Rock stars don’t reach the top of the music world without one key ingredient:
Purposeful thinking.
Sure, they need otherworldly musical skill, vocal technique, and years perfecting their craft. But their mind is what drives them there.
That same mindset, percolating deep behind the shaded eyes of your favorite performer, can help you become a classroom management version of a rock star.
Here’s how:
You must have vision.
To create the classroom you really want, you need a clear vision of what it looks like. Otherwise, you’ll be a rudderless ship, bounced around by the tides of circumstance and never getting where you want to go.
A vision acts as a personal homing device, directing you intuitively toward your goal and correcting you along the way.
Like a future rock star who pictures herself onstage in front of thousands of adoring fans, see yourself teaching your ideal class. Visualize your best self, confidently inspiring motivated students who love being in your classroom.
The clearer your vision, and the more vivid it appears in the mind, the sooner it will come true.
You must believe in yourself.
Aspiring rock stars face a mountain of criticism, rejection, and disappointment. Without a strong belief in themselves, they’ll never make it. Classroom management, too, has its own discouragements.
After a stressful day of corralling disobedient students, tamping down disruptions, and tap dancing just to get your students’ attention, it’s easy to get down. It’s easy to give up on yourself and say, “I can’t do this.”
Getting through tough times to become a classroom management rock star takes an unshakeable belief in yourself. You have to block out the negative commotion in your head and tune in to that small voice that says, “I can do this.”
You must take responsibility.
There are a hundred reasons why you shouldn’t be able to create your dream class. Just ask the teacher next door. Or the 30-year veteran waiting out retirement. Or spend ten minutes in a teacher chat room.
Like a finger-pointing would-be rock star whose career never got off the launch pad, it’s easy to blame outside circumstances for student misbehavior, so tempting to point the finger elsewhere.
People cling to their justifications like a warm bath.
Maybe you teach in a rough neighborhood. Maybe some of your students have deplorable home lives. But between the four walls of your classroom, none of it matters. You still have 30 students looking up at you, waiting for inspiration and hope for the future.
As soon as you shutter away the justifications, excuses, and 101 reasons why your students can’t behave, and take responsibility for the behavior that takes place on your watch, you’ll finally—blissfully—be empowered to create the class you really want.
You must be (a little) selfish.
No, you don’t need to preen about campus like Mick Jagger or put your needs ahead of your students. But when it comes to effective classroom management, being a bit selfish is a good thing.
Too many teachers become so disillusioned by misbehavior and disobedience (and buy in to the excuses) that they start believing that it’s part of the job, a sacrifice one makes on the alter of education.
Whether they like their job or not is secondary.
But here’s the thing. When you make your happiness a priority, when you decide to accept nothing less than awesomeness for yourself and your classroom, then that’s exactly what you’ll get.
Why Not Be A Rock Star?
Do you ever have days with your students that feel nearly perfect? You’re relaxed, they’re happy, and everything is the way it should be.
These tantalizing moments, brief flashes in a long career, are haunting reminders of what is possible… every day of the week.
Don’t be like that coulda-shoulda-woulda rock star, playing the local clubs, semi-satisfied, never rising to meet his potential.
Why not go after what you really want? Why not create a classroom you can’t wait to get to every morning?
Why not be a classroom management rock star?
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Michael I find your posts always timely. I am working to get my class back on track and your reminder to clear my brain of the excuses and take responsibility is very valuable. Thanks for the pep talk.
Hi Michael, you may remember me (the student teacher in San Diego). I’ve just gone through my first 2 weeks of full-time at the classroom. I was wondering if you have any favorite “attention-getters” (like clapping or something). Also, do you recommend making partner-talk highly structured? I’ll be back in the classroom in January and am thinking of making some adjustments…
Hi Casey,
Check out the article How To Signal For Your Students’ Attention. I’m not a fan of chants, clapping, or counting down. This article will explain what I do recommend. In regard to partner talk, I think you should teach exactly what you expect from your students (i.e., how to have a polite conversation) using detailed modeling, role play and and practice. And then let them go. Let your students have a natural conversation based on your single prompt.
Michael
Hi Michael,
I recently found your blogs and have subscribed. I’m currently working towards my bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. At the moment I am substituting. I was wondering if you had any tips for substitutes. It can be a real challenging job!
Hi Aubrey,
It’s best to think of each day of subbing as your classroom. Have your own classroom management plan, enforce consequences, and build leverage like you would if they were your students.
Michael
Hi Michael,
I definitely agree with the idea about the counting. My cooperating teacher counts down from a number like 30 after she gives some directions so they know how much time they have to do it and get to the rug, so I feel like if I were to count after not getting their attention it would equate the prior example as a mad, mean demand.
Also, I do think we need to model and practice more of what we’re looking for. As my professor says: “Model, model, model, and then go ahead and model again.”
Thanks 🙂
I really appreciate your posts. It’s my first week back from Winter Break. I reviewed the rules and consequences with my students, then adjusted the posted consequences to reflect what I actually do carry out, then I started enforcing it. The week has been a breeze! Students have misbehaved, and I have administered consequences, but I haven’t been stressed because I took your advice to allow the stress to fall completely upon the student, not upon me, but enforcing my consequences. It’s been a delightful week, and I’m ready for another one!
That’s awesome SC! Way to go! No reason why it won’t get even better…and better.
:)Michael
What do you do if the observation rubric is all about what the student is doing and completely blind to the efforts and tactics you are using to motivate, mitigate, enforce, explain and adjust for accommodations the classroom expectations?