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Standards to empower students learning through collaboration and student driven learning.

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The ISTE Educator Standards challenge educators to deepen their practice, empower students and rethink traditional approaches to education.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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The communication board is a 8 picture board. There isn't any sound built into the board yet, but the first word would be walk, bathroom, yes no, pencil, paper, book and home. When making this I thought of the words I might want to say during a school day.

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Digital citizenship for middle schoolers.

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The assessment is a SeeSaw. I asked for students to reflect on what they learned and they could use any choice on SeeSaw to present what they learned like video, write, draw, and so on to answer the questions.

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You have been signed out of Seesaw, but not Google. You have been signed out of Seesaw, but not Clever. You have been signed out of Seesaw, but not ClassLink. Click here to sign out of Google. Click here to sign out of Clever. Click here to sign out of ClassLink.

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You have been signed out of Seesaw, but not Google. You have been signed out of Seesaw, but not Clever. You have been signed out of Seesaw, but not ClassLink. Click here to sign out of Google. Click here to sign out of Clever. Click here to sign out of ClassLink.

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Here are standards that help guide help empower students to have voices in their own learning.

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The ISTE Student Standards guide educators toward student-driven learning practices that prepare students to thrive in an evolving technological landscape.

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Classroom Dojo is a way for students to earn point throughout the day to earn rewards for good behavior.

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ClassDojo helps teachers, parents, and students build amazing classroom communities.

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A tool for universal learning and help designing lessons for all learners

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Reenvisioning the UDL Guidelines

Because the UDL Guidelines are meant to be informed by feedback from the field as well as new research, they have been updated several times in the past. We are in the process of updating the Guidelines once again in our UDL Rising to Equity initiative.

This update will focus specifically on addressing systemic barriers that result in inequitable learning opportunities and outcomes. CAST aims to develop a transparent, inclusive, and community-driven process. If you are interested in collaborating and staying updated on our progress, we invite you to complete a brief survey.

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

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This site has tier based behaviors that can be selected to help build interventions as well as data tracking. A very good resource for classroom management tools.

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PBIS World | A Complete Tier 1 Through Tier 3 Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports System

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PBIS World is in no way affiliated, associated, or connected with any other website, entity, organization, or federal, state, local, or other government agency, department, program, policy, organization, or initiative.

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Apps to assist students with disabilities.

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Our commitment

We are committed to create and grow usage of accessible technology, expand skilling and hiring opportunities for people with disabilities, and advocate for policies that advance accessibility as a fundamental right.

Learn about our approach

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Accessibility Technology & Tools | Microsoft Accessibility

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Explore accessibility and inclusion technology from Microsoft Accessibility. Ensure and empower those around you to participate in activities at work or play.

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This site give an over view or AT for students.

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This module offers an overview of assistive technology (AT) with a focus on students with high-incidence disabilities such as learning disabilities and ADHD. It explores the consideration process, implementation, and evaluation of AT for these students (est. completion time: 2.5 hours).

Work through the sections of this module in the order presented in the STAR graphic above.

Related to this module

Copyright 2023 Vanderbilt University. All rights reserved.

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This module offers an overview of assistive technology (AT) with a focus on students with high-incidence disabilities such as learning disabilities and ADHD. It explores the consideration process, implementation, and evaluation of AT for these students (est. completion time: 2.5 hours). Work through the sections of this module in the order presented in the STAR graphic above.

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This website has everything from defining accessibility to creating accessible documents for students.

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The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials for Learning

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This website will help aid in writing IEP's

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Breaking News (July 2020): Butte County SELPA launches an all new website!

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This SELPA has a lot of detail and is very clear in how to write and IEP

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This site lets you build a custom wheel for choosing students to read or to have a random drawing. There are endless possibilities with it.

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What To Do Under Quarantine?

You'll have to take our word for it that the wheel landed on Phone an old friend. Your browser cannot display the wheel of choices. Please upgrade to a newer browser that supports HTML5 (most new ones do). Wheel Decide would normally show a wheel right here with choices that you can set (lunch, games, dinner, anything!). You can spin it to get a random decision. Make your own wheel of dinner, wheel of fortune, wheel of lunch, wheel of whatever you want now!

What's Wheel Decide?

Wheel Decide is a free online spinner tool that allows you to create your own digital wheels for decision making, prize giveaways, raffles, games, and more. Browse through our wheels and spin to randomize your life and make the decisions that have no wrong answers.

Decision Making

Let the wheel decide. Save your energy for the big decisions

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Can't decide? Wheel Decide for you! Set your own custom choices and then spin the wheel to make the random decision of lunch, movie, or anything! Make your own wheel of dinner or whatever now!

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This is a students favorite. It can be used to quiz students as well as a fun Friday lesson.

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Kahoot!'s new student passes are a one-way ticket to take students from players to creators! Empower your students to engage in active learning with the tools they need to create and host kahoots that demonstrate their learning to the whole class.

