From Chaos to Calm: 5 Techniques for Managing Classroom Behavior in December [episode 104]

Emily

Hey there, thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we’re sharing five techniques to tame December classroom behavior, and sharing a teacher approved tip for reminding students about your behavior expectations.

Heidi

We start our episodes with a morning message just like we used to do at morning meeting in our classrooms. This week’s morning message is what tips and tricks do you have for managing classroom behavior in December.

Emily

And we have some awesome responses from our community. Bill said keep the routines rigor and expectations in place. Don’t change things up just because it’s December. Lisa said, Take time to review your routines and expectations. And then she added this, I was also really listening to your podcast yesterday on engagement. And I think the surprise and delight ideas in there could help too.

Heidi

So thank you for listening, Lisa, we appreciate that. And I think you’re right that surprise and delight can do a lot to keep students engaged and help keep behavior under control. And we talked about that in episode 35 if you want to go back and check that out.

Emily

Shannon has this great tip behavior bingo. I make a bingo board with various behavior expectations. When they perform the expectation correctly, they get an x, you can do a prize for each bingo and a big prize for a blackout. Cindy says keep them busy and happy. And Julia says I think it’s best to accept that the Christmas crazy is going to happen.

Emily

Well, whether we like it or not the holiday hoopla is headed our way. Thanks to these teachers for sharing their insights. And we’d love to have you join the conversation over in our Teacher Approved Facebook group.

Emily

Well, it’s a good thing that you’re here today.

Heidi

Yes, we need to form a united front against those hyper little critters that show up in our rooms this time of year.

Emily

I’m reminded of that old joke. How do you lesson plan in December? Step one, scrape the children off the ceiling. Step two, repeat as needed.

Heidi

I’ve heard that joke before he’s done cracks me up. And I know it’s not true. But it feels true.

Emily

We can’t do much to help you get the kids off the ceiling, if that’s where they are. But we can help keep the children from floating up there in the first place.

Heidi

Yes, it’s very hard to find a child size spatula. So it’s best to do what you can to keep them grounded.

Emily

Or if not completely grounded, maybe just floating a couple feet in the air instead of all the way up. That’s the goal here.

Heidi

And we do that by adding in some boosters to our regular classroom management system.

Emily

The past few weeks, we’ve been talking all about classroom management. In episode 101 we share 10 Easy Ways to Prevent management problems from even occurring.

Heidi

In episode 102 we talked about how to manage the problems that still crop up sad they’re gonna crop up anyway. And last week in Episode 103, we talked about how to predict when your regular management plan might not be robust enough.

Emily

Yep, because that system that works on a random Thursday in March is not the system you need on December 9, or May 25. To be honest. A regular management system is fine for regular school days. But not every day is a regular school day.

Heidi

So it only makes sense that you need something extra on days that feel extra.

Emily

So if you want to give your regular management systems a little judge, it comes back to novelty versus structure.

Heidi

And maybe it feels like we always end up here and that’s because we do. Managing a classroom comes down to the balance between novelty and structure.

Emily

When novelty is high, say right before winter break. Kids can easily tap into overwhelm. And as much as they enjoy the excitement, they don’t actually want to feel out of control, but they don’t have the skills to rein themselves in. They’re counting on their teacher to counteract their overwhelmed by increasing structure in the classroom. Even if they don’t know they’re counting on that.

Heidi

In today’s episode, we’ve got five surefire techniques to boost your December management by increasing the structure in your classroom.

Emily

Since this episode is airing in November, we’re focusing on the headaches December brings. But these techniques can help you anytime you need to increase the structure in your classroom.

Heidi

You can definitely use these techniques at the end of the school year or when you have a sub or really any other time that your kids get a little squirrely.

Emily

So on to our first technique which is maintain your regular routines. Tell us about this one Heidi.

Heidi

Maintaining a regular routine can be hard during weeks where there are so many interruptions. You may not have a quote normal school day until January. And it does not take much to derail your day. Even something as simple as a canned food drive competition can throw the whole day out of whack.

