The term Self management seems to have become a ‘catch-phrase’ in education, a synonym for self-control and self directed student learning. However, sometimes I feel that this phrase is being thrown around the classroom, with little thought for the most important people – the students.

Here are some key questions for you as an educator to think about: what is self management? What does it look like in the classroom?Is it “edu-speak” that students will never understand?

I challenge you to ask your students what it means.

Most students you come across know what they consider to be good and bad behaviour in the classroom. Any child who has ever been admonished by an adult for inappropriate behaviour will have that behaviour firmly engraved in their mind as “BAD”. Yet the teacher or adult may not have revealed what it looks like to be good or how to correct their error.

The meaning…