December 2, 2024 • 21 mins
None of us got into teaching because we couldn't wait to deal with discipline issues. Nonetheless, classroom management can seriously make or break our ability to be effective as teachers. Listen as we explore 10 common mistakes that can totally derail our classroom management (and how to fix them).
Get notes + links at http://teach4theheart.com/329
00:00 Introduction to Classroom Management Challenges
01:29 The Kind vs. Strict Dilemma
03:44 Addressing Small Issues Before They Escalate
05:38 The Importance of Clear Procedures
07:57 Setting Clear Expectations for Behavior
09:51 Logical Consequences in the Classroom
10:49 The Dangers of Bailing Students Out
11:57 Building Relationships with Students
13:46 Encouraging Positive Behavior
14:43 Focusing on What You Can Control
17:32 The Necessity of Having a Plan
If you enjoyed this episode, check out Episode 318: Tips for Better Communication with Parents at https://teach4theheart.com/318
For more help with Classroom Management, check out our training course, Classroom Management 101: https://teach4theheart.com/cm101
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
you
Welcome back to the Teach for the Heart podcast where we tackle teaching challenges from abiblical perspective.
Why are we here?
Because we don't believe that our spiritual walk and teaching profession should exist intwo separate domains.
Rather, the hope we have in Christ should change how we approach everything, not just athome, but at school as well.
(00:21):
So join us as we explore both the spiritual and practical sides of key teachingchallenges, integrating them together so we can succeed at teaching, glorify God, and make
a lasting difference in our students' hearts and lives.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Herzog Foundation.
Today I'm excited to share with you one of our most popular podcast episodes from thepast.
(00:42):
We're going to talk about 10 mistakes that can easily derail your classroom management.
And as you listen to these, if you find yourself saying, yes, I'm totally making thatmistake, don't feel too bad about it.
They are common mistakes for a reason.
It's because they are common.
But we hope that you will be able to pick out a few things that you want to change andadjust to help you create a classroom that is orderly and on task and where students can
(01:09):
learn and you can actually teach.
All right, let's dive in.
10 classroom management mistakes that just might be derailing your ability to teacheffectively.
So number one, choosing between being kind,
strict.
(01:30):
So a lot of times, especially if you're a newer teacher, there's this misnomer that I haveto choose to either be like the kind teacher or like the firm strict teacher, the mean
teacher almost.
And it's like an either or.
And I know I kind of fell into this a little bit thinking like well I don't want to bemean so like if I want to be nice then like I can't be too strict or whatever.
(01:54):
It's this thought that it's an either or.
And maybe it's because in our past we had teachers that were either or, right?
And so that's how we see it for some reason in our mind.
But the reality is that we do not have to choose between being the kind teacher or thenice teacher and being the like strict teacher.
We really need to be both and success is gonna be most found when we are bothsimultaneously, when we never.
(02:19):
When we're not mean, we're always kind and nice and personable and our students know wecare about them and we're understanding of them and their situation and their background.
But at the exact same time, we're not a pushover.
We do not just let things go, we hold students accountable.
So doing both together is magical and it is exactly where we need to be.
(02:44):
So number one mistake, choosing between being kind and strict.
Don't do that, strive to be both.
Number two, letting little things go.
my goodness, this was, I've made so many of these mistakes by the way, but this is one ofthe biggest ones.
And this is particularly dangerous at the beginning of the year, so something to keep inmind for next year, but where when you start out the year especially, if you are letting
(03:09):
those little things go, it looks like this.
I remember thinking, their head's down, it's no big deal, or they're just talking a littlebit, it's no big deal, or.
You know, they're not really following my procedure that I just told them to do, but it'snot a big deal.
And the thing is, those little things by themselves maybe aren't a big deal.
And so we'd like to just let them go and not worry about it.
But if we don't address those smaller issues, a couple things happen.
(03:32):
Number one, human nature is to push boundaries.
So students are pushing those boundaries.
And if we don't kind of hold the boundary, then the boundary just keeps getting pushed,pushed, pushed, pushed, pushed.
And before we know it,
we have way bigger issues going on.
Instead of two kids talking, you've got 20 kids talking, and they're talking over eachother, and they're talking when you're talking, and everything like that, right?
(03:54):
So it doesn't stop there.
Little problems don't stay little.
Another issue with this, too, is that not only do little problems not problems don't staylittle because students like to push boundaries, but also because you're kind of, there's
an intangible thing going on here, and that is,
When we don't, when we let little things go, we're kind of telling students withoutoutright telling them, our actions are telling them that we don't really mean what we say.
(04:21):
And even though we've said this is what we're going to do, you don't actually have to.
And that intangible message really can have students take advantage of you and theproblems can spread to bigger and bigger things.
So number two, don't let little things go.
