Activity 1: (20 minutes) GROUP REFLECTION

Read a teacher nightmare from the slides:

You are in the middle of an important lesson. An administrator is conducting a formal observation. Your students are out of control and will not comply with any of your instructions. Meanwhile, the phone is ringing and a parent has just stopped by to have a serious conversation.

Have a discussion:

• How much of this nightmare is realistic or relatable?
• Have you ever had classroom management nightmares?
• How can classroom management issues affect your overall well-being?

Place posters around the room with the following titles:

• Common Classroom Behavior Problems
• Surprise Behaviors That Have Left You Stumped
• Nightmare Scenarios
• Things & People to Manage in the Classroom

Lay out some markers and give teachers time to walk around the room and add thoughts and personal experiences to each poster. Teachers can work independently or in teams. Encourage educators to underline or leave check marks by anything on the posters that they have also experienced.

Gather back together and read through each poster.

Have a discussion:

• What are some common threads that you noticed in the responses?
• How prepared do you feel to handle the day-to-day issues? Why is that?
• What do you typically do when you experience a behavior that you are not sure how to handle?
• What are the main challenges for beginning teachers when managing all of the people and things in their classrooms?
  • How is this similar or different for more seasoned teachers?

Activity 2: (30 minutes) THINK TANKS

Prior to this activity, make your own copy (click the link) of this shared document and share it with teachers so everyone can access it. This shared document is intended to open up collaboration between teachers surrounding the topic of classroom management. Newly graduated teachers may refer back to the philosophies learned in their recent programs or training. More seasoned teachers may provide ideas that they have tested and curated over time.

Divide teachers into small groups. Each group will select a unique classroom management topic from the ideas gathered on the posters that they feel is most relevant at their school. Ensure that topics are distinct, specific, and that there are no duplicates.

Set teachers to work, researching and compiling top resources and ideas all about their topic. Each group will fill in the following categories while researching and gathering:

• 10 top tips for their topic
• Helpful quotes or articles
• Top experts or authors for the topic
• Video examples or other models
• Other resources

Post the resource ideas for teachers to use on the slides.

With any remaining time, invite teachers to explore the collaboration document or invite each group to present and summarize what they added to the document in 1–2 minutes.

Activity 3: (20 minutes) CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT RUBRIC

Divide teachers into 6 groups and pass out 1 article to each group.

• Article #1: “23 Brilliant Classroom Management Strategies & Techniques,” from We Are Teachers
• Article #2: “The 5 Priorities of Classroom Management,” from Edutopia
• Article #3: “8 Classroom Management Mistakes Teachers Make at the Beginning of the Year,” from Western Governors University
• Article #4: “How to Create The Perfect Set Of Class Rules,” by Michael Linsin
• Article #5: “How Novice and Expert Teachers Approach Classroom Management Differently,” by Youki Terada at Edutopia
• Article #6: “Classroom Management: The Most Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them,” by Kenton Levings

Invite teachers to skim their article and list answers that finish this prompt on the whiteboard: “Teachers with strong classroom management…”

After every group has added their ideas to the list, work as a whole group to narrow down the ideas to the top 10 practices of teachers with strong classroom management.

Pass out the Classroom Management Rubric handout to each teacher. Invite them to write the list of top 10 ideas in the left column. Then they will simply describe what those practices might look like at the varying levels of classroom management. Explain that this rubric will be used for another activity.

Activity 4: (45 minutes) FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL ANALYSIS

Have teachers pull out their completed Classroom Management Rubric handout and use it to grade Mr. Hester in the following video clips:

• Video 1: “Classroom Management – Meet Mr. Hester,” by Agape Management (until 4:05)
• Video 2: “Classroom Management – Week 1, Day 1,” by Agape Management (0:00-3:33, 5:06-10:35, then skip through and watch a few more minutes based on what the teachers would like to see.)

Following the video clips, go through each of the top practices from the rubric and have teachers share their score using 1, 2, or 3 fingers:

• 1 finger represents a score of “poor/struggling class management”
• 2 fingers represent a score of “average/sufficient class management”
• 3 fingers represent a score of “advanced/excellent class management”

Have a discussion:

• Why do you think Mr. Hester gave such specific directions?
• How did Mr. Hester communicate clear expectations?
• How did Mr. Hester incorporate both positivity and strictness?
• Do you think Mr. Hester leans more toward high-teacher control or low-teacher control? Why?
• Do you think Mr. Hester’s classroom management will look different after a couple months into the school year? Explain.

Extension: For an entirely unrealistic comparison, you can show the video,

“The Man – The School of Rock,” by Movie Clips and discuss the differences that everyone sees between “Mr. Schneebly” and Mr. Hester.

Have teachers discuss the following questions in small groups. Share with the whole group, if time permits.

• What do you do on the first day of school to set the tone for your school year?
• When thinking about an entire school year, how many days or weeks does it typically take you to get your classroom running smoothly? Explain.
• What are the hardest weeks from the school year to enforce classroom management? How do you cope during those weeks?

For any time that remains, invite educators to reflect on a lined paper based on 1 or more of the following prompts:

• Do you ever find yourself comparing yourself to other teachers?
• What can you do to avoid negative comparisons?
• Is it helpful to compare your classroom management to other teachers? Why or why not?
• How do you feel about your current classroom management?
• How does your current classroom management compare to your classroom management when you started teaching?

Activity 5: (20 minutes) CONNECTION 

Read the quotes from the slide together and discuss the correlating questions.

Acknowledge that you are in a room full of experts. Teachers are exceptional at finding simple ways to connect with students.

Have a discussion about the following questions. Encourage them to share specific stories from students in their past classroom.

• When have you found time to build rapport with students?
• Where have you found the best settings to build rapport with students?
• What are some creative ways that you have been able to connect with students, especially those that can be harder to connect with?

For the last couple minutes, invite teachers to share any ah-hahs that they learned from other educators while they listened to others’ tips and stories.

Activity 6: (20 minutes) BEHAVIOR INTERVENTION TEAM 

Watch the video, “Teacher Collaboration: Spreading Best Practices School-Wide,” by Edutopia (until 1:42). As teachers watch, encourage them to think about how educators can collaborate to improve classroom management and student behavior. Have a discussion:

• Does our school promote collaboration surrounding solutions for behavior management? If so, how?
• What have you learned from your fellow teachers that has helped improve your own classroom management?
• Who are some people that you can talk to if you are struggling with classroom management? What sort of support and training is available at our school?

Read a quick description of a Behavior Intervention Team:

At some schools, a behavior intervention team is put together that includes seasoned teachers, school counselors, administrators, and more. Teachers who have specific needs or questions can sign up for times, once a week after school, to meet with the Behavior Intervention Team and discuss solutions to the problems that they are facing.

Have a discussion:

• Does our school do anything like this?
• Would this system work well or not? If not, how would you tweak it to meet our schools’ needs?
• What could this look like at our school?