How to Create a Solid Classroom Management System: 10 Tips to Set Yourself up for an Amazing School Year
I used to struggle with classroom management. It was probably one of those things that required some experience, and I’m so so so grateful for my colleagues who gave me advice to help me out when needed. Without them, I would never be where I am today.
I want to be that person for you today - you probably came here with the question, “What can I do to make my classroom management better?” Well, here is some hope for you: it is never too late to put a system in place that works for you. Forewarning, however, if you started off the year weak in terms of classroom management, it’s going to be harder to get it back on track. Though it can be difficult, it’s not impossible.
Keep reading to learn about some tips I wish I would have known before starting my first year.
TL;DR (click to jump to a certain section):
Tip #1: It Will Get Worse Before it Gets Better
Picture this: you’re trying to set up a new classroom management system. Maybe it’s the beginning of the school year, maybe it’s after Winter Break, or maybe you decided your old way just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. It was going well at first, but after a few days, your students decided they weren't having it. It either stopped working or it made some behaviors worse.
DON’T GIVE UP!!!!
Remember - it’s going to get worse before it gets better. In fact, from what I’ve heard and experienced, if some of your students start acting out, you know it’s working. This is called an extinction burst (check out more information about that here, or in a quick Google search), as your kids will be pushing boundaries, but if you stay consistent with your expectations, it will get better. (Disclaimer: obviously, there may be some underlying factors as to why some students have behavior issues, so this may not apply to every single student.)
If it’s actually a solid classroom management system (something with substance - not surface level), then stopping and changing it will only further disrupt the flow of your class. You’ll have to start something new, and the cycle will continue.
So, drink some coffee, take a breather, and persevere. You got this.
Tip #2: Cut the Cute-sy Crap
Listen, I’m all for stuff that makes us happy. If it’s cute, I love it. If it’s bright and colorful - sign me up. But, when it comes down to it, some of the cute-sy things you see available for purchase are gimmicks. They will either only work for a short period of time, or will teach your students to need extrinsic motivators when really we should be intrinsically motivating them.
Some examples, you ask?
Punch cards.
Pom-pom jars.
Desk pets.
Tickets.
Classroom stores.
Brag tags.
The list goes on.
DON’T GET IT TWISTED. There is NOTHING WRONG with the above examples IF (and only IF) you combine them with something of substance. But, first of all, most of these will not work on older kids, only on the the little ones. And, second of all, you may unwittingly be conditioning your students that they only have to “be good” when they want something of value. Third, some of the things can be expensive to purchase for your students.
So, like I said, reward systems are great! If you use them right. Don’t just give out rewards for every little thing they’re supposed to be doing anyways. I like the idea of having a thing they earn as a whole class, which can help build community. Let’s say everyone meets their independent reading goal for the whole week - why not give them 5 minutes of extra recess? I used a secret puzzle reward system and we voted on the big prize the class would earn after they got all their puzzle pieces.
Keep reading to get some actual solid examples of a good classroom management system with some substance.
Tip #3: Consistency and Repetition
I cannot stress this enough: BE CONSISTENT WITH YOUR STUDENTS. If you give one student a consequence for talking during the lesson, you need to do that for all students. If you say, “Level 0 voice during independent work,” you need to enforce that ALL the time, not just SOME of the time. If you say, “Class, class, class”, and they don’t ALL respond with, “Yes, yes, yes,” and you’re OKAY WITH THAT…? Listen, if you are wishy-washy with your expectations, your students will be wishy-washy, or worse, with their behavior. Your students need to know that you say what you mean and mean what you say. Otherwise, they will push your boundaries because they can clearly see that you HAVE none. So, the next time you see a student talking when they should not be, don’t just ignore it - address it and act accordingly. Remember: many students will take your silence to mean acceptance of the behavior.