Letting little things go is a huge mistake.
Rather, they need to be addressed.
While they're still small, kind of that'll nip them in the bud before they become biggerissues.
(04:46):
Mistake number three, expecting good procedures to just happen.
I think sometimes, especially when we're first starting out teaching or if we just haven'tdone it for long, we realize that we don't realize how important procedures are and how
much work and effort has to go into creating good procedures.
We really need to think through every single aspect of our classroom and think how willthis run smoothly?
(05:10):
Not only that though, is we actually have to teach our students our procedures.
It's not enough to just say, okay, this is how we do it.
You really have to go way deeper than this.
I teach a four part system for teaching procedures and I actually teach it in that freetraining at teachfortheheart.com slash training.
But real quick, the way I recommend teaching procedures is number one, you explain theprocedure model if needed.
Number two, you practice it with them.
(05:31):
Number three, you correct what didn't go right and then you redo it if needed.
Together that is really, really magical.
But the point is you gotta spend a lot of time and effort on procedures.
And if you wanna know more about that, like I said, the free training goes into moredetail about how we can teach procedures so that students actually follow them.
All let's review.
Number one mistake, choosing between being kind and strict.
(05:53):
Number two, letting little things go.
Number three, expecting good procedures to just happen.
Number four, not having clear expectations.
Okay, when you think about your classroom,
Are your expectations clear?
And you might think, yeah, of course they are.
But for example, let's just take the simplest thing of talking in your classroom.
(06:15):
Do students know exactly, do you in your mind, let's start there actually even, knowexactly when students are allowed to talk and when they're not and at what levels, right?
There's probably not just the no talking policy across the board, right?
Sometimes they're working in small groups, sometimes.
You're having a class discussion.
Sometimes they're working with a partner.
(06:36):
There are times when they're allowed to talk.
Are you really clear in your own mind when they are and are not allowed to talk and atwhat level?
Are they clear then?
expectations start in our own mind.
Am I clear exactly what I expect?
And then they go to students.
Do my students understand exactly what's expected of them?
A lot of times we might think our expectations are clear, but they're not.
(06:58):
Talking was just one example, right?
I mean, think of all kinds of things.
Do students know if they're allowed to get up and walk around the classroom or not?
Do they know what's expected as far as just all kinds of things?
So the procedures are one area, but expectations are kind of what I mean by expectationsis more like behaviorally.
Do they know what behavior is expected in the classroom?
Are you really clear on that?
(07:19):
And have you clearly communicated it with them?
So number four, not having clear expectations, both in your mind and then communicated tothe students can cause a lot of chaos.
Number five, not having logical consequences.
Now I know as soon as the word consequences comes up, that's a little bit of acontroversial word and a controversial topic.
(07:40):
And there's even schools that say, you're not allowed to have any consequences at all.
But the reality is if there's no consequences at all in your classroom, students aren'tlearning about life.
Because in life, our actions have consequences.
So logical consequences mean
that they are logical for what happened.
So for example, not turning in homework, having to do it during a fun activity.
(08:06):
That's logical, right?
I didn't get it done, so now I have to do it now when I wish I could be participating inwhatever the class is doing.
Okay, that's a logical consequence.
And there's all kinds of examples.
I cannot tell you what your consequences should be because it really is gonna depend onyour school, the age of your students, the culture, all those things.
We do have a consequence idealist.
You can check out at teachfortheheart.com slash consequences.
(08:27):
You can get that idea, that idea list if you'd like.
But the point isn't to have this be whatever your consequence be.
Pick something that's appropriate.
But the point is they should be as logical as possible.
And we do need at least some consequences.
I don't like to jump right to consequences.
I like to give students a lot of time to self-correct and to turn things around.
(08:48):
But if we don't have logical consequences, then how are they supposed to learn from theirmistakes?
If nothing happens.
when they make bad choices, life is just completely fine when they make bad choices, howare they going to learn from them?
So it is important to have some type of logical consequence.
And by the way, if you're at a school and you're like, I can't, I'm not allowed, you don'thave to call them consequences.
(09:09):
So not getting a reward is a consequence, okay?
So if you have to manufacture things that students earn as a reward and those that don'tearn the reward don't get them, you can do that, okay?
So same concept.
But the concept being things go differently whether you make poor choices or good choices.
(09:30):
Number six kind of goes along.
Number six mistake, bailing students out when they make bad choices.
And I have to admit, I always want to bail my kids out, my students out, because I feelbad.
I feel like, man, like hopefully they can learn without the consequence.
They don't need it.
Like I'll just want to bail them out.
But.
(09:51):
when we bail them out, we rob them of that opportunity to learn.
And typically the consequences we're talking about here are like very minor.
Like you said, know, having whatever the consequence is in the grand scheme of life, oftenthe consequences we're debating over are not that big unless a big offense has happened
and then a bigger one is necessary.
