One thing that I hear from new teachers is that they never heard a true break down of how to manage a classroom when it comes down to getting your own classroom for the first time, so I decided to share some of my professional vision. Some things are things that I think should happen and some are things that I actually do. The evidence that I can share in the success of this is that I did not write one office referral for any of the students in my class this year. Did I have the perfect year? Of course not. But I have had great opportunities to learn my students and their capabilities and it has reaffirmed my belief that all students have the potential to be successful. Sometimes we have to get them out of their own adolescent ways, and these suggestions help.

1. We should have small class sizes (no more than about 15) so that you can effectively address each student’s educational needs and progress and have a manageable population of parents to consistently contact. Seriously, how feasible is it to consistently contact parents for 30 students in 4 class periods (120 set of parents)? Students are fully aware of that factor. That is why behaviors are repeated even though you call home. They know that now you have called home, there’s less of a chance that you will call and call again because of the size of the student population and extensive turnaround period. They know that! Students that know there is consistent contact begin to stay within the expectations more unless parents have no control either. Teachers need manageable numbers if they are required to keep consistent contact.
2. Ask for student’s opinion, but let them know that giving opinions comes with the responsibility that the suggestions must follow all rules and expectations, and must lead to gaining knowledge of the subject matter. We are told to give students choice, but without parameters some students may choose to do nothing. It also teaches them responsibility when they can make decisions that can lead to future success. Choice is great, but it need to be guided in students.
3. Look through grades (in all classes) to see similarities and differences. Address the patterns with student, parent, other teachers, or administrators depending on potential problems you might see. Personal story: I recently did this and shared with the students that I knew all of their grades in all of their classes and a student responded that a teacher has never talked to them about something like that. I cannot factually substantiate the “never” part, but I’m sure they haven’t been talked to enough to feel it is routine.
4. Tell your students the purpose of the activities. ALL activities should have a purpose or should lead to a better understanding to a concept. It should also connect to what’s coming up or link back to what was discussed. Try to stay away from isolated practicing that is not connected, it comes off as “busy work.”
5. Must be consistent with expectations. If you don’t allow gum, you should not chew gum. If the students aren’t allowed to eat in class, you should not eat in front of them. I know you are the adult, but your students do care about that, all they know is that you are doing something that you asked them not to do and they don’t think it is fair. You can spend your extra time trying to explain fairness and adult privilege, or you can be consistent and save a lot of time. CONSISTENCY SAVES TIME!
6. You should carefully explain expectations for cooperative groups or even less structured whole class activities. They need to know that a little unstructured behavior is okay during the less structured activity, but it cannot be carried on past that time. You must take extra time to teach them that expectation or less structured activities will not work.
7. Students need to talk. They need to learn how to talk things out. They need learn to be courteous during conversations. You must establish an environment of tolerance and respect so that your shy students will have enough confidence to speak. This helps students formulate their thought processes and learn from others.
8. Your students need to know your purpose for teaching and your purpose should be for development of all of your students. If neither of these exists in your professional vision, you should take a serious look at your professional choice.
9. You must learn personalities so that you realize that all responses from students are not necessarily defiance, anger, or disrespect; sometimes it is a typical mannerism that the student possesses. It is important to let them know that you are not satisfied with the response, but you should also give the student opportunity and an example that will help them fix their mannerisms. Simply removing a student from the environment will not solve the fact that the student possesses such mannerism. Teaching them to find better responses will solve it.
10. You must be observant of your students. Learn their mannerisms. Learn how they operate. Human behavior is more predictable than you think. Students don’t know that, and when you can articulate a behavior to a student that they perceive you don’t notice, it makes them conscious of your keen perception and leads to more self-regulating behavior from the students. TRY IT!
11. Remind your students of the importance of their presence in the class and it is their responsibility to take their opportunities seriously. You will have to show them how it looks to take things seriously. I often equate it to their personal lives. Their family is important to them; their friends; their prized possessions. They don’t want harm coming to their family, friends, or prized possessions. They don’t forget important dates or events coming. They are always checking to make sure that family, friends, and prized possessions are in good welfare.  A similar view should be taken to grades and class. Once a student makes it important, they are concerned about harmful (failing) grades, they keep up with assignments, supplies, and important dates (like tests), and they make sure they are in good standing overall in the class (grades, behavior, etc.).
12. EVERYTHING WORKS! There is so much research out there that claims it’s the best strategy. Truth is there are a lot of effective strategies. It is best to switch things up. Nothing in isolation will consistently be engaging, and sometimes you have to focus on the learning process in structured and methodical moments. You cannot play around too much and you cannot be too serious. You also cannot have the “my way or the highway” attitude. The purpose of common core standards and all the other standards that have been formed in the world were created to give students steps and strategies to learn.  Specifically in math, I aim at learning as many strategies as I can so that I can find one that will be most helpful to each of my students. There are several ways to solve some math problems, so I try to offer students a choice. The goal to me is concept obtainment, and students should not be forced to do it one way if there are other ways available.
13. Show the appropriate emotions. I feel like this is the one thing that most people get wrong most of the time. Opinions are different inside and outside of classroom and school doors. Some people say you have to be bright and chipper to engage students; some say you have to be stern and emotionless to make them obey. Some teachers try to win over students by acting like their friends, and some make the authority level very clear. What many people don’t realize is how much other people (and students specifically) read your emotions. Any emotion at the inappropriate time can be detrimental. The overly enthusiastic and nice person tend to lose respect because students don’t take expectations seriously. The overly authoritative lose respect because students see the teacher as just plain out mean and uncaring. Students find appropriateness through emotions. It is important to be happy and cheerful when they do good things, make good decisions, and make good efforts (even if the product isn’t perfect). That is much different than praising them for whatever they do, which establish a false sense of accomplishment. You should not give into their silly antics at any time (structured or unstructured) because they will always try to get you to break, especially during inappropriate moments. In short, be strict to keep expectations consistent, be serious in all serious moments, have joy in good and joyous times, and even be silly when appropriate, but make sure everything has its appropriate place.
14. Stay in communication with your students. Talk to them. Talk to them a lot. Learn about them. Find their interests. Get as far into their lives as appropriate and as they will let you. They respect your interest in them. They will respect you. They will open up to you. They will be on your side and they will encourage other students to be on your side. This is a huge accomplishment in classroom management.

Each of these are relational based suggestions because as I have learned through my professional experience and from my mentors, relationships should come first. No matter what size classes I’ve had, the majority of my student respect my expectations. To be honest, I can predict the ones who would consider me as being mean and the ones who won’t be successful because it is always the ones who refuse to respect my expectations and whose parents take the side of the student no matter right or wrong. However, the structure of my room also provides the documentation that I am consistent and fair and try to provide all students the same opportunity to be successful and think that is what all teachers want.