Heidi: This is episode 247 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 today's
episode, we are talking about why spring classroom management
needs more structure, not more control, and sharing practical
strategies you can use this week to make your days run smoother.
Heidi: Let's start with a try it tomorrow, where we share a quick
win that you can try in your classroom right away. Emily,
what is our suggestion for this week?
Emily: Okay, this week, try adding a 30-second silent reset
between transitions. So before you dismiss students to their
next activity, have everyone pause and take three deep
breaths together and mentally picture where they're going
next. Totally simple, but that tiny moment of regulation can
prevent the chaos that builds when your kids rush from one
thing to another without any processing time.
Heidi: I love that. It is such a low lift way to give kids a
chance to settle before they move. And if you like this idea
or anything else we share here on the podcast, would you take a
second and give us a five star rating? Ratings and reviews are
one way that new listeners find us, so every one really is a
huge help to us.
Emily: Well, we have officially made it to March, and by this
point in the year, your classroom probably feels a lot
different than it did in September.
Heidi: Yeah, in the spring, everything is a little louder
and looser, or a lot louder and looser. Transitions take longer.
You're probably finding yourself giving more reminders and more
warnings than you did in the fall.
Emily: Warnings, threats, whatever you want to call them.
Heidi: We don't judge.
Emily: And that totally makes sense, because if you have
followed us for long, you know that one of our favorite topics
is how the needs of your classroom shift over the course
of the school year. In fact, we like talking about this seasonal
shift so much that we literally wrote a book about it. Our book,
Structure and Spark is available for pre order now on, I know, I
know for sure it's on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Heidi: That is so exciting, or you could find a link to it in
the show notes. But since our book will not be out until July,
you are on your own for surviving March. Sorry, friends.
Emily: Just kidding, we would never do that to you! Okay, so
let's take a look at what makes March so very March-like and how
that impacts what unfolds during the school day.
Heidi: To manage your March classroom, you need to
understand what makes this a unique time of year. So let's
look at two key characteristics. First, the stamina you had in
October just is not there anymore. And second, the energy
in the room has definitely gone up. The spring shift in daylight
and the warmer weather just brings increased chattiness and
all kinds of fun behaviors.
Emily: So we have this perfect storm of higher stimulation
paired with lower regulation. Think about a noisy transition
in October. Maybe a few kids got sidetracked halfway to the rug,
and they're having a little chat. So you stop and ask them
to try it again. You could tolerate the extra two or three
minutes that would take because you knew it was going to pay off
the next day and for the rest of the school year.
Heidi: And that's because back at the start of the year, oh, in
the good old days when you were so young, there was enough
energy in the system to think long term. But in March, when
that same procedure gets a little wobbly, instead of
resetting it, you move forward. You do just what you have to do
to keep the lesson moving.
Emily: And oh, have we all been there. Your gas tank is running
on empty here, and when you're running on empty, your brain
defaults to short term stabilization. You rely on
reminders and warnings because they are faster and they feel
easier, maybe, in the moment, than stopping to revisit an
expectation.
Heidi: And those reminders and warnings and maybe threats do
work for a minute, but if the classroom only functions while
you are actively holding it together, it's going to keep
demanding more and more of you.
Emily: If you are stuck in that 'I just need to make it through
this tough moment' energy, it means you're relying on control
to move through the day. Control is teacher-centered, though,
it's you actively holding the classroom together. Now that
does stabilize behavior, but only as long as you are actively
monitoring it. If you don't give the reminder, the talking
continues.
Heidi: Control feels efficient because it is immediate, but it
has to be repeated again tomorrow and the next day, and
it only works as long as you are the one working it.
Emily: But structure works differently than control. While
control is based on your physical presence, structure is
based in the environment. It's your consistent attention
signal, your procedures and all of the expectations that don't
change based on your energy level.
Heidi: Now, while structure is more permanent, the trade off is
that it demands a lot up front. It means stopping to practice,
reteaching the expectation and making it clear what happens if
the students don't follow through. Once it's solid,
though, it gives energy back, meaning you do not have to carry
every piece of the day all by yourself.
