1. Say yes to building rapport and no to being friends
   • Your students have enough friends. You do not need to be your students’ friend. You do need to build rapport to have better classroom management, but that doesn’t narrow down to friendship. In the past, I have talked sports (and made it a point to watch a game or highlights of a game) to talk to my boys. Boys gave me the most problems in the classroom, but as someone who loves college football, I found that speaking their language was a huge bonus for me. Even if I didn’t watch a certain sport, I made sure to catch the highlights. When they wanted to chat about the latest game, they had to do their work, and we spent the last 5 minutes of class talking about the game. Girls were easier to build rapport as you only needed to know the books they were reading or the latest band or the latest celebrity who was it. Was my rapport with these students genuine? Yes. Did they feel like they had a friendship? Probably, but we had a better classroom experience because of it, and when things happened, I was informed ahead of time rather than being caught off guard.
2. Saying no to gossip
   • I’m going to place this in several categories. The first is that you should never allow students to gossip in your classroom. It feeds into the drama and keeps it going longer than necessary, and if the drama is between two or more students in your class, it is a recipe for a nightmare. If you allow it, and it isn’t between students in your class, you are setting up a disaster for later when the students involved do meet. Constant gossip can carry along until it combusts, and all it takes is them knowing (or thinking) that others have their backs, even if those are only in it to instigate something bigger. The second is that you should avoid teacher gossip about students. Don’t allow that to navigate your feelings about a student. I learned a long time ago that it is important for you to create your own trust for students. Students will come to you knowing what others expect of them (especially if it’s bad). You have the ability to change that and give them a different experience with a teacher. The same way you build rapport, you build trust. You can halt a negative spiral and give them direction.
3. Hindering learning by helping too much
   • Yes, we must follow IEPs, but there is something to be said about creating a helpless student. Over-helping students in the classroom builds helplessness. I once had a student who had an IEP, and who refused to do their work because they had been handheld their entire school career. When I told SPED that I wanted to see what the student could do on their own, they were shocked. I can’t help them improve if I don’t know. Is it spelling? Is it reading? Is it handwriting? Is it ideas? Where is the issue? I honored the IEP, but they also had to do the work. Sometimes we find it easier to do things ourselves, but then as teachers, we are working ourselves overtime. Have students do the work, and then check in to see what we can do to actually improve their work. I once told them I wouldn’t deduct for misspelled words just to make sure that they put something on paper. What I learned by doing that was not that they couldn’t create ideas or connect ideas, but that they were paralyzed by their inability to spell. Take that off the table if it is a problem. There are better ways to create good communicators, and spelling doesn’t have to be a factor in that. We have the ability to dictate for that.
4. Too much technology
   • As I’ve reflected over the last two years of my teaching career, I realize that there was too much technology, and because of that, students took advantage of AI. AI is a part of our reality now, but that technology isn’t available when it comes to state testing. They will not be able to plug in your writing prompt to generate a paper. Having technology free writing is a better use of writing time. It teaches students to generate ideas and be creative. Yes, it means having to read students’ handwriting. Yes, it means navigating poorly written essays. The upside to it all is that it’s teaching them to think, and that is the most important part. We can teach them to navigate technology and AI on other things that aren’t state tested, like PowerPoints and presentations. Save technology for those projects.
5. Free days
   • We should not be giving students free days. Sometimes, we do end up giving students free time whether we want to or not. I’ve been guilty of it because a have 1/3 of my students still working on something, but we really should avoid this. Providing something to work on at the same time that builds on skills is a great and effective way to transition. The problem with free is that it will spread to those students who are still working. There is no way around it. Once it starts, it spreads like a wildfire and consumes everything, including the peace in the classroom.

What are some other things that you feel teachers should say no to in the classroom? Feel free to comment below.

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