35. Ways to Keep Student Behavior from Getting Out of Control During the Holidays

Nothing will cause teacher burnout faster than a classroom full of kids whose visions of candy bars and Halloween costumes dance in their heads. It can be a recipe for crazy, out-of-control student behavior when the holidays hit your classroom, but that doesn't mean it has to descend into sugar-infested chaos. Whether it's pumpkin season or your classroom is ready to jingle all the way, I'll discuss how to keep calm and maintain control so you can keep teaching and NOT lose your sanity before student behavior gets worse faster than you can eat a fun-sized Snickers.  

Here's a link to a previous episode on my three favorite statements to say to students to manage behaviors. Start using them today!

Whether it's Halloween or Valentine's Day, teaching doesn't have to break you. Teachaholic: The 7-Day MindSET Shift to Conquer Burnout, Build Life-Changing Boundaries, and Reignite Your Love for Teaching, is a #1 Best Seller and a #1 Top Release on Amazon. Learn more at www.erinsponaugle.com/book and download your free  Teachaholic Action Guide to begin your journey back from burnout here.

Get your copy of Teachaholic: The 7-Day MindSET Shift to Conquer Burnout, Build Life-Changing Boundaries, and Reignite Your Love for Teaching at www.erinsponaugle.com/book.

You can download the Teachaholic Action Guide to begin your journey back from burnout here.

Download your FREE checklist, The Great 88: Rules, Routines, and Expectations to Go Over and Over, and feel confident establishing classroom management.

For more resources on classroom management, time management, and preserving mental well-being to avoid teacher burnout, visit www.erinsponaugle.com.

Find more upper elementary classroom resources by visiting Next Chapter Press on Teachers Pay Teachers.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:08

