Back-to-School Classroom Management: Four Key Strategies for Success

Going back to school soon and looking for some strong classroom management strategies that will make you feel confident in your classroom management skills?

Here's a breakdown of not only classroom management strategies I use at the beginning of the year, but also how to revamp your classroom management plan. I share my secret to starting the school year strong with clear expectations, procedures and strategies that will get your students excited about learning and following the expectations of the class.

These classroom management strategies will help you confidently minimize disruptive behavior, save time in the classroom, and be confident in your classroom management skills.  

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I’m Helena, a coach for new and first-year teachers sharing knowledge on how to have a thriving career and personal life.

The Present Teacher Podcast is a resource for classroom management, classroom organization, time management, and teacher wellness. Follow along and learn how to thrive in the classroom and in life.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Strategies for Effective Classroom Management
• 8:27 Effective Classroom Management Strategies

Transcript

Helena: 0:00

So you're getting ready for back to school and you're wondering what should I focus on in regards to classroom management? Well, here I'm going to be sharing the top four classroom management strategies to focus on during back to school. So, with that being said, let's dive in. Hey, teacher Bestie, my name is Helena and I'm the creator of the Present Teacher Podcast. I'm a first year teacher coach and in this podcast, you are going to learn everything from simple, actionable classroom management, social learning and teacher wellness strategies. You know that impact you want to make in the classroom. We're going to make it happen here.

Helena: 0:37

Now, the first area I highly recommend that you focus on during back to school are procedures and expectations. Now, admittedly, I didn't know much about this when I started teaching. I had heard about this and I thought I was doing it naturally, but in fact, there's really a way to be very intentional about your procedures and expectations. First, let's talk about what classroom procedures are and expectations. Procedures are how you expect your students to interact with each other and throughout the room, throughout the school day. They are things like lining up, transitioning, packing up, coming in in the mornings, using morning tubs, doing centers, using their journals, raising their hand, doing a class call. All of these things are different procedures that you can teach at the beginning of the school year. So, with that being said, here's the strategy I highly recommend that you do when it comes to teaching procedures and expectations, and that is to model and do intentional planning. Now what do I mean by this? Instead of just randomly, you know, teaching these random procedures throughout the day as they come to your mind, it's easy to forget those and to feel quickly overwhelmed when you're not being intentional about it. So instead, I recommend focusing on anywhere from three to five procedures a week. Now, in weeks past, I have shared about which procedures I like to teach during the first couple weeks of school, and you can check that out from a previous week. But in general, I recommend picking three to five procedures you want to teach during that first week or two weeks of school. Now, if your students seem to have a really good grasp on that procedure, feel free to add more. But this is kind of the sweet spot I have found in years past. In the past weeks, I have shared how I personally like to teach expectations and procedures, so make sure to check that out if you want an example on what that may look like. On what that may look like, but one extreme area that I didn't think to apply to this area and I'm not quite sure why, I don't know why I didn't think to apply good teaching practices necessarily to classroom management, but it finally clicked for me and that is to model the procedures and expectations.

Helena: 3:02

You want to actually physically get up and model what it looks like and sounds like and have discussions about it and model what it doesn't look like and sound like. It's easy to feel like your students are never doing what you're asking of them and you always have to remind them when they haven't seen what it looks like and sounds like and it's not very clear. I can tell my kids that I expect them to be at a level zero in the line or and they might still whisper, they might think talking is just kind of whispering or I can model to them what that should look like and sound like. So make sure that you are modeling and you're being intentional and planning which procedures you are hitting on which days. That way you don't miss any and in in general, I like to be intentional on hitting a majority of my procedures in the first couple months and just reviewing throughout the year. That way, as I come up and I notice that as a class we're really starting to forget about that procedure, I can quickly do a review and then move on and don't forget to practice. Often on average it takes 21 times for something to become a habit. So during those first two months you're really just trying to get that procedure into a habit so your students can do it without thinking about it.

