I often hear a lot of teachers talking about their kids like:
Oh, my kids were so bad today!
Or
We had the worst day, I was just disciplining all day long.
But often what they are REALLY talking about is redirecting kids, and that’s just a general part of classroom management!
It does not mean things are going wrong. It means you are working with kids.
Redirecting kids is saying things like:
- You know what, instead of doing this, I’d like you to do this right now
- Guys, I’m going to wait for everybody to have their eyes on me before I give the next direction
Those are examples of good, solid classroom management practices!
Disciplining kids is when kids have not followed the management stuff and you have to give them consequences.
So today, this week, as you are teaching, what I want you to think about is:
What am I doing to redirect kids without having to lead to full-blown discipline?
For more help and tips on how to better your teaching practice, please check out our books. Books can be found at amazon.com or at our store.