Classroom Management Tips For Teachers
There are many types of students in every classroom, and they all have unique personalities. Teachers must constantly adapt and personalize their approach when interacting with different individuals. However, no matter how hard teachers try, it’s important to remember that disruptions and external forces can happen. No classroom manager is perfect.
There will be situations in which your sense of control is tested. Being able to adjust your methods with confidence is one of the most important skills. Utilize the following classroom management tips to tame disruptive student behaviors and naturally command the attention of your classroom.
What effective classroom management is really about
Knowing many Different Tools - It’s mainly about knowing many, many different tools for different age groups of students and also, knowing how to apply those tools correctly and in an efficient way.
Applying Different Methods for Different Students - In each class, there are different students with different personalities which create different dynamics. So, it is totally logical that those various compositions call for various ideas for classroom management. Not all methods work with all students or all classes. Being aware of this fact helps you stay flexible and open for trying out new ways and discovering the ones which work best for you and your specific class.
Having a Plan for Own Classroom Management - If you first get started with teaching and thinking about classroom management in general, come up with a plan of your very own classroom management tools you think can work with your class. You should have a precise plan for different situations concerning single students and concerning the whole class.
Being Consistent - Once you have your personal plan ready, the best advice is to be consistent, stick to your plan and give it enough time to work and show results. If you switch to different methods too soon, your students might not respond well by not taking you seriously. By being persistent for a while you show that you are serious.
Facts and Behavior – Your focus in the classroom should be on facts you notice and behavior you can actually observe. Don’t make the mistake and let your emotions play a role when applying my behavior management tips for teachers.
What’s most important: Being a role model
Whatever behavior is important to you to teach your students you should show yourself. Especially for younger students, it is easier to adopt the right behavior and internalize it as their own. When students reach a certain age, they notice and analyze your behavior immediately. If you don’t walk the talk, any attempts to teach certain behaviors are most likely doomed to failure.
Your way of communication with your students and their parents is something else to consider. Make sure you always communicate in a positive way, even if you have to break bad news to parents.
By considering your students’ individuality you teach them more than a valuable lesson: you show them what respect for each other really means, you show them that having different talents can be enriching for the whole class and later in life anyway.
Communication and individuality
When communicating with parents, always find at least one positive aspect about their child and express your confidence that things will be ok, as long as the right kind of measurements are taken. Both students and their parents will notice an overall positive tone and attitude and will most likely treat you the same way back. With an open, warm and positive communication style you have the best chances to not only win your students over for better cooperation, but also their parents.
In your class you find different learner types, some students respond more to audio content, some more to written content and some more to visual content like learning videos. Every student is different, help your students to find out about their individual learning preferences by offering a variety of various teaching methods.
Encourage showing talents
Helping your students to discover their talents and strengths is a wonderful and rewarding job. To see them blossom and becoming better and better in a specific subject or in showing a specific skill lets you reap the fruit of your work.
So, encourage them to try out different things and let them make their experiences. Have them make and show small presentations, depending on their grade of course, let them work in teams and by themselves, let them do role plays or have them make their own decision of how to present a completed assignment for example.
Note down all the individual talents you can see and try to incorporate them into your lessons. Noting them down enables you to talk to their parents in detail about the progress you can observe. As a nice side effect, that might lead parents to praise their child at home, too, which could enhance the child’s willingness to make even more progress. It really is a win-win-situation. Incorporating specific talents into your lessons shows your students you do see and notice them, you take them seriously and support them all the way.
What do I do if all my classroom management tools don’t work?
No need to panic, there are always alternative ways you might have not thought of. First, take some time to analyze how long you really have been consistent with the current classroom management tools you have been using so far. Think about why they apparently didn’t work, maybe you need to adapt your tools to customize them to your specific class.
For example, you are dealing with a student who refuses to do any work in class. So far, you have been given out extra assignments for homework as a form of penalty but the behavior of this student hasn’t changed in class. In that case your goal is to build up a good relationship with this student. Stop handing out extra assignments and start talking to this student after class, start giving extra attention in a positive way. Say what you are noticing, don’t ask for reasons but ask in a friendly and supporting way what your student needs to join classroom activities. Don’t expect an answer right away, wait for a while and talk to your student again, ask again and also, ask about private interests and hobbies. Think out loud of ways to include those into your lessons, maybe making a project out of it about presenting hobbies. That way your students can talk about what they like while at the same time practicing their presentation skills. It’s all about getting a real connection to even difficult students. The more they feel heard and taken seriously by you, the better the chances are for them to join classroom activities.
Then, talk to as many teachers as possible, ask for their classroom management advice and use their experience. If you happen to know teachers from different schools, ask them, too. They might have insights for you from their own conversations with their colleagues at their school. Use their classroom management tips for teachers to develop a new plan for you.
Relaxed teacher, relaxed students
No matter how many years you have been teaching so far, staying relaxed is the key to be a happy, successful teacher who stays positive all day despite difficulties. Troubles, bad behavior and stress might be all around on some days anyway, you cannot make all that go away but you can still decide how to deal with everything. You can decide if all the negative things around you get you down or if you don’t let them ruin your attitude, your inner peace, your happiness.
Even if things get really crazy in the classroom, if you manage to stay relaxed and positive, sooner or later your positive vibe will be noticed and will transfer to your students. Are you a young teacher just getting started and stressed by still searching for effective classroom management tips? Try to stay relaxed anyway. Nobody expects you to be perfect right from the start. Trying out different classroom management tips for new teachers is part of the process of becoming an experienced, relaxed teacher.
Allow yourself the time you need to find the right mix for your specific class. Very often, especially in the beginning, you can’t know in advance if a tool works for your class, you just apply any tool and then wait for its effect to show or not, depending on the dynamic in the class, specific personalities or the existing or non-existing support at home. There are always circumstances you cannot control but that is ok, you are only responsible for things you actually can control and learn from. Also, don’t take things in the classroom personally. Stay professional and learn from every step you take.
Check out my online classroom management course for more valuable insights and helpful, on-demand video tutorials to sharpen your classroom management skills.
As a subscriber you gain access to video tutorials like...
- Enhance students’ cooperation by using smart strategies
- Benefit from an active teaching style by optimizing use of classroom, task presentation and ways of communication
- Improve the learning atmosphere by using feedback
- Keep the flow of your lesson going by handling students the smart way and using your mere presence wisely
- Win difficult students for their cooperation by reacting promptly the smart way
- Handle abusive language in the classroom by reacting promptly the smart way
- Keep control over interruptions while teaching by giving effective warnings
- Handle misbehavior by using effective disciplinary procedures
- Avoid conflicts with your students by practicing peacemaking and acting in an authentic way
- Prevent conflicts by teaching your students communication skills
- Deal with conflict situations professionally by being prepared and teaching your students valuable skills for conflict resolution
- Solve conflicts together with your students by using specific methods
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