So not bailing students out is important.
(10:14):
know, if students, now this does it, does this mean we never give grace?
Of course not.
Okay, grace can be extended.
when it's what's best for the student, when there's extenuating circumstances, when we cantell they've really been trying and this is a rare thing.
But we shouldn't be perpetually bailing students out of their poor choices.
(10:34):
They need to understand that cause and effect and experience that.
So we're tempted to bail them out, but when we do, we rob them of the learning experienceto learn, okay, this was not a good choice, I need to make a better one next time.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Herzog Foundation, and we want toin particular recommend Herzog's trainings for Christian school administrators and
(10:58):
teachers.
They have so many amazing free trainings, many of which are online and others that are inperson.
The great thing is that they're all completely free and the in-person events even includefree lodging.
So you definitely wanna check out their full catalog of upcoming trainings and events.
You'll even find some on there that we at Teach for the Heart are doing together withHerzog.
(11:19):
So check them all out at HerzogFoundation.com and click events at the top of their page.
Now back to our program.
Number seven mistake, not building relationships with our students.
I doubt many of you are making this mistake, because you're here and you're listening, soyou clearly care about your students.
But I did want to just put this on here.
(11:41):
Obviously, it would be a big mistake to not simultaneously be focusing on buildingrelationships with your students.
Classroom management isn't just procedures and expectations and consequences.
It is also heavily relationship-based.
And so don't feel like
These are intention with one another.
Like, have to, you know, when I enforce consequences, that's like takes away from therelationship and then I have, no, like good relationships, they build onto each other.
(12:09):
Good relationships with your student will help your classroom management.
And honestly, good classroom management should help your relationships if you're doingright.
Because think about it, you're not gonna have great relationships with your student ifyour classroom is out of control and it's chaotic and it's like a disaster, okay?
That goes back to the mistake number one.
This is not a choice between being kind and firm.
Gotta be both, right?
(12:30):
So anyhow, back to what we were talking about though is building relationships is reallyimportant.
We could do an entire podcast episode just on that and we have, but just working onbuilding relationships with your students is key.
So don't neglect that.
Some just really simple things is just talking to students one-on-one.
(12:51):
about things, just making comments, noticing things about them, showing that you careabout them beyond school.
And there's so many things you can do to build relationships, but don't neglect that.
That is a key piece.
And invest maybe even more in the students that are most challenging.
By investing in them more, then those relationships are probably most important.
(13:13):
Maybe not most important, all relationships are important and good kids need relationshipswith their teachers too.
But definitely, I guess,
the students that are struggling behaviorally probably need more effort from you in orderto be able to build a relationship with them.
Number eight, mistake.
Focusing only on negative behavior.
(13:34):
And this can happen sometimes when we create our plan, like, okay, this is how I'm gonnadeal with all these behaviors.
But then we can forget to encourage and praise the positive behavior.
in our classroom and obviously we don't want to do that.
We absolutely want to be encouraging positive behavior, recognizing when students aredoing well and spend a lot of effort on that too.
(13:58):
So remember there's two sides of that coin.
I do believe it's important to deal with issues but we also want to be really encouragingto our students.
We want to recognize when things are going well and lean on that side too.
So don't forget
Don't neglect that positive reinforcement and the encouragement you can give students bynoticing their effort, noticing when they're improving, noticing when they're doing well,
(14:22):
and telling them so.
All right, number nine, worrying about what students do.
Okay, you might be like, wait a second, I thought that's what this entire episode wasabout.
Here's what I mean.
We can't actually control what our students do.
We are not them.
(14:43):
Okay, so if we are worried about what our students are gonna do, that is wasted energy,okay?
We cannot directly control students' behavior.
They, a student in your classroom could do something crazy tomorrow.
You can't control that.
Now there's a lot you can do to prevent things.
That's what we're talking about, right?
(15:04):
But at the bottom line, end of the day, we can't control our students, because we're notthem.
So we shouldn't be worried
about what students do, rather, we should focus our energy on what we can do as theteacher.
So A, all these things we're talking about where we can create an environment wherestudents are encouraged to make good choices, where things run smoothly, all of that.
(15:28):
So a lot of preventative things we can do to help students make good choices and to kindof prevent a lot of issues in the first place.
And then when issues do come up, we control how we respond to the students.
So what I'm saying here, this is really a mindset shift, but I think it's a powerful oneto not get discouraged in your classroom management.
(15:48):
Because if you're always worrying about what your students are gonna do or not do, andyou're judging your classroom management based on how well the students are responding,
that can be really discouraging, especially if you just have a really tough class, whichthat happens sometimes.
Or if you're kinda early in your teaching journey and you're still working on your skills.
but they're not all the way developed yet and you're getting better but your studentsaren't completely where you want them to be.