Emily: Here at the beginning of March is actually the perfect
time to take a good look at how well your structure is holding
up. As we've talked about before, a lot of teaching
headaches are predictable. Spring brings higher energy,
more social drive, schedule disruptions from testing and
assemblies and students who are just done with sitting still and
being quiet.
Heidi: And because we know that this spring fever is coming, if
it's not already here, we can do something to mitigate it. Your
instinct might be to crack down harder, but what students
actually need is clear containers for all of that
spring energy.
Emily: All right, so let's talk about four common spring
problems and the structural solutions that make them easier
to manage without constant teacher intervention from you.
And we're going to start with one of the biggest headaches,
sloppy transitions.
Heidi: Oh, the worst. You know how it goes. Students take
forever to line up. They're chatting the whole way to the
rug. Materials are getting dropped or forgotten, and you
are repeating yourself constantly.
Emily: And here's where that control versus structure
distinction shows up. The control response is to keep
reminding, "kids talking by the cubes are going to owe me some
Bonus Bucks if they don't hurry," over and over every
single transition.
Heidi: And while a warning feels more efficient than stopping to
reteach, especially when you're tired, you're going to give that
warning tomorrow and the next day, and maybe every single day.
In the long run, all you're doing is teaching your students
to wait for your voice instead of following the routine.
Emily: Yeah. When it comes to management, control asks, How do
I get them to stop? But structure asks, How do I support
what I want to see? So let's look at how to solve this
problem using structure. And the first step is pausing to
identify the reason transitions have gotten sloppy. Are the kids
talking by the cubes because they're feeling chatty, or
because they're confused about what's expected?
Heidi: Also consider if every sloppy transition is suffering
from the same breakdown. If you are seeing the same problem
multiple times a day, maybe kids are talking every time you shift
between activities, a standard solution could solve multiple
problems at once.
Emily: Yeah, a great strategy for decreasing talking is to
decrease the opportunities to talk. Instead of calling the
whole class to line up at once, try dismissing a table at a
time. Or if kids are frequently confused about what they're
supposed to be doing during a transition, try listing the
steps on the board.
Heidi: Providing a visual support is such a great way to
let the environment of your room do some of your management for
you. If a student seems confused, just direct them to
the list. That way you don't have to stop, figure out what's
confusing this particular child, and then coach them through the
next steps. The list does all of that for you.
Emily: Now, of course, if a kid is genuinely confused, you want
to help them, but a list on the board probably answers 95% of
the 'what are we supposed to do' questions.
Heidi: I hate that question so much.
Emily: Yep, it's always like the minute you just finished
explaining what to do.
Heidi: And then once you pinpoint which part of your
transition needs to reset, reteach it like it's brand new,
even if you did it in September. Model what careful listening
looks like. Discuss how to move around the space quickly and
quietly, and then practice.
Emily: Now this could easily take 10 minutes, and that might
feel like time you don't have right now, but what you're
teaching is that the expectation isn't optional, and the next
transition and the transitions tomorrow will be smoother
because students know that you will follow through.
Heidi: This is where accountability comes in.
Accountability means consistently enforcing
expectations, even when you're tired. I know it's so hard, but
it's so important. If students aren't meeting the expectation,
stop and have them practice doing it right.
Emily: Nagging, on the other hand, is reminding students over
and over, without following through. "Please line up
quietly. I said quietly. I'm still waiting for quiet!" That
teaches students, they can ignore what you say until you're
really serious.
Heidi: And if you find yourself thinking, I don't have time for
this, stop and challenge that little voice in your mind. What
you don't have time for is to give reminders all day long. Ten
minutes now means less work every day after.
Emily: Because so many things are happening at once during
transitions, they can be a huge source of management stress. If
you want to really dial in on how to troubleshoot your
transition structure, we did three whole episodes on it.
Heidi: Yeah, we did try to condense it to one episode, but
we found quickly there was just too much to say. So go back to
episodes 48, 49 and 50, and I know those numbers off the top
of my head because we've referenced them so much. There
you will find a complete deep dive on all things transitions.
Emily: Okay, now you've got your transition structure sorted out.
Let's look at another upcoming spring problem, messiness.
Heidi: You know how it goes. You look at your room at the end of
the day, the centers are a disaster the classroom library
looks like a tornado hit it, supplies are everywhere, and you
are spending half of your after school work time just cleaning
things up.