Along these same lines: REPETITION, REPETITION, REPETITION. Practice makes perfect, after all. There are a few times in which you will need to repeat WANTED behavior: the beginning of the school year when you’re setting expectations, after major breaks (Thanksgiving, Winter, Spring Break, etc.), or when your students have been off the wall and you know you need to reset expectations. Here are some examples of practicing wanted behavior through repetition so you can understand a bit further on what I mean:
Your students are not walking in the hallway the correct way (maybe they’re out of line or too noisy). Have them walk the hallways, practicing the correct way, UNTIL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM does it correctly. No complaints. No talking. Perfect.
Your students have gotten complacent and have stopped putting their folders in the correct place. Have every single one of them get their folders and practice putting them in the correct place until they ALL do it right. Make them physically get up and move the folder to the correct place.
Your students are not transitioning to the next class quickly enough. Again, have them physically get up and practice it until they can do it in the time constraints. And, if they do not do it quickly enough the next day, practice it some more.
The list goes on. There are hundreds of examples.
I don’t care if it takes up your entire instruction period: you practice and repeat until they do it right. Because it’s either you take one day to get it right, or you’ll be dealing with the same behavior for the REST of the school year. So, even though it may seem like you’re wasting time, you are actually saving your time and your sanity. (Again, a disclaimer: this is not true for all students who may have underlying factors that affect their behavior. Reach out to a counselor or behavior interventionist for these students.)
This method may seem harsh to some, but this is all a part of natural consequences (more on that in Tip #8). If you don’t do something correctly, you need to practice it until you are better. You can tell your students that it is similar to sports. Football players don’t just show up to the game knowing what to do - they have to practice. Eventually, your students will realize you’re not messing around and they will get tired of having to do the same thing over and over again and they’ll act right.
Tip #4: Frontload Your Students
By frontloading, I mean letting your students know ahead of time what to expect. What should their bodies look like? How are they to be interacting with each other? What about their voice level? What are they going to be doing? If they’re walking somewhere, how should their line look? What’s the time limit? Here are a few examples on when you can do this:
Before beginning a new lesson.
Before leaving the classroom (for lunch, recess, a presentation, etc.)
Before beginning independent work time.
Before packing up for the day.
Before you get observed.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the last week of school - always, always, always frontload your students with what your specific expectations are. That way, I’ve told them, they have no excuse.
Not only this, but if you have this conversation with them beforehand, if you have to correct any behavior, you can reference this conversation.
CHAMPS is a great way to frontload your students, as it outlines everything - how they talk, how they ask for help, what they are doing, how they are doing it, etc. Click here to read my blog about CHAMPS and click here to purchase some CHAMPS posters for your classroom to get started with this particular strategy.
Tip #5: BREATHE! Never Let Them See Ya’ Sweat
My first and second year of teaching, I had a ROUGHHHH group of students. My second year was probably worse. I made the unfortunate mistake of letting myself get visibly upset with behavior issues. I cringe at myself, thinking back on it now. Getting visibly upset isn’t good, for several reasons.
1) Some students honestly think it’s funny and will do whatever they can to provoke you. Either that or they want to get you off task so they don’t have to do work.
2) Some students love the attention it gets them.
3) It’s not professional in the slightest. Yes, we’re human, but if you get upset easily like I did, it’s… too much.
4) You’ll stress yourself out and that can lead to burnout.
As soon as you show them something upsets you (to the point of you raising your voice, for example), some students are going to keep doing whatever it is that bothers you because they want to get a reaction out of you. So, don’t give them the satisfaction. Use strategies that work for you.
Here’s what works for me:
I literally stop what I’m doing, sit there, and stare at them. Blank face. I breathe. Simple, right? (Ha.) But, seriously. Just take a moment and stop everything. Chill out. My students would get the picture and stop what they were doing.
Have your students breathe with you. Don’t get frantic about it, just tell them that everyone needs some time to calm down, so you’re going to have them breathe with you. Use whatever breathing strategy you want - there are plenty out there.
Make light of the situation. I would act silly, saying things like, “Y’all pray for me,” or, “Wow, imagine interrupting your teacher.” This is good because 1) it gets my mind off how dysregulated I’m becoming, 2) it shows the students that they can’t get to me, and 3) it gives my students and I a chance to connect.
