Building Self-Discipline Through Classroom Management Practices

The foundation of effective classroom management is that teachers take the time to build relationships with their students. These relationships help reduce conflicts and make teaching more enjoyable.

If you’re looking to improve your classroom management skills, consider these five practices:

1. Create a Class Contract

You can use a group contract to set expectations for how everyone in the class should behave. This will give you a framework for how to address infractions in a way that will not alienate all the students in your class.

2. Co-Create Norms

Many classroom rules are set by teachers themselves, without much consideration for their impact on student behavior. By co-creating guidelines with your students, you are allowing them to identify norms that they feel will be valuable, and which you can evaluate throughout the year.

3. Develop a Plan for Problems

If you wait until classroom problems arise before developing a discipline plan, it can be very difficult to keep them at bay. In addition to making your classroom a less pleasant place, you may have to spend extra time and energy dealing with disruptive behaviors that aren’t addressed quickly enough.

4. Maintain a Positive Attitude

The best way to avoid conflict is to approach it with an open mind and a positive attitude. By trying to focus on what’s important in the classroom and what students should be learning, you’ll find it much easier to control the situation.

5. Be Consistent and Accountable

You can’t expect students to behave properly in the classroom if they don’t have a good understanding of the material you are teaching. By taking the time to get to know your students and their interests, you can provide them with opportunities to learn what they need and want.

6. Delegation and Empowerment

Having students take over certain tasks can be an excellent classroom management technique. It teaches them responsibility and empowers them to learn the skills they need to succeed in school.

7. Reward Students for Behaving Properly

The most common classroom management strategy is to reward students when they display appropriate behavior. This includes arriving to class on time, completing assignments correctly, and participating positively in discussions and physical education classes.

8. Stick to Your Rules

Once you’ve established your classroom’s disciplinary policies, it’s essential that you adhere to them every single day. If you don’t, you will be wasting your time and making it more difficult for your students to learn.

9. Involve Parents

If you want your classroom to be a place where students can grow, you need to involve their parents. By making it clear to your students that their parents are also invested in their success, you can reduce conflict and ensure a positive learning environment for your students.

10. Establish and Enforce Guidelines

It can be tempting to ignore classroom regulations, especially if your class is small. However, it’s critical to enforce the rules in an impartial manner.

Building Self-Discipline Through Classroom Management Practices

Teachers are expected to be responsible for helping students develop social skills, self-discipline, and responsibility (Meador, 2018). These behaviors help kids learn how to manage their own emotions, respond appropriately to others, and make good decisions. They also serve them well in future life situations.

Using classroom management practices to build student self-discipline can be an effective way to improve academic outcomes and promote a positive learning environment for students in any age group. Developing a strong classroom management strategy isn't easy, but it can be done by following a few simple steps.

Begin by establishing clear expectations for student behavior and student to-student and teacher to-teacher interactions within the classroom. This will set the stage for a positive learning environment and prevent disruptive student misbehavior.

Communicate discipline procedures and expectations in a variety of ways, including through written instructions and verbal reminders. When addressing disruptive behavior, be sure to address each student's individual needs while remaining consistent in the use of discipline procedures and classroom rules.

Require students to follow specific classroom rules and procedures, such as announcing when they enter the room, taking turns with work, and completing their tasks. This demonstrates to students that you respect their opinions and that they can count on you to keep them safe and in compliance with your expectations.

Establish mutually-respectful classroom rules and guidelines before the school year begins by discussing and drafting your rules with your students. These guidelines should be based on their ideas and expectations for the class, as well as yours. They should be clearly communicated and outlined in an agreement document, similar to handing out a syllabus.

Implementing these rules and procedures can be challenging, but they will help your students avoid the most common classroom misbehaviors. In addition, this practice can foster a sense of community in your class and encourage students to feel safe and secure.

Focus on Positive Feedback

When students have exhibited positive behavior in the classroom, praise them for it. Not only does this show them that they've made progress, but it can also entice parents to take a greater interest in their child's education.

Displaying this type of positive reinforcement in the classroom can help students stay motivated and engaged during lessons and projects, and they'll be more likely to comply with your discipline procedures when you give them clear feedback.

Be sure to use positive and negative language in classroom discussions, avoiding sarcasm and threats when addressing student misbehavior. This is especially important when addressing disruptive behavior, as it can be difficult for some students to distinguish between a fair and unfair treatment.

Consider using a rewards program to reward students for their good behavior and academic effort. These awards may be small, like a gold star in a classroom chart or a special treat at the end of a class, but they can have a big impact on student behavior.

Create a classroom contract that sets the expectations for how students should behave in your class, and have them sign a new one each time you assign a new group project or task. By ensuring that everyone is on the same page, you'll eliminate the need for constant re-explaining of rules and regulations.