New Teachers: Fundamentals of Classroom Management

Tips, Advice, and Strategies

• New Teachers: Classroom Management Essentials: Four easy-to-implement strategies you can put to use today to help foster learning in the classroom. (Edutopia, 2017)
• 19 Big and Small Classroom Management Strategies: Read about a few big strategies to keep in mind, and explore over a dozen quick interventions that can help keep students focused on learning. (Edutopia, 2016)
• Classroom-Management: Important Big-Picture Questions: Before getting into the minutiae, consider how you organize your space, what learning looks like, and how you’re building relationships with families. (Edutopia, 2015)
• 5 Quick Classroom-Management Tips for Novice Teachers: Straightforward classroom-management strategies that you can use immediately. (Edutopia, 2015)
• 5 Tips for Making Group Work Manageable: Encourage small-group effectiveness by clarifying the task, focusing on production, modeling successful behavior, building community, and monitoring progress, time, and noise. (Edutopia, 2016)

Tips for the Primary Grades

• The 5 Priorities of Classroom Management: Learn how to effectively manage a classroom by building relationships, leveraging time, and designing behavioral standards. (Edutopia, 2017)
• 6 Opening and Closing Routines for New Teachers: Explore effective strategies for starting and finishing each day with focus, purpose, and a sense of community. (Edutopia, 2016)
• Elementary Classroom: Making the Most of the First Month: Learn about important goals for the first weeks of school, and discover sample activities that can help you reach them. (Edutopia, 2015)
• First Day of Kindergarten: 8 Survival Skills: Read about strategies for teachers who work with young students. (Edutopia, 2013)
• Reducing Behavior Problems in the Elementary School Classroom: Download a practice guide with easily digestible, evidence-based recommendations. (Institute of Education Sciences)

Tips for the Middle and Secondary Grades

• Flexible Seating in Middle School: Learn how giving your students a choice about where and on what they can sit aids classroom management. Also see: High School Flexible Seating Done Right. (Edutopia, 2017)
• Teen Engagement in Learning Starts With Respect: Six strategies that will help you create respectful relationships with teens. (Edutopia, 2015)
• Behavior Expectations and How to Teach Them: Discover the benefits of teaching expectations for student behavior using best practices often reserved for academic work. (Edutopia, 2015)
• Watch a Classroom Management Expert: Review the strategies English teacher Tyler Hester uses in his ninth-grade classroom. Learn more about his approach in 7 Tips for Better Classroom Management. (Edutopia, 2013)
• Classroom Management Strategies for Difficult Students: Browse an array of research-based recommendations specific to middle school teachers, students, and classrooms. (Association for Middle Level Education)

Establishing Effective Rules and Routines

• Relationships Matter More Than Rules: Explore how community building—which starts on day one—can help foster a sense of responsibility in the classroom. (Edutopia, 2017)
• Rules and Routines in the Classroom: Learn the benefits of establishing classroom rules and setting up consistent routines and procedures. (Edutopia, Updated 2017)
• Behavior Expectations and How to Teach Them: Innovative strategies for establishing clear expectations that students understand and are encouraged to uphold. (Edutopia, 2015)
• The 5 Critical Categories of Rules: Learn more about the various purposes of classroom limits and rules. For a first-person perspective on working with students to create a set of classroom rules, also read Creating Classroom Rules With a Bill of Student Rights. (Edutopia, 2014)
• Classroom Routines and Procedures: Check out this handy reference on common times and situations that may require procedures and routines. (Learn NC)

Struggling with issues related to managing technology in your classroom? The following posts will help you tackle common issues.

• 3 Tips for Managing Phone Use in Class (Edutopia, 2017)
• Classroom Management in the Tech-Equipped Classroom (Edutopia, 2014)

Managing Disruptive Behavior

No matter how engaging the lessons, every teacher is bound to encounter disruptive and off-task behavior in class from time to time, and it’s important to develop strategies and interventions to prevent learning from getting derailed. The following posts should help.

