This is episode 251 of Teacher Approved.

You're listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping

educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm

Heidi.

And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story

Window, where we give research based and teacher approved

strategies that make teaching less stressful and more

effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from

each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to

the show.

Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In this

episode, we are talking about five low cost, high yield

classroom management boosters that prevent problems before

they start. And we have a teacher approved tip about a

clipboard that might change your life in the hallway.

Let's kick things off with a try it tomorrow, a quick

win that you can bring to your classroom right away. Emily,

what are we sharing this week?

Okay, this week, try setting aside two minutes at the

start and end of every technology session for students

to do a device check. Teach them how to look for damage, make

sure things are charging properly, and pack everything

away carefully. To make sure students remember everything

they're supposed to be checking, it's helpful to create a visual

that students can reference each time.

A few seconds of proactive effort really adds up

in a big way. Devices take a beating when 25 kids are

handling them every day. A check in at the start and the end of

each session builds accountability, and it helps you

catch problems early, instead of, you know, discovering in

April that half of your iPads have cracked screens.

And once it's a routine, it takes almost no time, because

the students just know what to do, and that is the dream.

Oh, always. If you find this tip helpful or anything

else we share here on the podcast, would you take a second

and leave us a rating? It really does make a difference in

helping new listeners find the show.

All right, we are creeping closer to the end of

the school year. You've probably noticed, and I may not know you,

but I'm going to guess that even on your best days, you're only

functioning at about 60% of what you could manage in September by

this point in the year.

Yeah. And really, things right now can feel like such a

slog. You're tired, but somehow your students have more energy

than ever.

I know, like, why don't they share some of that energy

with us, please?

Or, you know, they could at least have the decency to be

a tiny bit more chill.

Yeah, one or the other, please. But you know, chill went

right out the window on that first sunny day. So now you're

in a tight spot. When you're tired, but your students are as

exuberant as Mentos in a coke bottle, your instinct might be

to clamp down harder with more reminders and more corrections.

And if that is where you are, that reaction is completely

understandable. But the thing about that approach is that it's

exacerbating all of those problems that you are trying to

minimize. Correcting issues after the fact costs

instructional time, and pouring a lot of attention into

unhelpful behavior can actually amplify it.

Not to mention the fact that disruptive behavior is

contagious. If one student gets off task, it quickly spreads.

It's like a dandelion. One off task behavior has the potential

to spawn 50 more problems if you don't catch it early.

And that's because of something called social

contagion. How do you like that term? And this is something we

experience all the time. You walk into a quiet library and

you automatically lower your voice, or you walk into a room

where everyone's laughing, and you start smiling before you

even know what's funny.

And the same thing happens in classrooms. When most

students are doing what they're supposed to do, it creates that

natural pull toward cooperation. You're shaping which direction

the current flows, and that means you don't have to manage

every individual student. You manage the dominant pattern in

the room.

And that's a shift in how we usually address management

problems. Instead of asking, How do I fix this behavior? What if

instead we asked, How do I make it less likely to happen in the

first place? And that's what this episode is about. We

promise that problem prevention is actually doable, even when

you're running on fumes.

Yeah, today we have got five management boosters to

share with you. They're all low cost, high yield strategies. And

low cost means you can layer these on top of what you're

already doing. There are no elaborate systems or anything

that requires extra time or energy.

And high yield means that they each prevent more work than

they require. So for a few seconds of intention on your

part, you get a calmer, more engaged and more productive

class. Think of it like planting flowers instead of having to

spend all of your time pulling out weeds.

And since I absolutely loathe weeding, I would

definitely prefer to spend my time planting. So let's look at

our first strategy, greeting students at the door. Tell us

about this one, Heidi.

Well, this is almost unfair in how much it gives back

for how little it costs. In the show notes, there is a link to a

2018 study that found that positive greetings at the door

increased academic engagement by 20 percentage points and

decreased disruptive behavior by nine percentage points. The

researchers described it as effectively adding an extra hour

of engagement over a five hour instructional day.

Oh, it's mind blowing. And you get all of that from

standing at the door and saying hello. It's pretty impressive.

Oh, but there is more, Emily.

Tell me.

Well, research from 2024 echoes this. Students who are

greeted at the door start seeing their teacher less as the person

in charge of discipline, and more as someone who's actually

glad to see them, and that shift changes how they show up in your

classroom.

