Classroom Management

Every teacher knows the benefits of effective classroom management strategies. A plethora of  educational research has been written on the topic, from general overviews to detailed reports to summary blogs. Fundamentally, anything that creates a positive classroom environment and facilitates student learning comes under the umbrella of classroom management. There is a huge range of classroom management strategies to consider at the start of a new school year, particularly if you have just joined a new school or are a new teacher at the start of your educational journey. The resources on this page will help you to embed classroom management strategies within your teaching practice from day one. What’s more, all of these resources are standards-aligned and will introduce students to the necessity to learn about, and combat, our planet’s ongoing climate crisis. 

K-2 Back to School Bundle

Grade: K, 1st, 2nd

Subjects: Science, English Language Arts, Art, Social-Emotional Learning

Resource Type: Presentation Slides, Activity, Worksheet, Artwork

One of the biggest challenges at the start of a new school year, particularly for teachers of younger elementary school students, is implementing an effective classroom structure. SubjectToClimate’s K-2 Back to School Bundle provides a range of resources to help teachers create a positive and structured classroom environment from day one. This easy-to-use Google Slides resource contains printable coloring sheets, getting-to-know-you resources, and customizable displays for teachers to specify the timings of their school day.

Using this resource to provide structure to the classroom environment and school day will be hugely beneficial to teachers, particularly in relation to the vital skill of managing effective transitions between activities. For those students who might take a little bit longer to switch from “summer vacation brain” to back-to-school mode, or indeed those students who are setting foot in a classroom for the very first time, a clear classroom structure will provide a sense of security, predictability, and belonging. Plus, younger students will love Captain Climate, SubjectToClimate’s friendly mascot!

Some teachers might want to print out and personalize the classroom displays before the start of the school year so that students walk into a well-structured and organized classroom environment from the very first day of school. Other teachers, particularly those with a returning class of students, might want to involve students in the process of creating these displays. Teachers could also ask for suggestions from students about how to manage transitions between activities. Could there be a special song that students sing during their transition between the reading corner and their math desks? Or a nonverbal cue that the teacher could give to students to signal the start of lunch break? Involving students, even the youngest ones, in the creation of their own classroom routines and transitions will engender a feeling of ownership and will establish positive expectations relating to classroom management for the rest of the school year.  

3-5 Back to School Bundle

Grade: 3rd, 4th, 5th

Subjects: Science, Social Studies, English Language Arts, Art, Social-Emotional Learning

Resource Type: Presentation Slides, Activity, Worksheet, Artwork

Building positive relationships with students is one of the most important tools in any teacher’s classroom management toolbox. But, all too often, teachers assume that these relationships will develop naturally over time. While this can be the case, allocating specific time at the start of the school year to building relationships with students should be a key component of any teacher’s classroom management plan. This SubjectToClimate Back to School Bundle for Grades 3-5 provides several activities that can be used by teachers to facilitate relationship building. These include useful printable About Me worksheets as well as a Goal Setting section based on SMART targets. 

Students learn best when they feel valued and understood by their teacher. Teachers will love how this Back to School Bundle provides differentiated About Me and Goal Setting worksheets, allowing students at different levels of attainment to access the resources. Quickly building teacher-student relationships can be one of the most effective classroom management strategies of them all!

Before asking students to complete the About Me worksheet, teachers could model the completion of this sheet on a smartboard or visualizer. This has the double benefit of introducing the teacher to the students, as well as giving a scaffolded approach to completion of the worksheet for those students who might need a bit of extra help. Additionally, one great idea for the Goal Setting worksheet is to ask students to complete two SMART targets: one easily-attainable target for the first day of school, and one more challenging target for the first week or semester. At the end of the first day, students will have an immediate sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, giving them a really positive platform from which to build on for the rest of the school year. Students’ longer-term targets could even be related to sustainability or combating climate change, starting their climate change education from the very first day of school.

