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In today’s episode, I wanna talk about supporting teachers with classroom management. Stay tuned.

Welcome to The Principal’s Handbook, your go-to resource for principals looking to revamp their leadership approach and prioritize self-care.
I’m Barb Flowers, a certified life coach with eight years of experience as an elementary principal. Tune in each week as we delve into strategies for boosting mental resilience, managing time effectively, and nurturing overall wellness.

From tackling daily challenges to maintaining a healthy work-life balance, we’ll navigate the complexities of school leadership together. Join me in fostering your sense of purpose as a principal and reigniting your passion for the job. Welcome to a podcast where your wellbeing is the top priority.

Why This Topic Matters

Welcome back to the podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about supporting teachers with classroom management. I’m excited to talk about this topic as we get ready for back-to-school season because we know teachers are [00:01:00] starting to think about classroom management—or at least, I hope they are—and how they’re setting things up for their students.

Classroom management is truly the foundation for effective teaching and learning. It also impacts our time as principals.

I created The Principal’s Behavior Blueprint, which you can download in the show notes. It’s a free guide to help principals navigate behavior issues and reduce discipline problems in the building so you have more time. I think it has great tips. It’s a solid guide.

However, one thing I think we need to address—if it’s a problem in your building—is if all of the behaviors are happening in the classroom and constantly being sent to the office. That’s a problem. You really need teachers with strong classroom management, because the stronger they are, the fewer referrals you’re going to get.

So I want to talk about how we support teachers with classroom management. We’ll focus on routines and expectations, but I also want to dive into some other areas that don’t always get discussed, like teacher presence, confidence, and engagement strategies with students.

Getting Back to the Basics

I want to start by talking about the importance of getting back to basics with teachers. Teachers get overwhelmed—they learn so many new things and often lose sight of how important the basic things we’ve learned in education are.

We’re talking about solid routines and clear expectations.

I laugh because on TikTok—follow me there at @the8to4principal—someone commented, “This isn’t new information.” And I think that’s so interesting. We always expect something new, but there’s so much value in just going back to basics.

We don’t always have to be doing new, creative things. Social media is great for ideas, but sometimes teachers lose sight of fundamentals. At the end of the day, it comes back to routines, expectations, and building relationships. Those basics are what create functional classrooms.

That’s why it’s important to have conversations with teachers about returning to the basics, and especially to make sure new teachers even understand them. You’ll find that out when you start getting into classrooms and doing observations.

The Missing Pieces: Presence and Confidence

Something I think is often missing in classroom management conversations is teacher presence and confidence.

When I think about teacher presence, I think about someone who owns the classroom physically and emotionally. It’s how they look, how they act, their facial expressions—it’s everything. Presence can be hard to define.

In my course The Classroom Management Blueprint, I even talk about dress. It’s not about being the most professional—teachers dress all kinds of ways now—but are your clothes matching, wrinkle-free? Do you look like you didn’t just roll out of bed? That matters.

Are you standing there with the confidence that you’re the leader in the classroom? Because that gives you a physical presence and makes you feel emotionally in control.

As a principal, you can probably think of teachers in your building who have that presence. I’ve worked with many who did. It makes a huge difference. A lot of new teachers don’t have it yet, and that’s part of why they struggle. They lack the confidence. They don’t want to feel like they’re nagging kids. I completely remember having those thoughts myself.

But confidence fuels consistency. It helps teachers follow through on expectations and keeps them calm as the classroom leader. It’s something we need to address as principals—have conversations about developing presence and confidence alongside routines. That’s not in teacher evaluations. It’s not in the Danielson rubric or in Ohio’s OTES system. But it could make a huge difference.

Five Common Classroom Management Challenges

So I want to walk through five common challenges I’ve seen with classroom management. You can probably relate to these as a school leader.

1. Teachers Not Seeing Themselves as Classroom Leaders

You’ve probably heard teachers say, “I could never do your job, it’s so hard.” But really, teaching is a mini version of being a principal. They’re the leader of that classroom. They’re dealing with parents and behaviors.