Now, this strategy was not hard for me to add to my day

at all, because at my school, all the students came into the

room at the same time, so it was pretty natural for me to just be

standing at the door as they walked in and just could greet

them each by name. But I know that's not everyone's situation.

Yeah, that was not how it worked at my school. My students

arrived over like 30 minutes, and there was no way I was going

to be standing at the door for half an hour, and I had so much

to get done. So what I tried to do was be at the door when that

bell rang to catch the kids coming in from outside from

breakfast, and then I'd have anyone that was already in the

room walk over and say hi to me, even if I had already said hi to

them when they walked in, when they arrived. Now please note

that the key word here is that I tried. I really tried. On my

good days, I could pull off fine, but that was not every

day. So please don't feel bad if this has not been happening

consistently in your class.

No, and we're flexible here, adapt to your limitations

that you're dealing with, and if you need to do a second lap to

greet everyone, you can do it that way. And if it doesn't

happen every day, that's okay too.

Yeah. And you know, if it sounds redundant to greet

students that you already said hi to, keep in mind that it's

not really about the greeting, it's about that one on one

moment of connection before you spend seven hours together. A

kid who feels seen is a lot less likely to spend the morning

looking for other ways to get your attention.

The hardest part of this booster is just making it a

habit. Setting an alarm a couple minutes before students arrive

to wrap up what you're doing and get to the door helps. You're

not dropping the ball on this because you don't care about

your students. It's just that there is always something urgent

to finish before the day can start.

So definitely give yourself some grace if you

cannot greet students every morning. A few days a week,

still makes a difference, we're trying not to let the perfect be

the enemy of the good here.

If your class is really struggling with spring fever, it

might be wise to try this strategy at other times of day,

especially if major transitions, like entering the room seem to

throw everyone off. Station yourself at the door after

recess or after specials to provide that moment of

connection.

Yeah, I had a class that I had to do this for. And a

bonus of doing this is that when you are guarding the door gently

and lovingly, you are also limiting how many kids are

coming into the room at once, and that automatically just

mellows the energy right out.

Oh, for sure. Okay, the second strategy is something

called pre-corrections. And if that word is new to you, I

promise the concept is not. So tell us about this one, Heidi.

Well, a pre-correction is just stating the expected

behavior before the moment when students are most likely to

struggle. So once your class is lined up, you might say, Before

we head to the hallway, remember, voice is off, hands to

yourself and we walk. That's it. You're just keeping the

expectations front and center in everyone's minds.

And you have probably been doing versions of this

already without knowing that it had a super fancy name. And the

reason it works is that it closes the gap between what you

expect and what actually happens. A lot of misbehavior

during transitions isn't defiance, it's just kids running

on autopilot. They're not thinking about expected behavior

because nobody's prompted them to think about it.

March is actually a really good time to lean into

this one specifically, because by now your procedures that your

class had down cold in November are probably a little rusty. A

pre-correction sharpens that up without making it into a whole

reteaching moment.

And the alternative is stopping everything after the

fact to address it, which costs way more time and tends to spike

everyone's stress level, including yours. A 10 second

reminder before beats a two minute correction after.

And this could not be simpler. There are no materials,

no prep, nothing to track, just you, before the moment, saying

out loud what you need to see.

If this is something you've been doing here and

there, commit to doing it consistently before transitions,

even if the transition is as simple as putting away one

folder and getting out another. See if this cuts down on the

number of corrections you have to make when your class goes

from point A to point B.

Our third low effort management booster is visual

prompts. Now this one takes a little bit of prep, but it's

going to save you from one of the most quietly draining loops

in teaching.

Oh yeah, it's the one of Wait, what are we doing? What

page are we on? Where do we write it? Wait, I missed it.

Yep, that's the loop. And I think my blood pressure spiked

just thinking about it. When directions are only verbal, you

pay for it over and over and over. Every student who didn't

catch it the first time comes to you, and you repeat yourself,

and then someone else comes. But putting step by step directions

on the board or on a slide ends all of that.

The nice thing is that a lot of your class classroom

transitions follow a predictable format, so you only have to put

in the work of planning the visuals one time, but then it

runs on its own. And when the kids forget what they're

supposed to be doing next, you can just point to the board

instead of having to repeat the same answer a dozen times.

You do not have to be an artist to make this work. I

promise your visuals do not have to be elaborate. A quick sketch

on the whiteboard is enough. Now I cannot draw to save my life,

but I got pretty good at sketching little symbols next to

my directions. So for example, if I needed students to get out

a book, I would draw like a capital V and another V a couple

inches below, and then just connect the midpoints, and then

ta, da, there's a book cover.