6-8 Back to School Bundle

Grade: 6th, 7th, 8th

Subjects: Science, Social Studies, English Language Arts, Art, Social-Emotional Learning

Resource Type: Presentation Slides, Activity, Artwork

One classroom management challenge for middle school teachers can be the difficulty of managing the different learning needs of students. This can be particularly apparent in the first few weeks of school when teachers are still getting to know their classes. Luckily, the Grades 6 to 8 Back to School Bundle created by SubjectToClimate can help! This Google Slides presentation contains a whole host of useful activities, including year planners and goal-setting resources. Between you and me, the best of the bunch are the Bell Ringers.

One great thing about the Bell Ringers included in this Back to School Bundle is that they can facilitate classroom management by allowing teachers to actively engage students in tangible ways. At the start of each class period, teachers can display one of the Bell Ringer questions on the board and ask all students to respond to the prompt. If any students finish early or need an extension task, they can move on to one of the Goal Setting worksheets. After all, ensuring pre-planned differentiation within tasks is a vital part of effective classroom management.

Alongside displaying each lesson’s Bell Ringer question, teachers could offer students a “menu” of ways to respond: discuss the question with your partner, write the answer on a Post-It, submit your thoughts on a Google Form, walk up to the board and add your thoughts to a mind map… anything goes! This flexibility will allow students to respond to the prompt question in the way that best suits their own learning needs. Moreover, teachers can consider the sequence of Bell Ringer questions that best suits their subject. A social studies teacher, for example, could begin the first lesson in the sequence by giving students a question that asks them to reflect on their own social and emotional well-being, such as the Bell Ringer on Slide 17. In the next lesson, the teacher could then ask students to build on the previous lesson’s work by focusing on their emotions specifically relating to nature, as seen on Slide 15. This could then lead to a more detailed discussion of emotions relating to climate change (and even perhaps could link to other SubjectToClimate resources about coping with climate anxiety). In this way, teachers can implement positive classroom management strategies by engaging all students in a task, no matter their learning style.

9-12 Back to School Bundle

Grade: 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

Subjects: Science, Social Studies, English Language Arts, Art, Social-Emotional Learning

Resource Type: Presentation Slides, Artwork, Activity 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that high school students are in many ways the polar opposites of their elementary and middle school counterparts. A lesser-known fact, however, is that in several respects there is barely any difference at all between a moody teenager and a timid Kindergartener: both benefit from reliable routines. SubjectToClimate’s Back to School Bundle for Grades 9 to 12 will help high school teachers with their classroom management by facilitating the creation of clear routines. Whether this is through utilizing the planning pages, Bell Ringer questions, or Goal Setting sheets, teachers will appreciate this valuable addition to their classroom management plan at the start of the school year.

Many teachers include a “Do Now” or starter task at the beginning of each of their lessons. The great thing about this resource is that it gives teachers easily accessible starter tasks that will facilitate the development of a classroom routine but, crucially, using tasks that are meaningful to students.

One way that high school teachers might use this Back to School Bundle to aid the development of reliable routines, and therefore to improve classroom management, is to allocate a set period of time at the beginning or end of each class for students to respond to the Bell Ringer questions. Another idea is for students to be given a set amount of time in every lesson over the first week or two of school – perhaps a ten-minute “brain break” session in the middle of a longer teaching period – to write the Letter to Myself on Slide 58. Students could use this time to reflect on their feelings towards the class, perhaps even building towards a student voice activity in which students give feedback to the teacher after the first two weeks of learning.

Growth Mindset Posters

Grade: K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

Subjects: Science, Social Studies, English Language Arts, Art, Social-Emotional Learning

Resource Type: Artwork, Presentation Slides

The great thing about some effective classroom management strategies is that they do not have to be entirely driven by teachers, but instead can be intrinsically engendered within students. One such strategy is the development of a growth mindset. Many teachers will be familiar with the pioneering work of Carol Dweck, who developed and codified the idea of a growth mindset. Teachers might be less certain about how to create a classroom atmosphere that is conducive to the creation of this mindset in students. These Growth Mindset Posters, created by SubjectToClimate, are a great place to start. 

As well as providing a visually stimulating classroom display, these posters provide students with real-world examples of people from diverse backgrounds who are using their own personal growth mindset to help them combat our planet’s climate crisis. Students and teachers will feel inspired by the words of well-known climate heroes like Greta Thunberg and Jane Goodall and will have their curiosity sparked by activists such as Peter Kalmus and Francia Márquez.

