Having Confidence in Classroom Management
Having Confidence in Classroom Management
. [00:00:00] Welcome teachers to the eight to four teacher. I'm so happy you're here. We're talking about having confidence in classroom management, and so I've already recorded a couple of episodes that were in season one, episode 68 and 69. I talk with two different administrators who were teachers and, evaluate teachers on classroom management, and they share tips for creating systems for classroom management. So if you haven't listened to those episodes, those are good episodes to go back to.
But today we are going to be talking about confidence in classroom management. So it's really. Taking classroom management to the next level. We talk a lot about routines and expectations and how important that is, and that is so important.
I talk about that in my new course, the classroom management blueprint. But one thing I don't think that we talk about enough is this idea of confidence and presence in the classroom and the idea of. Engaging students and how student engagement really impacts [00:01:00] classroom management. So I talk about all of that in my new course, the classroom management blueprint.
, But what I'm going to be talking about today is really classroom management based on confidence as a teacher, because I. Classroom management is so complex and multifaceted. If you think about it, having success as a teacher in classroom management, it really does depend on your routines that you have in place.
Your expectations, the systems that you have for how you lay out those expectations, how you have. Consequences if they're not meeting expectations. Your consistency and the dynamics of your class. There are factors in there you can't control, like the dynamics of students that you have. I've seen a lot as a principal where some years a class will get together and just the group of students together is an interesting dynamic.
They feed off of each other. There's a lot of behaviors from that, and can really create challenges in classroom management. Another one is your [00:02:00] confidence as a teacher. I don't think we always think about this.
I never thought about this as a teacher. That you're a leader, you're a leader of the classroom, and so you have to have this high level of confidence and presence when you're, implementing a classroom management system. Because if you have that confidence, that's going to lead to the clarity, the consistency, and really help you to create systems that work in your classroom.
, A lot of times I've seen teachers have a lack of confidence based on maybe, , the amount of teaching experience they have. , If you're a new teacher, new to a grade level, have a different group of students that you've heard have a lot of discipline issues.
That can. Lead to a lack of confidence. Another thing that I see that leads to a lack of confidence is not seeing yourself as a leader of that classroom. And so that's why I brought up that topic. You really have to see yourself as a leader who's there to lead students to be consistent, and the lack of confidence that really leads to more struggles and frustration in managing behavior.
[00:03:00] The other thing, I don't think we talk enough. About when it comes to classroom management is our thoughts about classroom management. I wanna talk really briefly about the T cycle, and that is that your thoughts create your emotions, which create your actions, and then those actions create new thoughts, emotions, and actions.
That's why we call it a cycle. But basically the idea here is that You have to have powerful thoughts that are neutral or positive to impact emotions and actions in a positive way. And so if you're constantly thinking negative thoughts about your own classroom management skills or you're thinking negative thoughts about your students, it really does relate to how you're able to manage that classroom.
I know I've worked with. Teachers that have had, rough groups in the past, maybe they got a lot of feedback about their classroom management. And so they start to have negative thoughts about their own classroom management, which leads to negative emotions. Like you're feeling [00:04:00] defeated, , you're feeling doubtful, maybe you're unsure.
And then the action is you really lead your classroom from a place of not having that confidence and presence that you know what you're doing because it comes from thoughts. Of you starting to doubt yourself. So if you have the thought, I'm not good at classroom management. Think about how that belief makes it harder and harder to be effective.
It creates negative emotions, negative actions, and a way that I see this. And , I saw this a lot in new teachers. I had a lot of field students and student teachers when I was a teacher and a veteran teacher brought it up to me that she noticed it with a field student. And it was just a good point. If you give a direction, you're like, I want you to go to your seat. Okay. When you say, okay, you're not giving that confident firm direction of this is what I want you to do, you're saying it like, I think this is what I want you to do, or I want you to do this, please.
Like, that's kind of what that Okay. Is indicating. So this is all about just having that confidence, the [00:05:00] clarity. And really creating systems and routines that work for your class where you're leading it with confidence. So now I wanna dive into the five pillars of confidence for teachers. And I talk about this in my course, the classroom management blueprint, and I dive deeper into these.