Emily: And now the control response here is constant
monitoring and verbal corrections. Who left these
books on the floor? If you keep leaving the caps off the markers
we won't have any left in May! You can so easily turn into the
mess police.
Heidi: Oh, that felt way too familiar. But if you have been
reminding students for weeks and nothing has changed, they need
more than reminders. What they need is a reset, and sometimes
that reset needs to be big enough to really get their
attention. This is where a wake up call moment can work.
Emily: A wake up call isn't about shaming students. It's
about creating a strategic intervention that makes the
problem visible and creates urgency to fix it. It keeps the
focus on the unwelcome consequences instead of calling
out individual students.
Heidi: So here's an example. Let's say your math centers have
been consistently left messy. The manipulatives are
everywhere. There's loose number cards. The game boards are bent
because they're just getting shoved in the drawer instead of,
like, put in nicely. I don't have any rage over those
memories, it's fine, it's fine. But after school one day,
instead of cleaning up, you leave everything exactly as the
students left it. Maybe you even tape off the area like a crime
scene with some strips of yellow paper.
Emily: Then when students arrive the next morning and start
asking questions, you have the perfect opening. You call a
class meeting, show them the mess and have an honest
conversation. This is what our math centers looked like
yesterday. Why is this a problem? What do we need to do
differently?
Heidi: And then you can get specific about expectations and
consequences. Here's what I expect to see when centers are
cleaned up, and here's what will happen if materials are not put
away correctly, and then you got to follow through.
Emily: The wake up call isn't a punishment, it is a reset.
You're making the problem impossible to ignore, so
students understand why change needs to happen.
Heidi: Now this definitely takes more effort than just nagging
them about the mess, but the nagging hasn't worked. The wake
up call creates a moment where students decide they don't want
to keep losing privileges or dealing with consequences, so
they choose to act more helpfully going forward.
Emily: Okay. The third problem in March, and something we have
already touched on, is chattiness. Students are talking
during work time, during transitions, during lessons, the
noise level is up, the focus is down, and you feel like you're
losing your mind.
Heidi: We actually did a whole episode on managing a chatty
class back in episode 119, so if this is your biggest struggle
right now, go back and listen to that one. In that episode, we
shared five targeted strategies for taming chattiness.
Emily: But for today, we want to highlight one thing. When kids
are chattier in spring, they don't need stricter
consequences. They need clearer containers for sound. That means
being explicit about when talking is okay and when it's
not.
Heidi: This is when visual cues like voice level lights or
charts that show, you know, silent work time versus partner
talk time can come in handy.
Emily: And yes, you probably went over a lot of this at the
start of the year. They know better, but spring energy and
spring distractions make it harder for them to regulate
without clear reminders built into the environment.
Heidi: Which is why we are excited to share that this
month, Teacher approved Club members are getting a brand new
resource specifically designed for spring chattiness called the
Quiet Class Quest.
Emily: Oh, we're so excited about this. It's so cute. Okay,
so this is a three day mini unit designed to reset your
classroom's noise level through structure, not control. It
includes three short lessons with ready to use materials,
each focused on helping students understand expectations for
different types of work time and practice meeting those
expectations. And it has a cute castle theme since we're on a
quest.
Heidi: We love a theme here. And the best part is that in mid
March, we are hosting a guided implementation challenge in the
club. You'll get daily support and encouragement as you work
through the quest with your students, so you aren't doing it
alone.
Emily: Plus club members get a bonus audio training with even
more tips for managing that springtime chattiness. Our goal
isn't to turn you into the noise police or make your kids
miserable. Instead, we just want to give you the tools to channel
their spring energy into a productive outlet that works for
them and for you.
Heidi: If you're not a Club member yet, and spring
chattiness is draining your energy every single day, this is
a great time to join. You can find more information at
secondstorywindow.net/club.
Emily: We'll come back to the Quiet Class Quest in a minute,
but first, let's talk about the fourth spring problem, behavior
outside the classroom.
Heidi: So when students are loud in the hallway or disrespectful
in the lunchroom, it can feel extra frustrating, because these
moments are often when you have the least control. You are
moving through shared spaces, other adults might be watching,
and you're trying to keep things together while also getting
everyone where they need to be when they need to get there.
