Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to
the show.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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?
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: And once it's a routine, it takes almost no time, because
the students just know what to do, and that is the dream.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: Yeah. And really, things right now can feel like such a
slog. You're tired, but somehow your students have more energy
than ever.
Emily: I know, like, why don't they share some of that energy
with us, please?
Heidi: Or, you know, they could at least have the decency to be
a tiny bit more chill.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
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.
Emily: Oh, it's mind blowing. And you get all of that from
standing at the door and saying hello. It's pretty impressive.
Heidi: Oh, but there is more, Emily.
Emily: Tell me.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: I love that you're giving a drawing tutorial on a podcast.
Heidi: Follow me for those guided drawings.
Emily: Draw with Heidi.
Heidi: Look everyone, five lines to make a book. But it really
doesn't have to be a masterpiece to get the point across.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: That would be lovely.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: Although, I gotta say, I probably have done that a time
or two, but you know, we're all learning. We're all learning.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: And you don't have to do all five of these tomorrow. Just
pick one that feels doable this week and start there.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
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?
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: Having possible words listed on the back saves you
from having to improvise on the spot too.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: Yeah.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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?
Emily: I'm giving extra credit to the CeraVe intensive
moisturizing cream.
Heidi: Oh, okay.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: Check it out, they have a lotion, but you want the cream.
Heidi: Cream. Okay, that's good, because I would have got the
wrong thing. Okay, yep, noted.
Emily: Okay, what are you giving extra credit to this week,
Heidi?
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.
Emily: And Heidi has had bloody noses that are like crime
scenes, so this is a big deal to avoid those.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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?
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: Yeah, so get some moisturizing cream and some
allergy spray, everyone. We're here for you.
Heidi: 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.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm
Heidi.
Emily: 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.
Heidi: You can connect with us and other teachers in the
Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.
Bye for now.
Emily: Bye.