CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT INTRODUCTION

As an early educator, you’re shaping the minds and hearts of our youngest learners. However, some days can be incredibly challenging, especially when classroom behavior becomes difficult. You're not alone if you struggle to maintain a positive and productive learning environment. Classroom management is a vital skill that can make or break your teaching experience, particularly in kindergarten, preschool, and elementary settings. This guide is here to help you navigate those challenges with effective classroom management strategies and the power of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) techniques.

SECTION 1: UNDERSTANDING CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

What do we mean by classroom management?

Classroom management is more than just maintaining order; it's about creating an environment where students feel secure and confident in learning. It involves clear expectations, equitable rules that make sense, and the support children need to successfully meet those expectations and rules. It can include thinking through the flow, the rules, and the room, but many times, it's as simple as the words you use. Children know what to do, and the support they need helps them do it. At the same time, the teachers are also able to do their job with reduced disruptive behaviors and more instructional time. 

Why Classroom Management Needs to be more than Rules:

When a teacher plans a fantastic lesson and follow-up activity, but the class is derailed by disruptions as minor as repeatedly asking for the same directions to bigger ones, like children fighting, not only is learning not happening, but stress is rising, impacting everyone in the room. Stress causes a release of cortisol, inhibiting the ability to think, listen, and learn. Effective classroom management can prevent many of these frustrations, allowing teachers and students to focus, learn, and build skills. When children and teachers feel less stress, they are both more effective. So, not only are you able to increase learning time, but you also free the brain to learn and create. When students know what to do next and feel safe, respected, and supported, they can participate, and teachers can teach.

SECTION 3: THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING (SEL) ON CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT BEHAVIOR STRATEGIES

The Role of SEL in Classroom Management

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is critical to an effective and meaningful learning environment. We know that when children have social-emotional competencies, they are happier and do better in academics. If you’re a teacher, this is no surprise. It's hard to learn (or teach) when there are challenging behaviors in the classroom. So, your behavior management plans should be aligned with your social-emotional learning. If you teach children to talk through conflict or share feelings but simply put children in time out when a conflict occurs, there is a disconnect. Children learn social and emotional skills through relationships with emotionally skilled adults in real time and through real challenges. 

Building Emotional Awareness requires more than emotion charts

When children develop self-awareness of their feelings and needs, they are more likely to express those needs effectively and ultimately begin to understand others. And they certainly cannot develop skills to manage emotions they don’t yet identify. Self-awareness is the foundation for all other social-emotional skills. It develops through relationships with emotionally skilled adults who can understand, accept, and reflect the feelings and perspectives of children. While books, activities, and emotion charts can build vocabulary and start the conversation, adult’s response to children’s feelings and emotions is genuinely how self-awareness develops.

• Listen to understand the feelings and perspectives of the child, even when the behavior may not be accepted. For example, when a child says, “Math is boring,” listen and observe to understand why this child may be struggling with math and what feeling might be at the heart of this comment.
• Reflect on the feelings and concerns of children without judgment. This can be simple responses such as, “The test did not feel fair to you,” “You wish we were staying outside longer,” etc. This is a lot harder than it seems. It takes skill and practice to develop this ability while still maintaining control and expectations. In our classes, we help teachers develop the skills and language to build self-awareness.

Fostering Positive Relationships Leads to More Effective Classroom Management Methods

Children who have positive relationships with their teachers are more likely to learn and succeed. Studies have shown that children who have closer relationships with their teachers perform better academically, have closer relationships with their peers, and are more motivated than children who have more conflictual teacher-student relationships. To build those relationships, teachers need to have skills first to understand and accept the feelings of their students, but also to make clear their concerns and feelings without judgment. As such, children develop relationship skills with adults and other children. Effective teachers set up their classroom and day to ensure that children have opportunities to talk, collaborate, play, and help one another. Throughout these opportunities, emotionally skilled teachers can help develop relationships with children and among students when they respond effectively, such as:.