With student passes your class will have access to:

The full functionality of the Kahoot! creator to make fun and engaging kahoots for their peers

Award-winning learning apps from Poio and DragonBox to master everything from the basics of reading and numeracy to algebra, geometry, and even chess

Premium Kahoot! features including exclusive question types like brainstorm, type answer, and puzzles, plus creation tools to create advanced slide layouts with our premium image library

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Make your students the hosts of their own learning experiences

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A student-centered learning platform and content hub designed to help students to take an active role in their education through powerful play

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This site can be used as an exit ticket and for warm ups.

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A highly effective way to interact and engage students in their learning.

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We express ourselves in different ways. On Flip, you can use our simple and fun built-in camera to record your thoughts, add effects and share within your Flip group as video, audio only or text in your web browser or mobile app.

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Flip is a video discussion and sharing app, free from Microsoft.

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Flip (formerly Flipgrid) is a video discussion and video sharing app, free from Microsoft, built for classrooms and beyond. Learn more.

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This website has so many wonderful lessons available for free to teachers.

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This website has 7 steps to incorporate UDL into the classroom.

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1. Know your students' strengths and barriers

All students are unique, and the way they learn best can be as individual as a fingerprint. Some students learn best by reading and working independently, while others excel by watching videos and working in groups. The goal is to understand their strengths and barriers, and to use that when designing lessons.

Determining strengths and barriers can be as simple as asking students their learning preferences, or observing them over time and keeping notes on which methods work best for which students. There are also many surveys that can help you learn more about individual strengths and barriers. One caveat is that asking students their preference doesn't always equate to what's best for them. For example, just because a student says he prefers watching videos doesn't mean that is actually how he learns best.

You should also be prepared to create an individual education plan for students requiring specific accommodations.

2. Use digital materials when possible

Although things are changing, I find that many classrooms still use paper-based materials. I'm not opposed to paper (I still buy real books from Amazon), but digital materials can make implementing UDL in a classroom much easier.

With digital content you can increase font size, easily look up definitions, use text-to-speech to read text aloud, and link out to more detailed information on almost any topic imaginable. This is particularly useful for students needing dyslexia-friendly reading tools, or translation.

If your current classroom materials are not in a digital format, consider ways you can change this. For example, you could replace outdated content with more up-to-date, digital content available online, or use tools like OrbitNote to convert paper-based materials to digital, accessible materials.

3. Share content in a variety of ways

In addition to having content available in a digital format, it's also important to share that content in a variety of ways. This can help ensure it fits with students' strengths and barriers discussed above.

For example, if you're teaching a unit on area and perimeter, you may know that some students will do well simply reading the textbook, while others would benefit from watching a video or listening to a hiphop version of the lesson on Flocabulary. Once they've got the concept down, let everyone get their hands dirty by working with manipulatives on their own or in a group to solve a real-life problem.

Offering multiple means of representation ( UDL's first principle) helps to ensure that students who struggle in one area do not automatically fall behind their peers.

4. Offer choices for how students demonstrate their knowledge

Sharing content in a variety of ways is only half the battle. Engaging students by giving them access to audio, video, digital text, and interactive sites, only then to hand out a paper and pencil quiz at the end of the day isn't ideal.

Obviously some of this is out of your control as standardized testing is a necessary part of education. When possible however, do your best to give students options for how they share their knowledge. This could be a demonstration, slideshow, speech, essay or video. Even using simple free tools like Google Forms provides an upgrade to standard multiple choice tests by making it digital and helping you to streamline grading.

5. Take advantage of software supports

Technology plays an important role in supporting Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The number of apps, extensions, sites, and built-in supports available to students today is nearly infinite. If you have a student who needs support with reading, writing, math, history, chemistry, or any other subject, chances are, software exists to help.

Allowing students to take advantage of these supports is critical. Not only does it give them the ability to succeed independently both inside and outside of the classroom, but it also frees up your valuable time to help even more students.

A great example of a support from Texthelp that's helping millions of students worldwide is Read&Write. Our handy extension for the Google Chrome web browser allows anyone with a Google account to have access to reading and writing supports on the web, in Google Docs, Slides, Forms and more.
Watch the video below to see how one district is benefiting from Read&Write.
As you can see, tools like Read&Write are a great way to provide on-demand support when and where students need it. And one of the great things about modern apps and extensions is their ease of use. Many times students simply discover these apps on their own after they are deployed. If not, usually a quick overview at the beginning of a class is all that's needed.

6. Low and No Tech options do exist

Even though I've been talking about the importance of digital content, software supports, and other technology-related tools, it's important to know that technology is not required to implement UDL. Sure, it can help, but if you're in a classroom with little to no technology, that doesn't mean you can't implement UDL.

UDL is all about removing barriers. As mentioned, one way to do this is by providing a range of options when presenting content or asking students to demonstrate their knowledge. Instead of using technology you can still offer multiple means of representation with things like graphic organizers and handheld whiteboards that students can use as response cards. The goal is just to make sure that all students have a way to participate and learn.