Emily: One way I've seen teachers deal with this is to
ignore that it's happening. They just don't know how to fix the
problem that's happening outside the room, so they let that
complaint from the music teacher slide.
Heidi: But I have also seen teachers handle it the complete
opposite way, and crack down with threats and punishment. I
mean, I guess at least they're addressing it. But taking away
recess for the next three days isn't really solving the
behavior problem in music class.
Emily: So let's look at how we can address this problem using
structure. One helpful solution is to revisit expectations
before and after the event.
Heidi: Now this goes beyond a quick, 'remember you need to be
respectful in the lunchroom.' It means taking time to actually
make expectations visible and holding students accountable for
reflecting on how they did.
Emily: For example, if hallway behavior has been rough, before
you leave the classroom, pull up a quick visual of hallway
expectations. You can post them on the board or project them on
your screen. Go through each one. We walk quietly. We keep
our hands to ourselves. We stay in line. If you've got a minute,
you may even have a discussion about how these expectations
protect other classes' learning time.
Heidi: Now this is the part that a lot of people overlook. After
you return to the classroom, take two minutes to reflect. How
did we do? Did we meet our expectations? What do we need to
remember for next time. If students didn't meet your
expectations, be clear about what will happen if the behavior
continues.
Emily: This is also a great place to use our procedure
review slides. These are slides designed specifically for
revisiting classroom procedures with your students in a
structured, visual way.
Heidi: These are so handy, all you have to do is add the names
of any procedures you want to discuss, like walking in the
hallway, or lining up for lunch, to the slides. And then you
gather your students and ask them to hold up one to five
fingers to rate how well they think they are meeting your
expectations for that procedure.
Emily: So let's say students rate walking in the hallway as a
three. You click the slide three times and three stars appear.
Now you have a visual representation of where things
stand.
Heidi: And then you just lead a discussion. All right, we rated
this a three. What are we doing well that we need to keep doing?
What do we need to work on to get to a four or a five? If a
procedure is going smoothly, maybe hopefully your morning
routine is a solid five. Include that in the list too, so
students recognize that they are doing some things well, it's not
everything that needs to be overhauled.
Emily: Right. And then after the discussion, you can revisit the
rating. Now that we've talked about this, what's our plan
going forward? What are we committing to? This keeps
expectations front and center, instead of letting them fade
into background noise.
Heidi: The procedure review slides can be done in about five
minutes, but that five minute investment means students are
thinking about expectations instead of you having to remind
them constantly. It's structure doing the work instead of you.
Emily: All right, let's recap what we've covered today. Spring
classroom management isn't about cracking down harder, it's about
rebuilding structure so the day requires less of you tomorrow
than it did today.
Heidi: We discussed four common spring problems and their
structural solutions. So problem one, sloppy transitions. Reteach
your expectations and hold students accountable, not by
nagging, but by stopping and practicing until they get it
right. Problem two, messy spaces and materials. Use a wake up
call reset to make the problem visible and create urgency for
change.
Emily: Problem three, spring chattiness. Give students clear
containers for sound. And if this is your biggest struggle,
check out the quiet class quest in the Teacher Approved Club.
And problem four, behavior outside the classroom. Keep
expectations alive by pre teaching before transitions and
reflecting after. Use tools like our procedure review slides to
make this quick and structured.
Heidi: If you want more support for spring management, join us
in the Teacher Approved Club. And mid March, we are hosting a
guided challenge to help you implement it with your students.
You'll get lesson plans, materials, daily encouragement
and a community of teachers working through it with you.
Emily: You can learn more and join at
secondstorywindow.net/club, or you can find the link in the
show notes, and make sure to grab the procedure review slides
and our other spring management resources from the links in the
show are working for you. Come join
the conversation in the teacher approved Facebook group.
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
front-load your hardest transition. Tell us more about
it, Heidi.
Heidi: Well, if there's one transition during your day that
consistently goes off the rails, maybe it's coming back from
recess or switching from whole group to centers, or packing up
at the end of the day, try front loading it. Front loading means
you spend 30 seconds before the transition to set students up
for success. You're not just reminding them what to do,
you're activating their mental picture of what success looks like.
