Herding Cats in the Classroom: Tackling the Tumult with Tactics and Tenacity

First, let’s address the elephant in the room: kids are maniacs. The young ones are adorable, the teens are budding adults, and all kids are the future of our society, but they are also bundles of chaos. And, if you think corralling these young minds is as easy as saying “please” and “thank you” or introducing a behaviour curriculum (see my last post), you’re in for a treat (and by treat, I mean a wake-up call involving a flying spitball or in some cases being punched!).

So this post, leading on from my last, is as much for the future (or current) rulers of the mini-universe known as “the classroom” as it is for the policymakers. Let’s look at this from a few angles where common sense and rational thought lead the way rather than conjecture and euphoric fantasyland ideations. The challenge of behaviour and classroom management isn’t just about keeping kids quiet; it’s about creating an environment conducive to learning, respect, and personal growth. It’s about understanding the psychology of young minds and applying that knowledge with the precision of a surgeon (or a lion tamer, depending on the day).

The foundation of any successful strategy is respect. And no, I’m not just talking about students respecting you (although that’s crucial). It’s equally vital for you, the educator, to respect your students. This isn’t a dictatorship; it’s a classroom. Your role isn’t to command; it’s to inspire, guide, and sometimes negotiate like you’re brokering a peace treaty. This is not the 1950s, where knowledge dissemination from one generation to the next is the purpose and goal of education, but rather an intricate dance where teaching is not the determinant of success but rather how well, or otherwise, the student learns and performs.

One popular method for maintaining organisational control and encouraging positive behaviour is using incentives. Think of it as behavioural economics for the juice-box crowd. Positive reinforcement, whether through praise, privileges, or the coveted ‘gold star’, can motivate students to follow the rules and engage in learning. But beware of the pitfalls of extrinsic motivation – you don’t want your students to become mercenaries, only behaving for the reward. Some will say that teachers should eliminate the use of extrinsic rewards in favour of intrinsic motivation, which I completely agree with in theory, but this brings us back into the euphoric fantasyland. No matter how much we try to reinforce the notion that kids should be intrinsically motivated to learn, human nature says otherwise: would you keep going to work if they stopped paying you?

On the flip side, there’s the consequence system, the yang to the incentive’s yin. This isn’t about doling out punishment like an angry deity, as many in the PBIS camp would have you believe; it’s about teaching cause and effect, choices, and consequences. It’s about helping students understand that their actions have impacts, not just because you say so, but because that’s how the world works. Remember, the goal is not to break spirits but to build understanding and self-discipline. Having rules and consequences is a part of life, not to be shunned or pushed aside in the ‘everyone gets a trophy’ progressive mentality that has seen grades disappear and competition frowned upon in our schools. ‘Fairness’ does not mean we are all the same, and equity doesn’t mean that we should have different standards for different students. Instead, it’s about recognising that while the race might be the same, not everyone starts at the same starting line. True fairness in the classroom means equipping each student with the tools to succeed while maintaining a consistent finish line. It’s about being responsive, not just equal, and ensuring discipline is more about guiding than punishing. So yes, let’s have rules and consequences, but let’s also have understanding and individualised strategies that lead to a collective rise in learning and attitude towards education, not a complacent middle ground.

A little more on fairness and equity – it’s non-negotiable. Consistency in how you apply rules and consequences is critical. Students who feel that the system is arbitrary will disengage faster than you can say “detention.” Fairness and equity also mean understanding and accommodating individual needs. Not all students are the same; what works for one may not work for another. Teachers must be like a chess master, always thinking several moves ahead and adapting their strategy to what is in front of them, which is why it is so important not to standardise approaches. Classroom management and encouraging positive behaviour towards learning is contextual to the school, class, and students.

Of course, no discussion of classroom management would be complete without mentioning the dreaded “D” word – discipline. But here’s a radical idea: what if we reframe discipline not as punishment but as guidance? Instead of a tool to instil fear, it becomes a means to foster understanding and self-regulation. Instead of the end of a conversation, it’s the beginning of a dialogue. And within that dialogue, we remove the even more dreaded “C” word – control. In far too many conversations and textbooks, you’ll see something about controlling the class or an expectation that a teacher controls their students. The thing about behaviour is that it is an internal process, and one cannot control someone else’s behaviour; we can only control our own. The semantics of this is influential when talking to children or adolescents – they control their behaviour; how they act and react is a function of their own self-discipline under their control and their control only.

Finally, let’s talk about you, the educator.  Whether you are still studying, just starting out or have ten or even twenty years under your belt, managing a classroom is as much about managing yourself as managing your students. It requires patience, creativity, resilience, and a sense of humour. You’ll need to be a leader, a mediator, a psychologist, and sometimes, a stand-up comedian. It’s a tough gig, but remember, you’re not just teaching math or reading; you’re shaping the future, one spitball-dodging day at a time. And your success is not measured on how well you ‘teach’ but on how well your students learn and grow. We all have bad days when things don’t go to plan. Getting to know and understand your students helps immensely, and gaining and employing mutual respect will go a long way to forming relationships that encourage a positive learning environment conducive to learning, but none of these is a panacea. Parents know their children better than anyone else, but a quick Tik-Tok or Reels scroll will show how bad they are at taming their little terrors. So, go easy on yourself. The people who know your students best can’t reach them all the time or rein in their behaviour, so trying to do it with 20 or 30 different maniacs is, to use my simile from the last post – like trying to herd cats while riding a unicycle – an intricate dance that requires grace, patience, empathy, confidence and caring.

Taming the classroom is no small feat. There is a reason it is the most widely cited problem that beginning teachers face, and I argue that all teachers deal with it. While it requires a blend of academic knowledge, psychological insight, and a healthy dose of humour, it’s about creating an environment where respect is mutual, learning is exciting, and humility is paramount.  So, to all you brave educators out there, hats off to you. May your reflexes be quick, your coffee strong, and your classrooms (relatively) tame.