7. Learn from others

Universal Design for Learning isn't new. There are loads of resources available online that can help you get started. You can start by heading over to the UDL Center's website to learn more about the topic and the research behind it. You can check out our dedicated UDL guide for educators which can help you determine each learner's needs and create a personalized learning environment in your classroom.

Just remember to start small. Implementing the principles of Universal Design for Learning doesn't happen overnight. For example, begin by taking one lesson and consider ways to represent the content in multiple ways to reduce barriers and help increase student comprehension. Then for another lesson, offer students multiple ways to demonstrate their knowledge. Or maybe create a short quiz in Google Docs instead of paper and demonstrate how students can use a tool like Read&Write to help with reading and responding to the questions.

By tackling UDL one step at a time, you can see what works and what doesn't for your unique students and classroom.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published in May 2017 and was updated in December 2022.

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7 Universal Design for Learning Examples and Strategies for the Classroom

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While UDL is a common phrase in many schools today, it can be difficult to practically implement in the classroom. To help with this, I've put together a list of 7 ideas to make introducing Universal Design for Learning into the classroom just a bit easier.

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You can connect video and have students answer questions along the way. This site provides interactive learning.

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Easily create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students you can integrate right into your LMS. Track students' progress with hassle-free analytics as you flip your classroom!

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This is my reflection on AT and how it can be used.

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This article gives writing suggestions for struggling writers.

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Connecting Evidence-Based Writing Strategies with Readily Available Technology Solutions (Rowland, Smith & Lowery, 2020).pdf

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A UDL based graphic organizer that helps students write papers. TBGO gives many choices on how to put together ideas and papers for students.

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This website was developed under U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs No. H327120011 and H327S180004. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the positions or policies of the Department of Education. No official endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any product, commodity, service or enterprise mentioned here is intended or should be inferred.

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Teachers pay teacher is a great resource for new teachers to get thing like free posters and lesson plans.

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World's most popular online marketplace for original educational resources with more than four million resources available for use today.

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This article gives great tips and strategies for classroom management.

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Paper airplanes fly across the room. Students race between desks. You can't get a word in, as they yell over you.

Disruptive behavior doesn't have to be this dramatic, like a movie scene you'd watch in a media literacy lesson, but poor classroom management will almost assuredly elevate your stress and burnout rates.

Unfortunately, a 2019 report indicates that teachers overwhelmingly report a lack of professional development support in improving classroom management. Despite this unideal situation, there are straightforward and effective classroom management approaches you can implement by yourself. These approaches can enhance prosocial student behavior and academic engagement, establishing an orderly learning environment.

Available as a downloadable list to keep at your desk, below are 20 research-backed classroom management strategies and techniques.

Use the ones that best appeal to your situation and teaching style.

Universal classroom management strategies for educators

These 20 classroom management techniques have shown to improve classroom behavior, build relationships for a better classroom community, and foster a positive classroom environment where student learning is the number one collective goal.

Try these effective classroom management strategies with your students to become a happier, more effective teacher.

1. Model ideal behavior

Make a habit of demonstrating behavior you want to see, as many studies show that modelling effectively teaches students how to act in different situations.

A straightforward way to model certain behaviors is holding a mock conversation with an administrator, other teacher or student helper in front of the class. Talking about a test or other relatable topic, be sure to:

Use polite language

Maintain eye contact

Keep phones in your pockets

Let one another speak uninterrupted

Raise concerns about one another's statements in a respectful manner

After, start a class discussion to list and expand upon the ideal behaviors you exemplified.

2. Let students help establish guidelines

Encourage all students to help you build classroom expectations and rules, as you'll generate more buy-in than just telling them what they're not allowed to do.

This is especially essential for new teachers. Near the start of the school year or during the first day of a semester, start a discussion by asking students what they believe should and shouldn't fly in terms of appropriate behavior.

At what points are phones okay and not okay? What are acceptable noise levels during lessons?

This may seem like you're setting yourself up for failure, but -- depending on the makeup of your class -- you may be shocked at the strictness of some proposed rules. Regardless, having a discussion should lead to mutually-understood and -respected expectations for your classroom culture.

3. Document rules
Don't let your mutually-respected guidelines go forgotten.
Similar to handing out a syllabus, print and distribute the list of rules that the class discussion generated. Then, go through the list with your students. Doing this emphasizes the fact that you respect their ideas and intend to adhere to them. And when a student breaks a rule, it'll be easy for you to point to this document.

You'll likely want to post these rules up in your classroom - if you haven't already - for occasional reference. If you're feeling creative, you can include the rule list in a student handbook with important dates, events and curriculum information, too.

4. Avoid punishing the class

Address isolated discipline problems individually instead of punishing an entire class, as the latter can hurt your relationships with students who are on-task and thereby jeopardize other classroom management efforts.

