A Test of Classroom Management Skills

Last week tested my classroom management skills. I’ve been working with kids for a long, long time and I’ve been able to compile a respectable toolbox of tricks and techniques regarding classroom management, but even my seasoned sensibilities were tested with my group of elementary kids during the third service at our church on Sunday.
As you remember from yesterday’s blog, we are teaching Salvation this month at church, and I taught one thing: God wants a relationship with you.
My very difficult group, of mainly boys, was irritable and tired, and at odds with each other before they entered my room. I was short staffed and immediately thought of a kitschy “hands on” activity for them to do while I was teaching.
This was a good start, but let me tell you what happened next. As a reminder, this is a multiage elementary classroom, with kindergarteners through sixth grade. There are three sets of siblings (one set is my tired group of three) with some serious behavioral disordered kids in the mix. I know all of these kids well, and I know how most tick, but it took everything I had to keep the class moving forward.
My first trick of the day was to keep them busy. I had a quick, multisensory activity for them to work on while I taught. They wound yarn around a Popsicle stick cross to make a fun diamond shape. I had them switch yarn every few minutes, and although this created a little confusion, it cut down on the “I wanted that color” conflicts.
The next skill I used was reminding them constantly of what I expected. I did a lot of reminding like this: “I love the way Kara is listening, thank you Connor for raising your hand, thank you for that answer, Aaron.” Positive reminders helped.
One child was having a particularly hard day, picking on his brother, not wanting to listen, wiggling, and at one point trying to take the star belonging to the boy next to him. I gave him the clear consequences of his actions, “Joe, if you continue to hit Scott, I will have to have you sit on the stairs.” Joe pushed, and prodded, but he never crossed over the line to fulfill the consequences. I had to remember that with each new kind of offense, he needed a new consequence. For this child, at this time, it worked.
Following through is critical to any classroom management toolkit. If I tell a child that they will be removed if they do “x”, then I need to follow through with that promise. Therefore, it is important for me not to overreact to a child’s behavior. For example, if Joe pinches his brother, it might be best to split them up, sit between them, distract them, or have him sit out. Making a big consequence (that of removal) is too big for the first offense (short of being a danger to self or others which always requires immediate removal.) But at the end of the day, kids will push me to see if I am serious, which I always am. I read a Barna study a few months ago about Sunday school kids, who are now adults, reported that one problem with their childhood church experience was that rules were never followed and classroom discipline was rarely imposed. That is tragic because without a clear set of rules and consequences children cannot feel safe.
Now might be a good time to mention that my most used classroom management skills are proximity and distraction. It is almost constant. Finding children who are not engaged, who are disrupting or disturbing others, or who are unhappy becomes second nature. Once I see these kids wandering or engaging in unwanted behavior, I immediately get next to them- either I move or I bring them to sit next to me. Then I give them something new to do. I have a lot of stuff at my disposal: a bunch of books, crafts, clay, mazes, games, toys, etc. Anything that I can do to engage them, stop or redirect behavior is worthwhile. I sometimes find that sitting down with a child for just a few minutes can change them for an hour! So I do this a lot. I like to play marbles with the kids, card games, legos, whatever I can implement quickly and effectively. I can get a kid engaged enough to leave others alone by spending time with them. This may seem obvious, but when you are in the middle of class, with multiple personalities to juggle, the obvious sometimes slips away to oblivion!
So, my Sunday experience last week employed most of my skills, hopping from one side of the group to the next, verbalizing expectations, talking about consequences, redirecting, sitting kids next to me that were struggling to focus, asking questions, giving praise, trying to teach in a group that was very difficult. But at the end of the hour I had taught one thing, so I’m happy. Next time I’ll try to teach two.