What is Self-Management?
In this 2nd post in the Social Emotional Competency Series, we will dive into self-management in the classroom. If you missed the first post, all about self-awareness, you can find it here.
Self-management is the next CASEL competency in the social-emotional framework. Let’s dig in!
CASEL defines self-management as the ability to manage one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations and to achieve goals and aspirations. (1) In other words having self-management means to be able to conduct yourself appropriately in a variety of situations so you can participate fully. You may also hear it referred to as: self-regulation.
Why is Self-Management Important in the Classroom?
So, why is this an important skill to have? For students, or anyone really, this skill greatly sets us up for success. With self-management, kids and adolescents attain knowledge in how to regulate their bodies and emotions. They learn how to function as a student by being able to focus or pay attention. They figure out to give themselves what they need (thanks to self-awareness) in sticky moments.
Self-management takes a learner who may loudly express emotion, get up impulsively, or repeatedly fail to complete work on time and transforms them into a student who appropriately expresses feelings, controls behavior, and creates a plan to complete assignments.
Self-management isn’t just about changing behaviors though. With self-management, kids can learn to set-goals, have motivation and initiative, de-stress, and practice self-discipline. These are all important traits for academic success. Research shows that teaching self-management can increase academic performance by 11 percentile points!
Besides being important to positive academic performance there are many benefits for self-management both in and out of the classroom.
Benefits of Self-Management For Students And The Classroom
Imagine a child caught in a vicious cycle of acting on their impulses, giving little thought to what they say or do and then dealing with the consequences of that behavior. This leads them to increase their stress, feel all kinds of uncomfortable emotions, damage self-esteem, and perhaps aggravate others around them.
Many of the behaviors described above diminish with self-management skills. One of the major benefits of self-management is improved quality of life for individuals. Kids feel better about things when they are able to handle themselves. With emotional regulation, they know what to do with all the things they feel. With physical regulation they know what to do to feel comfortable and in control of their bodies. And with self-discipline they can put forth the effort to be better students.
Their days run smoothly. They probably receive more praise. Their confidence in their abilities increases and self-efficacy is boosted.
Imagine a whole classroom of students who practice appropriate self-management. Another benefit to self-management is improved quality of the environment in the classroom. When students self-manage, the flow and feel of the classroom are better.
The benefits from implementing self-management make the day more enjoyable for everyone.
Self-Management for Teachers
Teachers face stressors from many sources. Too much work and not enough time. Attending to their students’ needs. Dealing with parents. Pressure to meet academic standards. The list goes on.
Most teachers have the sense to keep their cool and do what they can to get through the day while staying professional. There are times when that is difficult. Sometimes we feel on the verge of TOTALLY LOSING IT!
But there are strategies teachers can use to manage the stress, triggers, time and feel more in control in the classroom.
Strategies for Teachers
How can teachers boost their self-management? The first thing to do is draw upon your self-awareness skills. Get familiar with your pain points or triggers, your emotions, the things that challenge you.
Then strategize! For areas of difficulty, explore different avenues to address those issues. Feel short on time? Look for ways to budget your time differently. Feeling tired? Make it a priority to get more sleep. Stressed at the end of the day? Look for an outlet to destress like listening to calming music on your way home or meditating when you get home. Reflecting and making simple changes is a form of self-care that energizes you to practice self-management.
There are other tangible things you can implement to support your self-management efforts in the classroom, too. Some ideas include:
- Set up an achievable daily schedule or routine. Avoid planning 9 hours worth of lessons in a 7 hour day
- Break big tasks down into smaller steps
- Come up with a mantra that you can repeat to yourself when “that student” is giving you a hard time (and don’t forget that they aren’t trying to give you a hard time, they are just having a hard time themselves!)
- Take mindful breaks with your students when you need a minute to breathe or a moment of silence
- Keep a journal to reflect on parts of your day that felt “out of control” and come up with action steps for what you could do next time
- Make time for yourself!
Practicing self-management yourself then makes it easier to teach these skills to your class. We will look at how to do that next!
Teaching Self-Management
Teaching self-management skills seems like a no brainer if you’re wanting a positive classroom environment and want your kids to succeed. But, where do you start? What’s effective and what’s not? Here are some strategies to help you figure it out!