Instead, call out specific students in a friendly manner. For example:

"Do you have a question?", not "Stop talking and disrupting other students"

"Do you need help focusing?", not "Pay attention and stop fooling around while I'm talking"

This basic approach will allow you to keep a friendly disposition, while immediately acknowledging inappropriate behavior.

5. Encourage initiative

Promote growth mindset, and inject variety into your lessons, by allowing students to work ahead and deliver short presentations to share take-away points. Almost inevitably, you'll have some eager learners in your classroom. You can simply ask them if they'd like to get ahead from time-to-time.

For example, if you're reading a specific chapter in a textbook, propose that they read the following one too. When they deliver their subsequent presentations to preview the next chapter on your behalf, you may find that other students want a bit more work as well.

6. Offer praise

Praise students for jobs well done, as doing so improves academic and behavioral performance, according to a recent research review and study.

When it is sincere and references specific examples of effort or accomplishment, praise can:

Inspire the class

Improve a student's self-esteem

Reinforce rules and values you want to see

Perhaps more importantly, it encourages students to repeat positive behavior. Let's say a student exemplifies advanced problem-solving skills when tackling a math word problem. Praising his or her use of specific tactics should go a long way in ensuring he or she continues to use these tactics. Not to mention, you'll motivate other students to do the same.

7. Use non-verbal communication

Complement words with actions and visual aids to improve content delivery, helping students focus and process lessons.

Many differentiated instruction strategies and techniques are rooted in these communication methods. For example, running learning stations -- divided sections of your classroom through which students rotate -- allows you to deliver a range of non-spoken content types. These include videos, infographics and physical objects such as counting coins.

8. Hold parties

Throw an occasional classroom party to acknowledge students' hard work, motivating them to keep it up.

Even if it's just for 20 or 30 minutes, they should be happy with snacks and a selection of group games to play. Clarify that you're holding the party to reward them and they can earn future parties by demonstrating ideal behavior, collectively scoring high on assessments and more.

9. Give tangible rewards

Reward specific students at the end of each lesson, in front of the class, as another motivational and behavior-reinforcement technique.

Let's say a few students are actively listening throughout the entire lesson, answering questions and asking their own. Before the class ends, walk over to their desks to give them raffle tickets. So others can learn, state aloud what each student did to earn the tickets. On Friday, they can submit their tickets for a shot at a prize that changes each week -- from candy to being able to choose a game for the next class party.

10. Make positive letters and phone calls

Keep students happy in and out of class by pleasantly surprising their parents, making positive phone calls and sending complimentary letters home.

When the occasion arises, from academic effort or behavioral progress, letting parents know has a trickle-down effect. They'll generally congratulate their kids; their kids will likely come to class eager to earn more positive feedback. This can also entice parents to grow more invested in a child's learning, opening the door to at-home lessons. Such lessons are a mainstay element of culturally-responsive teaching.

11. Build excitement for content and lesson plans

This one works well no matter the grade level: elementary school, middle school or high school. Start lessons by previewing particularly-exciting parts, hooking student interest from the get-go.

As the bell rings and students settle, go through an agenda of the day's highlights for the whole class. These could include group tasks, engaging bits of content and anything else to pique curiosity. For example, "Throughout the day, you'll learn about:"

How to talk like you're a teacher (sentence structure)

Why you don't know anyone who's won the lottery (probability)

What all the presidents of the United States have had in common (social analysis)

The goal of this classroom management technique is to immediately interest students in your agenda and thereby dissuade misbehavior.

Ready to make learning an exciting adventure?

Use Prodigy to boost classroom engagement and excitement with two captivating learning games for math and English!

12. Offer different types of free study time

Provide a range of activities during free study time to appeal to students who struggle to process content in silence, individually.

You can do this by dividing your class into clearly-sectioned solo and team activities. In separate sections, consider:

Providing audiobooks, which can play material relevant to your lessons

Maintaining a designated quiet space for students to take notes and complete work

Creating a station for challenging group games that teach or reinforce standards-aligned skills

Allowing students to work in groups while taking notes and completing work, away from quiet zones

By running these sorts of activities, free study time will begin to benefit diverse learners. This should contribute to overall classroom engagement.

13. Write group contracts

Help student group work run smoothly and effectively by writing contracts that contain guidelines, having everyone sign.

Group contracts should be based on expectations that students have for each other, and you have for them. You can gather the class's thoughts by holding a discussion about what the ideal group member does, and how he or she acts. Once you've written the contract, encourage students to come up with consequences for violating expectations.

By having them sign a fresh version of the contract before each group task and project, you're empowering them to hold each other accountable.

14. Assign open-ended projects

Encourage students to tackle open-ended projects -- projects that don't demand a specific product -- to allow them to demonstrate knowledge in ways that inherently suit them.

This starts by giving the class a list of broad project ideas, asking each student to choose one. Be sure to provide a rubric for each project that clearly defines expectations. By both enticing and challenging students, you should notice they'll:

Work and learn at their own paces

Engage actively with appropriate content

Demonstrate knowledge as effectively as possible

With these benefits, students may actually look forward to taking on new projects.

