While you are making the most of your summer break and planning ahead to next school year, it may also be beneficial to consider classroom management. As with all things planning, nailing down your classroom management goals and techniques early will ensure success and ease. Thinking about classroom management on the first day of school is unfortunately too late. Set your secondary classroom up for success with highly-achievable classroom management goals for the upcoming school year.
First, let’s talk a bit about what classroom management is… and isn’t. There’s a fleshed out blog post on Classroom Management if you’d like more tricks and tips!
When does Classroom Management begin?
Now! Planning and effectively communicating your desires for your classroom to your students has to happen before the school year starts. You must be ready to go on day one. In fact, Meet and Greets are a great way to establish classroom management from the very second you meet your students on the first day of school.
This totally editable (and totally *FREE*) First Day Scavenger Hunt is also a great ice breaker to set the school year off on the right foot. While this exercise is fun and light-hearted with a good amount of humor, it also helps you to effectively and clearly communicate classroom expectations right off the bat with questions like “What do I need to bring to class everyday?”
To be ready to implement your plan on day one, you have to start planning now. I know, I know. Your ideal summer, especially when recovering from the non-traditional end to the 2020 school year, is not spent researching effective classroom management strategies and how to implement them in your classroom. But, setting yourself (and your students!) up for success on day one starts with your commitment to a productive and inclusive classroom environment on the very first day of school.
How do I get started?
First, let’s revisit the idea that classroom management is an integrated approach to learning. It isn’t just seating charts, behavior contracts, or poster-sized classroom rules plastered to the wall. Classroom management is exhaustive, multi-faceted, and modifiable.
Classroom management can begin with a simple idea – one that is a buzz word of the current times and one you’ve likely studied in your classes and/or continued education. Growth Mindset.
Growth mindset is the idea that students can develop their skills and knowledge. Using a growth mindset in your classroom reduces stagnation and burnout, helps students to find learning styles and techniques that work for them, and creates a positive and encouraging learning environment that makes students want to dive deeper.
Using a Growth Mindset Focus Guide will establish your expectations on day one, while helping students to understand their potential and set goals for the upcoming school year.
What about behavior?
Behavior is a key component of classroom management. If you don’t set measurable expectations or establish your classroom rules, students will not have a tool by which they can measure their success. It leads to a murky, unsure classroom environment where students are walking on eggshells instead of learning. This isn’t a productive learning environment for teachers or students.
Instead, make your expectations clear from day one. Having students sign a Behavior Contract ensures that you have fully communicated your classroom expectations and that they agree to your guidelines. This leaves the opportunity for students to seek clarification or explanation, eliminating that murky tread-with-caution disaster.
You can also get the Behavior Contract in Spanish!
What’s next?
After you have set clear expectations for classroom behavior and encouraged students with a Growth Mindset, you should use measurable tools to continually check your progress. Make sure the wheels are still spinning in the right direction… double check that the common goals are still within reach.
Checking in with your students regularly not only provides vital feedback to your teaching style and classroom management success, but it also empowers students to express their opinions and speak freely. If students realize they are part of the vehicle of learning, they are more likely to invest into their education. No one wants to be a bystander. Using tools like the Student Study Survey will ensure students are being heard!
I assure you that, while a nice, relaxing summer under the sun with a beverage of your choosing in hand sounds miraculous, being prepared for day one of the upcoming school year will feel EVEN BETTER if you get it done now. Planning for next school year has so many different facets, including this critical piece on classroom management, and putting this off until the night before school starts will only create more stress for you and your students! Using the tools for success to help you implement a foolproof classroom management plan now will reduce much stress later!
Happy Teaching!
