Classroom Community
A call to action: Let's change the language from "classroom management" to "classroom community." We are not "managing" but together with students we are creating a community.
Classroom Best Practices
This PDF includes several articles about best classroom management practices. Source: Website
Also see: Top Proven Classroom Management Tips
Creating Classroom Community Articles Pt1
3 Tips for Effective Classroom Management in Elementary School | Edutopia | July 18, 2022 | A teacher shares the strategies she used with second graders last year for community building and proactive behavior management.
Starting Each Class with a Warm Welcome | Edutopia | July 30, 2021 | A good welcoming activity is also a proactive classroom management strategy—it builds community in the classroom, establishes a sense of shared values, and makes everyone feel included.
5 Quick Classroom-Management Tips for Novice Teachers | Edutopia | Updated August 21, 2015 | When it comes to managing a classroom, new teachers mostly learn on the fly, but here are some ideas you can use right away.
8 Proactive Classroom Management Tips | Edutopia | August 7, 2019 | New teachers—and experienced ones too—can find ideas here on how to stop disruptive behavior before it begins.
How to Set Up a Learner-Centered Classroom | video | Edutopia | July 21, 2022 | From composing a class charter to practicing morning meetings, these student-centered strategies create a nurturing environment where learners can thrive.
What Does Every Student Need on the First (And Every Other) Day Of School? | teachthought | Aug 12, 2022| Here are eight universal ‘things’ students need to start the year off right with the best chance to become their very best?
First Day Tips for New Elementary School Teachers | Edutopia | July 26, 2022 | Making sure the first day of school goes smoothly for yourself and your students is all in the prep.
How Novice and Expert Teachers Approach Classroom Management Differently | Edutopia | August 13, 2021 | A 2021 study reveals the ways in which new and experienced teachers think about discipline—plus 6 takeaways for managing your classroom effectively this year.
Collaborative Classroom Management | Edutopia | January 19, 2022 | When students have a say on behavior expectations or how to demonstrate their learning, they can help create a positive, engaging classroom culture.
Strategies for Managing Challenging Student Behaviors | Edutopia | April 1, 2022 | Student misbehavior has been particularly agonizing for teachers this year, but there are proactive steps educators can take to remedy it.
Teacher-Parent Communication Strategies to Start the Year Off Right |Edutopia | July 30, 2021| By prioritizing communication with families at the start of the school year, educators can foster strong parent engagement, break down barriers, and provide support for all students.
20 Ways to Bring the Joy Back to Your Classroom | Teacherthought | Sep 27, 2020 | The idea of joy in learning. Not joy for the emotional benefits but for the neurological effect and the residual human ‘lifting’ and growth that occurs when emotion and understanding occur together.
The Power of a Democratic Classroom | Edutopia | July 27, 2021 | A look at how to set up a classroom that promotes shared responsibilities so that students are engaged in their community.
Whole Class Feedback Strategies
Created by Mike Gershon – mikegershon@hotmail.com (Modified by P.Ketko 2020)
Creating Classroom Community Articles Pt2
7 Classroom Management Mistakes—and the Research on How to Fix Them | Edutopia | August 7, 2020 | Whether our emotions get the best of us, or we fall into familiar but unproductive habits, here are 7 common classroom management mistakes, and what the research says you should do instead.
7 Attention-Getters to Use Instead of Raising Your Voice | Edutopia | January 27, 2022 | These visual and audio cues can help middle and high school teachers quickly get students back on track.
8 Quick Checks for Understanding | Edutopia | January 28, 2021| Formative assessment is a proven technique for improving student learning, and the strategies shared here by Jay McTighe work both in the classroom and remotely.
How to Talk to Children | Edutopia | February 5, 2021 | ¸New teachers may feel prepared for literacy and math lessons, but be uncertain about how to just talk with someone under the age of 10. These tips should help.
Teaching Students How to Have Meaningful Conversations | Edutopia | April 8, 2022 | This crucial life skill improves with classroom practice—and many students may benefit from a refresher.
Building Community Virtually With Friendly Fridays | Edutopia | November 24, 2020 | Ideas on how to bring a teacher-tested activity for promoting empathy and other social skills to hybrid and remote classrooms.
Let Families Teach You About New Students | Edutopia | July 22, 2022 | Getting to know young students right from the start can begin with asking parents and caregivers these five thoughtful questions.
Executive Functioning and Kindergarten Readiness | Edutopia | August 3, 2021 | Preschool teachers can use these strategies with students this fall and throughout the year to promote the skills they’ll need in kindergarten.
How to Create a Calm Learning Environment for Preschoolers | Edutopia | June 19, 2020 | Simple elements like lighting, tone of voice, and routines can help young children feel calm and ready to learn.
Collaborative and Proactive Solutions to Behaviour Issues
Click/Tap top ViewThis is part of a website developed by Dr. Ross Greene
What is Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (CPS)?
