Some Advice on Classroom Management
It’s been several years since I’ve been in the classroom on a daily basis, but I can still remember the special kind of exhaustion that resulted from particularly disrespectful students. Sometimes, I felt that I was throwing so much energy into classroom management that I couldn’t even teach well anymore. That was a frustrating, disheartening place to be.
Recently, in a spurt of decluttering, I came across old notebooks of class notes from my years at Faith Builders and session notes from various teacher’s conferences I attended throughout my teaching career. In those notebooks, I found many wise words of advice when it comes to classroom management. Often, the words were scrawled along the side of a page containing something else (probably written down during or after a conversation), or simply recorded on a page where I wrote down things that especially stuck out to me. This is good stuff, I kept thinking as I paged through the notebooks. Every teacher should hear this.
And so, throughout this article, you’ll see some of these gems of wisdom in quotation marks. I wish that I could give credit to those who originally shared these statements, but unfortunately, I didn’t record the name of the original speaker along with the tidbit of wisdom. However, I’m going to assume that people like Gerald Miller, Sharon Yoder, Patrick Heatwole, Jonas Sauder, Piper Burdge, Anna Zehr, Steven Brubaker, Melvin Lehman, and others were contributors to this plethora of insight.
Without further ado, here is a smattering of thoughts pertaining to classroom management. If you’re in the trenches of a difficult discipline battle right now, I hope this can be helpful and encouraging to you.
Keep the “Why” of Discipline in Front of You
When you’re needing to give a reminder for what feels like the thousandth time, or separate the same two students again, or put on your teacher stare so often you fear that it’s just the way your face looks now, disciplining students can feel pervasive and all-consuming. Those are the times when a little bit of perspective is often the most needed.
Requiring a standard of behavior from your students is not something that you do just to make your life easier or just because school has rules. It’s because being under authority and needing to follow rules is a part of life. It’s because “there are consequences for doing wrong and rewards for doing good. This is a Biblical concept.” It’s because learning to control one’s impulses is a life skill.
In the book Gilead, Marilynne Robinson writes an interesting insight about the fifth commandment, (honor your father and mother). She says she thinks it’s significant that it falls between the first four, which have to do with proper worship of God, and the last five, which have to do with right conduct towards other people. She points out that it may seem like the command to honor parents belongs on the second tablet, with those regarding how to treat people. But she makes the case that it actually belongs with those that describe right worship. She says right worship is right perception—the forming in our minds of a right picture of God. And if we do not honor the humans in authority over us, then we don’t understand how to honor God who is in authority over us. The same could be said about children learning to respect authority at school.
The goal of classroom management is not to create a herd of robots who perfectly do what they’re told without a moment’s hesitation. The goal is to be a part of forming people with soft hearts that are turned towards the Father.
Set Reasonable Expectations
This is another thing it’s easy to lose sight of in the daily grind of classroom management. You can become so aware of every action of the troublemakers in your class that you start expecting more of them than is even fair or realistic.
Remember, “children are children, not miniature adults.” Call them to a high standard of behavior, but also allow them to have moments of immaturity—because they are children. Require respect, but don’t demand perfection. “We aren’t looking for perfect kids, but kids who are flourishing and growing.”
Also be aware of how your own mood at any given time can impact your response. As much as you can, strive to be consistent, kind, and loving. “Don’t send a child to prison for stealing a loaf of bread.”
Invite Students into the Solution
Involving students in their own process of growth will look different depending on what age of students you are teaching, but in general, it’s a good goal to keep in front of you when punishment or behavior modification is necessary.
Discipline should happen within a conversation, within relationship. You could try saying, “Tell me why that was not respectful.” Imagine how requiring a student to think about the impact of their own words and actions could be a powerful teaching moment.
It’s also important to make sure that you are not personally carrying the weight of a child’s change in behavior. “We need to get this changed, and you have the power to do that” is a wonderful phrase to encourage students to take ownership for their own actions.
Remember Your Own Limitations
Disrespect and disobedience has a way of making you question not only your effectiveness as a teacher, but also your worth as a person. But remember, you are not your students’ moral compass, and you are definitely not their savior.
Regardless of how much you wish you could, you cannot choose for your students. At the end of the day, they are autonomous human beings with free will. “You can’t change their hearts, but you can call them to thinking about changing their hearts.” And ultimately, the Spirit of God is the only one who can compel them to change. Be faithful to do your part in calling your students to Him, but don’t let yourself believe that you need to do His work for Him.
Stay Hopeful
Always choose to believe that the story isn’t finished being written yet. Depending on the year or the day or the moment, this can feel impossible. But because you are not the only voice speaking into this child’s life and because you serve a God who loves your students passionately and unrelentingly, you can live in a place of hope. “Remember that today is not all there is.”
The Greatest of These
“Always love. Love never fails.” You might question your effectiveness. You’ll probably have days when you feel like you’re not making progress. You will make mistakes. But if you love, your efforts are never wasted.
