Are you looking for some creative classroom management ideas? With the help of educational technology tools and some simple tweaks to your lessons and routines, you’ll encourage your students to model positive behaviors in no time. Here are some fun classroom management activities your students will love.
Classroom behavior management ideas that the whole class will enjoy
1. Mix it up with project-based and inquiry learning
Project-based and inquiry-based learning can improve your classroom management, save some valuable prep time, and keep students engaged. Brainstorm student projects as a class based on what they’re learning in class. Or, pose a discussion question, and have them respond in groups. The more students are engaged, the more they'll stay on task.
2. Start class with an icebreaker
Learning is a lot like running. Just as we need to stretch before hitting the track, our brains could use a warm-up before learning a new concept or skill. Try beginning class with icebreakers. This can be a game of trivia or a short partner review chat. Strategies like these can decrease test anxiety and improve student’s overall performance.
3. Take a break
There’s a reason for half-times in sports—people need breaks. Sure, students may not be moving around the classroom as much as a soccer player on the field, but thinking takes muscle work.
Remember the days when you studied for midterms? Eventually, you probably felt like your brain was tired after extended periods of studying. You experienced the “forgetting curve,” which represents how we forget information after long stretches of formal learning. In an article about the concept, “Short Bursts, Not Shortcuts: The Value of Learning Over Time,” Harvard Business noted that students retain more when they learn in short bursts.
When students' brains are overflowed with information, they may become restless. Before that happens, why not stop teaching for a few minutes and give everyone a breather? A five-minute brain break can help. After a rest, your students will be ready to focus and learn again—and, more importantly, they’re able to better consolidate the things they learned prior to the break. Try using a stopwatch that you can display to keep students focused.
4. Offer students more choices in their learning
Giving students choice over their learning provides them with a sense of ownership and can increase engagement. Consider providing different options to an assignment. Let’s say you’re teaching Romeo and Juliet, and you want your students to recap what they've read. You can ask them to either: write a three-sentence summary; illustrate the summary in three pictures; or write a song or poem that sums up the play.
5. Have students make expectation posters
Having students participate in creating classroom rules and expectations can create a sense of community. At the beginning of each school year, you can ask students to brainstorm classroom rules. As a class, you can discuss the reasoning behind each rule or expectation. Afterwards, students can make posters highlighting the classroom expectations and hang them around the classroom. You can then have students sign a contract to promise to each other they will uphold these expectations. Reminders are essential, and when students help create the rules, they might take pride in following them.
6. Create reflection spaces
Reflection spaces are designated areas in the classroom where students can regulate and manage emotions. A cool-off corner can offer a safe space where students can regroup if they are feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. In my classroom, I had a corner where my students or myself could go to reflect and regroup.
7. Be consistent
One of the most powerful pieces of classroom management advice I received came from my teaching mentor. Quite simply, he told me to be consistent. Consistency allows students to understand the expectations and routines in your classroom, which can foster a sense of trust and security.
Effective and engaging classroom management activities
With this list of classroom behavior management ideas, you can can create effective and engaging routines for better classroom management.
This article was adapted from a blog post initially developed by the education technology company Classcraft, which was acquired by HMH in 2023. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.
***
Find more lesson plans and classroom resources on Shaped.
Be the first to read the latest from Shaped.
