Inspiring students to be motivated and engaged in the learning process is an essential part of managing a classroom. Teaching students while calmly and effectively managing disruptive behavior is a vital skill for every educator.

Experimenting with new behavior management methods can help determine what works best for you and your students. Their unique personalities and challenges make every class different; a technique that proves effective for one student may not work well for her classmates.

Here are five tips you can try in your classroom. The more tools you have in your toolbox, the more effective you’ll be at managing a variety of classroom behaviors.

1. Post the Classroom Rules

• Students don’t always know what behavior is or is not acceptable. Posting the rules eliminates confusion and serves as an everyday reminder. Also, if not provided by school administrators ask for written expectations from the school principal.
• Choose four or five rules that you expect every student to follow.
• Frame the rules as expectations. For example, instead of “no running,” use “move around in a safe and orderly way.”
• Include consequences of not following the rules.
• Be consistent in enforcing the rules.
• Reinforce positive behavior with a smile, a nod or a “thumb’s up.”

2. Set Up a Discipline Policy

All children in your classroom can understand a discipline policy when it consists of a predictable series of steps followed each time a behavior requires correction.

• Step 1 is a reminder when students are close to breaking a classroom rule. For example, “We’re beginning our lesson, class. You should all have your homework out and you need to stop talking now.”
• Step 2 is a warning delivered verbally or in written form directly to a student. A written warning is a reminder to stop the behavior or face the next step. The student is in control of the warning slip, just as they are in control of their behavior.
• Step 3 is turning in the warning slip to the principal when the student fails to correct the behavior.
• Step 4 is removing the student from the classroom. If the first three steps are followed consistently, Step 4 is rarely necessary.

3. Teaching Students to be Active and Engaged

The most interesting teacher with the most amazing lesson cannot impart information if the classroom is not managed properly. Keeping students engaged and busy makes them less likely to be disruptive.

Engaging students can be as simple as including their names into dialogue. For example, when observing a student talking or drifting off, simply say, “And you see, Christopher, that plants can make their own food.” Christopher hears his name and calms down, without becoming the focus of attention.

Plan to keep students active, rather than lecturing for the entire class time. For longer class periods, plan two or three different activities around the lesson. Aim to get students out of their seats at least once every hour.

4. Be a Presence in the Classroom

Managing a classroom means making your presence known from the time your students enter the room until they leave it. Here’s how:

• Move around the room. Set up desks so you can be up close and personal with students, rather than lecturing from the front of the room.
• Move closer when students are becoming disruptive. If a student or group starts talking or laughing, standing nearby will often calm them down.
• Change the classroom’s look. New surroundings engage students, so plan bulletin boards and study areas around a particular lesson plan or topic. Include items from your own collections, travels or hobbies so students know you as a person, not just a teacher. A personal connection can lead to improved behavior.

5. Use “I-Messages”

When disciplining students, incorporate yourself and your feelings into the conversation. Calmly explain how the student’s behavior is affecting you, using “I.”

• Start with a description of the child’s behavior: “When I see that you are talking while I’m talking…”
• Describe the effect on you: “I have to stop my teaching.”
• Share how the behavior makes you feel: “And that feels frustrating to me.”
• Ask for the student’s help: “Can you help me by showing respect and not talking while I am talking?”

Successfully Managing a Classroom

A teacher who cares enough to create an environment conducive to learning is the most important factor in successfully managing a classroom. But today’s more challenging classrooms require new techniques – so try these five tips to keep students engaged in learning – not misbehaving.

This guest post is contributed by Carrie Oakley, who writes on the topic of online colleges. Carrie welcomes your comments at her email id: carrie.oakley1983(AT)gmail(DOT)com.