A teacher’s classroom management plan does not have to be something that is entirely created by the teacher; students can contribute too! These posters could provide the basis for a discussion about the norms of behavior or language within a classroom, particularly when discussing challenging topics. Or, students could choose one of the figures from these posters and demonstrate their own growth mindset by independently researching that person’s achievements. 

Living Schoolyard Activity Guide

Grade: K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

Subjects: Science, Social Studies, Biology, Earth and Space Sciences, English Language Arts, Art, Health, Social-Emotional Learning, Engineering

Resource Type: Digital Text, Lesson Plan, Activity - Outdoors, Game, Artwork, Project, Experiment

Every teacher has them: students who, no matter the classroom management strategies that a teacher employs, still struggle in a classroom environment. What if there was a solution… leave the classroom! In the words of Bjorge et al (2017), “Using the outdoor setting for different learning experiences can impact greatly those students who struggle in the classroom setting. It can increase student motivation to learn and build confidence, which in turn, can improve student behavior.” This Living Schoolyard Activity Guide, created by Green Schoolyards America, includes tons of ideas and resources to facilitate outdoor learning; a strategy that will lead to improved behavior when students return indoors!

This truly inspirational resource contains a multitude of ways in which teachers can engage students with outdoor learning. There is a full coverage of age groups and subjects that is genuinely impossible to summarize here. Take five minutes to explore this easy-to-navigate resource for yourself; you are guaranteed to find an activity suitable for your educational context!

For those teachers who are keen on a jumping-off point, here are some recommendations for outdoor activities that will benefit any teacher’s overall classroom management plan.

• Elementary school teachers could start with the wonderful activity on Page 72, “The Tree Is Like Me”, to encourage an appreciation of nature in their students.
• Middle school Science teachers could begin a unit of study on the environment by getting students to complete the enjoyable “How Many Honey Bees” task on Page 95.
• High school STEM students will gain a huge amount of educational benefit from the “Passive Quadrat Sampling” task on Page 132, and the benefits to the overall classroom management of the lesson will speak for themselves.

Solving Problems

Grade: 6th, 7th, 8th

Subjects: Social Studies, Career Readiness, Life Literacies, and Key Skills

Resource Type: Lesson Plan

Explicitly setting out positive learner behaviors is one of the most effective classroom management strategies that a teacher can implement. Giving students the space to engage metacognitively with their own learning behaviors is incredibly important and will lead to better self-regulation from students, culminating in improved learning. While this lesson, created by SubjectToClimate, is geared towards a middle school social studies lesson, aspects of the lesson can be applied to encourage positive learner behaviors in students of all ages. In this three-part lesson, supported by a full Google Slides presentation, students first play the Knot Game and reflect on their collective ability to solve the problem at hand. They then investigate the hole in the ozone layer, identify the solutions, and brainstorm general strategies that are effective for solving problems. Finally, students create a problem-solving guide to address a climate change-related problem.

Teachers will love this resource because it provides a multitude of opportunities for students to reflect on the positive learner behaviors that they are demonstrating. How well are they working with their classmates to solve the Knot Game? Which research strategies work best for them?

Teachers of all subjects and grade levels can use this resource, particularly the first ten slides, to establish positive learner behaviors from the very start of the school year, leading to more effective classroom management overall. The Knot Game can be modified to suit the age and engagement level of students:

• Younger students could complete a more sedentary version of the task, such as working together to untangle string. 
• Older students who might not deign to participate in a physical task, the teacher could set a more intellectual task like a riddle to be solved in groups.

Every school, every teacher, and every educational context is different. The one similarity is that all of us want to encourage our students to have a positive learning experience in our classrooms. Effective classroom management strategies are a vital piece of that particular puzzle. Using these resources from SubjectToClimate will benefit any teacher’s classroom management plan and will encourage students to do their part to combat climate change.

About the Author

Originally from Florida, Tim Mac attended school and university in the UK. After training as an English teacher, he taught in Portsmouth, England, and in a British school in Bahrain for six years. He has recently moved to Sligo, Ireland, where he is busy getting reacquainted with the concept of rain.