(16:14):
If you're focusing and just so worried about whether or not students are always doing whatthey should, you're gonna get really discouraged.
But if you focus your energy instead on, okay, I as the teacher, what strategies am Iusing to prevent issues?
And then how am I responding consistently and lovingly when student issues do arise?
(16:35):
That is gonna be a much more beneficial
focus of your mental energy, right?
And your passion is on, am I getting better?
Am I improving?
Am I doing what I can?
And knowing and believing that if you keep working on those things, the student's behaviorwill improve in time, or you'll get through that hard class and get onto an easier one,
(16:56):
whatever it is.
I think that's just really important to keep us from getting discouraged.
Hopefully that makes sense.
If you have questions, we'd love to talk about it.
You can hop over in our Facebook group.
can chat about it.
Our Facebook group is at teachfortheheart.com slash Facebook.
All right, let me review.
Nine mistakes so far, we got one left.
Number one, choosing between being kind and strict.
(17:16):
Number two, letting little things go.
Number three, expecting good procedures to just happen.
Number four, not having clear expectations of student behavior.
Number five, not using logical consequences.
Number six, bailing students out when they make bad choices.
Number seven, not building relationships with your students.
Number eight, focusing only on the negative.
(17:38):
Number nine, worrying about what students do rather than on your response and what you cancontrol.
And then number 10, not having a plan.
This was another one of my really huge mistakes.
I don't really know what I was thinking.
I had been warned by some of my professors, but I showed up into my.
classroom and I had a plan for my lessons.
(18:00):
did plan out a lot of my procedures, that was good, but I had no plan for what I was gonnado when students misbehaved beyond just giving them the teacher look.
And I will tell you, just the teacher look by itself does not work too well.
There's nothing backing it up and nothing else ever happens except the look.
I learned the hard way, that does not work.
I did not have a plan and I didn't.
(18:21):
Part of that's because I just didn't know what my plan should be.
Part of it was just the ignorance of thinking maybe, I don't know if I didn't think Ineeded one or if I just thought, I'll just make it work.
But not having a plan, it doesn't work well unless you already have the experience andskill not to need a plan, right?
If you're like a master chef, you don't need a recipe.
(18:42):
But if you're a beginner, you need a recipe.
And that's kind of how this is.
If you're struggling or just starting out having a plan, having a recipe,
is so, so beneficial.
Planning ahead of time.
How am I, what we just talked about, you your responses.
What are the things I'm gonna do to prevent issues?
And then, and then this is the part that I was really missing.
What am I gonna do when students are talking out of turn?
(19:05):
When they get up and walk around the room, when they put down their head, when they'rerude to each other, when they're rude to me, when they don't turn in their homework, when
they, whatever it is, right?
All these things.
Do I know how I'm gonna respond?
Do I know how I'm gonna handle it?
Do I know how I'm going to follow through and be consistent?
If you don't have a plan, then I don't know.
What happened to me was I got in that moment and I just kind of, like I said, I just gavea teacher a look.
(19:28):
I didn't do anything and those little problems did not stay little.
They grew and grew and before I knew it, it was just really out of control.
It was really bad.
So having a plan, I, at that point I was like, I gotta do something and I got a plan.
And I actually talked, we'll talk more about the plan on the free training.
Like I said, teachwitheheart.com slash training.
And once I had a plan, I started putting it into practice.
(19:50):
I started using it.
And it wasn't like perfect overnight, obviously, but my confidence started to improve andI started to deal with stuff.
I started to be more consistent because I had predetermined this is how I'm gonna dealwith that.
And then I just had to go ahead and use it.
And so that was really helpful for me.
And that's when things started to turn around.
(20:10):
So having a plan is so important.
so that you know what you're gonna do and are able to be consistent.
So that's it.
Those are the 10 mistakes that can easily derail your classroom management.
I hope that you found these helpful.
If you say, Linda, I could use a little bit more help with these.
I wanna dive into some of these further.
I wanna help figuring out how do I make my plan.
(20:31):
We have a free training that will be of huge help to you.
It's called How to Reduce Disruptions So You Can Actually Teach.
You can get that training at teachfortheheart.com slash free.
That's teachfortheheart.com.
We have a lot of other resources that can help you.
have a free classroom consequence ideas list.
And then we have Classroom Management 101, which is our step-by-step program that helpsyou create your classroom management plan, reduce disruptions, so you can actually enjoy
(21:00):
teaching.
So you can find out information about all these programs, all these resources at the blogpost that goes with this article.
You can get that at teachfortheheart.com slash 329.
That's teachfortheheart.com slash 329.
Well, thank you guys so much for being with us.
I really appreciate it.
And if you did enjoy this episode, please do subscribe to the podcast, share the episodewith a fellow teacher that will enjoy it as well.