We want to shift teachers’ mindsets so they see themselves as leaders. That empowers them. Without that, there’s hesitation to take charge, which leads to unclear boundaries and looks like a lack of confidence.

Use language that reminds them: You are the leader of your classroom.
Your job is to set up this classroom environment, build community, and lead. Use that vocabulary over and over to reinforce it.

I also talk in my course about what I call the T cycle—your thoughts create your emotions, which create your actions. If teachers think they’re not leaders, it creates self-doubt, which affects their actions. Changing that thought can change everything.

2. Confusing Connection with Friendship

Some teachers confuse connecting with students for being friends. I’ve even heard teachers talk about students as their BFFs. That’s a problem. Blurred boundaries mean trying to be a friend instead of the consistent adult kids need.

Students don’t need teachers to be their friends. They need a consistent adult they can trust. That’s a role friends can’t fill. It’s important to have these conversations with teachers so they stay in that lane.

3. Inconsistency Rooted in Self-Doubt

This is something I did as a new teacher. Those thoughts in your head—I don’t want to be too strict, I want kids to know I care—create self-doubt. That causes inconsistency in enforcing rules.

I see this a lot with voice levels. Teachers at the front will start talking over students instead of waiting for everyone to be quiet. They’re not consistent.

I always say boundaries benefit everyone. Expectations benefit learning. Teachers have to feel confident enforcing them.

Also, as a principal, remember your own consistency. I once didn’t care about students’ hoods or hats. My superintendent told me, “You can’t pick what you enforce.” That stuck with me. If it’s in the code of conduct, we have to be consistent, or it undermines us later when we need to enforce something more serious. Teachers need to understand that too.

4. Lack of Developed Authority Presence

I touched on this earlier. It’s that teacher voice, posture, clear communication. If teachers talk too softly (not as a strategy, but from insecurity), kids notice.

Think of teachers who vary their voice, get excited, or have dramatic expressions. I had a math teacher who would suddenly jump up with excitement—he had authority and engaged kids.

Start noticing these traits in your building. Then have newer teachers observe those with strong presence.

5. Forgetting Engagement Strategies

Sometimes teachers are so focused on content that they forget to keep kids engaged. That’s when misbehavior happens. And with so much technology now, all our attention spans are shorter.

We need to talk with teachers about engagement. If they’re lecturing for seven minutes and losing kids, they need to change it up. Maybe it’s think-pair-share or turn-and-talk.

Also look at whether the content is too hard. Some kids act out in inclusion classrooms because they’re overwhelmed and it’s not at the right level. That’s something else to watch.

Supporting Teachers with These Challenges

So go through these five challenges. See what’s showing up in your building. These are great topics for beginning-of-year conversations.

Ways I’ve supported teachers:

• Creating presentations on PBIS and expectations.

• Sending teachers—yes, even 20-year veterans—to PBIS trainings. Many loved it because it was structured and went back to basics.

• Running focus groups with teachers who needed more classroom management help.

• Using Harry Wong’s Effective Schools for a refresher. (Yes, it’s old, with teachers in suits, but great for routines.)

• Doing professional growth plans for teachers whose classrooms were out of control—meeting weekly or biweekly, with actions in between and observations.

I also have The Classroom Management Blueprint and a companion guide just for principals, to help with coaching conversations—even with teachers who are resistant.

In the companion guide, I talk about going through your building’s behavior matrix, like the one in my free Principal’s Discipline Blueprint. Do that not just with staff, but with individual teachers who send every issue to the office. Run scenarios, model them, and practice.

Wrapping Up

As you start the school year, identify teachers who might need support with classroom management. Think about how you’ll coach them.

I’ll link The Classroom Management Blueprint and the companion guide in the show notes.

At the end of the day, how are you supporting teachers? Are you assuming they remember the basics? Or are you revisiting them and having real conversations?

If you love this show, scroll down in your Apple app and leave a review—that’s how others find it.

And keep in mind: you have the power to shape your life according to the mindset you choose. That goes back to our T cycle.

I hope you have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next time.

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