With so many teachers struggling with inappropriate behavior it is hardly surprising that more people are coming online to find classroom management ideas.  Effective classroom control is hard, and coming up with classroom management  ideas is difficult when you are swamped by ever increasing piles of work.

One of the best sources of effective classroom management ideas, is also one of the most overlooked.  In every school, in every part of the world, there will be a few teachers who have superb classroom control.  No matter how much student behavior has deteriorated in the wider school, these teachers can control even the toughest students.

These teachers manage to demonstrate excellent classroom management skills, day in and day out. Each teacher will have a different range of effective classroom management techniques and strategies, but they will all be effective. 

I’m often amazed how few teachers actually commit the time to go and watch these teachers in action.  If you’re struggling with student behavior in your classroom, and if you’re desperate for some top quality classroom management ideas and tips, then go and watch these teachers tomorrow.

You will be surprised by how much you can pick up by watching them at work.  I frequently have other teachers, especially new ones, come and ask if they can observe one of my lessons. 

And each and every time, I’m delighted to say yes. Having your peers ask to observe your lessons is second only to seeing your excellent classroom management strategies start to yield results.

So if you’re desperately in search of effective classroom management ideas, then go and watch a fellow teacher tomorrow.  You never know, you might just pick up a life changing classroom management technique, and never look back.

One question that I get asked a lot, is what skills are needed for effective classroom management.  Now this is a hard question to answer for many reasons.  I’ve seen a lot of excellent teachers over the years, and they all seemed to be so different in their style.

Since good classroom managers all seem to have different skill sets, is it really possible to identify common skills needed to develop the effective effective classroom management  strategies that will reduce inappropriate behavior in your classroom?  Absolutely!

Teachers who have effective classroom management strategies might all appear to have different skills on the surface.  But scratch the surface a little, and you will discover that they all share some core attributes.

Below are some of the skills that all effective classroom managers seem to have.

1. Patience. 

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that patience is a virtue.  Well scrap that, because in the classroom patience is a necessity. In order to maintain good working relationships with the students that you teach, you need to be able to demonstrate patience.  Get stressed out and start snapping at your pupils, and you will find classroom management harder than ever.

2. Determination

Effective classroom management takes skill, but it also takes determination.  You need to be determined to establish your authority in the classroom at all costs, or you will see a deterioration in student behavior.  The teachers with the most effective classroom management skills are the teachers who are determined to follow through, and appl their rules consistently, whatever the situation.

3. Consistency

If you’re not consistent in your classroom, then you will find effective classroom management hard to achieve.  The teachers who have the least problems with student behavior are the teachers who deal with the pupils in a consistent fashion.  Treat identical situations differently, simply because of the child involved, and you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Teachers with effective classroom management skills all seem to have different attributes.  Even so, all have the three skills above in abundance.  If you want to reduce inappropriate student behavior in your classroom now then concentrate on developing the skills listed above.  Your effective classroom management skills are dependent upon it!

If you’re stuck in a rut, with your pupils running wild, then you need to give your classroom management skills a top up.  Apply these three effective classroom management tips and notice an improvement in the student behavior  in your classes.

Number 1. Always Stay Positive – You’re stuck in a rut in the middle of January and what happens?  Yep, you become downbeat and negative.

But here’s the thing. If you’re negative, then your students will be negative too. And that will make classroom management even more difficult.

You become negative, and so do your pupils.  Before you know it you are in a terrible cycle that leads to poor pupil behavior and ineffective classroom management.

Take yourself out of the bubble and try and remember why you became a teacher in the first place.

If you can walk into your classroom with a smile on your face you will get a much more positive reaction from your students.

Stay positive and effective classroom management will be so much easier to achieve.

Number 2. Praise your students until you can’t praise anymore – Praise your pupils at every possible opportunity if you want to experience a positive learning environment. You need to train your students exactly how you want them to behave, and the use of praise is an excellent way to do this.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking.  Finding good pupil behavior is hard when you’re dealing with the worst kids in school.  But what you need to do is actively seek out good student beavior.  And then heap a ton of praise upon it.

And remember this.  Even the worst students behave for brief moments! Praise that good behavior and you are training the students you teach to behave like that again in the future.

Number 3. Use the language of choice –  Instead of telling children to do something, explain to them that you would like them to chose to do something. This subtle change in language is incredibly powerful and is sure to produce positive results.

An example of this would be explaining to Mike “I would like you to choose to sit down quietly”, as opposed to saying “sit down quietly”.

Classroom management is an incredibly subtle art, and small changes can have a huge impact on the relationship you have with your pupils.

Don’t believe me? Try it out tomorrow in your classroom. 

Use the language of choice and you will notice a huge improvement in your classroom management skills.  If you do it right that is.

So what is effective classroom management, and how can it be used to reduce innappropriate classroom behavior?

With more and more teachers suffering an ever increasing amount of teacher stress at the hands of negative student behavior, it is of no surprise to find so many teachers coming online to try and find effective classroom management tips.

There is no doubt that effective classroom management can provoke positive behavior in the students you teacher, while at the same time helping to reduce teacher stress. 

Different teachers have different standards of behavior that they expect from the students they teach, and so ideas about what is inappropriate pupil behavior, and what is an effective classroom management plan varies from teacher to teacher.

In my opinion, classroom management is effective when you are able to minimise innapropriate student behavior, and promote a positive learning atmosphere.

How you achieve a positive learning environomnet in your classroom is secondary to actually achieving it. 

Some people tell you that in order to have effective classroom management strategies you must be a strict teacher.  Others will tell you that the opposite is true. 

It’s important to realize however that we are all professionals with different skills and different personalities.   Stop trying to follow one one good  classroom mangement model, and understand that we are all made different, and so we will all teach differently. 

Effective clasroom management will differ from teacher to teacher.  How the teacher minimises inaproprate classroom behavior isn’t that important.  What is important is that the teacher uses their unique skills to promote positive student behavior in the classroom.