I love that you're giving a drawing tutorial on a podcast.

Follow me for those guided drawings.

Draw with Heidi.

Look everyone, five lines to make a book. But it really

doesn't have to be a masterpiece to get the point across.

No good thing. Or you can really save some time by

creating a slide with your recurring directions and reuse

it. Every time students need to turn in their math paper and

take out their science notebook, you can just use the same slide.

You already put in the work to make it so you may as well use

it every time.

And a little management bonus is that when students have

clear visual steps to follow, they're occupied, there's less

space for off task behavior because no one is getting

sidetracked by confusion, and that is social contagion, making

your job a little easier.

For those visuals to be effective, though, you have to

make it easier for students to get the information themselves

than it is to get the information from you. Given the

choice, kids will always prefer a personalized invitation to do

what the rest of the class is doing.

Oh, don't you love that. So if a student comes to you and

asks what to do, redirect them to the board. Just make it

simple, check the board.

Or even better, don't say anything, just point to the

board. It may feel a little firm the first few times, but it just

trains them to look there first, and over time, it builds real

independence, which I think we all want, and is actually good

for our students. So that just makes everything run more

smoothly.

So far, we have covered one on one, greetings,

pre-corrections and visual instructions. Our fourth

management booster is tone of voice. And even though this is

the most basic of all, it might be the trickiest one to maintain

this time of year.

Yeah, it's really easy for our tone to slip when we're

tired. You don't mean to be sharp, but sometimes it just

happens. When you're down to your last shred of patience, it

comes out in your voice sometimes.

We've all been there. We might have all even been there

today. When that frustrated tone comes flying out, just know it's

not the end of the world.

No, but it is worth being aware of how you're coming

across. Students will mirror your emotions more than they

will listen to your words. So when you as a teacher, if you're

tense and sharp, the kids are going to feel that.

Yeah, and that short tempered tone is definitely not

calming the room. In fact, you might be escalating the

behaviors that are already causing you grief.

There is a 2022 study that looked at how elementary

students responded to instructions delivered in

different tones, like demanding, neutral or supportive. Stricter

tones actually undermined trust. Kids were less likely to share

things with their teachers, including things about bullying

struggles, even work that they were proud of.

Which is such a real cost that might not show up in your

behavior data. A sharp tone might get compliance in the

moment, but it closes doors long term.

And believe me, we are not saying that you should be a

Disney princess with bluebirds swooping in to set up your

lessons. Although that could be handy.

That would be lovely.

But no, we will, we will never advocate for always

talking in a sweet, high pitched voice, that's not realistic. But

we just want you to notice when your voice has climbed, and give

yourself a second before it escalates things further.

And this can even be an important lesson for your

students. Step out for a second if you need to. Modeling what

self regulation looks like might be one of the most valuable

things you can do.

You have more control over your tone than almost

anything else in your classroom right now, so it's worth

learning to use it to your advantage.

All right. And that brings us to our fifth low

effort strategy, and this is behavior narration. It's when

you sports cast the positive behavior you see happening. I

see table two has their notebooks open.

Or, I notice four kids already have their names on

their papers. You're not correcting the kids who aren't

ready. You're naming out loud what you want to see, using the

students who are already doing it.

So I kind of have a bumpy past with this one. Early in my

career, I heard this technique described as manipulative, so I

either avoided it, or I would feel guilty when I just happened

to slip into using it. But eventually I stopped worrying

about that label, because this is effective. And now that I

take some time to really think about this, I don't see how this

is any more manipulative than any other management strategy.

I don't see how it's manipulative at all, unless

you're doing an icky version of it where you're saying something

like, everybody look at how Josh has already packed up. Everyone

should be like Josh. Like that's not narrating behavior, that's

using Josh as a spotlight to shame everyone else. So

obviously we don't want to do that, but, So far, I see four

kids are ready to go, just makes the expected behavior visible in

a positive way, and because that behavior is contagious, that

pulls the room in the right direction. I use this all the

time. It's definitely one of my go-tos.

Oh yeah, absolutely. So the distinction here is that

you're not using one kid as a weapon against everyone else.

You are celebrating all of the good things that are happening,

not guilting everyone into complying.

Yeah, a manipulative version of this would also be

something like, I see everyone at table five except one person

has their book out. Like, obviously don't do that.