(21:25):
That's a huge help and a benefit to us and helps us reach more teachers with this adviceand biblical encouragement.
We want to thank Herzog Foundation.
This episode has been brought to you in partnership with them.
All views and opinions are our own and don't necessarily reflect those of the HerzogFoundation.
We look forward to being with you again soon.
In the meantime, teacher, remember, God is at work in you and through you, and He's usingyou to make a difference.
(21:49):
Keep your eyes on Him and teach for the heart.
you
Welcome back to the Teach for the Heart podcast where we tackle teaching challenges from abiblical perspective.
Why are we here?
Because we don't believe that our spiritual walk and teaching profession should exist intwo separate domains.
Rather, the hope we have in Christ should change how we approach everything, not just athome, but at school as well.
(00:21):
So join us as we explore both the spiritual and practical sides of key teachingchallenges, integrating them together so we can succeed at teaching, glorify God, and make
a lasting difference in our students' hearts and lives.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Herzog Foundation.
Today I'm excited to share with you one of our most popular podcast episodes from thepast.
(00:42):
We're going to talk about 10 mistakes that can easily derail your classroom management.
And as you listen to these, if you find yourself saying, yes, I'm totally making thatmistake, don't feel too bad about it.
They are common mistakes for a reason.
It's because they are common.
But we hope that you will be able to pick out a few things that you want to change andadjust to help you create a classroom that is orderly and on task and where students can
(01:09):
learn and you can actually teach.
All right, let's dive in.
10 classroom management mistakes that just might be derailing your ability to teacheffectively.
So number one, choosing between being kind,
strict.
(01:30):
So a lot of times, especially if you're a newer teacher, there's this misnomer that I haveto choose to either be like the kind teacher or like the firm strict teacher, the mean
teacher almost.
And it's like an either or.
And I know I kind of fell into this a little bit thinking like well I don't want to bemean so like if I want to be nice then like I can't be too strict or whatever.
(01:54):
It's this thought that it's an either or.
And maybe it's because in our past we had teachers that were either or, right?
And so that's how we see it for some reason in our mind.
But the reality is that we do not have to choose between being the kind teacher or thenice teacher and being the like strict teacher.
We really need to be both and success is gonna be most found when we are bothsimultaneously, when we never.
(02:19):
When we're not mean, we're always kind and nice and personable and our students know wecare about them and we're understanding of them and their situation and their background.
But at the exact same time, we're not a pushover.
We do not just let things go, we hold students accountable.
So doing both together is magical and it is exactly where we need to be.
(02:44):
So number one mistake, choosing between being kind and strict.
Don't do that, strive to be both.
Number two, letting little things go.
my goodness, this was, I've made so many of these mistakes by the way, but this is one ofthe biggest ones.
And this is particularly dangerous at the beginning of the year, so something to keep inmind for next year, but where when you start out the year especially, if you are letting
(03:09):
those little things go, it looks like this.
I remember thinking, their head's down, it's no big deal, or they're just talking a littlebit, it's no big deal, or.
You know, they're not really following my procedure that I just told them to do, but it'snot a big deal.
And the thing is, those little things by themselves maybe aren't a big deal.
And so we'd like to just let them go and not worry about it.
But if we don't address those smaller issues, a couple things happen.
(03:32):
Number one, human nature is to push boundaries.
So students are pushing those boundaries.
And if we don't kind of hold the boundary, then the boundary just keeps getting pushed,pushed, pushed, pushed, pushed.
And before we know it,
we have way bigger issues going on.
Instead of two kids talking, you've got 20 kids talking, and they're talking over eachother, and they're talking when you're talking, and everything like that, right?
(03:54):
So it doesn't stop there.
Little problems don't stay little.
Another issue with this, too, is that not only do little problems not problems don't staylittle because students like to push boundaries, but also because you're kind of, there's
an intangible thing going on here, and that is,
When we don't, when we let little things go, we're kind of telling students withoutoutright telling them, our actions are telling them that we don't really mean what we say.
(04:21):
And even though we've said this is what we're going to do, you don't actually have to.
And that intangible message really can have students take advantage of you and theproblems can spread to bigger and bigger things.
So number two, don't let little things go.
Letting little things go is a huge mistake.
Rather, they need to be addressed.
While they're still small, kind of that'll nip them in the bud before they become biggerissues.
(04:46):
Mistake number three, expecting good procedures to just happen.
I think sometimes, especially when we're first starting out teaching or if we just haven'tdone it for long, we realize that we don't realize how important procedures are and how
much work and effort has to go into creating good procedures.
We really need to think through every single aspect of our classroom and think how willthis run smoothly?
(05:10):
Not only that though, is we actually have to teach our students our procedures.