Being the teacher isn't what it used to be. The good news is, you don't have to figure it out on your own. If you're looking for truth, inspiration, and tips for success in the classroom and beyond, you're in the right place. It's time to turn the page to the future of the profession. This is the next chapter for teachers podcast. Hello everyone. Welcome to episode 35 of the next chapter for teachers podcast. I'm Erin Spinagle. Welcome. And if you are just tuning in, I will share a little bit about myself. I have taught for 23 years, 21 at the same school, and matter of fact. And I have taught grades three through five my entire career. I have recently written a book, Teach a Holic, about teacher burnout that is a bestseller. And I'll put the link for you in the show notes if you're interested. On this podcast, we talk about things that affect teachers that you probably don't get professional development about. But these are the things that often influence whether or not we decide to stay in the classroom. It's not always if we can teach the math or if we know the latest and the greatest on reading, but it's how teaching impacts our lives and the energy that we're left with to take care of ourselves at the end of the day. So that goes well into our topic for today, because we're going to talk about student behavior. Because this is being recorded on Halloween week. So if there is anything that gets the kids riled up and off their A game, it's Halloween and all the activities that lead up to it. It's almost like it's the first big test of the year to see what your class is really made of. How far will they push the buttons or push the envelope to see what they can get away with in your classroom? And by now they've probably gone on several trunk retreats throughout the area that they are in if they if you celebrate Halloween or if they participate. And this all seems to hit right when we finally get in a groove, get the routines down, the kids know what to expect from you, and then they hit us with the Sugar Fest and the Costume Palooza, and their minds are everywhere except where you want them to be when you're trying to teach science. So we're gonna talk about how we get through this, how we keep the student behaviors from getting out of control so that we don't end up feeling burnt out, overwhelmed, and like we're ready to go take a job at the gas station on our way home in the evenings. So let's get into this. I get it. You're just trying to teach. You just want to do what you're supposed to be doing in the classroom and help the kids learn and teach them what they need to know, but it's kind of hard to compete when you have them all sugared up and they're thinking about what they're gonna wear for their umpteenth trick-or-treat event um later on that evening. So, and we're competing with the big bad monster of all, and that is sugar. They are eating sugar day and night, it seems like. I mean, I have seen a kid put chocolate milk on their cinnamon toast crunch and top it with some uh MMs for for their breakfast. Yes, yes, this has happened. And it's like that's how they're starting their day. It's like I am doomed even before we start. So we are up against the sugar monsters, and when kids are hyped upon sugar, that's another challenge for us to get across when we're trying to teach them and trying to maintain control in the classroom. And yes, yes, these are core memories that they will have with you know what they dressed up for for Halloween and the special moments and getting to see their friends dressed up and the exciting events that might be happening. However, they're hyped, they're unfocused, and we as teachers are dealing with the aftermath when they come to our classrooms the next day. Now, luckily, this is 2025 when this is being recorded. Halloween this year is on a Friday, so that helps us out a little bit. They're gonna take all that sugar home for the weekend and hopefully get rid of it, drop it off somewhere, I don't know. But they've probably, like I said, they've probably already done this. They're gonna be pros at the Halloween thing by now because trunk retreats been going on all month around here. Yeah, so you're just trying to teach and they're just trying to, seems like, just rock the boat a little bit more. So let's talk about this. How are we going to get through this without losing our minds and maintaining control in our classroom so that we can keep teaching, they can keep learning, and we can get through this seasonal challenge because you know Halloween is just the beginning. We're gonna have Thanksgiving, we're gonna have the holidays in December. And it's like this just goes on for periodically throughout the rest of the school year. Just Halloween is the first big ta-da that we get to experience. Ta-da, all right, yeah. So let's first talk about you and what you need as a teacher. Because when the behaviors are bizarre, you're on the receiving end of that. And you are having to deal with the repetitive noises and the out-of-control behavior and the impulsiveness, it's all, you know, affecting you ultimately and your ability to be able to do what you need to do in the classroom. So I think it's very important to just say this. You are not your students' choices. They are going to, they're kids, they're going to make some very poor choices probably, either this week or maybe all this entire month that's been going on. But it's not a shortcoming on your part. You know, their brains are developing, they don't know how to process all this overstimulation, and they're probably not eating exactly a balanced diet unless someone is really regulating their candy intake. So it's not you that's the problem here. It is, in some roundabout way, there. It's it's it's on them. It's on us to control it, but you are not their choices. Please keep that in mind. And I know I've brought up sugar a lot in the past couple minutes, but let's talk about that too. Good old sugar. We are