• When there is a conflict or challenge, start by describing what is happening neutrally. This avoids assumptions, bias, and judgment, making room for new understandings and stronger relationships. And helps everyone start with the same awareness. For example, if you see two children trying to get in the same chair, and one child falls, rather than saying, “You are being too rough.” or “See what happens when you push.” simply start with a neutral description, such as “You both tried to sit in the chair at the same time, and Ryan is on the floor.” This decreases defensiveness and gives an opportunity to understand what happened without judgment. This is harder than it sounds. There are so many assumptions and judgments that come through our language and create barriers to strong relationships. Try our mini-lesson on neutral descriptions in our free mini-course. 
• Offer empathy for how the children might feel before any additional agenda. When children feel understood, they are more likely to be able to hear and understand others. So, in the same situation as the two children, empathy would include statements such as, “Ouch, you ended up on the floor. That must hurt.” and “You both wanted to sit in that same chair.”  Empathy is difficult, especially when you also need to set clear expectations and get control. In our course Compassion and Control, you can learn how to offer the empathy and compassion children need AND still set clear expectations and maintain control. 
• Share your feelings and why. This is hard, but when children can understand your feelings and perspectives authentically without judgment, they can build the social awareness they need to understand you and others. So rather than simply saying, “That is not nice/safe,” try sharing your genuine concern…”I am worried that you are getting hurt, and I want you to have a fair way of choosing a seat.” This skill takes time, and there is a fine line between sharing your concern and a “guilt trip.” Our courses teach parents and teachers the skills and language to do this effectively. So you feel heard, and children understand how their actions impact others.

Promoting Self-Regulation and a key for classroom management behavior strategies

Self-regulation is both the ability to control one’s behaviors AND develop the self motivation to persist as well. In other words, it requires the ability to first understand how you are feeling and then manage your own response to it to refrain from doing something you should not do OR to persist and do something you don’t want to do but have to. Some strategies that help children develop self-management skills include:

• Reinforcing children very specifically when they demonstrate any small steps that demonstrate self-regulation. Such as:” Even though he took your chair, you came to get help and kept your hands to yourself.” Or “You kept working until all the pieces fit in the puzzle. That took some perseverance!” Remember that children need five forms of positive feedback to each constructive or negative feedback to learn and grow. And yet, how you offer the feedback matters. In our courses, we teach the specific feedback children need to develop their self-management skills.
• State your expectations of what children are TO DO in this situation clearly and specifically. When adults say, “Share,” “Be a kind friend,” or even “Listen,” children are less able to think about what TO DO to meet that expectation and even more so when stressed, excited, or impulsive. When adults give clarity, such as, “Walk in the classroom,” “Raise your hand and wait for me to call on you.”, “Call her by her name and ask her to stop.” children are more likely to follow through and have an opportunity to build self-control. Often, children need more than that, and in our course, Compassion and Control, we teach the specific steps to get control in such a way as to build self-control at the same time. 
• A note on calm down corners: keep in mind that many children DO need a place to reset and get a break when stress is high. And you might need a break, too, before you can help. Consider this a space to take a break rather than a “calm down corner.” Children develop self-regulation through co-regulation, and any directive to “calm down” sends the message that children can and should calm their emotions independently without support or justice. By offering a way to take a break, the child may feel better or simply get the space they need before resolving the conflict with help. 

CONCLUSION: EMPOWERING EARLY EDUCATORS WITH EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

When challenging behavior disrupts your classroom, you often feel like you are simply reacting and not teaching. However, when you have the specific skills and words to respond to children, you will find that you not only avoid power struggles but feel more confident that you can decrease challenging behaviors and lower the stress in your classroom.

Your relationship with the students is the mechanism by which they develop social-emotional skills to behave well. Predictable adult behaviors and skills build social-emotional resiliency, even in the face of stress. At Mariposa Education, we teach those five essential skills and the language needed so you can work smarter, not harder.