It's not enough to just say, okay, this is how we do it.
You really have to go way deeper than this.
I teach a four part system for teaching procedures and I actually teach it in that freetraining at teachfortheheart.com slash training.
But real quick, the way I recommend teaching procedures is number one, you explain theprocedure model if needed.
Number two, you practice it with them.
(05:31):
Number three, you correct what didn't go right and then you redo it if needed.
Together that is really, really magical.
But the point is you gotta spend a lot of time and effort on procedures.
And if you wanna know more about that, like I said, the free training goes into moredetail about how we can teach procedures so that students actually follow them.
All let's review.
Number one mistake, choosing between being kind and strict.
(05:53):
Number two, letting little things go.
Number three, expecting good procedures to just happen.
Number four, not having clear expectations.
Okay, when you think about your classroom,
Are your expectations clear?
And you might think, yeah, of course they are.
But for example, let's just take the simplest thing of talking in your classroom.
(06:15):
Do students know exactly, do you in your mind, let's start there actually even, knowexactly when students are allowed to talk and when they're not and at what levels, right?
There's probably not just the no talking policy across the board, right?
Sometimes they're working in small groups, sometimes.
You're having a class discussion.
Sometimes they're working with a partner.
(06:36):
There are times when they're allowed to talk.
Are you really clear in your own mind when they are and are not allowed to talk and atwhat level?
Are they clear then?
expectations start in our own mind.
Am I clear exactly what I expect?
And then they go to students.
Do my students understand exactly what's expected of them?
A lot of times we might think our expectations are clear, but they're not.
(06:58):
Talking was just one example, right?
I mean, think of all kinds of things.
Do students know if they're allowed to get up and walk around the classroom or not?
Do they know what's expected as far as just all kinds of things?
So the procedures are one area, but expectations are kind of what I mean by expectationsis more like behaviorally.
Do they know what behavior is expected in the classroom?
Are you really clear on that?
(07:19):
And have you clearly communicated it with them?
So number four, not having clear expectations, both in your mind and then communicated tothe students can cause a lot of chaos.
Number five, not having logical consequences.
Now I know as soon as the word consequences comes up, that's a little bit of acontroversial word and a controversial topic.
(07:40):
And there's even schools that say, you're not allowed to have any consequences at all.
But the reality is if there's no consequences at all in your classroom, students aren'tlearning about life.
Because in life, our actions have consequences.
So logical consequences mean
that they are logical for what happened.
So for example, not turning in homework, having to do it during a fun activity.
(08:06):
That's logical, right?
I didn't get it done, so now I have to do it now when I wish I could be participating inwhatever the class is doing.
Okay, that's a logical consequence.
And there's all kinds of examples.
I cannot tell you what your consequences should be because it really is gonna depend onyour school, the age of your students, the culture, all those things.
We do have a consequence idealist.
You can check out at teachfortheheart.com slash consequences.
(08:27):
You can get that idea, that idea list if you'd like.
But the point isn't to have this be whatever your consequence be.
Pick something that's appropriate.
But the point is they should be as logical as possible.
And we do need at least some consequences.
I don't like to jump right to consequences.
I like to give students a lot of time to self-correct and to turn things around.
(08:48):
But if we don't have logical consequences, then how are they supposed to learn from theirmistakes?
If nothing happens.
when they make bad choices, life is just completely fine when they make bad choices, howare they going to learn from them?
So it is important to have some type of logical consequence.
And by the way, if you're at a school and you're like, I can't, I'm not allowed, you don'thave to call them consequences.
(09:09):
So not getting a reward is a consequence, okay?
So if you have to manufacture things that students earn as a reward and those that don'tearn the reward don't get them, you can do that, okay?
So same concept.
But the concept being things go differently whether you make poor choices or good choices.
(09:30):
Number six kind of goes along.
Number six mistake, bailing students out when they make bad choices.
And I have to admit, I always want to bail my kids out, my students out, because I feelbad.
I feel like, man, like hopefully they can learn without the consequence.
They don't need it.
Like I'll just want to bail them out.
But.
(09:51):
when we bail them out, we rob them of that opportunity to learn.
And typically the consequences we're talking about here are like very minor.
Like you said, know, having whatever the consequence is in the grand scheme of life, oftenthe consequences we're debating over are not that big unless a big offense has happened
and then a bigger one is necessary.
So not bailing students out is important.
(10:14):
know, if students, now this does it, does this mean we never give grace?
Of course not.
Okay, grace can be extended.
when it's what's best for the student, when there's extenuating circumstances, when we cantell they've really been trying and this is a rare thing.
But we shouldn't be perpetually bailing students out of their poor choices.
(10:34):
They need to understand that cause and effect and experience that.
So we're tempted to bail them out, but when we do, we rob them of the learning experienceto learn, okay, this was not a good choice, I need to make a better one next time.