gonna be inundated with sugary snacks, candy, etc., etc., from now until Valentine's Day. It's like the vein of existence when you are in a school, especially in elementary school. But sugar causes inflammation. It doesn't give you exactly the best nutrient intake, so you're not playing with the full deck, and I'm not necessarily just talking about the kids here. I'm also talking about you because when we're stressed, and I do this too, I am not immune from this. When we're stressed, when we're tired, when we need a pick-me-up, we will reach for a Twix. And it's not a bad thing. It is a, you know, if it if you like it and you need it sometimes, it's okay. But we tend to also, because we're surrounded by candy and sugar and all these yummies, as teachers will start to overconsume this too. And what it's not good for our brains either. It makes us more inflamed, it's it makes us less able to contend with what's going on and to uh battle all the germs that are in our classrooms, because if we're not eating healthy, we're also going to be impacting our immune system. So it's something that I try to do, and just a reminder for everybody just to kind of regulate your own sugar intake when you're surrounded by it, even though it's very hard, because you don't want to know how many peppermint patties I've gone through in the past couple weeks, because it will affect our ability to respond to the issues and craziness in our room as well. Alrighty. So also just a reminder to you and everybody out there not everything you teach or do in your classroom has to be five-star entertainment. Meaning, there there's a lot of hype, Halloween hype, without you adding to it in your classroom. If you have things that you love to do this time of the year, by all means, you should do them. But don't feel pressured to keep adding to the chaos or adding to the hype because there's plenty of it already, and you do not have to go above and beyond and overextend yourself to be a good teacher and create memories for your students. In fact, I personally try to steer my lessons to things that are seasonal instead of things that are holiday related because I'm now an art teacher. So I teach 600 plus students, and some of them do not celebrate Halloween, certain holidays. I just try to keep things related to the seasons. So we can do things to celebrate in a roundabout way this the time of the year, but I don't do things that are specific that would leave anyone out or make anybody feel uncomfortable. Nothing that anybody couldn't participate in. And that's as good of an, I don't want to call it an excuse, but that's as good as a reason as any to not feel like you have to dump into the crazy town that is the Halloween or whatever holiday season you find yourself in. We're there to do our job, which is to teach the kids and to direct their paths and to make them good people. And you can do that without being into the pumpkin poloza. I'll just leave it at that. I could probably add more, but we'll just leave it at that. And another thing for you to keep in mind, besides the sugar and the fact that you do not have to be the Halloween queen, try to go home as close to on time as possible this week or whatever week you find yourself in around the holiday season, because you are going to be overstimulated and have more on your plate as far as dealing with student behaviors. You are going to need to decompress and prepare yourself for the following day. So try to get home as soon as possible so that you can relax and allow your body and your mind to recoil from the craziness of the day. And so you can also make some memories with your own family. We can get so caught up and so overburdened with the craziness of our own classrooms and dealing with student behaviors all day that we can't enjoy our own families in the season when we have the time to do so. So try to make it a point to either leave on time, even plan things so that you have a reason to go right after school this week, and really any week, but especially when there is a lot of hype going on and you're dealing with a lot of things in the room, a lot of crazy behaviors that you know no one else would believe unless you were a teacher. You just need more recovery time, and that's okay. So let's talk about what we're gonna do with these kids. Because they bouncing off the walls, and they have big plans for tonight, the night after that, the night after that. It's like by the time Halloween rolls around, they've done it all. It's like the excitement out of Halloween is kind of spread out through over the month anymore. Anyway, things we've got to do to keep our classrooms from getting out of control before the behavior gets even worse than what it already is. Consistency. That's the biggest thing. The rules don't change just because it's Halloween or Thanksgiving or Christmas, if that's a holiday that's popular or that's celebrated in your school community. The rules don't change just because it's a holiday or the season. We still have to follow the rules. Sometimes during this time of the year, when there's a lot going on that's getting them hyped up, they need more structure in the and at school because they're getting less of it at home or their special events that are throwing them off the routines. So they're gonna really need the consistency and the structure that you already have in your classroom. So along with that, is reinforcing the things that you need to be consistent about. Tell the kids what you want them to do, what you want to see. For example, saying, stop talking, stop talking, stop talking. I you know, I do it sometimes too when I'm just like at my what's in. I'll say, stop talking. But it's better to tell them what you want them to do, lower your voice, work quietly. Tell them how what the what you want to see out of them instead of just telling them what you don't want them to do. But the consistency plays a large role in keeping things under control and rerouting