Although, I gotta say, I probably have done that a time

or two, but you know, we're all learning. We're all learning.

I'm waiting for that one person on the front row. If

you've used our tell try tally talk technique, you know, we

love to use this when introducing a new procedure.

It's such a helpful method for getting kids to understand

exactly what's expected.

Behavior narration is also a handy way to conserve

energy. Instead of pouring effort into correcting the three

kids who aren't ready, you're uplifting the 22 who are. And

that math is pretty compelling when you're tired.

But do make sure not to overuse this one. If you narrate

constantly, it kind of just becomes white noise. Use it at

the moments where you need to redirect a group without a

confrontation. If this is done well, it is genuinely one of the

most efficient tools you have.

Okay. So those are our five low cost, high yield

behavior management boosters, perfect for the last months of

the school year. Greet students at the door, offer

pre-corrections, display visual prompts, be intentional with

your tone of voice, and narrate positive behaviors.

And what all of these strategies share is that they

are preventative, which is one of our pillars of classroom

management, is that you want to prevent problems before they

start. Doing this reduces the need for correction, and it

shapes the dominant pattern in the room without burning through

the energy that you don't have to spare right now.

Yeah, this is not the time for complicated new

systems. It's a time for leverage. And since behavior in

a group will spread, make sure you're the one deciding what

spreads.

And you don't have to do all five of these tomorrow. Just

pick one that feels doable this week and start there.

But if you aren't sure where to begin, maybe give

morning greetings a try. It has a clear start and end time, and

you don't have to try to remember it in the middle of a

tough moment.

And if classroom management is something you want

to dig more into this spring, we have resources in the Teacher

Approved club that go deeper on a lot of these ideas, and the

new club bonus that's coming for April fits right in line with

what we talked about today. It's about how to keep your

expectations alive at the end of the school year. So the link to

join us in the club is in the show notes.

Now for our Teacher Approved Tip of the Week, where we share an

actionable tip to help you elevate what matters and

simplify the rest. This week's teacher approved tip is to make

a time filler clipboard. Let's hear about it, Heidi.

I cannot believe that we have never talked about this in

the four years that we have had a podcast, because this is one

of my sneakiest management tips, and it addresses one of those

situations that used to make me sweat. So you know those times

when you're stuck in the hallway with your class and they need to

wait quietly? What do you do?

Oh, yeah, that is such a specific kind of stressful

teacher moment. The lunchroom's backed up, or the library's not

quite ready, and you're standing in the hall with 25 kids, and

they need to be quiet, but you really can't blame them for

being bored, because it's boring.

Yeah, exactly. And I hated that feeling of having to

police the noise when the situation was genuinely hard to

sit and wait and be quiet. So I made a clipboard of activities

that could be done right there in the hallway. So one of the

things I did was to make a simple vocabulary game on the

front of a piece of construction paper, I listed three

categories. I think had pictures with them, like words about

space, fruits, and countries. And then each category was

numbered, one, two, or three. I would whisper a word like

Finland, and the students would hold up three fingers to show

that that word fit the country category. Now, it was silent, it

was quick, and it was easy.

Having possible words listed on the back saves you

from having to improvise on the spot too.

Yeah, you definitely want to avoid having to think of

things in the moment if you're like me, and your mind goes

blank. And that was basically the whole reason I had this

clipboard. I didn't want to have to be creative under pressure in

the hallway.

Yeah, I love anything that removes that in the moment

mental work. Things run much more smoothly when you do the

mental work ahead of time.

Oh, always. And then, besides vocabulary games, math

flashcards work great. Take a deck of flashcards and pull out

any cards that have answers higher than 10. You just hold up

a card, and everyone shows you the answer on their fingers.

Easy peasy.

They always need more practice with math facts, and

you could do something similar with phonics. Make a word family

deck, hold up a card, whisper a letter, and the students whisper

the whole word back to you. So if the word family is 'OG,'

you'd say D, and they would whisper dog. It's not completely

silent, but it's quiet enough not to be disruptive.

I did this with my students, and I was a little

shocked and a little terrified by how hard this was for some

students. That was a really tricky task. You would think

that this would be really basic, but it was just a whole new way

of having to think about phonics. So it might be worth

giving a shot.

Yeah.

And again list all the words on the back of each card,

so you don't have to keep thinking like, well, what are

the other words that have OG in them? It's just all there for

you.