And I have mindset mantras that go all throughout the course it's really a way for you to shift your mindset. As you're thinking about discipline and as you're thinking about classroom management, because like I said, your thoughts create your emotions and actions.
So all throughout when we're dealing with students and working with students, we need to be thinking about what powerful thoughts are we having. So that's leading us into our five pillars of confidence for teachers. So the first pillar is know who you are as a teacher. So when I say know who you are as a teacher, and I'm thinking about confidence, this means that you understand your teaching style, you know your values.
What do you value in teaching? What's your discipline philosophy, right? Like you feel [00:06:00] strongly about. The philosophy you have about how you discipline students, you know the kind of classroom environment you want to create, you have that clarity around you as a teacher, and I really reflected a lot on this as myself.
As a new teacher, I did not have that clarity. I knew what I wanted in my classroom. But I didn't always understand my teaching style, strengths, things like that. And then it led to the self-doubt that I had a lot. So the more that you can know yourself as a teacher, have clarity about the environment you wanna create, how you wanna treat students, how you want students to treat each other, I.
And knowing yourself, it really is going to help you feel more confident in implementing systems around behavior because you know why you're doing it. When you have that, why it's easier to do it and follow through. And , when you talk to parents, it's easy to explain why you did something because you feel so strongly about.
Your teaching style, your values, that discipline philosophy. So [00:07:00] the more you know who you are as a teacher, the more confident you'll be. Pillar two is know that you make a difference. If you feel like everything you're doing doesn't make a difference on kids, it really does lower your confidence on teaching because why are you doing it right?
But if you can recognize your meaningful impact that you have daily, those small wins daily, and that impact long term, it's going to build your confidence as a teacher. And I used to see this, and this is part of being a principal that was really cool, is I could see how each teacher had an impact on a student in a K to five building.
I, I had students from kindergarten to fifth grade and that, let's say third grade teacher might not have seen. That big difference they made, but I could see it over time. And how each of those teachers really helped them be successful throughout elementary school.
So when you have confidence, you can recognize those small wins, see those small wins and know that daily you're having impact, the things you [00:08:00] say matter because it does make a difference to kids and it's making a difference in the long term. And when you know that you make a difference, like I said, you are really careful about the words and actions that you take, and you're really intentional because you know that every, everything you say to a kid, you never know that one thing that they're going to take away and remember.
And you have that consistency with kids because you know it makes a difference. You care for them. You build connection because when you're confident in that and you know that you make a difference, you know how important that is. Another pillar of confidence for teachers is know your vision and priorities.
So we talked about knowing your values in teaching, but what is your vision as a teacher? , What's your personal teaching mission? Why did you get into teaching in the first place? And what truly matters to you when it comes to students is that academics, relationships. Is it routines, right? It's probably a little bit of all of those, and then how do you implement that into your [00:09:00] classroom?
So it's really knowing what you see for the future of your teaching career, of what you wanna build in your classroom for that year. And what your priorities are as a teacher. So those are all really important in your confidence. another pillar , Which I've already talked about a little bit, is having intentional, powerful thoughts.
The more, as a teacher, you can have those powerful thoughts, and I'm talking about thoughts that help you as a teacher. They don't harm you, right? I'm talking about thoughts that are either positive thoughts or neutral thoughts.
Sometimes it's just having a neutral thought, like the student's having a bad day. That's not a negative thought. That's not a positive thought, that's just a neutral thought, right? But if you're saying, , I'm not a good teacher, that's why the student's having a bad day. You're making it mean something negative.
And so if you can have those powerful thoughts, it's going to help you reframe challenges. It's gonna help you overcome self doubt, and it's really going to help you build habits , , that empower your identity , as a [00:10:00] confident teacher, right? The more you're able to think positively. Or if you catch yourself thinking negatively, you can reframe it.