This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Herzog Foundation, and we want toin particular recommend Herzog's trainings for Christian school administrators and
(10:58):
teachers.
They have so many amazing free trainings, many of which are online and others that are inperson.
The great thing is that they're all completely free and the in-person events even includefree lodging.
So you definitely wanna check out their full catalog of upcoming trainings and events.
You'll even find some on there that we at Teach for the Heart are doing together withHerzog.
(11:19):
So check them all out at HerzogFoundation.com and click events at the top of their page.
Now back to our program.
Number seven mistake, not building relationships with our students.
I doubt many of you are making this mistake, because you're here and you're listening, soyou clearly care about your students.
But I did want to just put this on here.
(11:41):
Obviously, it would be a big mistake to not simultaneously be focusing on buildingrelationships with your students.
Classroom management isn't just procedures and expectations and consequences.
It is also heavily relationship-based.
And so don't feel like
These are intention with one another.
Like, have to, you know, when I enforce consequences, that's like takes away from therelationship and then I have, no, like good relationships, they build onto each other.
(12:09):
Good relationships with your student will help your classroom management.
And honestly, good classroom management should help your relationships if you're doingright.
Because think about it, you're not gonna have great relationships with your student ifyour classroom is out of control and it's chaotic and it's like a disaster, okay?
That goes back to the mistake number one.
This is not a choice between being kind and firm.
Gotta be both, right?
(12:30):
So anyhow, back to what we were talking about though is building relationships is reallyimportant.
We could do an entire podcast episode just on that and we have, but just working onbuilding relationships with your students is key.
So don't neglect that.
Some just really simple things is just talking to students one-on-one.
(12:51):
about things, just making comments, noticing things about them, showing that you careabout them beyond school.
And there's so many things you can do to build relationships, but don't neglect that.
That is a key piece.
And invest maybe even more in the students that are most challenging.
By investing in them more, then those relationships are probably most important.
(13:13):
Maybe not most important, all relationships are important and good kids need relationshipswith their teachers too.
But definitely, I guess,
the students that are struggling behaviorally probably need more effort from you in orderto be able to build a relationship with them.
Number eight, mistake.
Focusing only on negative behavior.
(13:34):
And this can happen sometimes when we create our plan, like, okay, this is how I'm gonnadeal with all these behaviors.
But then we can forget to encourage and praise the positive behavior.
in our classroom and obviously we don't want to do that.
We absolutely want to be encouraging positive behavior, recognizing when students aredoing well and spend a lot of effort on that too.
(13:58):
So remember there's two sides of that coin.
I do believe it's important to deal with issues but we also want to be really encouragingto our students.
We want to recognize when things are going well and lean on that side too.
So don't forget
Don't neglect that positive reinforcement and the encouragement you can give students bynoticing their effort, noticing when they're improving, noticing when they're doing well,
(14:22):
and telling them so.
All right, number nine, worrying about what students do.
Okay, you might be like, wait a second, I thought that's what this entire episode wasabout.
Here's what I mean.
We can't actually control what our students do.
We are not them.
(14:43):
Okay, so if we are worried about what our students are gonna do, that is wasted energy,okay?
We cannot directly control students' behavior.
They, a student in your classroom could do something crazy tomorrow.
You can't control that.
Now there's a lot you can do to prevent things.
That's what we're talking about, right?
(15:04):
But at the bottom line, end of the day, we can't control our students, because we're notthem.
So we shouldn't be worried
about what students do, rather, we should focus our energy on what we can do as theteacher.
So A, all these things we're talking about where we can create an environment wherestudents are encouraged to make good choices, where things run smoothly, all of that.
(15:28):
So a lot of preventative things we can do to help students make good choices and to kindof prevent a lot of issues in the first place.
And then when issues do come up, we control how we respond to the students.
So what I'm saying here, this is really a mindset shift, but I think it's a powerful oneto not get discouraged in your classroom management.
(15:48):
Because if you're always worrying about what your students are gonna do or not do, andyou're judging your classroom management based on how well the students are responding,
that can be really discouraging, especially if you just have a really tough class, whichthat happens sometimes.
Or if you're kinda early in your teaching journey and you're still working on your skills.
but they're not all the way developed yet and you're getting better but your studentsaren't completely where you want them to be.
(16:14):
If you're focusing and just so worried about whether or not students are always doing whatthey should, you're gonna get really discouraged.
But if you focus your energy instead on, okay, I as the teacher, what strategies am Iusing to prevent issues?
And then how am I responding consistently and lovingly when student issues do arise?
(16:35):
That is gonna be a much more beneficial
focus of your mental energy, right?
And your passion is on, am I getting better?
Am I improving?
Am I doing what I can?
