6 Classroom Management Mistakes Teachers Should Avoid

Classroom management. There, I said it. Do I get my mouth washed out with soap now?

I would venture to say that there are approximately zero percent of you that got into this noble profession so that you could manage a classroom. You got in to CHANGE kids! And yet, over the past 20 years in the classroom, I have watched young teachers (or old and inefficient ones) make these common classroom management mistakes.

Please hear me very clearly. I am not a classroom management wizard. I don't have a YouTube Channel showing you all the shortcuts.

But I do love my students. And I do have a classroom that gets a lot done. And I do have a classroom where students feel safe. They feel safe to succeed. Safe to fail. Safe to ask questions. Safe to grow. And that is the goal of classroom management. Not tyranny, but safety.

1. Stop using your desk as a shield. This is going to age me. You know that little guy with the droopy nose that we used to draw peeking over the fence? That is many new teachers.

They use the safety of their desk or their whiteboard or their podium to protect themselves. If they break free and move around the room, they might see things that shouldn't be happening. And then they will have to confront that issue. And then they will look mean. And then all the students will hate them. Boy, that went downhill fast. But it doesn't have to. If you went to lunch with a respected coworker, one that you wanted learn from, and they sat 15 feet away on the other side of the bar, you would feel that distance. Same goes with your students. They feel that distance. And their sinful nature will exploit it. I remember, as a young teacher, when a respectable student said he was having a hard time focusing in class because the kid in front of him was watching movies every day on a screen tucked into his backpack. I literally had no idea. And I had every good excuse. I taught in an auditorium, like a college lecture hall. I had 45 freshmen in physical science. It was really challenging. But had I done a better job of prying myself away from the safety of the stage, I would have created SAFETY for all of my students. Don't know what to do while roaming? Be a human. Smile. Give a high five. Compliment their shoes. And when necessary, turn poor behaviors into good ones.

2. Volume does not equal control. There is a losing game that many new teachers play. It's called "Who Can Be Louder?". And it is the dumbest game for the teacher. It starts like this; kids are talking under their breath when they shouldn't. The teacher responds with a volume a little louder. Then the kids pick up the volume so as not to be disturbed by teacher's instructions. Then the teacher raises the level. And pretty soon, one teacher is in a shouting match with 30 kids. You will lose. Your goal in the classroom is cohesive effort toward a goal. Don't be afraid of dead, awkward, palpable silence. Allow the squirm created by the environment to creep into the offending kids. Use quiet strength and determination to make your point. There is a great quote from NFL coach Tony Dungy about volume.

3. Don't give away something in September that you want to sell in December. This is key for young teachers and those of us who really want to be liked (please read my blog concerning this topic). There is a tendency for young teachers to want to give some rewards to earn the favor of students. And then about December, they realize that the students have been asking for the reward more and more. And they don't deserve it. The teacher feels it would be better to sell the reward. As in, "If you work quietly and quickly to finish X, then you can do Y (the reward)." In the back of the students' minds they know that they used to get this reward for free, and now it costs? It's like that free one-month trial running out and your credit card gets automatically charged. That does not create unity.

4. Being strict for the sake of strictness. Your job as a teacher is to create a culture of striving. If your rules and the harsh punishments for breaking those rules are simply so there ARE rules, you will struggle to create a culture of striving. If you are reasonable instead of strict, the students will feel a different sense in the classroom. Don't bend over backwards. Don't be so soft that the culture of the classroom is anarchy. But "let your reasonableness be known to all." When you strike the balance of being strict and being reasonable, you will find that the level of respect and unity in the class increases.

5. Not smiling until December. I know I was given this adage back when I first started in the classroom. I suppose the heart behind it was for my good. But it was also completely against my teaching goals. I want kids to receive a smile and give a smile WHILE LEARNING CHEMISTRY! I want them to know that they bring me joy when we are unified in the classroom. I want them to know that when I am NOT smiling, it is for a reason. You will win over infinitely more kids by being genuine than by restraining your joy. And when you win over more kids, the culture of the classroom begins to shift. I am a basketball coach and took over a struggling program six years ago. I did not correct the culture in the first year. It took three years! But now I can walk into my gym, having missed the first 1/3 of practice and know that the right things were done in the right way. Is that because I never smiled for three years? No way! It is because they knew by joining me in a place of joy, we could accomplish more together.

6. Making rules for rules' sake. This final mistake has been woven into all of the above comments. However, I think it needs to be said explicitly. Make only the rules that benefit the culture of your classroom. Too many rules, and you will be putting on your police badge every morning. Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski put it this way,

Don't be afraid to make decisions in your classroom. Those decisions might mean that rules concerning X are necessary, but not for Y. Those decisions might be in the way that you treat the consequences for different students. Here is an example that you should probably not follow. I had a rule, early in my career, that tardies equaled detentions. The heart was fine; "be on time." But the execution got cloudy. I had a student that was constantly late to first period. He also never showed up for detention, which meant he earned more detentions. I learned through talking with him that he was alone at home at the beginning of the school day and just wouldn't wake up. So I showed up at his house. I banged on his window and got his rear to school. The rule in my classroom could never be "Don't be tardy or Mr. Koch will invite himself to your house." That was a decision that I made (and by the way, I realize that I am teaching in a different era now, and banging on a kid's window would probably get me fired.) But still, I made a decision, instead of a rule. You will build better culture by making better decisions than rules.

And here is your bonus for reading all the way to the bottom of this blog. I will give you the entire list of my classroom rules. Ready?

1. Honor.

2. Respect.

That is it. Honor and respect. If you step outside honor and respect I will make a decision. And those decisions can lead to consequences. But ultimately, I want those decisions to lead to striving.