It’s one of the most underrated professions in the world – most people assume that you don’t need any special skills to be a teacher, yet few realize that it takes a great deal of effort and ability to handle a classroom full of students. You not only have to be thoroughly knowledgeable in the subject you’re handling, you also need to know how to control a class and maintain discipline and order in it. In short, to be a good teacher, you also need the following classroom management skills:

1. Authority
   Some teachers command authority through the way they look – their very appearance makes students give them the respect they deserve. Others invite sniggers and giggles because they look frumpy and are dressed badly. In order to be taken seriously by your class, you must be presentable and have an authoritative air about you. When you’re sure of yourself and adopt a positive attitude, it becomes easy to command authority just by the way you look.
2. Knowledge
   There’s no use looking the part without knowing what it’s all about, so when you set out to be a teacher, ensure that you know your subject thoroughly. It’s not just enough to be prepared for each class; if you want to be taken seriously by your students and earn their respect, you must be thoroughly knowledgeable in your subject and know more than a little in most others as well. In short, you need to be a jack of all subjects and a master of one in order to impress and command.
3. Individualization
   Good teachers know how to tailor their lessons based on the students they teach – a class of achievers would be bored to death with simplified explanations while one with average students would find difficult theories hard to comprehend unless they’re brought down to their level of understanding. Most classes are a mix of average and brilliant students, so it’s best to prepare lessons that cater to the average student. As a teacher who wants to manage your class effectively, you must know how to assess each class you handle and customize your lessons accordingly.
4. Time-management
   The best teachers I’ve had are those who made a class both entertaining and educative – they were able to teach me about the subject and make the class entertaining as well. When a class is interesting, there’s no difficulty in managing its students. It’s only when they get bored and listless that they start to act up and behave badly. Good teachers know how to manage the time in their classes so that their students don’t realize its passage or keep watching the clock.
5. Patience
   And finally, teachers who manage their classrooms well have immense patience. They don’t lose their cool when their students start acting up; they don’t shout and yell for any reason; and they don’t lose control of the situation at any point of time. It takes a great deal of patience to cope with a classroom full of students, some of who are bent on causing trouble with their mischievous antics. However, if you manage to adopt a cool attitude and show no frustration, it’s easy to regain control and continue with the lesson.

The following comment was left yesterday and I thought it was worthy of its own article as I have seen numerous things of this type happen over the years:

This is my first year as a professional teacher; I have three (90-minute block scheduled) enthusiastic groups of students who have begun to test their boundaries. I love the students, and I want to keep them secure and in control. Perhaps someone might have some advice on a discipline problem I encountered yesterday:

Yesterday, almost half of my last class left two minutes before the bell rang. The chaotic clean-up process, which I will adjust, contributed to their opportunism, but I was shocked, angered, and embarrassed that this happened.

I took down the names of the students who remained, and marked the rest as tardy, but this seems insufficient, and not in keeping with the school�s attendance policy. I would appreciate any advice on addressing this problem. Thanks very much!

When it all boils down, this is exactly the same as when a group of students starts a food fight in the cafeteria or when a group starts yelling or shoving or any other sort of “mob mentality” problems. For that matter, it’s the same as one student consistently skipping class or ignoring the school’s tardy policy or refusing to turn in work on time or whatever.

Essentially the question here is how to address students who don’t seem to feel like the rules apply directly to them.�Here’s how I would handle it:

1. Check with your principal or other school administration to see what their recommendation is. It’s always much easier to follow their advice than having to explain to parents why you didn’t consult administration before punishing their baby. This also shows the principal that you are interested in doing the right thing and being a team player, while still trying to get a better handle on your classroom management.
2. Address the problem specifically with the class. Be sure they know exactly what the consequences will be the next time it happens. Maybe the consequences need to be more severe for repeat offenders.
3. Expect it (or something like it) to happen again and be ready to not lose control. The worst thing you can do is yell and lash our in anger in front of the kids. Maintain control and a calm demeanor at all times and you will regain control.

Obviously we don’t know what age group this is, so I’m just assuming it’s secondary of some sort. But what other suggestions would you offer to this teacher?