The key premise of CPS is that children do the best they can with the skills they’ve got. When we encounter difficulties, it’s up to the adults to identify and teach skills that our children are lacking.
A Summary of the Collaborative & Proactive Solutions Method
Identify Something You’ve Noticed
Identify something you’ve noticed without blame or judgement.
“Hey buddy, I noticed you had a hard time when your friend wasn’t following the rules in that game. What’s up?”
Listen
Give them a chance to explain their perception of what is happening. Do not interrupt and do not correct their version of events.
Empathize
Empathize with the child’s experience and validate their feelings.
ie. “It’s very frustrating when someone isn’t playing fair. Sounds like that made you pretty angry. I sometimes feel frustrated when someone isn’t playing fair too.”
Identify Your Concern
Identify your concern — without blame or judgement. Explain your concern without labelling the child or their behaviour, and without making assumptions.
“My concern is that when you raise your voice at other kids, it makes them feel unsafe, and everyone has less fun, including you. I want everyone to feel safe and have fun.”
Child’s Concerns
Ask the child to identify any concerns they have.
Ask them if they have any suggestions or ideas for ways you can work together to solve the problem. Invite them to be part of the solution.
Invite the Child
Ask them if they have any suggestions for ways you can work together to solve the problem.
“What do you think we can do to solve this problem together?”
This includes actions that can be taken both by the children and the adults.
Check-in & Summarize
Check in with the child at the end of the conversation:
How are you feeling about our conversation?
Do you think our plan is fair?
Do you think we can all try those ideas and see how they go?
It’s okay if they don’t work perfectly, we can always make adjustments if we find things aren’t working for us.
CPS Info & Resources
For more information on the Collaborative & Proactive Solutions model, visit the Lives in the Balance website.
Demonstrating Self-Regulation With Tone of Voice
This video emphasizes teachers' need for a calm, neutral, assertive tone to aid self-regulation in students, fostering a safe learning setting. Overly aggressive tones can deter students, diminishing motivation. Balancing calm assertiveness yields optimal student responses, crucial for effective teaching.
Back to School Social/Emotional (SEL) Activities
Behaviour Management Programs are Harmful & Ableist
Click/Tap top ViewArticle written by: Jillian Enright | Medium.com | Sep 10, 2021
Charts, points, and other behaviour management programs touted as “positive” are actually harmful, and ableist.
I Am Grateful for Teachers and School Staff
First off, I want to express my gratitude to all teachers and school staff everywhere. You have supported our children and students through some very challenging times, and have rarely, if ever, been given due respect for your work.
Teachers are under-appreciated, underpaid, and under-resourced. I have worked in schools in various roles, and I have met some amazing teachers and school staff. There are many who go way above and beyond to provide the best possible education and support to their students.
My criticisms here are not of teachers themselves, but of some classroom management strategies teachers are taught. Our knowledge about children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development has grown exponentially over the past 10–15 years, yet our education system lags well behind.
While some school divisions have made efforts to catch up to what current research clearly outlines as best practices, and offer their staff professional development in line with this framework, many schools continue to operate in the dark ages.
Even when particular teachers or school staff are seeking to evaluate and improve their pedagogy, some administrators are not very supportive, and professional development opportunities — or funding — may be scarce.
With that said, I am going to spout off about something that has been very clearly established to do more harm than good, yet continues to be present in almost every elementary classroom in North America and beyond.
Those bloody behaviour charts.
Teachers: I appreciate and respect you, but if you have a “behaviour” chart or any kind of reward system in your classroom, please get rid of it now. I’ll explain why.
Behaviour Management Charts are Ableist
“Traditional discipline works best with the children who need it the least, and works least with the children who need it the most.” — Dr. Lori Desautels
Behaviour charts are often touted as positive behavioural intervention, because they are said to encourage children to make “good” choices, and then be rewarded for desired behaviour. Some even consider them necessary to manage and to “incentivize appropriate classroom behaviour”.
In order for that to work, the child needs to be thinking about the potential outcome of their behaviour prior to, or at the moment of, performing an action. Depending on the child’s age, they may not even be developmentally capable of doing so in all contexts.
Even if most children of that age group are, or may be, capable of such forethought, there are many children who lag behind in certain areas of their neurological development.
For example, children with ADHD are said to be approximately 30% behind their neurotypical peers in terms of their Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) development.
“Kids with ADHD have immature impulse control and frequently act in ways they regret and, as a result, lack confidence that they’ll handle things well. Things get worse if they’re corrected or told to stop repeatedly, as if they could simply behave through their own willpower.” — Stixrud & Johnson
Children with ADHD aren’t the only ones who may experience this delay, however. Children with frontal lobe seizures, acquired brain injury, trauma or adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), PTSD, sleep disorders, among others may also experience similar executive functioning challenges.