Emily

When the kids are out of control before the bell even rings, it’s tempting to just surrender to the crazy, but it’s moments like this where your regular routine matters the most. And we’re not just saying that because we like routine, even though we do like routine. But good ol science is going to back us up on this.

Heidi

Right. Routines tell your nervous system that you are safe, you know what’s going on, and you have some sense of control. And those are the exact safeguards that pull kids out of overwhelm, and back into engagement.

Emily

That doesn’t mean it’s easy in December. You may have a grade level activity Monday morning and an assembly Tuesday afternoon, and the PTA is doing something at lunch on Wednesday. Of course, all those little extras are what make the season fun, truly, but they also wreak havoc with your schedule.

Heidi

On the days that I knew we’d have interruptions. I picked my tempo activities. Those are the activities that create the shape of the day. To me, they’re non negotiable because they create the reference points that guide us from activity to activity.

Heidi

So in my class, the temple activities were our morning routine, including our morning work time, morning meeting and our end of day routine. Even if it was one of those days, when my students only had a couple of minutes to do their morning work. Or maybe morning meeting was a speedy five minutes. We still did those things every day.

Emily

Yes, because predictable, repetitive morning routines are calming, they can help tame out of control energy. If you want more tips about how to craft your best morning routine episodes 93, 94 and 95 will help you out.

Heidi

And besides our morning routine, I always made sure we did our end of day routine. Even if that meant doing it in the middle of the afternoon, because there was going to be an assembly of later in the day. I use our end of day class jobs to reset the room for the next morning. So if we skip that routine, tomorrow would be off kilter too.

Emily

Yeah, we don’t want that we do not want to make tomorrow any harder than it has to be because tomorrow will have its own problems. So it’s smart to do what you can to make the next day run smoother today.

Heidi

So you can increase the structure in your classroom by really relying on those routines all month long. Emily, what’s our next technique for adding structure to our classrooms?

Emily

Our second technique is to provide productive outlets for excess energy.

Heidi

And it’s really so smart because you know, the kids are going to be more hyper than usual. And we can choose to be reactive and just wrangle those moments as they crop up. Or we can be proactive, and plan in advance for how to manage all of that excess energy.

Emily

The simplest way to do that is just to schedule in more frequent breaks. Brain Breaks are awesome for this. If you’re interested in some fun themed brain breaks, we have Christmas and winter themed sets. Each set has 60 Brain Breaks, so you’re definitely covered for the month.

Heidi

Besides brain breaks, you could also plan more active lessons. Anything that gets kids moving is a positive way to burn off some of that energy.

Emily

Playing review games this time of year is always a good idea. Games like kids move and interact. Plus December is a great time for review. Right?

Heidi

There’s so many kids absent, whether they’re traveling or sick. And there’s just so many other things going on, you probably don’t want to dive too much into new content, so may as well schedule some review games.

Emily

And that brings us to our third technique, which is take time out as needed.

Heidi

Sometimes trying to burn off energy will just amp things up even more when they’re Oh, we all have that experience. And when that happens, it is time for a cooldown.

Emily

Pulling the kids in for an impromptu storytime is one of my favorite tricks. Not only does it help calm the kids but it gives me an excuse to read a picture book.

Heidi

A read aloud break is perfect. And you know any excuse to buy more seasonal picture books is going to be a pro in my book, as if we needed an excuse.

Emily

Watching a calming video can be another way to reset the energy in the classroom. If you can access YouTube at school satisfying sand videos, my kids love those Kinetic Sand videos. Dorries reef cam, ASMR marble races and miniature cooking videos. Oh so cute. They’re all so soothing. Just make sure you preview anything before you show it of course

Heidi

And I have to put in a plug for my favorite calming video, which is asleep, the snow came flying by alternate mind. And we’ll put a link in the show notes so you don’t have to remember that, especially because it’s spelled weird. But really the video is just winter pictures with falling snow. While the most relaxing song plays, it’s such a good time.

Heidi

And with my second graders, honestly, I didn’t even bother with the video, I just put on the song turned out the lights, and had my kids rest their heads on their desks for like four minutes and 10 seconds is bliss. And it saved my sanity more than one. Sure.