When I was struggling to find hope early in my career as a teacher, I came across a few pieces of advice given by King Solomon from the Proverbs:

He who spares his rod hates his son,
But he who loves him disciplines him promptly. — Proverbs 13:24

This one jumped out at me as I realized I overlooked way too much misbehavior. I came to understand that by continually letting the students misbehave because I wanted them to like me was actually counter-productive and instead it made them respect me less. More than that, it showed me that whereas I thought I was being loving, I was actually being hateful.

That helped me a whole lot as it set me on a course to control my classroom for the first time ever.

Recently, I relaxed a bit in that again and while it’s not as bad as it used to be, it’s not what I know it should be. I began to realize this more and more over the past couple of weeks. It was emphasized this week as I was reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink. I began to implement some changes on Thursday and things are much better.

The biggest problem
What I noticed was that I have found it all too easy once again to yell at the kids for not doing what I expect them to do. Why don’t they do it? Well, because they don’t really know my expectations. So I began working on the three basic rehearsal skills that I used to teach to my 6th graders but thought the 7th graders would know by the time they got to me. They didn’t really know them after all.

The rehearsal skills

1. Do not turn and talk to your neighbor when you are not playing
2. Sit still and quiet when the band director is working with another section
3. Always stop at the stopping point

With these three skills established (and I continually reinforce and remind the students of them), things immediately began to get better.

So what?
All of that would be fine and well, and it gives me more peace and helps me relax more. But it doesn’t really feel like everything is right in the world if that’s all I change.

Dig deeper
When I get to that place where things don’t feel like they are right, it’s probably because they’re not. That’s one lesson I took away from Blink. Even though I may not know why it doesn’t feel right, I have to trust that there’s a reason. So I began to dig deeper. And what did I find?

He who would love life
And see good days,
Let him refrain his tongue from evil,
And his lips from speaking deceit.
Let him turn away from evil and do good;
Let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their prayers;
But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil. — 1 Peter 3:10-12 (emphasis added)

and

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. — Ephesians 6:4

and

A soft answer turns away wrath,
But a harsh word stirs up anger. — Proverbs 15:1

and

He who has knowledge spares his words,
And a man of understanding is of a calm spirit.
Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace;
When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive. — Proverbs 17:27,28

and

The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger,
And his glory is to overlook a transgression. — Proverbs 18:11

and finally

He who covers a transgression seeks love,
But he who repeats a matter separates friends. — Proverbs 17:9

So all the while I thought I was being loving by trying to keep students from doing a single thing wrong. I wasn’t being loving, I was merely provoking them and being nit-picky.

Moving forward
I wonder how many students have dropped out of band through the years as a result of my zeal to be right. I wonder how many kids have bad memories of me simply because they were testing the limits and got caught in the crossfire. I’m afraid I don’t really want to know the answer! But even if I did know the answer, it wouldn’t do any good now. What will do good is for me to analyze where I am now, and be sure that it lines up with the knowledge I currently have. I need to be constantly adjusting my teaching philosophy in response to whatever new knowledge I have. I need to be constantly striving to overlook minor problems and be sure that the ship is heading in the right direction.

I close with an excerpt from Blink that sort of points me in the direction I want to take my teaching:

“The first thing I told our staff is that we would be in command and out of control,” Van Riper says, echoing the words of the management guru Kevin Kelly. “By that, I mean that the overall guidance and the intent were provided by me and the senior leadership, but the forces in the field wouldn’t depend on intricate orders coming from the top. They were to use their own initiative and be innovative as they went forward. Almost every day, the commander of the Red [Van Riper's] air forces came up with different ideas of how he was going to pull this together, using these general techniques of trying to overwhelm Blue Team [the enemy] from different directions. But he never got specific guidance from me of how to do it. Just the intent.”