Literally sing. If my students were upsetting me and I could feel the aggravation rising in my chest, rather than say, “Go back to your seat, why are you by my desk?” I would sing it. For some reason, this would immediately calm my central nervous system.
So, find what works for you and CHILL!
Tip #6: Build Positive Relationships
I’m sure you’ve heard of the phrase: “Students won’t learn from you if they don’t like you.” I agree with this sentiment, so I highly recommended focusing on building relationships at the beginning of the school year. You can check out my recent blog post about it by clicking here, but here’s the TL;DR version:
Remember that your students are people, too, and deserve to be treated as such.
Show some personality and let them get to know you.
Stand up for your kids and advocate for them.
Be consistent in your classroom structure.
Don’t sweat the small stuff - little mistakes they make on accident don’t matter in the long run.
Show mutual respect toward them.
Show genuine interest in their lives.
LOVE them. CARE for them.
If your classroom management go-to is yelling at them, or if you resort to yelling at all, they will lose respect for you, and your relationship with them will suffer. I’ve come into contact with many students who would listen to and cooperate with ME and not another teacher because I spent time building a relationship with them and they liked me.
Half of the classroom management battle is relationships, so it’s worth the effort.
Tip #7: Create a Strong Classroom Community
If your students can’t stand each other, it’s going to be so much harder to quench any behavior issues. My second year of teaching was perhaps the worst in my career. I had a room filled with volatile 5th graders who had beef with everyone and didn’t care if you moved their seats, they would just yell across the room because they claimed someone was looking at them. It was on sight with them, every day. I’m not sure if I could have done anything with that particular group of students, but I do know that I focused heavily on classroom community in my third and especially fourth year of teaching.
In the 2023-2024 school year, my fourth year of teaching, I was teaching 4th grade and had a group of students who, in 3rd grade, were infamous. Long story short, they were a hot mess. To be honest, it sounded to me like they were as difficult as the students in my second year. Constant fighting. Yelling. Office referrals. Some students cursed at teachers or spat at them, apparently.
Here are some things I did to help build the community in my classroom:
I had morning meetings with them every day. It was the first time I had done morning meetings with fidelity, and I really do think it made a difference. I think I’ll write a blog post about it in the future, but click here to check out my resource I have for morning meetings to get started.
I did not let my students make fun of other students, and would give out consequences to those who tried to.
I encouraged students to work with people they did not usually work with.
We played games (many in morning meetings), brain breaks, and learning activities with each other.
I would crack jokes with them (which would also help our teacher-student relationship).
I did not FORCE interaction, especially if some students didn't get along.
I tried to not do whole-class consequences (unless it was something like practicing how to walk in line).
I did not call out students by name when correcting behavior.
I had conversations throughout the school year with my class about how it’s okay to not be friends with everyone, but it is important that we learn how to work together as a class.
Sometimes I would give out whole-class prizes “in honor” of someone else. So, if Little Johnny had a great day, I would give the whole class 5 minutes of extra recess.
It’s never going to be perfect, but I would rather have a talkative class than a volatile class. Remember: your students are people, too! They don’t have to like everyone. As stated previously, however, they still do need to learn how to work with others. Or at least share the same air as them.
Tip #8: Dole Out Natural Consequences
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. That’s literally physics. Newton, anyone? It is a natural law.
So, why on God’s green earth would you give a student a consequence that has nothing to do with what the behavior issue was? Would you want to be grounded for spilling a glass of water? No. That would be utterly insane.
Here are some natural consequence examples:
Your student spills their water all over the desk. Have them clean it up.
Your student writes all over their desk. Have them erase it.
Your class wastes instructional time by talking over you. Take an equal amount of recess time away from them.
Your class keeps talking when they shouldn’t be. Set a timer for 2 minutes (or however long) on the board and practice being Level 0. Every time someone makes any sound, start the timer over.
Your class can’t walk in the hallway correctly. Practice until they get it right.
Your student didn’t do their classwork in the designated time. Assign it for homework or have them do it during recess/other free time. Or, give them a 0!