15. Give only two scores for informal assessments

Recall a time you saw a big "F" in red ink on your work. You were probably too upset to review mistakes and feedback, and so are your students when they see the same.
So, consider avoiding standard marks on informal and formative assessments.
Instead, just state if a student did or did not meet expectations. Then, provide struggling students with a clear path to improve. For example, pair classmates who didn't meet expectations with those who did, giving them a review and practice activity. When strugglers are confident they understand key concepts, encourage them to tell you. Provide a new assessment, allowing them to prove their competency.

Classroom management strategies for individual students

16. Use EdTech that adjusts to each student

Give students who struggle to process your content opportunities to try educational technology that adapts to their needs.

There are many games and platforms that use adaptive learning principles to detect a given student's skill deficits, serving them content to help overcome them.

For example, Prodigy Math adjusts its content to help students in grades 1 to 8 address their trouble spots. It also offers feedback to help them solve specific mistakes, as they answer questions that use words, charts, pictures and numbers.

The best bit? Teaching tools are all available at no cost to educators and schools.
See the student experience below!
Educators, access at no cost

17. Interview students

Interview students who aren't academically engaged or displaying prosocial behavior to learn how to better manage them.

While running learning stations or a large-group activity, pull each student aside for a few minutes. Ask about:

What helps them focus

Who they work well with

Their favorite types of lessons

Their favorite in-class activities

Which kinds of exercises help them remember key lesson points

Note their answers to come up with activities and approaches that engage them, thereby limiting classroom disruptions.

18. Address inappropriate or off-task behavior quickly

Avoid hesitation when you must address inappropriate or off-task behavior, especially when a student breaks a documented rule.

Acting sooner than later will help ensure that negative feelings -- whether between students or you and a student -- won't fester. Failure to act can result in more poor behavior, leading to needlessly-difficult conversations.

But keep in mind: It's usually best to talk to the student in private. Research shows that punishing students in front of peers has "limited value."

19. Consider peer teaching

Use peer teaching as a classroom management strategy if you feel your top performers can help engage and educate disruptive and struggling students.

Peer teaching activities, such as pairing students together as reading buddies, can be especially beneficial for students who suffer from low confidence and poor interpersonal skills.

Authoritative research states tutors improve self-esteem and interpersonal skills by giving feedback. Tutees realize benefits because they can ask questions and receive immediate clarification. A later study of at-risk students echoes these advantages. Although you should spend time teaching peer tutors how to properly communicate with tutees, you'll likely find the benefits are worth the work.

20. Gamify personal learning plans

Motivate students on personal learning plans by gamifying those plans, as studies - such as recent research from South Korea - indicate this will continuously engage and incentivize them.

Consider gamification strategies such as:

Adjusting your scoring system -- Give experience points (XP) -- along with traditional scores -- on tests and assignments, setting a goal for the student to reach a certain amount of XP per unit. For example, if a student scores 60% on a quiz, give him or her 6,000 XP. You can also award XP for completing extra assignments, participating in class or anything else that shows effort to learn.

Using stages -- Refer to topics and units as stages. The former terms have clear connotations for you, but students may not see how they fit together. If they're gamers, they'll understand that reaching the next stage requires overcoming precursory challenges. Emphasize this by framing certain tasks as prerequisites to reach the next learning stage.

If these strategies work especially well for individual students, you should see similar success by using them as class-wide student management techniques.

Classroom management strategy FAQs

What is the best classroom management style?

According to Diana Baumrind's work, a clinical psychologist known for her research on parenting styles, some educators believe an authoritative classroom management style may the best one. This type of high control, high involvement classroom management style is characterized by strong expectations of appropriate behavior, clear understandings of why certain behaviors are acceptable and others not acceptable, and warm student-teacher relationships.

However, there is no specific approach that has been proven to be the most effective. So you may wish to review The Classroom Management Book by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong which includes a variety of solutions that can be easily implemented. Every group of students has varying needs and will likely need a unique approach to help every student bring his or her best self to the classroom and be ready-to-learn every single day.

What are the four components of classroom management?

Implementing the top four components of classroom management from the start will set you and your students up for success all year long. They are:

Classroom design - be intentional about how you set up your desk, your students' desks, bulletin board displays, devices and other aspects of your classroom. Thoughtful classroom design can help create a safe and welcoming learning environment.

Rules/discipline - to create a safe and caring school community, develop classroom rules your students understand and - hopefully - respect. While it may not be fun, be sure to communicate that breaking classroom rules will have concrete yet fair consequences.

Scheduling/organization - being on time, keeping on task and staying organized will help set up your lessons (and your students' learning) up for success.

Instructional technique - while you may not have the flexibility you'd like when it comes to content and curriculum, you should have the freedom to choose how you teach. For example, 8th grade students may prefer a lecture-style lesson with small group discussions while 3rd grade students may prefer learning math with a digital game-based learning platform. Observe how your students learn best and use the classroom management strategies and techniques to teach your lessons.