Self-management can be broken into a few smaller components for students, which include emotional regulation, behavioral regulation, mental regulation, and academic skills. Teaching skills that touch on these areas will help you organize specific self-management tools. Let’s look at each one a bit closer.
Emotional Regulation
This component includes flexibility, coping skills, ability to work through feelings, appropriate expression and stress management. Teaching strategies for this include:
- Model appropriate emotions for the situation
- Brainstorm a list of calming strategies
- Create connections between scenarios and different ways to feel
- Role-play coping strategies paired with emotions
Behavior Regulation
This component includes impulse control, focus and attention, sensory needs, spatial awareness and self-discipline. Teaching strategies for this includes:
- Regulation breaks like movement after long periods of sitting
- Use of sensory friendly tools to help with focus and attention
- Introducing the concept of personal space and bubbles and being mindful of others space
- Teach activities that boosts alertness and calmness and use as needed
- Label actions you see as revved up engine or slowed down engine and create a list of revving and slowing activities
Mental Regulation
This component is more intrinsic but includes things like motivation, resilience, will-power, and goal setting. Teaching strategies include:
- Teaching the idea of working towards a dream
- Introducing the idea of pushing oneself to work hard, trying or overcoming challenges
- Goal setting skills like SMART goals
- How to ignore stimuli and stay focused
- Positive self-talk
Academic Regulation
This component deals with skills needed to be a successful student. It included things like organizational skills, homework completion, asking for help, and managing time. Teaching strategies include:
- Teaching how to use a planner
- Map out steps to complete big assignments or projects
- Lessons in cleaning up desk area, maintaining school supplies, putting things back where they belong
- Different ways to ask for help like raising hand, asking a neighbor, going to office hours
Self-Management Activities for the Classroom
To help you implement these teaching strategies here are some specific activities that address these areas of self-management.
Feelings Color Chart--Emotional Regulation
- Create a chart with different colors and label the following emotions with a color, for example, red=angry, frustrated, orange=excited, energetic, yellow=happy, content, green=peaceful, calm, blue=sad, lonely purple=afraid, worried
- As a class come up with actions they express for the feelings with the color and then things they can do to cope with those feelings
Example: When I feel RED I am mad. When I am mad I want to yell or stomp. To help me with my feelings I can use my words to say I am mad and count to 10 to calm down.
(you can come up with multiple ideas for each color)
Get Grounded With Your 5 Senses--Behavioral Regulation:
- This grounding activity is great to use to calm students down, help with impulse control, anxiety or high energy
- Have students sit quietly in their seats
- Instruct the class to direct their attention to something in the room around them as you call out the 5 senses 1 at a time.
- It sounds like this: “Look around you for something you see. Focus on that thing. What is it? (pause) Now listen around you for something you can hear. Focus on that. What do you hear? (pause)
- Taste can be tricky so you can ask students to recall a taste they had earlier in the day
- This activity can be used 1:1 with kids too.
Positive Affirmations--Mental Regulation:
- Introduce the idea of positive affirmations. Give a definition (a short phrase that is encouraging or uplifting that can be used for positive self-talk) and examples of when students can use positive affirmations.
- As a whole class generate a list of positive words like strong, smart, great
- Then generate a list of action phrases like “I am,” “I can,” “I will”
- Either individually, in pairs or small groups instruct students to create their own positive affirmation using the ideas from the brainstorm
- Students can create their own visual with their positive affirmation to hang on their desk or keep with their belongings.
- Class can share their affirmation with the each other
- Refer back to their positive affirmations when students need extra motivation or encouragement
Keeping Track--Academic Skills:
- Help students keep track of their belongings and school work with a daily keeping track chart.
- They can either use their own notebook or post a chart for the entire class
- During end of the day routine review the chart by listing out the following: Things I need to bring home, Things I need to bring tomorrow, Schoolwork to complete
- Students can write these things on their own, or teacher can post on chart
- At the beginning of the next day for the start of the day routine read out the items and have class get out or check off.
There are so many benefits to self-management for both you and your students. Imagine the possibilities you can gain when you make this a part of your teaching!
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