I think every teacher has been in a situation where they wanted to run from their own classroom. Perhaps, if you are reading this, you want to currently bolt. Leave the keys on the desk. Grab your cold coffee and dreams of teacher inspiration and speed out of the parking lot. Tire tracks left behind you. This would be more than easy to do on many days throughout the school year.

But, the thing is you really, really care.

The fact that you care so much is the perfect starting point.

Teacher burnout is evident and almost inevitable, and sometimes we have particular classes that are more challenging than others. In my time in education, the repeated conversation of “what hour” was your rough hour or what grouping of students seemed to present the most challenges, both academically and behaviorally. This one class or grouping can be a contributing factor for teacher burnout but also presents a challenge because there is a mental block to tackle when working with a hard group day in and day out. This post has 5 steps you can take to reset any challenging class or group of students. It is meant to serve as a place of inspiration and hope because sometimes all we need to do is figure out some sort of a game plan to come back and try again tomorrow.

I was recently looking through Jill Jackson’s book “How to Coach Teachers to Teach (Almost) Anything: A Totally Practical Guide to Instructional Coaching” and I found myself nodding when she was talking about the difference between classroom management and behavior management. While some love talking about these topics, some stray away because of a variety of reasons: Fear of being wrong, feeling like “we are already doing everything,” or being downright frustrated with behaviors in the classroom. On the blog, I talk about all things reading and writing all the time, but the truth is, unless you have classroom management in place, the teaching of content cannot occur. This post provides a launching pad for brainstorming different areas of classroom management. The effort that goes into your routines and procedures really pays off, and then, you can focus on the skills that are attached to behavior management in your classroom.

One of the biggest pieces of advice that I give to new teachers is to always be prepared. Not just the regular "I have got a plan prepared," but the "I have a plan and 2 backup plans just in case this whole thing goes to the birds" type of prepared. The term "systems" always has sounded fancy to me, but the instructional routines, expectations, and actual structures that are in place in any classroom dictate the quality of the learning environment and level of success regarding classroom management. Simply, the routines of how we do business in the day-to-day in my classroom impacts learning on all levels. I have a type of organized process for many things...and then for some things I don't. After coming to terms with the paper problem, I wanted to start by reviewing the systems I have in place so that I can take on the school year in the fall ready to give high-quality feedback in a high quantity without going completely insane.