your course when needed. So, along with that, keep your routines as much as you can this week. If you have different things going on in your school during the day, I know that's gonna be more difficult to do, but as much as you can, keep the routines along with the expectations. If you have planned assignments that you do, for example, what I mean by that is if you have a spelling test on Friday, and I know Friday is the day this year, 2025 for Halloween, but if you have a spelling test or a certain quiz that you give on a certain day, keep it. Keep it that way. Instead of trying to change it or make it a different day because you oh, you don't want to do it on a you know a big event day. I would just keep it. Keep the routine because if you have to, if you go and try to change that, push it to another week, push it earlier, it's just gonna create more confusion. Keep it and maybe that routine or that grounding will help your kids settle down and focus because they know that's coming up. But you don't need to remove things or cause more stress for yourself as far as the things you need to complete because it's crazy week, for lack of a better word, there. And along with this, I kind of already mentioned this when I said you don't have to be the five-star entertainment that you know some of the things we learn are not going to be all sparkle and glitter, but you do not have to fuel the fire this week as far as adding more seasonal activities to your uh plans unless you really feel the need for it, because the kids are already overstimulated. This is already all they're thinking about, who they're going with next next to go trick-or-treating with, what they're gonna be wearing, which corn maize they're doing. It's you know, yeah. They are already thinking about it, they are already oversaturated with it, so you don't have to fuel it if you don't want to. In fact, maybe that consistency and that calmness in your room will help them out and help them get a little more pulled together instead of continuously thinking about it and be having it be in a focus. And I know I just said it's kind of contradicts my everything for a second here, but I know I just said, you know, keep things as planned, but it's also important to be realistic. All right, they're not going to be on the in their full, complete, 100% form. Maybe they have not been all month, but this is gonna be a rough week. And Friday might be a little bit of a tough day to get through. So maybe it's we want that teaching to stick really good. We want what we're teaching to really, they want them to absorb it. This might not be the best week, or Friday may not be the best day to introduce new material that you that's going to require them to focus and really zone in. Uh, we can still have our routines and still keep things on schedule, but new things or things that are going to be multi-step and have to require our students to really, really put their resources into it, this may not be the best week. You can try. If they're older kids maybe, but these little guys, whoo! And by little guys I mean 10-year-olds, whoo. Anyway, I am mentally repairing myself as I read this or say this to you about what I'm gonna need to do to get through the week. All right. So, what do our kids need so that we are they can get out of out of control mode? We need to give them opportunities to move because that does help burn some of their energy instead of bothering each other, talking, dropping things, turned around. If we just give them a chance to move, that can redirect their focus and keep them from adding to the chaos. So, how do we let them move? Different station activities. Sometimes, even as simple as putting supplies in certain areas of the room. I do this a lot where they have to walk to a certain table to get a certain color crayon or marker. So that way they're out of their seat, they get to move around a little bit, they take things back to their seat, they might get the brush by their bestie if they get out of their seat for a little minute. It's kind of like I give a little bit and I get a little bit back. But giving them opportunities to move helps them. But also, along with that, if you're gonna let them move around, giving them structure, parameters, rules as far as what they're gonna do, because re free time is not necessarily the answer as far as giving them time to move. If they have a lot of free time, time idle time to um cause more chaos, yeah, we don't, we don't, we don't need that. We've we've had our fill already, and we've got one more week to go this month. So, but let them move around a little bit. Activities or lessons where they get to move around or get to change uh stations, those are all good. That gives them a chance to use that energy in a productive way. So, along with that, time apart. They're getting a lot of time, possibly out of school to interact with each other right now. So they might also need some time apart from each other to do some things and to focus so uh they can they can get a hold of themselves. Uh even if they think they can't get enough of each other. I know you sometimes you have classes where like that's all they could do is just talk to each other and they just seem to always have somebody to talk to and something to say. But sometimes they just need some time to focus, and that's done sometimes through independent work. And we can give them things to do that are very engaging and require them to think and apply what they've learned, and they don't have to talk to each other. That gives you a break too from being overstimulated by their voices. Yay! So giving them time to just work independently, I call it laser focus in my room, and I will set a timer and I say it's laser focus time, and they're gonna work and they're not gonna talk or bother each other. It is an independent activity where they are working and they get a lot of time, and sometimes they will be so focused and so into it, I can even add more time