5 Ways to Reset Your Classroom Management Strategy After a Break
This is the time of the year when behavior expectations and classroom management can start to feel a little stale. Especially after returning from a break, sometimes it can be helpful to give your classroom management strategy a refresh. Here are some of my best tips for injecting some new life into your classroom management strategy.
1. Revist Classroom Agreements
At the beginning of the year, you most likely spent a lot of time with your students discussing how they wanted their classroom to look and feel. You probably had long discussions about what you expected of them and what they expected of each other so that everyone could focus on learning. It’s time to have that conversation again. The best part is, you know them a lot better now! You know what they are good at and you know what they need to work on. Take some time to really discuss this with them. Give them feedback, both positive and constructive, about how they are meeting the agreements you discussed the first week of school. Add new ideas and maybe even change existing ones to better meet their needs moving through the rest of the year. This is also a good opportunity to revisit consequences, too! It is always interesting to hear what students think should happen when someone breaks a classroom agreement. It usually gives you some good insight into what’s really important to them.
2. Set Goals
The new year is always a good time to revisit goals. As a teacher, I always had a few goals I was working on professionally. Sometimes this really helps me to stay motivated when things get hard. Clear, focused meaningful goals can help keep your spirits up through those really tough days. It works the same way for your kids. Now is a great time for them to set goals and think about what they hope to accomplish by the end of the year. When they are having tough days, you can remind them of their goals to help them reset and refocus. This is also a great opportunity to share goals together as a group and deepen connections and community in your classroom. Make sure to share yours, too! It’s a good feeling when your class feels like one big support group.
3. Spice Up Procedures
Raise your hand if you are sick of “1,2,3 eyes on me”. Well, your kids are too. That means It’s time to pull some new tricks out of the bag. Try switching up some of your daily routines or procedures to create a little more excitement. While I know it can seem scary to deviate from a solid routine, just start by thinking about the times of day that are the most challenging. How can you inject some new life into these parts of the day that feel challenging, annoying or drab?
- Are your phonics lessons putting your kids to sleep? Try something more engaging like Lalilo.
- Are you having trouble getting kids’ attention? Check out this doorbell idea.
- Is your end of day routine a disaster? Try implementing a Closing Circle, or try out some new class jobs.
Start with just one part of the day that has gotten stale, and see if you can try something new. If you can’t think of anything on your own, ask someone! Ask your next door neighbor, ask Pinterest or post in your favorite teacher facebook group.
4. New Incentives
Something that can almost always get a squirrely class excited about changing their behavior is a new exciting reward. Especially since you know what they like by this time in the year, it’s easier to come up with things they might be into. It’s helpful to think about having separate reward systems for individuals, small groups and the whole class to earn. If you’ve got much more than that it can be hard to stay consistent, and consistency is key! It is also a good idea to think about tying rewards to specific behaviors that the class or individuals are really struggling with. What are the behaviors that you are constantly redirecting? Build your reward system around those things.
5. Balance Redirections with Positive Praise
I don’t know about you, but when behavior is off in my classroom, I can get really negative and have a hard time noticing anything other than bad behavior. It’s really easy to forget about that one kid who is doing everything right, when you’re busy channeling Viola Swamp because the rest of the class is a hot mess. So here’s my trick, for every redirection, give two compliments. “Candice, you need to go sit back down. Wow, Jayden is totally focused on his book and Kendall and Janice are working so well together!” Sometimes it will feel a little silly, but I promise it will help you see both sides of your classroom. Also, we all know kids love positive praise and when they start noticing that you are handing out more of it, they will straighten up to try and get some. Don’t worry if you can’t maintain it all day. Pick a few parts of the day to try it out and see how it goes.
What classroom management struggles do you usually have around this time of year? How do you turn them around? Comment below with your best tips for working with a challenging class!
