out with, “I didn’t know this about my daughter” or “Why didn’t you let me know my son did this?” No one likes to be surprised.

4. Send home progress reports once a month. Use a simple form, a half sheet of paper you fill out for each student. You can make it a checklist if you wish. Just give parents the facts. Include number of time-outs, homework misses, and any poor test grades. Only write comments if they’re needed. Progress reports take little time to fill out and are so worth the effort. Require the reports to be signed and returned within a couple of days. Then file them for future reference.

5. Be an open classroom. Invite parents to visit any time and have chairs set aside for visitors. Don’t worry, they won’t barge in. Few will take you up on your offer. It’s the thought that’s important. It shows you care and appreciate their involvement. It’s the teachers who prefer to teach behind closed doors who find themselves in the cross hairs of unhappy parents.

6. Don’t yell, use put downs, or sarcasm. Besides creating tension, these hurtful methods don’t work in the long run and virtually guarantee that you will, at some point, receive complaints. And these types of complaints are especially embarrassing and nearly impossible to answer. Instead, follow your classroom management plan to the letter.

7. Use a simple homework policy. Make sure it doesn’t require parents to do anything except supervise from a distance. Too many students take homework home they don’t fully understand, and parents are left to teach it to them. One of the keys to getting homework back each day is to assign only what students have proven they understand. Homework is between you and your students. Parents shouldn’t have to get involved.

8. Make sure your students enjoy being in your class. Happy students equal happy parents.

Follow these eight strategies and you will effectively complaint proof your classroom. I guarantee it. If you answer probable complaints proactively, you won’t get any.

Thanks for reading.

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

Teachers who struggle with classroom management do too much hoping. They hope they have a well-behaved class this year. They hope their students won’t be too talkative or disrespectful. They hope they don’t have to deal with yet another disruption.

They try to set limits in their classrooms, to be sure, but setting limits doesn’t work like they hoped. If this is you, then you’re settling for far less than what is possible.

The most effective teachers have a mindset that is decidedly different from those who struggle with classroom management. They don’t hope their students will behave, they know they will.

Your Ideal Class

Think of all the student behaviors that get in the way of really loving your job. What really bugs you or causes you stress? What interferes with you becoming the best teacher you can be? Is it calling out? Is it disrespect? Do your students ignore your directions?

Now take out a sheet of paper and a pen—red is best—and sit down at your desk. You can do this exercise mentally if you wish, but participating will be more powerful.

Draw a large square/rectangle on your paper, leaving about two inches to the edge. Write down those unwanted behaviors outside of the red square. Go ahead and fill up the page. Include everything you can think of.

Now take a look.

Inside the square represents your ideal class. It represents the freedom to be the teacher you want to be. It represents teaching without stress, disruption, and drama. It’s what you’ve longed for ever since you decided to become a teacher.

To have effective classroom management, the kind where you know your students will behave, you must protect and defend your red square at all costs (ethically and respectfully, of course). This must be your number one priority.

Building A Wall

Picture yourself standing outside of Jaffa Gate, the main entrance into the old city of Jerusalem. To the right and left of the gate, the giant wall that once protected its inhabitants snakes off into the distance, eventually encircling the entire city.

Just inside the gate, to the left, is a set of stairs. Go ahead and take those to the top. Now you’re standing atop the massive wall that surrounds old Jeruselum.

Looking out over the city, you can see the wall in its entirety. 10 feet thick and nearly 50 feet high, it once stood as an impenetrable barrier to the outside world. It provided a physical as well as visual reminder that nothing was getting through.

If you want to love your job, if you want to be an extraordinarily effective teacher, if you want to give your students a memorable learning experience, then you must construct your own impenetrable wall.

The most effective teachers know their students will behave as expected because they construct a metaphorical wall around the sanctuary that is their classroom, and they let nothing inside.

It’s sacred to them.

They know that if there is a breach of their wall, if they allow any amount of unwanted behavior inside without an assertive response, they’ll lose their ideal classroom and all the wonderful benefits that come with it.

The Essential Mindset

Take a look again at the behaviors you wrote down outside of your square. Do the rules you’re currently using cover each of these behaviors? In other words, does each behavior trigger at least one rule? If not, then you need rules that do.

You can check out the rules I recommend, or you can construct your own. But they must protect your classroom from all unwanted behavior.

Adopt the essential classroom management mindset of the most effective teachers. Instead of hoping to have well-behaved students, make your limits (i.e., your red square) an impenetrable wall you’re committed to defend.

Do that and you, too, will know your students will behave as expected.

If you haven’t done so already, I invite you to join us. It’s free! Click here and receive classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.

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