Art in Classroom Management

Please welcome Christi of Digraphs, Decimals, Discoveries! You’ll love her post today about using art as a method of classroom management. These ideas create a caring classroom environment. Thanks for sharing Christi!

Classroom management is a struggle for all teachers, even if only occasionally. Our guest blogger shares what an incredible impact she saw by incorporating art in classroom management with her students. Click here to read the amazing help that art was, how she uses a cool down area, and other recommendations!

Sometimes children can’t find the right words or actions to deal with their emotions. In many cases, children are still learning what emotions are and how to deal with the overwhelming feelings that they experience. But, when you give a child a crayon and a blank sheet of paper and ask him to draw how he feels, you might be shocked at what you see. This is a great way to get an inside look at the types of emotions our students experience every day.

Set aside a designated cool down area for students in the classroom. Set up a table with blank papers, crayons, pencils, markers, colored pencils, and play dough. The students can sit at the table to draw or write about what happened and how they feel. The play dough is an effective tool to squeeze like a stress ball or to form into their own creation. The cool down area is all about using art as a therapeutic method to deal with negative emotions.

One of the amazing things about using art to cool down is that it allows the students to see the scenario from a different point of view. They have to step out of the situation and be an observer. For example, two boys in the classroom had a fight. When you take the boys aside to ask what happened, they will each give you a very one-sided story, usually exaggerated in their favor. Yet, when you have the boys draw a picture of what happened, they have to look at the fight from the outside as they draw the details of what happened. In many cases, when I have used this in my own classroom, the students begin to see how their personal behavior was inappropriate and that their actions were also responsible for the fight.

This picture was drawn by a student in my class who has a hard time expressing his feelings with words.

The second truly amazing thing about using art is that it is an effective way to decompress. Sometimes a student can be so angry that she is no longer in control of her emotions. When she sits and draws her picture, she begins focusing on the details and colors. Some students may draw a picture showing you what happened while others might just make random lines and shapes filled with bold colors to represent the emotions that they are feeling. This is especially true of students with Asperger’s and developmental delays.

This piece of art was created by a student in my classroom who has developmental delays. He was drawing his feelings.

This incredible art work was created by a student in my classroom who has Asperger’s. He was feeling frustrated and took some time to draw this to demonstrate how he was feeling.

The cool down area is a safe place. Your students should understand that going to the cool down area does not necessarily mean that he or she is in trouble. There are two reasons a student should visit the cool down area. The first is when he feels negative actions coming on; the second is if a negative action has already reared its ugly head. Through using the corner, you are trying to get your students into the habit of visiting the corner in the former situation so they can cool down before they do a negative action. This is also a good time to teach your students how to recognize their warning signs. Explain that everyone reacts differently when they feel angry, so it is important to know our own personal warning signs. Write down your warning signs so the students understand that being angry is normal, but if you know your warning signs, then you can make the right decisions of how to deal with your anger.

One of the most important elements of using art in classroom management is that students should have closure before they leave the art area and rejoin the class. Sometimes a student just has to sit for a while and calm down. Once she is calm, she needs to talk it out with her teacher, and then she may return to participating in the lesson. When a student leaves the art area, the negative behavior must have had closure, and she must have a renewed sense that she can start fresh. We don’t want our students suppressing negative emotions, because then those emotions generally come back twice as strong and could cause harm to themselves or other students.

Many of us teachers are all too aware of the vicious cycle of negative behavior. There is a student in your classroom who is constantly creating mischief. To deal with his misconduct, you begin to take disciplinary action, but this only results in his acting out more. He did not deal with his frustration and find closure, so he continues to fester in his anger, which leads to more negative behavior. I like to call this the slippery cycle.

There must be a better way! We can remind our students that they must know their warning signs and what to do when they feel frustrated. It is important to help them catch the problem early. When a student is feeling frustrated, he recognizes his warning signs and takes time to cool off. When he feels in control of his emotions he talks things through with his teacher to experience closure.

I am a huge advocate of positive reinforcement. Instead of telling our students what they can’t do, let’s remind them of all the wonderful things they can do. Giving choices is very helpful in this situation. Here are the choices I give to my students.

The students use the meter to decide which choice is appropriate. If the problem is very minor, then taking deep breaths or using an “I feel” statement is a good choice. If the student is feeling like he wants to do something physical like hitting or kicking, then he should visit the cool down area or listen to calm music. If there is a re-occurring problem, like a student constantly teasing another student, then the latter can ask the student to stop or have his teacher intervene.

I started using art in my classroom management four years ago while I was working at a public school in Bronx, New York. I even used it when I was substitute teaching by having the students draw the pictures at their desk. I was amazed at how effective using art was with my “problem” students. Students began opening up to me and telling me about their feelings and sometimes about things happening at home that was triggering their negative behavior. My students with Asperger’s and developmental delays who couldn’t express their feelings through words could use pictures to communicate their feelings.

To get your free Art in Classroom Management Starter Kit, click on the picture below.

Blessings,

Christy is in her second year teaching 3rd grade at an International School in New Delhi, India. Before she moved to Delhi with her husband and son, she was a substitute teacher at an inner city school in Bronx, NY and at a charter school in Erie, PA. She keeps busy by creating things for her classroom, browsing Pinterest, instructing dance classes, and chasing her adorable two-year-old boy around. She is the author of the blog Digraphs, Decimals, and Discoveries. This is also the name of her TpT Store and Facebook page.

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Comments

Heather W says

September 1, 2013 at 5:17 pm

What a great idea – particularly for younger students or those who have trouble expressing themselves. Thanks for sharing!!
~HoJo~

Debbie says

September 3, 2013 at 5:07 am

I've been looking for a way to deal with impulsive students, and this may be just the thing. Thank you for sharing!

Paula Beckerman says

February 27, 2016 at 10:10 am

Thank you for suggesting such positive ways for us to help students work through their challenging feelings!

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