Podcast - In the Classroom - Episode 21: Classroom Management Tips for Secondary Teachers - classroom management
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Episode 21: Classroom Management Tips for Secondary Teachers

Have you ever been standing at the front of your classroom wondering if your students are really X years old because surely human beings who are X years old would not behave this way?

Have you said to a colleague, ” I can’t believe I went to college for this?” There might be little that is more entertaining than a duty-free lunch spent reimagining college curriculum, especially that one course on classroom management, so it teaches things you really need to know in order to be a teacher.

Classroom management strategies that work in middle and high school classrooms.

An often ignored topic for middle school and high school teachers is classroom management. Perhaps we’re all under the assumption that someone who has been attending school for 10+ years should know how to behave there? If we get any training, the strategies and ideas are often geared toward much younger students.

Whether you’ve got a class that is showing itself to be particularly challenging, or you’re preparing to start a new year or semester and want to make sure you’ve got your teacher toolbox full of strategies for dealing with disruptive behaviors we’ve got ideas for you.

In this episode, we’re tackling the topic of classroom management for secondary teachers and sharing some practical, time-tested strategies that have worked for us.

Classroom Management Strategies that Work

Here’s an overview of what we discussed. Be sure to listen for all the details!

  • Treat your secondary students like young adults, not small children (even when they’re acting like small children).
  • Find the sweet spot that suits your personality. Show your students you care, but don’t be a pushover and definitely steer clear of being a friend.
  • Decide what you can and cannot deal with and then be consistent about it.
  • Remember, grades can be a valuable motivator, especially for high school students.
  • Set up your classroom and create classroom routines that help students be successful and that naturally lead them to behave in the way you want.
  • Be thoughtful about your seating chart. The randomizer should be your starting point, not your end.
  • Keep your students busy and on a timer. Negative behaviors are often tied to boredom, which is often linked with too much dead time and too long transition times.
  • Walk around. Proximity is an excellent deterrent.
  • Don’t be that teacher.
  • Communicate and document.

There are two important things to remember when you’re thinking about classroom management: first, it’s unlikely that a student’s (or an entire class’s) behavior is meant to frustrate, hurt, or offend you personally; but that said, the second most important thing is that you not let students know they’re getting to you. This can be so hard to remember, particularly in the moment, but you’ll be saved a lot of back and forth if you do.

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Related Content

Our strategies came from a lot of struggles. Check out this episode of the podcast for some of the lessons we learned from our most challenging students.

We found that rewarding students for what they did well was a good classroom management strategy and, as we mentioned in the episode, grades can be a valuable motivator. Check out this video to learn more about our participation points system.

Do you have a student who, it seems, is just bound and determined to become your archnemesis for the year? Check out this blog post for our strategies for dealing with exceptionally difficult students.