Classroom Management Failure #1: The Empty Threat Syndrome

If you have read any of my posts on classroom management, you know that I was not a natural when it came to managing student behavior. I fought alongside the worst of them! However, I was fortunate to have received a classroom management training at the right time right at the beginning of my teaching career, which has made all the difference ever since.

I want to take a moment to highlight some of the classic classroom management failures that plague many teachers. Heck, I’ve been guilty of a few of these too. And it’s usually the source of frustration for me, those times when I failed as an effective classroom administrator. I end up going home thinking about that situation over and over again, regretting a split decision or a comment made that can’t be taken back.

The classic class management failure I want to talk about first is the “Empty Threat Syndrome.” If you set a consequence for your student that depends on her behavior, you had better follow through on your threat. If you tell that student that you’re going to call that student’s parents if their behavior doesn’t improve, you better call that mom or dad or whoever the next time that student doesn’t meet your class’s behavior expectations .

If you regularly threaten your students with some sort of consequence and don’t follow through on your promise, what are you teaching your students about you as a teacher? What do you say about your word, your promises, as a teacher? You are teaching students that as long as they misbehave, you will only threaten them with consequences instead of imposing them.

Is that what you are trying to communicate to the students? Sounds like common sense, but in the midst of a stressful classroom management time, if you don’t have a solid classroom management plan in place, many teachers turn to the “old standby”: empty threats.

This simply highlights the need for all teachers to have a simple and effective classroom management plan. When you have a plan in place, it’s easy to avoid falling into “Empty Threat Syndrome.” With a robust class management system, you no longer need to threaten. At most, you should remind students of the expectations and consequences. But once you’ve taught these behavioral expectations and consequences in class, you no longer need to threaten.

All you do then is consistently implement your behavior management system. You have an effective classroom management system, right?