How To Help Your Year Start Positively With Classroom Management

Are you scrambling to get everything ready for the first week of school? Have you already started?
I remember the energy and anxiety of those first few weeks and the feeling of being completely exhausted at the end of the day.

Preparing some things ahead of time helped, but it was those administrative things and the classroom management routines and activities that seemed to take the most out of me.

I always forgot how far kids go in a year. It' was a bit of a reality check when I saw my new class and realized how much they still needed to be taught. I had to keep reminding myself that they were a grade higher in name, but they had yet to obtain the skills, independence, and maturity of my former classes.

That's one of the reasons I learned to spend so much time on the classroom environment at the beginning of the year. Before I could expect kids to work independently, cooperate with others, or settle into their academic work, they needed to know what was expected of them and, just as importantly, know that they were in a classroom where they felt safe, accepted, and valued.

Here are some tips, based on the things that helped me, to help you get the year off to a successful start.

1. Have a solid plan for classroom management

Having a solid plan for classroom management and activities that help build a positive and accepting environment is key. When kids feel safe and know what is expected of them, they are more likely to participate, take risks, and work together.

I found that I couldn't simply assume that my new class would automatically know how to function as a group. We had to build that classroom community together. One of my big goals was to work on self-esteem and help kids develop an optimistic outlook and positive attitude toward themselves and their peers.

The catch phrase "Attitude is Everything!" became a big thing in my classroom. When things were going sideways, we would remind each other: "Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?" Over time, it became part of our classroom language. And one of the best things was when I started hearing the kids say it to each other instead of me!

I developed several activities and resources over the years to help with classroom management, self-esteem, cooperation, and creating a positive classroom environment. Having these ready to go made those first few weeks a little easier for me, too. Maybe they could help you out as well. You can check them out here.

check out my classroom management resources

2. Teach routines and practice them

Kids need routines and guidelines in order to function and remain self-regulated in group situations without constant redirection and negative consequences. We can't expect everyone to learn and follow these routines the first time just because we show or tell them how they work.

Practice is important. In fact, some routines may need to be practiced several times before they become automatic.
How do we enter the classroom?
What do we do when we finish our work?
How do we get someone's attention?
How do we work with a partner?
How do we move from one activity to another?
How do we work in small groups or in centers?

​These things may seem obvious to us, but they aren't necessarily obvious to a six-, seven-, or eight-year-old.
I learned that spending extra time practicing routines at the beginning of the year saved me time later. And when things started to slip, I didn't see it as a failure. We simply stopped and practiced again.

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that we are teaching routines, not just enforcing them.

3. Provide strategies and space for self-regulation

Just like us, kids get frustrated, upset, tired, or overwhelmed and need to find ways to calm themselves. They don't deliberately have tantrums or behave inappropriately without some kind of trigger. Sometimes there is something going on that we can't see.

By providing calming strategies and/or a space where kids can go to self-regulate and get their feelings back under control, they have the opportunity to rejoin the day's lessons or activities when they are ready.

I found that it helped to talk about these strategies when everyone was calm—not in the middle of a difficult situation. We could talk about what happens to our bodies when we're upset and what we can do to help ourselves feel better.

Sometimes that meant taking a few deep breaths. Sometimes it meant counting, stretching, having a quiet moment, or using our calming space.

I often reminded myself that adults have learned strategies for dealing with frustration and stress. We step away, take a breath, go for a walk, have a quiet cup of coffee, or simply give ourselves a moment. Kids are still learning how to do those things. They need opportunities to practice, too.

4. Build relationships and connections from the beginning

One of the best things you can do in those first few weeks is get to know your kids and let them get to know each other.
There is so much more to building a classroom community than learning everyone's name. Give kids opportunities to talk, share, work with different classmates, and discover things they have in common.

Simple activities such as partner interviews, sharing favorite things, finding classmates with similar interests, or working together on a small challenge can make a big difference. These activities also give you an opportunity to observe your new class.
Who is comfortable talking to others?
Who hangs back?
Who needs encouragement to participate?
Who naturally includes others?
Who needs some help learning how to work with a partner?
Those observations can tell you a lot about the children in front of you.