Emily

So we’re adding structure to our classrooms by committing to our regular routines, planning more active breaks and planning more winding down breaks, those three strategies will help a lot. But we still got two more to share.

Heidi

So our next technique for adding structure to your class is to use rewards strategically. In our previous episode, episode 103, we talked all about the pros and cons of rewards. And when you might want to use them.

Emily

We go in depth in that episode. But as a reminder, rewards can do a lot to shape behavior in the short term.

Heidi

And because they only work short term, we don’t want to craft our year long management plan around rewards. But they are great in that short term, say, you know, helping you survive December.

Emily

Remember to be selective though in the reward system you choose. Just because it offers a reward doesn’t mean it offers much structure. And to really benefit from the reward, we want something with a lot of structure.

Heidi

We have some guidelines that can help you recognize if a reward system offers a lot of structure. So first, look for a reward system that has a visual component. Kids are more motivated, if they can see how close they are to earning that reward.

Emily

You also want a system that lets kids lose something that way, if your class is getting a little chaotic, all you have to do is start walking toward the reward jar and they will start telling each other to shape up because they don’t want to lose any of their hard earned points. So most of the time, you probably won’t even have to take them away. But it’s a good threat.

Heidi

And I love that because then I’m not the one nagging them to behave, they’re pushing each other to be better. And I’m just following through with the consequences of their choices.

Emily

That’s why a whole class reward system is nice. An individual reward system like a punch card is good for your rule follower students. They’re meeting expectations so they’re getting rewarded quicker, which is nice, but it doesn’t do as much to shape classwide behavior as a whole group or team reward does.

Heidi

And with team or table rewards, you do get that boost from kids monitoring each other’s behavior. But it also introduces the element of competition. And that can be good or it could be bad.

Emily

Yeah, competition can be motivating for kids. But it can also raise the energy level at a time when you’re trying to keep the energy under control.

Heidi

Plus, with competition, you run the risk of some kids giving up because they feel like they can’t catch up. So it’s a fine line to walk. Now, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use competition to add structure to your classroom. It just means you need to be aware of the ways that it might be sabotaging your efforts.

Emily

If you’re looking for a holiday reward system, we have a new product that might be what you need. Our holiday behavior helps have two whole class reward systems, two team reward systems and two individual reward systems. Not suggesting you should use them all. But we’ve got a lot of options in there.

Heidi

So for the whole class rewards, we have our reindeer game system, where students earn Santa’s reindeer. When they have the full team of reindeer, they earn a fun reward.

Heidi

The other whole class system is a build a word reward. This one is totally editable. You decide on the prize and then you print out the cute holiday letters to spell that word. When the kids are following directions they earn a letter. But Uh huh. They can use letters too. Once they build the secret word, then they earn the reward.

Emily

For Team rewards. We have a board game, use a magnet marker for each team and move them toward the end of the path as they follow directions. So cute. I love that one.

Heidi

Another activity is to build the character. Each team has their own gingerbread man when they’re on task, you can add a piece to their character. And then when the team’s finished building their gingerbread man they earned their reward.

Emily

And our last set of rewards are caught up in good notes and lucky chance. When students are on task give them a caught up in good note. Students write their name on the notes and either save them to buy a reward or put them into a drawing.

Heidi

Lucky chance is a fun one. It’s played like a lotto game. There’s a row of pictures at the top of the chart and a column of letters on the side and 30 Blank squares in the middle. When students are following directions you can send them to write their names in one of the spaces.

Heidi

When the board is full, you draw a picture card and the letter card. So might be like candy cane D or something. And then the student whose name is in that coordinating space wins the prize.

Emily

I love it. So fun. So we will link to this new resource in the show notes. But whichever reward system you choose, make sure you introduce it with a discussion about expected behaviors.

Heidi

And that brings us to our fifth technique for adding structure to your management plan. And that is to keep the rules alive.

Emily

The more you reference rules and expectations, the more likely students are to remember to follow them. Before you start any activity, you might need to remind students of what types of actions will help them earn a reward and which actions will cause them.