The PFC is largely responsible for impulse control, forethought, motivation, judgement, decision-making, planning, and the ability to delay gratification.
Well, that list covers just about anything that would be listed on a behaviour chart: raising your hand before speaking, sitting still, waiting in line, sharing, using an inside voice, and many more.
A great many neurological differences can change how children perceive, process, behave, learn, and develop. Some others include learning disabilities, depression, anxiety, and Autism.
So the children who already have the ability to follow the classroom rules the majority of the time continue to be rewarded for doing something they already know how to do.
Meanwhile, children who lack the neurological maturity, or for other reasons beyond their control are not always able to follow the classroom rules, are then punished for their inability to do so.
“But we’re not issuing punishments, this is a positive behaviour plan,” you say? I know you believe that, but I’ll explain why that position is misguided.
They Put the Cart Before the Horse So to Speak.
First off, behaviour management programs put the entire onus on the child; the young person with the not-yet fully developed brain, and without the life experience that adults have.
Secondly, merely rewarding or punishing behaviours without actually understanding what they mean is an exercise in futility. If the adults never take the time to dig down and discover the underlying sources of the issues, and never teach the child the skills needed to manage, then it’s an endless cycle of behaviour, shame, punish: lather, rinse, repeat.
“Rather than focusing on managing behaviour before we even know what it means, we must prioritize establishing a trusting connection with the child.” — Hughes & Gurney-Smith
Lack of Reward is Punishing
The removal of a reward is, in itself, a form of negative punishment. The threat of missing out on a reward is a punishment and creating fears around stepping out of line does nothing to provide a safe learning environment.
Negative punishment is defined as punishment that results because some stimulus or circumstance (i.e. a reward) is removed as a consequence of a response (i.e. a behaviour, or lack thereof).
For example, if an employee receives a commission or bonus when they surpass a certain benchmark, but fail to meet that benchmark one month and miss out on their bonus as a result, that is a form of negative punishment.
If most of the class receives a sticker for remembering to bring their homework to school, but a few students do not, this is punishing to those students for a number of reasons.
I will cover some of those reasons below, and also wish to point out that many of the reasons I will list may also serve to worsen or increase undesired behaviours, rather than “encouraging” desired behaviours.
They Publicly Shame
Where do most of these behaviour or reward charts usually hang in the classroom? On the wall, or right at the front of the class?
What happens when the students are asked to walk calmly and line-up at the door to go outside for recess, and a couple of them get a little too excited, running or jostling for position in line?
Often the teacher will say something like, “thank you to my friends who walked nicely!” and put a sticker beside their names. Everyone can see which students missed out, and often it’s the same students, the ones who struggle with impulse control and self-regulation, whose names are most obviously lacking in stickers.
Even worse are those coloured charts with clothes pins marking students in various colour-coded zones. They’re often really cute and phrased with positive language, but at the end of the day, they’re incredibly condescending, and sometimes even humiliating.
Below is one example: (Created by author)
In this system, the teacher has clothing pins, one for each student. Everyone starts in the green zone as they enter class in the morning. If the teacher notices behaviours that belong in any of these colour-coded zones, the teacher moves that student’s pin into that section.
Again, this is often done in front of the entire class. Sometimes this happens while the teacher interrupts her lesson to walk over to the chart, and moves someone’s pin while all the students watch, humiliating the child whose pin gets moved into one of the “warning” or “bad” zones.
Children whose pins spend a lot of time in the lower half of these charts are often labelled as “problem” kids, even if teachers never say anything like that out loud.
Children are smart, they notice patterns, and they observe exactly how the adults treat and respond to the children around them. Whether intended or not, peers begin to zero on on the so-called “bad” kids and now those children are developing reputations, sometimes as early as Kindergarten.
They Undermine Intrinsic Motivation
Children whose behaviours are constantly being manipulated by external factors, namely adults imposing punishments and doling out rewards, end up being reliant on tangible evidence of their “goodness”.
“Incentives like sticker charts, consequences, and other forms of adult monitoring that are “laid on” children actually undermine their self-motivation… Rewards can erode self-generated interest and lead to interest only in the reward itself.” — Stixrud & Johnson
This can rob children of the ability to be kind for the sake of being kind, or because it simply feels nice to do things for others, and of the ability to see themselves and their choices as positive without needing someone else to affirm this for them.
“External motivators can reinforce the idea that someone other than the child is responsible for their life… relying on someone else’s pronouncement that they are worthy or smart.” — Stixrud & Johnson
They Cause Anxiety & Unhealthy Competition
Students in classrooms that operate in this way can become fixated on achieving and receiving the promised rewards, to the point where they are very distressed or upset when they do not succeed.
There are even some behaviour management programs that outright pit students against one another. For example, the class may be divided into groups of students to avoid individual competition, in an attempt to promote “positive peer pressure” and teamwork.
