Today I want to teach you the ABC’s of classroom management with. Three essential strategies for every teacher to implement in their classroom strategy.

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A – Affirmation

The focus of your behaviour management must lean towards building the child up, not tearing them down. You have probably heard a lot of people talk about positive reinforcement in behaviour management. The reason we use positive reinforcement is that it sets an expectation of what the child can become, instead of reminding them of the failure that they may have become or they may be perceived as because they’re not meeting the rules. By affirming what they can become you raise the bar for the standard of their behaviour. The key is that every child wants to know what’s expected of them. 

Every child wants to know the standard that they have to live up to or they have to work towards. So when you work towards affirming a child or building them up, speak positivity and speak about what they do right rather than what they do wrong, what you are going to do is build their self-esteem. You are going to build their character and help to create a dream and vision for who they can become. You also help them focus on what they are good at rather than focusing on what is not going well. This is so important!

Behaviour management must focus on what a child can become. It should not focus on what a child has failed at or what a child used to be.

B – Boundaries

B is boundaries. I can not say this enough, boundaries are not punishment. Boundaries are not even punitive. They are simply drawing a line in the sand, clearly articulating what is ok and what is not ok. Every human being is wired to ask the question, what is expected of me in the environment that I am in? If you have never clearly spelt out the boundaries of your class and the behaviour in your class you can not expect children to follow. You can not expect them to do what you expect because they may have their own boundaries.

Every child comes from a different family home. They come from different cultural backgrounds. They all have standards of morality or expectation that they live by and behave by, you do too. If boundaries are not clearly communicated what happens is each child will make up their own standard of behaviour that suits them or is congruent with how they’ve been raised. If your boundary doesn’t match their boundary that’s where you get clashes of behaviour. 

They may not be trying to upset you in class, they may simply be unaware that you have a different standard of behaviour to what they have been taught or been expected of. The most important thing is that you must enforce boundaries.

C – Care

The last one is C and that stands for care. Every child that is under your care needs to know that you care about them. Leadership expert John Maxwell says this “They don’t care what you know until they know how much you care”. If you want children to follow you in the direction that you are trying to lead them, they need to know you care. If you want children to listen to you, trust you and to stay within the boundaries they need to know that you care about them as individuals as human beings.

This may or may not come as a surprise but every child in your class has their own hopes, dreams, fears and intentions that they focus on. Sometimes those may not fit with the direction that you are going in class. Whether it is in a lesson or generally speaking so they have to know that you care about them. They need to know you care about what matters to them, their struggles, what they are going through you and the things that they are passionate about. 

So take the time to learn about them. Get to know them as little individuals and as human beings who are valued and deserve your attention. Take the time to find out what makes them tick. Find out what they are passionate about, what gets them up in the morning, what gets them excited. Take the time to know what is going on in their life, what scares them, what they are worrying about and what is going on at home. When you take the time to show that you care about what happens to them, they will start caring about you.

That is my three suggestions for the ABC’s of classroom management. Three very fundamental very basic strategies. Maybe you hve heard of them before or maybe you just needed a bit of reminding. That’s a really easy way to remember that every day you are interacting with a student. We must move towards affirming them rather than punishing them or tearing them down. Have clear boundaries that can be enforced so that they know where they stand and what is expected of them. You need to prioritize caring and showing that you care so that they build trust and relationship with you and start caring about the things that are important to you.

I hope you got heaps of value from that, make sure you share your thoughts with us in the comments section.

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