And knowing and believing that if you keep working on those things, the student's behaviorwill improve in time, or you'll get through that hard class and get onto an easier one,
(16:56):
whatever it is.
I think that's just really important to keep us from getting discouraged.
Hopefully that makes sense.
If you have questions, we'd love to talk about it.
You can hop over in our Facebook group.
can chat about it.
Our Facebook group is at teachfortheheart.com slash Facebook.
All right, let me review.
Nine mistakes so far, we got one left.
Number one, choosing between being kind and strict.
(17:16):
Number two, letting little things go.
Number three, expecting good procedures to just happen.
Number four, not having clear expectations of student behavior.
Number five, not using logical consequences.
Number six, bailing students out when they make bad choices.
Number seven, not building relationships with your students.
Number eight, focusing only on the negative.
(17:38):
Number nine, worrying about what students do rather than on your response and what you cancontrol.
And then number 10, not having a plan.
This was another one of my really huge mistakes.
I don't really know what I was thinking.
I had been warned by some of my professors, but I showed up into my.
classroom and I had a plan for my lessons.
(18:00):
did plan out a lot of my procedures, that was good, but I had no plan for what I was gonnado when students misbehaved beyond just giving them the teacher look.
And I will tell you, just the teacher look by itself does not work too well.
There's nothing backing it up and nothing else ever happens except the look.
I learned the hard way, that does not work.
I did not have a plan and I didn't.
(18:21):
Part of that's because I just didn't know what my plan should be.
Part of it was just the ignorance of thinking maybe, I don't know if I didn't think Ineeded one or if I just thought, I'll just make it work.
But not having a plan, it doesn't work well unless you already have the experience andskill not to need a plan, right?
If you're like a master chef, you don't need a recipe.
(18:42):
But if you're a beginner, you need a recipe.
And that's kind of how this is.
If you're struggling or just starting out having a plan, having a recipe,
is so, so beneficial.
Planning ahead of time.
How am I, what we just talked about, you your responses.
What are the things I'm gonna do to prevent issues?
And then, and then this is the part that I was really missing.
What am I gonna do when students are talking out of turn?
(19:05):
When they get up and walk around the room, when they put down their head, when they'rerude to each other, when they're rude to me, when they don't turn in their homework, when
they, whatever it is, right?
All these things.
Do I know how I'm gonna respond?
Do I know how I'm gonna handle it?
Do I know how I'm going to follow through and be consistent?
If you don't have a plan, then I don't know.
What happened to me was I got in that moment and I just kind of, like I said, I just gavea teacher a look.
(19:28):
I didn't do anything and those little problems did not stay little.
They grew and grew and before I knew it, it was just really out of control.
It was really bad.
So having a plan, I, at that point I was like, I gotta do something and I got a plan.
And I actually talked, we'll talk more about the plan on the free training.
Like I said, teachwitheheart.com slash training.
And once I had a plan, I started putting it into practice.
(19:50):
I started using it.
And it wasn't like perfect overnight, obviously, but my confidence started to improve andI started to deal with stuff.
I started to be more consistent because I had predetermined this is how I'm gonna dealwith that.
And then I just had to go ahead and use it.
And so that was really helpful for me.
And that's when things started to turn around.
(20:10):
So having a plan is so important.
so that you know what you're gonna do and are able to be consistent.
So that's it.
Those are the 10 mistakes that can easily derail your classroom management.
I hope that you found these helpful.
If you say, Linda, I could use a little bit more help with these.
I wanna dive into some of these further.
I wanna help figuring out how do I make my plan.
(20:31):
We have a free training that will be of huge help to you.
It's called How to Reduce Disruptions So You Can Actually Teach.
You can get that training at teachfortheheart.com slash free.
That's teachfortheheart.com.
We have a lot of other resources that can help you.
have a free classroom consequence ideas list.
And then we have Classroom Management 101, which is our step-by-step program that helpsyou create your classroom management plan, reduce disruptions, so you can actually enjoy
(21:00):
teaching.
So you can find out information about all these programs, all these resources at the blogpost that goes with this article.
You can get that at teachfortheheart.com slash 329.
That's teachfortheheart.com slash 329.
Well, thank you guys so much for being with us.
I really appreciate it.
And if you did enjoy this episode, please do subscribe to the podcast, share the episodewith a fellow teacher that will enjoy it as well.
(21:25):
That's a huge help and a benefit to us and helps us reach more teachers with this adviceand biblical encouragement.
We want to thank Herzog Foundation.
This episode has been brought to you in partnership with them.
All views and opinions are our own and don't necessarily reflect those of the HerzogFoundation.
We look forward to being with you again soon.
In the meantime, teacher, remember, God is at work in you and through you, and He's usingyou to make a difference.
(21:49):
Keep your eyes on Him and teach for the heart.
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