than a timer, and they could care less because they are finally in a groove. Sometimes that really helps them get back under control when they are having some time to just be apart from each other. That may also mean if you have your kids sit in groups, that this might be a week where they need to sit apart. Not because you're a bad teacher and you can't handle them being together in groups, but they just mean may need a break from each other because they are getting so much stimulation from each other outside of school. Alrighty. So can we do this? We can do this. We're gonna get through this this week. Might have to sneak some Snickers bars, even though we are supposed to not eat so much sugar. Alright, so we've talked about giving them time to work. This allows them to regulate, by the way, or gives them a chance to start regulating their behaviors if they have time to be quiet. And that's an important thing also to work on or just to reinforce this week or at any time, you know, how to regulate their own behavior without somebody else having to call them out on it. Uh, and as long with regulating our behaviors, I know it's very easy as a teacher to be at your wit's end and raise your voice. Oh, I've done it this month already, because you just see some eye-popping things. Like, who needs a haunted house? We we see it all. But yelling doesn't work. You being louder than them really doesn't calm things down. We all kind of have to work to self-regulate and to get a hold of ourselves and to do things to fix the situation instead of adding more more fuel to the fire there. Some things that I say, and I'm gonna put a link in the show notes to a podcast episode I did on some simple statements I use to correct or redirect student behavior. But some things that I say to students when I'm trying to get them to self-regulate, you just these are some other things I would say. Are you okay? Is everything okay? Sometimes that throws them off a little bit. And sometimes they're just when they're being really loud or they're just not having a mood or they're mad or they're not doing what you want them to do, sometimes they'll tell you that they're not okay and that they're just they're how they're feeling. That's a it's a good opener. Are you okay? And they might tell you, might even tell you some things that you weren't even thinking about could be bothering them. Because often this time of the year, whenever it's a holiday season and they're having more interactions with certain people out of school, like family members, there can be things that um affect them and impact their behavior that we don't think about. Uh another thing I might say is you sound, and then fill in the blank, you sound upset, you sound angry, you sound frustrated if they're not getting along with somebody. Is that how you're feeling? And they might tell you, no, I'm really blah blah, I'm you know, really blah, blah, blah. I'm really angry or I'm really sad, or they might say, Yeah, I am a little mad right now or frustrated, and that's that's okay. So we're talking about how we feel. And then the last thing might say is, well, let me give you a choice. And I do not mean that you give them a you know excuse for their behavior, because that's that's never, like I said, we're gonna be consistent this week. We're not excusing how they act at all. Not this week, not next week, not next month. Okay, we're gonna hold them accountable, but sometimes I will say, let me give you a choice. You can stop talking and work on this at your seat, or you can go over next to the whatever, next to the window or wherever, and you can work without the distraction, whatever it is, another student or something that they're messing with, and just or giving them a choice. And it's like, oh, okay, I can that gives them a little bit of power back, but it also is you know, they're still gonna do what you w need them to do, all right? And if they're you're doing a group activity and they're kind of being the cog in the wheel, you can say, Let me give you a choice. You can complete this with your group, or you can work on it independently over here, but you won't get to whatever the you know, reward, not the reward, but what whatever the benefit to working with the group would be. They won't get to do that. We're giving we might we get we're giving them a choice, or it sounds like a choice, and it is a choice, but they're still gonna be held accountable for what they need to complete or what what they're supposed to be doing. So we're gonna get through this out-of-control week and the out-of-control behavior that comes with it, one way or another. It's possible, and I understand I've done this for 23 years. Student behavior can make or break your school year. And this week in particular is one of my least favorite weeks of the year for all the reasons I've kind of already mentioned in this podcast. But we can get through it, and we can get through it without having to, you know, wave the white flag of surrender as far as behavior goes, by holding them to our expectations, uh, being consistent, and also taking care of ourselves so that we are in the right frame of mind to manage student behavior, and also we have some white space and some time to take care of ourselves. So I hope this podcast has helped you. I hope you have a wonderful week, and then it goes by rather quickly so that we can move on from pumpkin, pumpkin time, because yeah, I'm ready too. So I'll put some links in the show notes to things that can help you have a great week, and let's make choices that keep our classrooms running smoothly and also keep us all under control. That's all for this episode of the next chapter for teachers podcast. If you like what you heard, be sure to rate, subscribe, and leave a review. Join us next time when we turn the page to the future of the profession. Until then, remember to be different, but more importantly, be the difference. And I'll see you in the next chapter.