Why is classroom management so important?

When done effectively, classroom management is important for three main reasons. It:

1. Creates and sustains an orderly learning environment in the classroom

2. Improves meaningful academic learning and fosters social-emotional growth

3. Increases students' academic engagement and lowers negative classroom behavior

Final thoughts about these classroom management strategies

These class-wide and one-on-one approaches to classroom management largely work across subjects and grade levels. Implementable without admin and parent support, they should empower you to establish an orderly - yet friendly and engaging - environment.

Look forward to better teacher-to-student and student-to-student interactions as a result.

Looking for a fun way to engage and reward your students? Try Prodigy Math! Aligned with curricula for grades 1 to 8, students will practice key skills while also exploring an exciting fantasy world.

Plus, you'll get access to free teacher tools that help you differentiate math content, send assessments and collect student insights - in just a few clicks.

Educators, access at no cost

Paper airplanes fly across the room. Students race between desks. You can't get a word in, as they yell over you.

Disruptive behavior doesn't have to be this dramatic, like a movie scene you'd watch in a media literacy lesson, but poor classroom management will almost assuredly elevate your stress and burnout rates.

Unfortunately, a 2019 report indicates that teachers overwhelmingly report a lack of professional development support in improving classroom management. Despite this unideal situation, there are straightforward and effective classroom management approaches you can implement by yourself. These approaches can enhance prosocial student behavior and academic engagement, establishing an orderly learning environment.

Available as a downloadable list to keep at your desk, below are 20 research-backed classroom management strategies and techniques.

Use the ones that best appeal to your situation and teaching style.

Universal classroom management strategies for educators

These 20 classroom management techniques have shown to improve classroom behavior, build relationships for a better classroom community, and foster a positive classroom environment where student learning is the number one collective goal.

Try these effective classroom management strategies with your students to become a happier, more effective teacher.

1. Model ideal behavior

Make a habit of demonstrating behavior you want to see, as many studies show that modelling effectively teaches students how to act in different situations.

A straightforward way to model certain behaviors is holding a mock conversation with an administrator, other teacher or student helper in front of the class. Talking about a test or other relatable topic, be sure to:

Use polite language

Maintain eye contact

Keep phones in your pockets

Let one another speak uninterrupted

Raise concerns about one another's statements in a respectful manner

After, start a class discussion to list and expand upon the ideal behaviors you exemplified.

2. Let students help establish guidelines

Encourage all students to help you build classroom expectations and rules, as you'll generate more buy-in than just telling them what they're not allowed to do.

This is especially essential for new teachers. Near the start of the school year or during the first day of a semester, start a discussion by asking students what they believe should and shouldn't fly in terms of appropriate behavior.

At what points are phones okay and not okay? What are acceptable noise levels during lessons?

This may seem like you're setting yourself up for failure, but -- depending on the makeup of your class -- you may be shocked at the strictness of some proposed rules. Regardless, having a discussion should lead to mutually-understood and -respected expectations for your classroom culture.

3. Document rules
Don't let your mutually-respected guidelines go forgotten.
Similar to handing out a syllabus, print and distribute the list of rules that the class discussion generated. Then, go through the list with your students. Doing this emphasizes the fact that you respect their ideas and intend to adhere to them. And when a student breaks a rule, it'll be easy for you to point to this document.

You'll likely want to post these rules up in your classroom - if you haven't already - for occasional reference. If you're feeling creative, you can include the rule list in a student handbook with important dates, events and curriculum information, too.

4. Avoid punishing the class

Address isolated discipline problems individually instead of punishing an entire class, as the latter can hurt your relationships with students who are on-task and thereby jeopardize other classroom management efforts.

Instead, call out specific students in a friendly manner. For example:

"Do you have a question?", not "Stop talking and disrupting other students"

"Do you need help focusing?", not "Pay attention and stop fooling around while I'm talking"

This basic approach will allow you to keep a friendly disposition, while immediately acknowledging inappropriate behavior.

5. Encourage initiative

Promote growth mindset, and inject variety into your lessons, by allowing students to work ahead and deliver short presentations to share take-away points. Almost inevitably, you'll have some eager learners in your classroom. You can simply ask them if they'd like to get ahead from time-to-time.

For example, if you're reading a specific chapter in a textbook, propose that they read the following one too. When they deliver their subsequent presentations to preview the next chapter on your behalf, you may find that other students want a bit more work as well.

6. Offer praise

Praise students for jobs well done, as doing so improves academic and behavioral performance, according to a recent research review and study.

When it is sincere and references specific examples of effort or accomplishment, praise can:

Inspire the class

Improve a student's self-esteem

Reinforce rules and values you want to see

Perhaps more importantly, it encourages students to repeat positive behavior. Let's say a student exemplifies advanced problem-solving skills when tackling a math word problem. Praising his or her use of specific tactics should go a long way in ensuring he or she continues to use these tactics. Not to mention, you'll motivate other students to do the same.