Like we all have times when we're like, Ugh, I didn't do this right. I'm a terrible teacher. Well, how can you quickly reframe that? Right? If you get into your mind and you start saying, I'm a bad teacher. I'm not good at classroom management, having that confidence is really just being able to quickly think, I'm not a bad teacher, I'm just having a hard day, or I'm not a bad teacher.
Just, I didn't do this. I didn't handle this situation the way I wanted to. ? And it's just doing that quick reframe. And the last pillar of confidence is trust yourself to handle whatever comes when you're confident and know that you are able to handle whatever comes your way. And it took me some time to realize this, I would go in a situations so stressed and think about, I would even go into the day thinking about, oh gosh, what's gonna come of the day?
What crazy situation's going to happen? But when I really thought about it, it's like it doesn't matter because I have the capabilities to handle whatever [00:11:00] comes my way. And that's a thought, right? That goes back to those powerful thoughts. But confidence is about being resilient and being able to handle things and bounce back.
It's not about perfection, it's about you have a conversation with somebody that you don't like and then you just. Handle it, right? If you didn't like that conversation that you had with the student, you have a conversation and explain that you didn't like the way you handled it. If you have a conversation you didn't like with a parent, you call the parent back and you have a conversation about how you didn't like that conversation you had and how you handled it.
You know that whatever comes or whatever happens, you'll be able to bounce back from. Every mistake is an opportunity for growth and learning, and that's really a confident teacher has that you know that you're going to make mistakes. We're human, everybody's going to make mistakes. But if you know that, that mistake is going to bring you back to growth and learning, that's what's important.
So I wanna go back through those five pillars of confidence for teachers. So know who you are as a teacher. Know that you make a difference. Know your vision and [00:12:00] priorities. Have intentional, powerful thoughts and trust yourself to handle whatever comes. And if you work on these areas, it's really going to make teaching that much more fulfilling because the more confident you feel as a teacher, the better you're going to feel about teaching.
Think about anything you do, right? If you feel like you're really good at it. And you're confident in it, you feel better. So I also wanna share some mindset mantras that I share in my course. The classroom management blueprint that, , go with the five pillars of confidence. So one is I know what I stand for and I lead from my strengths.
Two, what I do matters. Every moment shapes a child's future. Three. Clarity brings confidence. I lead with purpose, not pressure. Four, the thoughts I choose, fuel the teacher I become, and five, I may not have all the answers, but I have what it takes to find them. And those are some thoughts you can go back to.
, Write them down in my course. I have them [00:13:00] written out for you, and you can reflect on those thoughts when you're struggling to be confident in your teaching, but I just want you to remember that when you have doubt, when you have uncertainty, it can really undermine your classroom management.
I. It can make you not be as consistent with kids because you're, , in your head so much thinking about, should I do this? Should I not do this? Should I give 'em a consequence? Should I not give 'em a consequence? Where if you just have those systems in place and you know that you need to be consistent, that's going to help so much, building these pillars are really going to set you up for success in just feeling more confident in your teaching.
And so I really encourage you to check out my course, the Classroom Management Blueprint., This is one little lesson. There's five modules with multiple lessons in each module that really help with classroom management overall. So I talk about all different areas of classroom management.
Going back to setting boundaries and being professional with students, setting up expectations and routines, confidence mindset. There's [00:14:00] all kinds of different topics I talk about. So check out that blueprint. I'll put the link in the show notes. . But I just want you to have the confidence to create a thriving classroom environment that you feel like you're consistent, you're clear, and you're able to help students master those classroom expectations.
And again, if you haven't listened to episode 68 and 69 and season one. Go back, listen to those episodes. There are great episodes about putting in systems in place for classroom management. Like I said, they're both from administrators who have seen lots of different classrooms, have been teachers themselves, and it's a great way for you to go back and think about how you wanna start the year.
I hope you found this EPIs. I hope you found this episode helpful, and I will see you. I hope you found this episode helpful. Make sure if you like the show to subscribe, leave a to subscribe to the show. Also, if you leave a review, that's how people find the podcast, so I'd appreciate that too, and I will see you in the next [00:15:00] episode.