• Responding to Disruptive Behavior: Discover a handy and effective exercise you can use to address and reverse disruptive and distracting behaviors before they become problematic. (Edutopia, 2017)
• The Behavior Battle: High- and Low-Tech Solutions: Learn how digital tools like PBIS World or ClassDojo and strategies like focused observation and simplified reporting can help you remedy behavior challenges. (Edutopia, 2016)
• Sometimes Misbehavior Is Not What It Seems: Reflect on some of the potential reasons behind student misbehavior. (Edutopia, 2015)
• The Power of Keeping Your Cool: Check out these tips for remaining calm in the classroom while still responding (not reacting) to misbehavior. (Edutopia, 2015)
• Classroom Management: The Intervention Two-Step: Discover a two-step process for dealing with classroom disruptions. You may also want to read How to Make Consequences Work for suggestions on how to make consequences more effective. (Edutopia, Updated 2015)

Gaining and Keeping Student Attention

Strategies for gaining attention are an important part of any teacher’s classroom-management toolkit. The following resources include attention-grabbing ideas for elementary, middle, and secondary classrooms.

• Simple Ways to Help Young Students Learn Self-Control: Explore interventions you can use to help students learn to pay attention, stay focused, and take charge of their own learning. (Edutopia, 2016)
• Energy and Calm: Brain Breaks and Focused-Attention Practices: A range of activities you can use to help students calm and focus their minds. (Edutopia, 2016)
• Strategies for Getting and Keeping the Brain’s Attention: Learn effective strategies that tap into the right neural networks to hold and sustain attention. (Edutopia, 2015)
• 25 Attention-Grabbing Tips for the Classroom: New and effective strategies to capture or regain student attention. (Edutopia, 2014)
• 30 Techniques to Quiet a Noisy Class: Explore useful strategies that can help you quickly grab students’ attention and restore a sense of quiet to the classroom. (Edutopia, 2014)

Once you’ve got students’ attention, how do you keep it? Explore a variety of resources on Edutopia’s Student Engagement page; consider starting with Student Engagement: Resource Roundup.

Building Relationships and Creating a Positive Climate for Learning

Fostering strong and consistent relationships with students can help new teachers build a solid foundation for other classroom-management strategies. Not sure where to start? The following articles and posts describe specific, concrete strategies that new teachers can implement.

• 5 Strategies for Deepening Student Collaboration (Edutopia, 2016)
• Connections, Not Consequences (Edutopia, 2016)
• Relationship Building Through Culturally Responsive Classroom Management (Edutopia, 2014)
• 3 Ways to Make Meaningful Connections With Your Students (Edutopia, 2014)
• Fostering Relationships in the Classroom (Edutopia, 2012)

Students learn best in environments where they feel respected, supported, and valued. To help students thrive in a safe, positive, and open classroom climate, consider the following tips from experienced educators:

• 4 Approaches to Building a Positive Community in Any Classroom (Edutopia, 2016)
• Helping Students Start the Year with a Positive Mindset (Edutopia, Updated 2016)
• 20 Tips for Creating a Safe Learning Environment (Edutopia, Updated 2015)
• New Teachers: Building Strong Class Culture All Year Long (Teaching Channel, 2014)
• Back to School: 3 Question Activities to Connect Students (Edutopia, 2014)

Words of Encouragement From Experienced Teachers

If you’re experiencing challenges, remember that you’re not alone. These posts offer some encouragement.

1. Teachers who need a pep talk in advance of another day of performance should read Todd Finley’s You’re Gonna Hear Me Roar: Overcoming Classroom Stage Fright, which is full of useful tips for working through fear.
2. After a rough day in the classroom, it might help to read Don’t Quit: 5 Strategies for Recovering After Your Worst Day Teaching.
3. In the face of classroom-management challenges, it’s important to take a moment to regain perspective. In Like a Wood Duck: Finding Peace in the Classroom, Ben Johnson offers some suggestions to help you regain your serenity.

Looking for additional resources? Read Resources Toolkit for New Teachers to find other curated guides, and check out the New Teachers page.