Once the fighting started, Van Riper didn’t want introspection. He didn’t want long meetings. He didn’t want explanations. “I told our staff that we would use none of the terminology that Blue Team was using. I never wanted to hear that word ‘effects,’ except in normal conversation. I didn’t want to hear about Operational Net Assessment. We would not get caught up in any of these mechanistic processes. We would use the wisdom, the experience, and the good judgment of the people we had.”

I have very simple rules. Don’t talk during rehearsal. Stay seated and don’t move around more than necessary during rehearsal. Don’t play extra notes during rehearsal. Now if only I can get myself to talk and micromanage less, I’ll be on the right track.

How do I show my students that I love them? By taking them to the place I want them to go without forcing them to be �the people I think they should be. Let them retain their own personal identity, and things will run much more smoothly than ever before.

A big thank you goes out to Sarah of UrbanMusicEducation.org who recently reminded me of some of these things as well, even thought she doesn’t know she did!

The results to my most recent Twitter poll (what is your classroom management secret weapon?) can be seen over at Miss Cal.Q.L8′s blog.

Be sure to go check out 27 Classroom Management Secret Weapons. While you’re at it, subscribe to her blog and leave some comments.

This is an article in the�Total Teacher Transformation series.�Click here for a complete table of contents.

As we’re going through the transformation, one of the key things to remember is that you must remain respectful to your students. As I’ve written before, classroom control is essential. Some of us have a naturally abrasive personality, and so when we begin to re-assume control, politeness tends to go out the window.

Don’t take things personally
The thing to remember is that even our worst behaved students actually have a genuine reason for doing the things that they are doing. Most misbehaviors are not personal attacks. They are simply misbehaviors for the sake of themselves.

One of my mentors once told me a story:

In his first year of teaching, he was getting upset with his middle school students. They wouldn’t do what he was asking them to do, and they kept making a lot of noise and being generally unfocused. He told them, “You’re acting like a bunch of 12-year-olds!”

One of the students quietly raised his hand and said, “I am 12.”

The point is that 12-year-olds actually act like they’re 12. Think back to when you were the same age as your students. You may have messed with a certain teacher just because you liked to see her reactions or watch him lose control. But it generally wasn’t personal. If you remember your basic manners, you will be have much better repoir with the students.

Today’s assignment
Remain respectful all day. Throughout the day. Be polite, use students’ names, treat them as if they are customers in a store.

This is an article in the�Total Teacher Transformation series.�Click here for a complete table of contents.

When I was a new teacher, I had some really good classroom rules and expectations and consequences all lined up. It was good on paper. Unfortunately, I didn’t follow through consistently at all. If one of the “bad kids” did something out of line, WHAM, I was all over his misbehavior in an instant. If on the other hand, one of the “good kids” did the exact same thing, the one consequence was a smile and warning not to do it again.

Human nature seems to lead us to pick favorites in our classes. These are the kids whose misbehavior we call “cute”. We also tend to have nemeses: kids whom we see as being out to get us. They may have a history of misbehavior in our class, but a lot of the misbehaviors are simply because the wrong kid did them. If our little angel did the same thing, we wouldn’t remember it so clearly.

Enter consistency
One of the quicket ways to circumvent these types of situations is to equally dish out the punishment for both “good kids” and “bad kids.” When we are seen as consistent, the students begin to respect us more, and they begin to feel safer. Education professors all around the world will tell us that the students need to feel safe in order to thrive. I’m not sure that I agree, but it definitely can do wonders for regaining control and respect.

Today’s assignment
Go back in your notebook and see if you can find some patterns of inconsistency. If not, then you are either an amazing teacher already, or else you need to be taking better notes! For the rest of this project, I want you to be more aware of the inconsistencies you notice in your own teaching. Aim to get rid of them. The best way to do it is to treat every “good kid” the way you would treat the “bad kid” in the same situation. Or treat the “bad kids” the same way you would treat the “good kids.”

