Mystery Worker Classroom Management

Do you want a classroom management tip that will solve "The Case of the Noisy or Unfocused Classroom"?  Well.....here's a CLUE, it involves a little mystery. This past year I had teams of teachers from other districts observing my teaching techniques for collaboration, ideas and professional development. The common observation by all of them was always, "How do you get your class to behave so nicely and stay on task?" Well the Teacher Sherlock in me shared the all powerful "Mystery Worker" technique.

I have "Mystery Worker" reward cards always on hand to use and as needed I say, "I'm watching a Mystery Worker".  That phrase works like MAGIC.  Students quiet down and get to the task at hand. Then for a brief amount of time, usually for 10-15 minutes, I observe my target student. At the end of my "sleuthing" I decide whether the student earned the "Mystery Worker" honor. If they did, I hand them the card with a note explaining how they set a good example. If by chance the honor was not earned, I never reveal who I was watching. I do keep a running checklist of who I've targeted, so I can be sure to try and honor every student at some point.  Many of us have probably used the "Mystery Walker" in a similar way to target line behavior or transition times. I just took the idea a step further and brought it into my regular classroom teaching routines. Give it a go and see if it cracks the case of the craziness that can hit your classroom sometimes. Wondering where I made got my mystery worker cards? I created them on Vista Print business cards.

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