If the group with the most points at the end of the week wins a prize, then how do students treat each other when someone is responsible for their group missing out on points, or not winning the prize? How does that student feel when their classmates are blaming them for losing a point or missing out on a reward?
“The central message of all competition is that everyone else is a potential obstacle to one’s own success.” — Alfie Kohn
Not-so-positive peer pressure, I would say.
Little Room for Error (aka being Human)
As an adult, have you ever gotten away with doing something you weren’t supposed to? I know I have. For example, I’ve been late for an appointment and drove over the speed limit, but was lucky enough to not get a speeding ticket. I got away with speeding, which is a potentially dangerous behaviour.
When children are under near-constant adult supervision, they are often called out on just about every single mistake they make, and this frequently happens in front of their peers.
Even worse, children who struggle to conform to school behaviour expectations are often under the microscope more than their peers. Not only are they already singled out because of their neurological or behavioural differences, they are watched more carefully, and then further alienated because their misdeeds certainly don’t get missed.
Lastly, when adults are constantly directing and controlling children’s behaviour, they don’t have the opportunity to develop self-monitoring and self-management skills… because someone is always doing that for them.
They are Manipulative
“Behaviour management is about the adults.” — Dr. Lori Desautels
These behaviour management programs, however positively framed, are primarily about controlling the behaviour of children in an attempt to make the adults’ lives easier.
Unfortunately, this often misses the point, and sometimes makes things worse instead of better.
“Although adult-imposed consequences might be effective at modifying a student’s behaviours, they don’t solve the problems that are causing those behaviours.” — Dr. Ross Greene
I get it, honestly, I do. I am the parent of a neurodivergent child. He’s an only child, but sometimes his energy levels and support needs make it feel like I have at least five children.
I’ve worked in schools and in classrooms geared primarily for neurodiverse children. I cannot imagine trying to provide an education to a room of 30 children, as well as trying to keep the chaos to a minimum. Truly.
That said, when we use rewards and consequences just to get the behaviour we want from children, we are indeed manipulating them for our own benefit. However it may seem to also be for our own sanity, it’s not ethical, and does not teach children the tools and skills they need. In fact, it can often backfire, especially with differently wired kids.
“When they feel forced, kids resist even things that are helpful to them in order to gain a sense of control.” — Stixrud & Johnson
Nobody likes to feel manipulated or forced into anything, but I think this is especially true for neurodivergent people. I know I’m heckin’ stubborn and never want to be told what to do. So much so, I wrote a separate article all about Power Trips Lead to Power Struggles - Our Expert Advice for Avoiding Power Struggles, Particularly with Neurodiverse Kids
“When a teacher is sitting in judgement of what you do, and if that judgement will determine whether good things or bad things happen to you, this cannot help but warp your relationship with that person.” — Alfie Kohn
They are Reactive, Not Proactive
Rewards and consequences happen after a behaviour has already occurred. If a student behaves in a way their teacher does not like, having their clothes pin moved, or missing out on a sticker only reacts to the surface behaviour.
“Rewards do not require any attention to the reasons that the trouble developed in the first place.” — Alfie Kohn
If children struggle to meet their school or classroom expectations, then rewards and consequences are only going to make the child feel poorly about themselves. As I’ve said before, punishments don’t teach skills. Often they only blame and shame.
“By the time a concerning behaviour occurs, you’re in crisis management mode… and behaviour modification strategies don’t solve any problems.” — Dr. Ross Greene
What Can We Do Instead?
We can engage in Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (CPS), a child-centred problem-solving model developed by Dr. Ross Greene. We dig deep, with the child leading the way, to uncover the underlying causes of concerning behaviours.
We empathize with and validate children’s feelings and experiences, and work with them to come up with strategies that will work for them. I have written a number of articles on these topics as well:
Hand Signals to Manage Class Discussions
Inclusive, Equitable and Respectful DiscussionsThis video discusses how to create discussions that are inclusive, equitable and respectful by incorporating hand signals.
Maslow Before Bloom Throughout the Day
Social-Emotional & Recharging StrategiesSome strategies discussed are: Greeting at the door; Movement/Brain breaks; Non-academic conversations; Temperature check; Peace corner; Mindfulness activities; and Unstructured Play.
A Reminder That So Many Different Life Experiences Make Up a Classroom
You never know what others are going through…. Be patient, be kind.
This illustration by Hazel Mead is beautiful.
It’s always vital we remember that so many different life experiences make up a classroom, which places even more importance on SAFE & SECURE CONNECTIONS in the classroom.
Also, remember, this doesn’t just apply to the children…
Thank you to ‘Hazel Mead’ for such a powerful illustration.
Source: View this on the Hazel Mead website and purchase your very own: https://www.hazelmead.com/.../you-don-t-know-what-s-going...Learning Check in Handout
Connecting with Students
