Joyful Classroom Management

• Liz Hartley
• Posted 12/30/22
• 0 comments

Classroom management can make or break your day, week, or year. But with limited time, how do we manage behavior without making ourselves and our students miserable? We’ve got to find the joy! In this article, we will dive into some strategies to make keeping an organized classroom joyful and fun for you and for your students.  

You don’t need to hear about how expectations must be set. I don’t need to tell you that prevention is key. No one needs to explain that behaviors need to be taught. You know procedures are everything. Of course, relationships matter. I’m not going to tell you any of that. I’m going to provide specific examples of ways you can bring your authentic self to your management style and build community, not conflict.  

Show up as yourself!

We are regularly asked to meet kids where they are. To do that, though, we must show up to class as we are. Inauthenticity is the worst thing for your students to feel from you, so come as you are. If you are a quiet person, don’t change it because you think kids want something else. If you’re loud and energetic, use that. Your management style only works if it fits your own authentic personality.  

Use humor

This one is enormously important for me. All my rules are silly, and usually encourage students to laugh at the behavior they will inevitably do without direction. My favorite example, stolen from my mother, is the “5 Rules of the Instruments”. They read: 

#1. Do not play when Mrs. Hartley is talking 

#2. Do not play when Mrs. Hartley is talking 

#3. Do not play when Mrs. Hartley is talking 

… You get the idea. My kids find this hilarious, and as a result, they avoid the “completely ridiculous” idea of playing when I am teaching.  (I will note here, though, that this is the only instance where I tell students to “not” do something. Typically, my rules are positive “do” statements.)  

Separate the behavior from the kid

Laughing about expectations may sound to you like there are no consequences in my classroom. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, my consequences are swift and consistent. Let’s say a student is doing the unthinkable: playing when I am teaching. I often treat the instrument (object, body part, whatever) as if it is the one misbehaving, asking my student to give it a stern talking to, and even having the student put the instrument in “time out” with me. Kids get the message, but that little bit of lighthearted pretending allows students to feel less embarrassed by the mistake, and more empowered to make the correct choice on their next try.  

Speaking of feeling less embarrassed, embarrassment rarely works. Kids can laugh at themselves, though. If you spend the time building a safe community and the understanding that misbehavior is just a mistake (like playing the wrong note!), then that verbal warning feels less like a threat and more like an opportunity to improve. Depending on the student, I can jokingly “fuss” at them for a behavior, and often they can giggle about it and then fix it right away.  

When frontloading expectations, use a kid as an example. Give your most-likely-to-struggle kid the job of showing your class how to do it correctly. Not only is a student modeling for everyone, but that child will get a chance to practice and be successful before the activity even starts. It also sets them up for easier fixing if they make a mistake later.   

I highly suggest the use of puppets (or characters of any kind) in creating a classroom where the expectations don’t feel punitive. If a puppet can model correct or incorrect behavior (Kelly Poquette does a lovely job of this), students can see it frontloaded from a novel source. If the puppet redirects a student, if may feel less like they are being “corrected” by the teacher. Besides, puppets are plain old fun.  

Think hard about your rewards

Whole class rewards are often the go-to for special area teachers, and it makes a lot of sense! We have limited time to reward every child when they do something right. Because of that, I continue with whole class rewards (my standard is mini erasers) and frame it around working together as a team. Some classes aren’t really there yet, so I make sure to have individual rewards too. My school uses “bucks” that can be spent at the school store, and I choose a “star student” at the end of every class.  

My guess is you teach because you love students and making music with them. Working under that assumption, “don’t smile until Christmas” isn’t a viable management strategy! We deserve to love and enjoy our students. Our students deserve to be loved. Maintaining joy, authenticity, and humor builds friendly, organized classrooms- and that leads to serious learning! So, if your class has been replaced by aliens for the day, and you are trying to find the lovely students you had last week, I hope these tips help you find them and keep them.