These are just a few examples of the myriad number out there. Have the consequence match the offense.
Tip #9: Have Your Students Take Ownership and Responsibility
Your students want to feel like they belong in your classroom - so let them! Give them a sense of ownership and responsibility in the classroom so that they’ll actually care what goes on.
Here are a few ways I personally have helped give students a sense of ownership and responsibility:
Created a “classroom contract” at the beginning of the year. We talked about the “3 R’s”: Respectful, Responsible, Reliable. The students were expected to follow the “3 R’s” throughout the school year, as everything we do can be classified under those three things. We talked about what these looked like, students gave me examples and I wrote them down, and every student signed the anchor chart paper.
I gave my students jobs that they had to apply for. They kept the job all semester, then had a chance to apply for a different job the second semester. I paid them in tickets, which they got to redeem in my classroom store (see - rewards like this are okay sometimes)!
Students were responsible for keeping the room clean, regardless if it was their job or not.
Students were held accountable for their words and actions - I didn’t let things slide.
My students made pennants at the beginning of the school year to help decorate the classroom.
My students helped make the anchor charts we did together throughout the year.
As I said before, giving your students a sense of ownership and responsibility will help most students actually care about what goes on in the classroom. It may also help them to feel more at ease in the classroom setting, taking educational and social risks they wouldn't otherwise. I’m sure you can see why this is beneficial to classroom management.
Tip #10: Be Aware of Other Influencing Factors
As some of the disclaimers strewn throughout have said: be wary of outside influencing factors.
First, some students may not respond the same to these tips as other students do because of things like ADHD, ODD, Anxiety disorders, etc. It's important to keep this in mind because what works for one student may not work for others. I encourage you to reach out for support to counselors, admin, guardians, and behavior interventionists for guidance if some students are giving you extra difficulty.
Second, your students do not always come from the same walks of life, so a big part of classroom management is watching the language you use and being mindful of the different activities/lessons you do in your classroom. If you unintentionally do something to make your students feel unsafe, unwelcome, or less-than, they’re going to be on the defense and may act out.
Here are some examples:
Refer to your students’ guardians as “grown-ups,” not parents. Some students do not live with their parents - they may be raised by their grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings, foster parents, or they may be in a group home. So, rather than say to your class, “Have your parents sign this and bring it back,” it’s better to say, “Have your grown-ups sign this and bring it back.”
Be mindful of religious backgrounds of your students. Do they celebrate the same things? Do they have dietary restrictions because of their religious beliefs? This is something to ask your students’ grown-ups at the beginning of the school year (or ASAP if you haven’t already). Some students don’t celebrate Christmas. Some students don’t celebrate Halloween. So, consider having a “blanket-statement” celebration when it comes to those class parties (“Winter Party”, for example). Perhaps even have other religions represented in any classroom decorations (which may make your students feel appreciated and seen), or, again, “blanket-statement” decorations.
Don’t say things that may make socio-economic differences visible. For example, don’t ask students what they got for their birthday. If they want to share, they will. Perhaps ask them what their favorite part of their birthday was, or how they celebrated.
Be aware of physical constraints students may have. Some activities will be difficult to students with physical disabilities, or to students who are larger in size. I had a student come to me, for example, and tell me it was hard to sit criss-cross on the ground (he was overweight for his age). So, from then on, I would let students sit in their chairs, but close to the other students on the carpet, if they wanted to.
It may take some practice, but changing the language you use in your classroom, as well as being mindful of the activities you do, will truly help your classroom management system.
Good luck!
Once you get your classroom management down, your teaching experience will be a million times better. It. may take some time to get into a good stride, but it’s worth it! Trust me, you will find what works for you. All will be well!
Looking for some posters to get you started with your classroom management journey? Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store here!
Questions, comments, or concerns? Drop any of those below, or tag me on TikTok or Instagram! My handle is @teachandachieve on both platforms. I’ll get back to you as quickly as possible.
Until next time!
-Aimee ♡