When you can joke with a “bad kids” just as easily as you do with a “good kid,” you might find that they soften up and begin to behave better with little else!

This is an article in the�Total Teacher Transformation series.�Click here for a complete table of contents.

I�took the day off from blogging yesterday because it was Mother’s Day and I play in a mariachi. If you don’t know what that means, I started playing serenatas (Mother’s Day Serenades) at 6pm Saturday afternoon, wrapped up a little after 8am Sunday morning, then played for another 4 hours Sunday afternoon. We played three songs 40 different times, and also had a one-hour gig in somewhere along the way.�With a church service thrown in on Sunday morning for good measure, it probably goes without saying that I was exhausted yesterday when we finished up.�But now I’m back and ready to go!

Be prepared
One of the primary reasons we lose our temper and los control of a classroom setting is because something surprises us or catches us off guard. If we can predict our reactions to these recurring, yet unpredictable events, we will be in much better shape to respond appropriately, maintain our cool, and maintain classroom control. Just as it is the Boy Scout’s motto, “Be prepared” applies well in most every setting.

When I was student teaching, my cooperating teacher was out one day and a sub was in there. While the students wereall quietly �watching a video, one of them screams out profanity and drops a big ol’ “F-Bomb” right in the middle of class. I didn’t know how to respond, so I called the teacher and she walked me through the process.

When I was a first-year teacher, I had students who just flat out argued with me at every single turn. Nothing I did was right, everything the previous band director did was golden. Even though the band got straight 4s before me, and I brought them up to straight 3s. I had one student whose mother worked in the district, but no amount of emailing her produced effective changes in his behavior.

We’ve all been there. Some unexpected thing happens, we don’t know how to respond, and we just lash out with some sort of reaction. The difference between a response and a reaction is that the response is premeditated, and the reaction is instinctual.

Today’s assignment
Plan how you will respond in the following situations:

1. A student chews gum or willfully violates some other clearly stated school policy.
2. When a student’s misbehavior is brought to his/her attention, the response is ambivalent at best (“So what?”) and insubordinate at worst (“No way!”)
3. Two students get into an argument that escalates (or almost does) to the point of name-calling or violence.
4. A student confides in you that another one is picking on him. One day in class, you observe it happening.
5. You have a student who is repeatedly tardy to class.
6. A paper airplane is thrown across the room, but you didn’t see who did it and nobody else is willing to tell you.
7. As you are sitting down, a student makes a “fart noise” with his mouth; the entire class begin uncontrolably giggling for minutes.
8. A student loudly and clearly uses profanity; everyone hears it.
9. You are walking down the hallway and see two students making out.
10. A parent interrupts your class and begins asking you questions about his/her child.

There’s no right or wrong answer here. But having a plan gives you so much more confidence when this type of situation arises. After you plan through some of these things and begin to actually see them happen, your reactions to unplanned events will fall much more in line with how you had planned for different circumstances. Planning is the key.

This is an article in the�Total Teacher Transformation series.�Click here for a complete table of contents.

What a wild week this has been! I’m surprised by how much even going over these classroom management basics on here has impacted my teaching. When I preach this stuff, I sort of have to force myself to follow through. I’ve been discussing this stuff with a couple of friends this week, and just in case one of them walks into my classroom, I want to make sure they see the same stuff!

So if you’ve been following along, you are coming to a realization of just how important classroom management is to your overall effectiveness as a teacher.

I know that the week has been busy. I know that a lot of you even if you are trying to keep up with the series here are under piles of stress. I hope that nothing I am doing is adding to your stress. I have to assume that things are simply going well and I’ve giving you a whole lot to think about this week.

I was emailed by a reader explaining that there is a lot of testing going on across the country right now. I anticipate this series will be much better received (and commented on) when I rehash it all over again in August. But having said that, I want to review the week and include some of the comments that I’ve read as well.