If a clipboard feels like too much to set up, just keep a

list of silent activities on your lanyard, or teach your

students a few simple sign language signs, and then

practice them while you wait in the hall. Silent charades works

too. You whisper a prompt and they act it out.

I also really love to use action songs that I would teach

my students during morning meeting. And then the twist, of

course, is for doing this in the hallway, it has to be super

quiet. Everybody just whispers or mouths the words, and you do

the motions together.

And if you think older students won't do it, I was a

teenager, and I did plenty of ridiculous group songs. If

teenagers can be coerced into singing Waddaly Atcha on a

school trip, 10 year olds can absolutely do a quiet action

song in the hallway.

But whatever you choose to do, the point is to have a

plan so that you're not scrambling or silently panicking

while 25 kids look at you. You just reach for the clipboard on

your way out of the room, and you're in control of any

situation before it becomes a situation.

To wrap up the show, we are sharing what we're giving extra

credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

I'm giving extra credit to the CeraVe intensive

moisturizing cream.

Oh, okay.

So I went to the dermatologist for a skin check,

and because I was there for a skin check, she was like, not

offering other additional advice to me, except for the fact that

I mentioned, you know, since I'm just in like a little gown here,

I'm like, Oh, don't mind my sandpaper legs, because in the

winter they are dry and dusty. And she mentioned, like, oh,

well, there's some lotion that might be good for that. And she

recommended this cream, and she gave me a paper with some other

things on it, but this was the top one. And it's something

about the fact that this is, like, super, super thick cream,

but you put it on and it goes in so nicely. It doesn't like, feel

like it's sitting on top of you, and it has, I think it was

described as hydro-urea in it, and that, I think, is a little

bit of an exfoliant. So I think that's what helps with the dry

skin. So I slather this on after the shower. I do mean slather,

but it really does soak right in, and it's made a really big

difference on my dusty, scratchy legs.

I'm gonna have to give that a try, because I'm about to

run out of lotion. I was thinking, I need to try

something new. This isn't working for me.

Check it out, they have a lotion, but you want the cream.

Cream. Okay, that's good, because I would have got the

wrong thing. Okay, yep, noted.

Okay, what are you giving extra credit to this week,

Heidi?

Well, we're just covering you with all the drugstore

takeaways here. Although this is something you have to get

online. My extra credit goes to Allermi, which is an online

allergy nasal spray. So I switched to this for a year. So

I've been on this a year now, and I can definitely say it is

worth it. So this time of year, the trees try to kill me. I

think it's personal. It's so violent the way they make me

feel. But this works so well. It's three or four different

allergy medications in one nasal spray, which at first I was a

little like, oh well, it's kind of expensive. But then I

figured, like, I'm spending that much on these four sprays

separately. And then a bonus that I didn't expect is that I

have not had a bloody nose since I switched to this. Sorry for

the TMI, but if you have allergies, you will be so

grateful for this information.

And Heidi has had bloody noses that are like crime

scenes, so this is a big deal to avoid those.

Yeah, not one in a year. I think just because you're just

doing one spray instead of four in a day, it just makes such a

difference for your poor nose.

And because it's like a tailored to you combination, I

think you probably have to use it less than you were using the

combination of all the other sprays. Does that make sense?

Yes, yes, definitely. And I found, so most of the year, I

can get by with just doing it one spray once a day. I think

the directions are to do two sprays twice a day, and this

time of year I do have to max out my dosage, but for most of

the year, it's not a problem at all, and that means that, so

even though I think a bottle is like $35, probably plus

shipping, it actually is cheaper than I was paying when I was

buying four different medications over the counter. So

definitely check this out.

And allergy sprays are expensive, so when you're buying

several different ones and doing a spray of each every day, yeah,

that adds up fast. I'm waiting for my free sample of this to

come in the mail, just shipped.

hope it makes the difference for you, because,

gosh, allergies, you just wait and your throat feels pickled

and your head hurts, and life doesn't slow down because you're

not technically sick. You just feel like you are.

Yeah, so get some moisturizing cream and some

allergy spray, everyone. We're here for you.

You've got all your needs covered.

And that is it for today's episode. Remember our five low

effort, high yield management boosters to make this season of

the school year a little easier to manage.

And if you liked this episode, we would love it if you

shared it with a teacher friend who might enjoy it as well.

That's the best way to help our show reach new listeners.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm

Heidi.

And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow

or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an

episode.

You can connect with us and other teachers in the

Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.

Bye for now.

Bye.