Helena: 4:13

The second strategy I recommend you look at when it in regards to back to school classroom management are your rules. So in this area it's easy to kind of look over these as not important, but really your rules are your foundation to how you want your classroom to run. In years past I've used everything from affirmations to I am statements or I can statements, to whole brain teaching rules. Now, one thing I have found and a strategy I recommend you specifically do in this area, or I like to do in this area, is to review every day, specifically especially for those primary ages. Now, in years past, like I said, I did whole brain teaching rules and I had a teacher's assistant, or a one of my students were the teacher's assistant I should say one of my second graders and they would review the rules for me with the movements and all that. So when you review them every day, your class is more likely to be consistent with them and to remember them, whereas if you just review them once in a blue moon, it's really easy for your students not to feel like they're important because it seems like you were not thinking they're important. So whatever energy you put into your rules, you are going to get back. So really be intentional on which rules you do and make sure to review them every day, or at least every week, so your students know what the expectations are. Maybe that's just your Monday routine, monday morning routine, or something.

Helena: 5:45

The third area I highly recommend you look at in regards to back to school are your relationships. Now, in general, I highly recommend that you don't only have strong relationships for classroom management with your students, but I also recommend you have them with your families, because what happens is, however your families feel about school. Oftentimes your students will reflect that to you. So if I have really strong relationships with that student's family, I can see that that family is very supportive of what's going on in the classroom and the student really cares about how they do in school, whereas if I don't really focus on building strong relationships with my families, the students might feel kind of meh about school, and so will the families. That's why it's important to have strong relationships not only with your students, but with your families as well.

Helena: 6:38

Now the strategy I like to use for this and I highly recommend you do for back to school are positive feedback. So positive feedback is where you reach out to the family and you point out something positive that this student did during that day or during that week. This could be something behavior-wise, like helping a student out, or really coming in every morning, getting right to work. It could be helping out a friend at recess. It could be something like performance wise, like on a test. Either way, every year during the first month of school, I make sure to reach out to every family and give them a positive note, phone call, love call, whatever it is dojo message with a positive thing that happened during that week or during that day of school.

Helena: 7:30

Now, the reason I do this for every single student is several different things. It shows the family that I'm going to be here as a team to advocate and vocalize and demonstrate what's going on in the classroom so they don't have to guess. The second thing is I'm showing the families that I'm here for the good and the bad, that I need help and to celebrate the wins, I'm here for everything. The third thing is I don't know about you, but oftentimes when I was growing up, my families only got a phone call home when something was bad was happening or that they were sick, and so it's easy as a family to not want to be excited about school or supportive when you're only getting called home or contacted when something is bad. So to change that dialect, I find it really important for my family. So I make sure to go that extra mile or to make sure I point out positive behavior or positive things that are going on in the classroom.

Helena: 8:27

So that's the first strategy, and the next thing is to integrate interests. When it comes to your class and your students in your class, I like to find out during the first couple weeks of school what do they like, what do they not like. So, for example, when I taught second grade the first year, imposter was a huge thing coming out for my kids. So what I ended up doing is I made a brain break for imposter and we played it often in class. That helped me build strong relationships with my students and build the gap with you know them and showing that we have common interests and that I care about what they like in a school setting. The second thing is, maybe you also like to just do a survey and figure out what they like to learn about and you start incorporating that into the articles you read. Either way, getting to know your students and their interests outside of school and integrating into the classroom is a great way to build really strong relationships with your students.

Helena: 9:31

Now, the fourth area I highly recommend you look at for back to school is what I like to call proactive management. Now, proactive management is different than reactive management. Reactive management is where a student partakes in disruptive behavior. It triggers you know whether it's dysregulation or it triggers something in you and you're reactive back, whether that's yelling, whether that's shutting down, whether that's stabbing, whatever it may be. You are then being reactive to their behavior. Instead, I like to coach my teachers that I work with on proactive classroom management. Now, proactive classroom management is where you're either preventing the classroom management for happening or you already have a plan in place if that behavior occurs, so you're not relying on your reactive reaction or instead being proactive about navigating those situations so you can bring them back to base level.

Helena: 10:30

So what I recommend doing for this strategy is to have intentional planning and consistency. By this I mean what are you going to do the first time a student is partaking in disruptive behavior, the second time, the third time and etc. Think of different disruptive behaviors. You might run into into the classroom and come up with what you're going to do the first time, second time, etc. That that behavior occurs. So let me give you an example. Perhaps I have a student who is talking while I am talking in class. Here's the different levels. I'm going to be proactive to manage that classroom behavior so that we can come back to our expectations on how we listen when the teacher is talking or someone is talking in general.