And don't forget that friendships take time. Not every child is going to find their best friend during the first week of school. Sometimes our job is simply to provide lots of opportunities for connections to happen.

5. Celebrate effort, kindness, and progress

It's easy to notice the child who gets the right answer or finishes the assignment first. But some of the most important things happening in a classroom aren't found on a worksheet.
A child who finally raises their hand to share an idea.
A child who keeps trying when something is difficult.
A child who notices that someone is sitting alone and invites them to join in.
A child who remembers a routine without being reminded.
A child who helps a classmate instead of doing the work for them.
Those moments are worth noticing.

I found that being specific with praise made a difference. Instead of simply saying, "Good job," I could say, "I noticed how you kept trying even when that was difficult," or "I noticed how you made sure everyone had a turn."

​These little comments help kids understand what they are doing well and give them something to be proud of.

6. Make the classroom feel like a new beginning

This was especially important for me when I taught split classes.

Sometimes I would have children who had been in my classroom the previous year. They knew me. They knew the room. They knew some of the routines. But I still wanted them to feel like they were starting something new. After all, they weren't the same kids they had been the year before.

I liked to change up my bulletin boards and add some new touches around the classroom. I also looked for ways to involve the kids in creating our classroom environment. Even something as simple as displaying their work, creating class agreements together, or giving them jobs and responsibilities helped make the room feel like their classroom.

For the children who were returning, it gave them something new to discover. For the new children, it helped them feel that they belonged.

7. Be consistent, but remember that every child is different

Having routines and expectations doesn't mean that every child will respond to them in exactly the same way. Some kids will pick things up quickly. Others will need many reminders. Some will happily jump into a group activity. Others may need encouragement or a little more time. Some children will be ready to work independently while others still need lots of support.

It's easy to look around the classroom and think, "Why can't everyone just do this?" But they aren't all starting from the same place.

Being consistent with expectations gives kids the security of knowing what is expected, but being flexible in how we help them reach those expectations is just as important. Sometimes the child who needs the most reminders in September will surprise you by how much independence they have developed by June.
​
That's one of the rewarding parts of teaching.

8. Don't underestimate the little things

Some of the things I remember most about teaching weren't the big lessons or elaborate activities. They were the little things.

Greeting a child at the door, noticing when someone was having a difficult morning, asking about the soccer game they told you about yesterday, celebrating a lost tooth, listening to a story about something that happened at home, or just taking a few minutes to laugh together.

Those moments may not appear on your lesson plan, but they matter. Kids know when you care about them.
And when they know you care about them, they are much more likely to trust you, take chances, ask for help, and become part of the classroom community.

Give Yourself Time

The first few weeks of school can feel overwhelming.

You may feel like you're repeating yourself all day long.
You may wonder if your class will ever learn to transition quietly.
You may question whether you'll ever get through a lesson without being interrupted.
And you may go home at the end of the day completely exhausted.

I've been there. But remember that you aren't trying to create the perfect classroom in the first week.
You're laying the foundation, teaching kids how to be part of a group, helping them learn how to manage their feelings, work with others, solve problems, and take responsibility for themselves.

You're getting to know them, and  they're getting to know you.

Little by little, the routines become habits, the reminders become less frequent, kids begin encouraging each other, and they become more independent and more confident.
​
One day you'll look around and realize that the group of children who walked through your door in September has become a classroom community.

Looking back, I don't remember whether everything in my classroom was perfectly organized that first week, but  I remember the smiles, kids helping each other, the classroom jokes and the little sayings that became part of our shared language, and watching children who were hesitant in September become confident by June.

That's the classroom environment I was working toward all along. And that's why I learned that the time spent building a positive and caring classroom at the beginning of the year is never wasted. It becomes the foundation for everything else that happens throughout the year.

Related Posts