Heidi

Another suggestion is to revisit your class rules each morning, and have students choose one that they want to focus on that day. And you know, that could be a whole class discussion where the students decide on one rule that everyone is going to work on. Or it could be something that you have the kids choose individually and maybe till a neighbor or maybe just think about for themselves.

Emily

The younger the students you have, the more reminders they might need. So if you feel like you’re a broken record, you’re probably reminding them about the rules the correct amount.

Heidi

For all of the unpredictability and exhaustion this time of year brings, it can also be the most magical time to be a teacher. You only get one December with these kids, and you deserve to enjoy it without having to turn into Miss Trunchbull.

Emily

So remember these five techniques for increasing the structure in your classroom so you can enjoy the fun. Be consistent with your routines, provide productive outlets for the excess energy, take timeouts as needed, use rewards strategically and keep the rules alive.

Heidi

And come join the discussion in our Facebook group. You can ask for ideas if you need some support, and share your suggestions to help other teachers.

Emily

Yeah, we need each other to make it through.

Emily

Now let’s talk about this week’s teacher approved tip. Each week, we leave you with a small actionable tip that you can apply in your classroom today. This week’s teacher approved tip is reteach, don’t remind. Tell us about this tip, Heidi.

Heidi

I would love to. So when we see kids starting to veer into that problem territory, it’s tempting to say something like, If you keep talking, instead of working, I’ll have to take away one of your reindeer cards. And it makes sense that we do that we are tired, we don’t really want to have to take down a reindeer card.

Heidi

But when you give a warning, you show your kids that you don’t really mean what you say. It gives them the sense that they have a long runway of goofing around before they have to deal with any consequences. And you know, plus a warning, that kind of comes across as a threat. It makes it seem like the problem with their behavior is that it made their teacher mad when what we’re trying to teach is that poor behavior makes it difficult for learning to happen.

Emily

Okay, so what should teachers do instead of giving reminders?

Heidi

Well, really, if it has reached the point of needing a reminder, a reminder is not going to work anyway. Instead, we need to reteach. So you shut down whatever is happening, and you refer to your rules and expectations. And you can keep this totally brief. Here’s what I see happening. Here’s why it’s a problem. What can we do better? What happens if we don’t do better?

Heidi

And then right, then they might need to lose some of their progress toward a reward, or maybe lose a privilege. Or maybe you give them a second chance to see if they can make better choices. It depends on what you think your kids are capable of at that particular moment.

Emily

So it sounds like the key is to keep your expectations high but appropriate for the situation.

Heidi

And remember that when bad behavior creeps in, it’s better just to reteach instead of to give all those many reminders.

Heidi

So to wrap up the show we are showing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily

I’m giving extra credit to my indoor timer plug. You could use this thing to turn lamps on and off certain times or even like your Christmas tree. But what I use it for is to prevent me from leaving my curling iron on all day on my bathroom counter which I have done countless times.

Emily

I plugged my curling iron or flat iron or whatever hot thing I frequently forget to turn off into the plug and then when I want to use it I just hit the 30 minutes button or however long I need it to be on and it turns on and then I can rest easy knowing that it turned itself off at 30 minutes and I didn’t accidentally burn the house down.

Heidi

Oh that is good thing all around.

Emily

I got this like a year ago and I can’t believe how much I appreciate it every time I use it.

Heidi

Well you know that’s a good investment then.

Emily

Yes. What are you giving us credit to?

Heidi

My extra credit goes to the Calm Christmas podcast by Beth Campton. So just imagine for a minute that you’re in a cozy English cottage sitting next to the fire with a mug of something warm in your hands. Snow is gently falling outside. It’s the hour before dark when you know the light is purplish and soft and everything feels magical.

Emily

Is Jude Law going to knock on my door?

Heidi

He’s drunk and he needs to stay over. That is the calm Christmas podcast minus Jude Law. Okay, it is he charming hodgepodge of stories and recipes, advice and poetry and listening to it just it feels like an exhale. I was listening to an episode today. I highly recommend it if you need to add some calm to your Christmas chaos.

Heidi

That’s it for today’s episode. Try our five techniques for helping calm the December chaos. And don’t forget our teacher approved tip to reteach your behavior expectations instead of giving reminders.