So for example, if cleanup time is always chaotic, before you
dismiss students to clean up, have them close their eyes and
picture exactly what they're going to do. You're going to put
the markers in the bins with the lids on tight. You're going to
stack the papers neatly. You're going to push in your chair. I
want you to picture all of that in your mind. And then you can
ask a quick check in question. Thumbs up if you know exactly
what you're cleaning up first. This gets students mentally
committed before they make any kind of movement.
Emily: And that sounds so simple, but the tiny moment of
mental rehearsal reduces the cognitive load during the
transition. Students aren't figuring out what to do, they're
executing a plan that they already made.
Heidi: The beauty of front loading is that it takes about
30 seconds, and if you pair it with a posted list of steps, you
are really setting students up for a successful transition.
Emily: So try it with your hardest transition this week and
see if it makes a difference. Our guess is you will see
smoother, faster transitions with way less teacher
intervention.
Heidi: Okay, 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 Shark Stain Striker
portable carpet cleaner.
Heidi: I'm impressed. You could say it, that's like a tongue
twister.
Emily: I know, and it's such a mom thing to be like, I love my
little carpet cleaner. So I used to have a Bizzle little green
machine, I think is what they were called, and it did the job
okay, of cleaning up like little carpet messes. But I always
hated how hard it was to clean after. It just always seemed
like you couldn't really get it clean. So I upgraded to this
Shark Stain Striker several months ago when my kids had a
tummy bug, if you know, you know. And, but it is so good, it
has an onboard self cleaning tool that runs clean water and
cleaning solution through the whole machine, including the
hose and the attachment, so you can put it away knowing it's not
gross in there, like it's all cleaned out.
Heidi: That's amazing.
Emily: It's amazing. But not every model of this strain
striker, oh see the tongue twister got me there. Not every
model of the Stain Striker has the onboard self cleaning. So
double check the description of whichever one you're looking at,
make sure it says that. But I got the hair pro version, which
I think is designed, probably for pets, and that has it. So
just make sure you definitely want that feature.
Heidi: Yeah, that sounds like a handy dandy tool, especially if
you've got kids around.
Emily: Yeah, you don't want a cleaning tool that then needs to
be cleaned. And you know, if you even can't get it clean, then
that's just so frustrating. Like, well, I don't want to use
this because I don't think it's clean inside, gross. So this is
a win.
Heidi: I feel like I picked up that habit when we were
custodians in college, we'd have to clean our vacuum.
Emily: Yeah.
Heidi: I still clean my vacuum all the time.
Emily: Yep, or I can't tell you how many hours I spent cleaning,
like the detergent drawers in the washing machines, and just
like, well, gotta get this nice and clean in here. Gotta clean
the cleaner. Do I do that in my house now? No, I don't. I
probably should. Okay, what are you giving extra credit to,
Heidi: Well, my extra credit goes to Clay Moo craft kits. I
Heidi?
know I mentioned these a few months ago because I got them
Heidi: make two little rose baskets. Oh, cute. And I loved
for Emily's youngest for Christmas. But now I've tried
them myself, so I can give it a two thumbs up. My order for
Eloise qualified for a surprise bonus kit, and the kit that came
was a basket of roses. And I just don't think a 10 year old
would be into that. Having made it now I could see she
definitely wouldn't be, so I kept it for myself. She got
cute, like a unicorn, and there's lots of fun ones.
having just a nice activity to do at the end of the day that
wasn't doom scrolling on my phone. So I'm gonna have to
check out some of their other kits now. And even with my poor
arthritic hands, it wasn't too bad. So definitely worth a shot
if you need something for your analog basket.
Emily: Well, I mean, that's our new thing is analog hobbies.
We're all in on it. So we'll add this to the list of things you
can do without your phone.
Heidi: Perfect. Yeah, I think last week I was talking about
sticker by number. So I guess I'm a whole new woman this year.
Emily: Yeah, yeah. We've got coloring, sticker by numbers, I
was cross stitching the other day, which was something I used
to do all the time, but not in many moons. So check us out.
We're so analog.
Heidi: That is it for today's episode. Remember, structure
isn't about working harder. It's about making the day require
less of you tomorrow than it did today.
Emily: Try one of these strategies we shared today and
let us know how it goes in the Teacher Approved Facebook group.
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.