It’s no secret that it’s crucial for teachers to build positive relationships with their students. In my experience, these strong connections are especially important in middle school, where classroom management can be a tricky art (and science!) to master! Over the years, I’ve developed a few tricks to support more effective middle school classroom management. Whether you’re a brand new teacher, or looking to build connections with a particularly “tricky” group, here are some of my tried-and-tested tips to support middle school classroom management.

Get To Know Your Students

The saying “connection before content” definitely applies to teaching middle school students. At the beginning of a new school year, I like to spend some time getting to know a new group of students. Low-pressure learning activities that invite students to share a bit about themselves can help them build connections with their teacher – and with each other, too!

One of my favorite learning tasks for the beginning of the year is Soundtrack of My Life. In this engaging task, students create a ten-track playlist, featuring songs that they feel a connection to, or that represent their personality in some way. Music can provide a great point of connection for middle school students, and this activity can provide quite a lot of insight into your class! Alternatively, you could put a back-to-school spin on this activity by asking students to create a soundtrack of their summer vacation!

I also find that it’s useful to come back to activities that build connection throughout the year. Kicking off the first lesson with a collaborative game or teambuilding activity after a long break can be a great way to reconnect with your students before you dive back into learning together.

Structure and Routine

In my experience, middle school classroom management boils down to two key factors: structure and routine. From the beginning of the year, I like to establish clear routines and structures in the classroom. For example, students should understand what they are expected to do when they come into the classroom (bell-ringers can really help set the tone!), how they should behave during collaborative work, and what they can do when they are finished with their work. 

I also like to set up routines and structures for what happens if a student needs to leave the classroom. I’ve seen a lot of innovative “hall pass” systems over the years. For example, some teachers keep laminated hall passes on lanyards by the door, while others use a more discreet “signal” with students who need to leave the room. One teacher I know keeps a couple of artificial plants by the door – students who need to leave the classroom place a plant on their desk to indicate that they have gone to the bathroom!

Keep it Clear

Of course, structures and routines are useful classroom management routines in middle school, but they aren’t very effective if your expectations aren’t clear! It’s important for all students – even those in middle and high school – to understand exactly what they are supposed to do.

I find that the best approach with middle schoolers is to introduce my “non-negotiables” upfront and to keep this list to only two or three things. For example, my desk is off-limits to students! Other teachers may have different rules about this, so I like to make this very clear to students. I also expect them to clean up after themselves, and to treat each other respectfully. For everything else, I like to give students an opportunity to co-create rules they would like to see in the classroom. Once they have agreed on a set of expectations, all students can sign a class contract to indicate their understanding. 

A visual cue – such as your signed class contract, or lighthearted posters that provide humorous reminders of the rules – can help to reinforce the expectations in your space. I also like to communicate the class rules to students’ parents and guardians early in the year, so that everyone is on the same page.

Switch it Up

One of my favorite middle school classroom management tips is to keep things fresh! While structures and routines are essential to keep your classroom ticking along, it’s important not to let things get stale. Sometimes, behavior challenges can arise out of boredom, which is why it’s important to approach instruction and learning in a variety of different ways.

Don’t get me wrong – this doesn’t mean that you need to make every single lesson into an elaborate song and dance! But every once in a while it can be fun to hook your class with an unconventional learning activity. This can be as small as playing a new song as they come into the classroom, or it could be a learning activity that uses an unconventional approach to teach or reinforce a new skill. Incorporating movement into lessons, allowing time for discussion and debate, or infusing students’ passions (video games, music, movies, TV shows, animals, etc.) into learning tasks can all help keep things fresh in your classroom!

Embrace Fun

Humor and laughter can be extremely powerful tools to build connections with middle school students. Creating opportunities for fun in your classroom can reduce stress, diffuse tensions, and foster strong relationships with your students. This doesn’t mean you need to constantly crack jokes with your students, or put on an “act” – there are lots of other ways to share your sense of fun with your middle schoolers! 

For example, you might like to kick off the first lesson on a Monday with the Joke of the Week, or decorate your bulletin board with a set of funny posters (“English Is Weird” always gets middle schoolers talking!). Maybe you have students play a game where they need to decide whether certain quotes are from the works of William Shakespeare or the lyrics to Ed Sheeran songs, or you pass out valentines or holiday cards with a literary twist! Even seemingly small things – like dressing up for Halloween, or dropping in on an after-school basketball practice to shoot hoops for a few minutes – can make a big impact on your students.

Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff

Over the course of a school day, you might have hundreds of interactions with your students! Sometimes, it can be easy to fall into the bad habit of overcorrecting minor behavior. It’s important to keep your standards high, of course, but it’s also really important to “pick your battles” in the classroom. 

When in doubt, I recommend taking a pause and reminding yourself that your students are young and still learning. They have less life experience than you! From here, refer back to the class contract or rules you co-created with your students. If the student is genuinely breaking a rule or disrupting learning for others in the classroom, then it’s time to intervene. Otherwise, it might be better to diffuse the situation with humor or have a quiet, proactive chat with the student.

Focus on the Positives (and Take Care of Yourself!)

It’s also important to try not to fixate on moments of frustration. After all, it’s likely that you interact with dozens of people every day, and – let’s face it – not all those interactions are always going to be positive! I think it’s really important (and easier said than done) to try to focus more on the positives than on one or two negative interactions from the day.

It’s also essential to leave time in your own day for activities that help you recharge and feel your best. After all, you can’t pour from an empty cup! Taking time for regular self-care can help you put setbacks into perspective, and approach challenges positively and proactively.

There you go! I hope these tips give you some fresh ideas when it comes to middle school classroom management. If you like these ideas, you can grab our classroom management resource bundle, which includes many of the resources included in this post!

Looking for more ways to create a sense of community in your classroom? Check out my post Build Classroom Community With the Classroom Challenge Activity!