Helena: 11:18

So I have a student who is talking to their friend while I'm talking or teaching. I'm going to the first time this happens or, if they're doing it, I'm going to go stand by them. Notice I'm not punishing them, I'm not calling them out in front of their friends. That's a quick way to get kids not to like you or to feel a certain way about you. Especially with the upper grades they care a lot what their friends think, but I am standing by them and hopefully, just with my proximity, they are going to go back to what the expectations are. If that doesn't work and they continue to talk while I'm next to them, I'm going to then point out what friends around the room are doing to show that they are on task and hopefully that student will then fix the behavior. So maybe I've stood by them.

Helena: 12:09

I pointed out maybe three friends that are following the specific expectations. I'm not just gonna say good job Casey, good job Joe. I'm actually going to say I love how Kelly is sitting crisscross applesauce with their eyes up here. I love how Joe has their listening ears. I love how Sean is at level zero. So I'm pointing out the expectations and those procedures that my students are following, in hopes that my student will then notice that they are not following the expectations of procedures and come back to baseline and fix it.

Helena: 12:41

So recap first time I stand by them. Second time I'm pointing out three friends or so that have followed the expectations. I'm being specific and giving praise. Third time, maybe now I need to have a sideline conversation, so I'm going to dismiss the class either. Do you know, center some activity brain break? I'm going to pull that student to the side to have a conversation about what's going on, what I'm noticing are they noticing this too, and why that is and figuring out what's causing the disruptive behavior to occur, and then we can maybe, in that conversation, talk about the procedures and expectations. Now, if this is a repetitive thing, maybe the student and I really need to focus one-on-one on what the procedures and expectations are, or maybe I need the family's involvement at some point and then maybe it becomes admin or a behavior plan at some point. But either way, having a step-by-step-by-step-by-step plan is really going to help you stop giving your students so many warnings and be proactive to minimize the disruptive behavior in a positive way throughout the day.

Helena: 13:51

So that wraps up the four different strategies I recommend doing in the classroom for back to school and classroom management. The first one was procedures and expectations. Make sure to model and intentionally plan which procedures and expectations you're covering and when. The second one were your rules. Make sure to model and intentionally plan which procedures and expectations you're covering and when. The second one what are your roles? Make sure to review them often, so your students don't forget them. The third thing are relationships. Make sure to send positive feedback home and make sure to integrate the interests of your students during the first couple weeks. The fourth area is proactive management. Make sure to intentionally plan what you are going to be doing when a student is partaking in disruptive behavior and then make sure you're consistent with it so you're not giving your students a bunch of warnings before you do something about their disruptive behavior. Otherwise, they're going to know you're not serious and continue doing it over and over again.

Helena: 14:45

So, with all that being said, if you want to dive deeper into classroom management, I have a whole bunch of different content I've covered in past weeks in regards to classroom management. If you want to take it a step further, I highly recommend you check out the classroom management guide. This is a guide that answers the top 10 classroom management questions I get asked and my answers, along with linked blog posts, podcasts, youtube videos, etc. If you want a further explanation or demonstration of my answers and if you want to take it a step further, we're going to be doing a classroom management challenge Now.

Helena: 15:27

This classroom management challenge is a 15-day challenge where we'll be going everything from how to have strong procedures and expectations, what rules to set up, how to build strong relationships and then how to be proactive in your management when it comes to classroom management. The goal of this 15-day challenge is to help you feel confident and create a classroom management plan that's aligned with your values, that you can be confident in, so that way that first day of school, you are confident that you can confidently manage and master your classroom management for the year. Essentially, we're creating a classroom management plan, so how it works is. Each day, I'll give you a different prompt that will help you build out your classroom management plan. And then, to take it a step further, as a thank you, I'm adding three bonus training videos on various topics, like I mentioned before. So if that's something you're interested in, make sure to join the wait list or join us by clicking the link down below. As always, remember we are stronger together and I will see you in the next one.

Helena: 16:32

Teacher Bestie Bye. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode. I hope that you were able to take away some value that will help you thrive inside and out of the classroom. It would mean the world to me if you could take five seconds right now and leave a review on this podcast. And if you found this podcast especially helpful, make sure to take a screenshot of this episode right now and tag me on your socials to let me know you're listening. As always, remember that we are stronger together with all the love in the world. Helena, aka the Present Teacher, see you next time, teacher Bestie.