Day 1: Find a Moment

As a preparation for the series, I created a sort of go-to page for pretty much anything classroom management related that I’ve written. This page will constantly be updated and really is the springboard for any teacher who is not as good as they want to be.�Some of the comments and emails I have received lately have been from people who told me they had been digging through the site for months, so hopefully this page will be useful!

Day 2:�Find a Mirror

On day 2, we began to turn our focus to ourselves and take responsibility for controlling our own classroom. We have been a large part of the problem so far. Now we will become a large part of the solution. Until we accept responsibility for fixing our classroom situation, our students will not thrive. To put it even more bluntly, we owe it to them to fix ourselves! I also encouraged readers to document as many of the misbehaviors they experienced in their class as they could.

Day 3:�Find a Mentor

One of the greatest things that I ever did for my teaching was to ask people for help. One of the most difficult things that I ever did for my teaching was to ask people for help. What I found was that most good teachers simply want to help you�be a better teacher! They won’t laugh at you or anything, they will go out of their way to help. Too many young teachers simply don’t listen to the help that is offered, so as we get older, we stop freely offering that help for fear that it will continue going unheeded. If you want help, ask!

Day 4:�Find a Mother

Parents often help with discipline issues. Not always, as evidenced by the comments that came from this article. But if you don’t even attempt to contact the parents, you won’t know. Reach out and touch someone. It’s May! The worst that can happen is they won’t help. The best is that they will and you’ll begin to experience a more tolerable classroom!

Day 5:�Find a Motivator

Positive reinforcement is awesome. In this article, I discussed some contingency planning strategies, both for in the classroom and for in your own personal life. If you don’t have a goal for what you’re trying to accomplish, it becomes difficult to accomplish anything at all!

Day 6:�Find a Mentor – Again

After a week of trying things out and learning things, I recommend touching base with your mentor again. Reader comments came in reemphasizing that it is very important for younger teachers to simply ask more experienced teachers for help. If possible, it would be best to be in daily contact with your mentor(s).

There’s a summary of everything that’s happened so far. I’ve gotten some random comments and twitter notes and things from people telling me that they appreciate this series. I plan to run it all over again in August/September when the school year begins again for me. It also might be something of interest to some college education professors…

This is an article in the�Total Teacher Transformation series.�Click here for a complete table of contents.

Face it, misbehavior has been around only slightly longer than behavior has been. As teachers, we are often expected to fill every possible role in the lives of the students. Unfortunately, that can’t always happen. Sometimes our control and influence over the actions of the students is limited.

Every teacher has students who misbehave from time to time.

One of the things that revolutionized my teaching was to realize that most of the parents really wanted to help me help their child be successful. Most parents also have no real idea of how their children really act.

To really get through to the students, I found it was very effective to pick up the phone and call a parent. Don’t do this when you’re mad or upset, because that is likely to carry through in your tone of voice across the phone, but make sure you call.

I generally have the students call, them tell their parent what they did to get in trouble, what the consequences will be, and all that. I then have them hand me the phone when they were finished talking and clarify a few things with the parent. I do this in a calm voice and just very clearly talk about the unacceptable behavior, why it is unacceptable, and try to help them understand more if necessary.

They generally thank me for letting them know, and ask to speak to their child. I assume they then�tell the kid how much they have embarrassed them, and the behavior problem is usually resolved right then and there. It’s a great sense of control when you realize that the simple act of communication with the parent can weild such powerful results.

It also keeps you from bugging the administrators with something that generally should be handled in house.

Today’s assignment
Clarify to your students that any�misbehavior may result in phone calls home. Then if one happens, feel free to make it happen. The younger your students are, the more effective a phone call home will be. But what parent of a 16-year-old wants to know that their son who wants to borrow the car this weekend is talking back to a teacher? You’ll be surprised by the effectiveness at pretty much all levels.

Setting this clear expectation will be a positive step toward reestablishing power and control of your classroom. And when the classroom is out of control, that is exactly what you need to do!