7. Use non-verbal communication

Complement words with actions and visual aids to improve content delivery, helping students focus and process lessons.

Many differentiated instruction strategies and techniques are rooted in these communication methods. For example, running learning stations -- divided sections of your classroom through which students rotate -- allows you to deliver a range of non-spoken content types. These include videos, infographics and physical objects such as counting coins.

8. Hold parties

Throw an occasional classroom party to acknowledge students' hard work, motivating them to keep it up.

Even if it's just for 20 or 30 minutes, they should be happy with snacks and a selection of group games to play. Clarify that you're holding the party to reward them and they can earn future parties by demonstrating ideal behavior, collectively scoring high on assessments and more.

9. Give tangible rewards

Reward specific students at the end of each lesson, in front of the class, as another motivational and behavior-reinforcement technique.

Let's say a few students are actively listening throughout the entire lesson, answering questions and asking their own. Before the class ends, walk over to their desks to give them raffle tickets. So others can learn, state aloud what each student did to earn the tickets. On Friday, they can submit their tickets for a shot at a prize that changes each week -- from candy to being able to choose a game for the next class party.

10. Make positive letters and phone calls

Keep students happy in and out of class by pleasantly surprising their parents, making positive phone calls and sending complimentary letters home.

When the occasion arises, from academic effort or behavioral progress, letting parents know has a trickle-down effect. They'll generally congratulate their kids; their kids will likely come to class eager to earn more positive feedback. This can also entice parents to grow more invested in a child's learning, opening the door to at-home lessons. Such lessons are a mainstay element of culturally-responsive teaching.

11. Build excitement for content and lesson plans

This one works well no matter the grade level: elementary school, middle school or high school. Start lessons by previewing particularly-exciting parts, hooking student interest from the get-go.

As the bell rings and students settle, go through an agenda of the day's highlights for the whole class. These could include group tasks, engaging bits of content and anything else to pique curiosity. For example, "Throughout the day, you'll learn about:"

How to talk like you're a teacher (sentence structure)

Why you don't know anyone who's won the lottery (probability)

What all the presidents of the United States have had in common (social analysis)

The goal of this classroom management technique is to immediately interest students in your agenda and thereby dissuade misbehavior.

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12. Offer different types of free study time

Provide a range of activities during free study time to appeal to students who struggle to process content in silence, individually.

You can do this by dividing your class into clearly-sectioned solo and team activities. In separate sections, consider:

Providing audiobooks, which can play material relevant to your lessons

Maintaining a designated quiet space for students to take notes and complete work

Creating a station for challenging group games that teach or reinforce standards-aligned skills

Allowing students to work in groups while taking notes and completing work, away from quiet zones

By running these sorts of activities, free study time will begin to benefit diverse learners. This should contribute to overall classroom engagement.

13. Write group contracts

Help student group work run smoothly and effectively by writing contracts that contain guidelines, having everyone sign.

Group contracts should be based on expectations that students have for each other, and you have for them. You can gather the class's thoughts by holding a discussion about what the ideal group member does, and how he or she acts. Once you've written the contract, encourage students to come up with consequences for violating expectations.

By having them sign a fresh version of the contract before each group task and project, you're empowering them to hold each other accountable.

14. Assign open-ended projects

Encourage students to tackle open-ended projects -- projects that don't demand a specific product -- to allow them to demonstrate knowledge in ways that inherently suit them.

This starts by giving the class a list of broad project ideas, asking each student to choose one. Be sure to provide a rubric for each project that clearly defines expectations. By both enticing and challenging students, you should notice they'll:

Work and learn at their own paces

Engage actively with appropriate content

Demonstrate knowledge as effectively as possible

With these benefits, students may actually look forward to taking on new projects.

15. Give only two scores for informal assessments

Recall a time you saw a big "F" in red ink on your work. You were probably too upset to review mistakes and feedback, and so are your students when they see the same.
So, consider avoiding standard marks on informal and formative assessments.
Instead, just state if a student did or did not meet expectations. Then, provide struggling students with a clear path to improve. For example, pair classmates who didn't meet expectations with those who did, giving them a review and practice activity. When strugglers are confident they understand key concepts, encourage them to tell you. Provide a new assessment, allowing them to prove their competency.

Classroom management strategies for individual students

16. Use EdTech that adjusts to each student

Give students who struggle to process your content opportunities to try educational technology that adapts to their needs.

There are many games and platforms that use adaptive learning principles to detect a given student's skill deficits, serving them content to help overcome them.

For example, Prodigy Math adjusts its content to help students in grades 1 to 8 address their trouble spots. It also offers feedback to help them solve specific mistakes, as they answer questions that use words, charts, pictures and numbers.

The best bit? Teaching tools are all available at no cost to educators and schools.
See the student experience below!
Educators, access at no cost

17. Interview students

Interview students who aren't academically engaged or displaying prosocial behavior to learn how to better manage them.

