PILLAR TALK: The Goal Isn’t “Classroom Management” but Self-Management

Thank you for leaning in and listening to episode 18 of CALM Conversations about Learning!The M in CALM is for Management and I will examine the meaning of the word within the context of teaching and learning. Classroom Management is an important part of teaching and learning. It is both practical in the sense that teachers have a responsibility to oversee the activities, behaviors, pacing, productivity and general flow of the environment. There are a lot of considerations to make when managing a classroom, ranging from ensuring students’ safety and well-being to determining student seating arrangement for optimal learning. But often, classroom management is approached from a point of control and consequences with no long-term goal for building healthy relationships with students and providing opportunities for students to practice self-management.Which makes me wonder: What is the long game? Are we educating young people so that they will grow up to become adults who respond best to being managed because they have not had opportunities to practice managing themselves? Conversation Points: Even though classroom management addresses concerns from student seating arrangement to student behavior, it requires teachers to try to “control the weather,” thus placing them in charge of managing all the energy in the classroom environment. Classroom management does not inform college-readiness or LIFE-readiness if it doesn’t provide students with opportunities to practice self-management. Classroom rules tend to be arbitrary, ambiguous and absolute.Classroom norms promote autonomy, accountability and audacity.Rules and norms must be distinguished; their meanings are the difference between punishment and consequences.Encouraging self-management represent the #relationshipgoals of the classroom.Visionary Homework: Explore these questions in a journal write: What does “management” mean to you?Who are you managing currently? Who’s managing you? What does it feel like to manage or be managed? What is the long game for managing your child or students’ learning?The Proof:The Restorative Practices Handbook for Teachers,Disciplinarians and Administrators by Bob Costello, Joshua Wachtel and Ted WachtelPlease and Thank You: Follow! Subscribe! Rate! Review! Editing by Devonne Williams Music by Cipriana Bethea