While running learning stations or a large-group activity, pull each student aside for a few minutes. Ask about:

What helps them focus

Who they work well with

Their favorite types of lessons

Their favorite in-class activities

Which kinds of exercises help them remember key lesson points

Note their answers to come up with activities and approaches that engage them, thereby limiting classroom disruptions.

18. Address inappropriate or off-task behavior quickly

Avoid hesitation when you must address inappropriate or off-task behavior, especially when a student breaks a documented rule.

Acting sooner than later will help ensure that negative feelings -- whether between students or you and a student -- won't fester. Failure to act can result in more poor behavior, leading to needlessly-difficult conversations.

But keep in mind: It's usually best to talk to the student in private. Research shows that punishing students in front of peers has "limited value."

19. Consider peer teaching

Use peer teaching as a classroom management strategy if you feel your top performers can help engage and educate disruptive and struggling students.

Peer teaching activities, such as pairing students together as reading buddies, can be especially beneficial for students who suffer from low confidence and poor interpersonal skills.

Authoritative research states tutors improve self-esteem and interpersonal skills by giving feedback. Tutees realize benefits because they can ask questions and receive immediate clarification. A later study of at-risk students echoes these advantages. Although you should spend time teaching peer tutors how to properly communicate with tutees, you'll likely find the benefits are worth the work.

20. Gamify personal learning plans

Motivate students on personal learning plans by gamifying those plans, as studies - such as recent research from South Korea - indicate this will continuously engage and incentivize them.

Consider gamification strategies such as:

Adjusting your scoring system -- Give experience points (XP) -- along with traditional scores -- on tests and assignments, setting a goal for the student to reach a certain amount of XP per unit. For example, if a student scores 60% on a quiz, give him or her 6,000 XP. You can also award XP for completing extra assignments, participating in class or anything else that shows effort to learn.

Using stages -- Refer to topics and units as stages. The former terms have clear connotations for you, but students may not see how they fit together. If they're gamers, they'll understand that reaching the next stage requires overcoming precursory challenges. Emphasize this by framing certain tasks as prerequisites to reach the next learning stage.

If these strategies work especially well for individual students, you should see similar success by using them as class-wide student management techniques.

Classroom management strategy FAQs

What is the best classroom management style?

According to Diana Baumrind's work, a clinical psychologist known for her research on parenting styles, some educators believe an authoritative classroom management style may the best one. This type of high control, high involvement classroom management style is characterized by strong expectations of appropriate behavior, clear understandings of why certain behaviors are acceptable and others not acceptable, and warm student-teacher relationships.

However, there is no specific approach that has been proven to be the most effective. So you may wish to review The Classroom Management Book by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong which includes a variety of solutions that can be easily implemented. Every group of students has varying needs and will likely need a unique approach to help every student bring his or her best self to the classroom and be ready-to-learn every single day.

What are the four components of classroom management?

Implementing the top four components of classroom management from the start will set you and your students up for success all year long. They are:

Classroom design - be intentional about how you set up your desk, your students' desks, bulletin board displays, devices and other aspects of your classroom. Thoughtful classroom design can help create a safe and welcoming learning environment.

Rules/discipline - to create a safe and caring school community, develop classroom rules your students understand and - hopefully - respect. While it may not be fun, be sure to communicate that breaking classroom rules will have concrete yet fair consequences.

Scheduling/organization - being on time, keeping on task and staying organized will help set up your lessons (and your students' learning) up for success.

Instructional technique - while you may not have the flexibility you'd like when it comes to content and curriculum, you should have the freedom to choose how you teach. For example, 8th grade students may prefer a lecture-style lesson with small group discussions while 3rd grade students may prefer learning math with a digital game-based learning platform. Observe how your students learn best and use the classroom management strategies and techniques to teach your lessons.

Why is classroom management so important?

When done effectively, classroom management is important for three main reasons. It:

1. Creates and sustains an orderly learning environment in the classroom

2. Improves meaningful academic learning and fosters social-emotional growth

3. Increases students' academic engagement and lowers negative classroom behavior

Final thoughts about these classroom management strategies

These class-wide and one-on-one approaches to classroom management largely work across subjects and grade levels. Implementable without admin and parent support, they should empower you to establish an orderly - yet friendly and engaging - environment.

Look forward to better teacher-to-student and student-to-student interactions as a result.

Looking for a fun way to engage and reward your students? Try Prodigy Math! Aligned with curricula for grades 1 to 8, students will practice key skills while also exploring an exciting fantasy world.

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20 Classroom Management Strategies and Techniques [+ Downloadable List]

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Paper airplanes fly across the room. Students race between desks. You can't get a word in, as they yell over you. Disruptive behavior doesn't have to be this dramatic, like a movie scene you'd watch in a media literacy lesson, but poor classroom management will almost assuredly elevate your stress and burnout rates.