Free for teachers · no student data

What to say when it's going sideways. And what to do after.

Pick your grade band and the situation. Get calm words for the moment (smallest move first), what not to say, the follow-up conversation, a printable reflection sheet, and documentation wording your administrator will accept.

Build my kit Phone and class-reset routines Send this to a colleague

What's in every kit

  • 2 to 3 things to say in the moment, smallest move first, written to lower the heat
  • What NOT to say, and why it backfires
  • A private follow-up conversation you can run in 3 minutes
  • A student reflection sheet matched to the grade band, ready to print
  • Objective documentation wording: observable behavior, time, what you tried, how the student responded
  • A phone-storage routine and a whole-class reset routine

Why it's built this way

Student behavior is the top stressor teachers report, and 62% of teachers with five or fewer years name it in their top three (RAND, 2025). In the moment there's no time to think of the right words. So the words are here, tested against the question "will this make it bigger or smaller?"

Step 1

Grade band

Step 2

What's happening?

1. In the moment: say this (start at the top)

Use the smallest move that works. Only go to the next one if the first didn't. Star the lines that sound like you; they go to the top of your printed kit.

2. Don't say this

    3. The follow-up conversation (later, privately, 3 minutes)

    Within a day, when you're both calm. Away from the audience: at the door, during work time, or at lunch. Listen more than you talk.

      Something that works in your room, in your words. It prints with your kit and goes to your team. No student names.

      4. Student reflection sheet

      For a calm moment, not as a punishment. Use it to start the follow-up conversation. Students write their own name on the paper copy; nothing is entered here.

      5. Documentation

      Use your school's own system (your SIS behavior log, referral form, or whatever your school requires) and follow its process. This is a wording helper only. Never type student names here. Write the note here, copy it, and paste it into your school's system, where you add the student.
      What a camera would record: actions, exact words, counts, minutes. No labels, no guesses about why.
      Swap labels for observable words

      Administrators, families and hearing officers can argue with a label. They can't argue with a count, a time and a quote.

      Two routines that prevent half of this

      Teach each one on purpose, practice it once, and re-teach after every long break. Matched to your grade band.

      Phone storage routine

        Whole-class reset (2 to 3 minutes)

          Need it tailored? Copy a ready-made prompt

          If your district approves an AI tool (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, MagicSchool), this builds a careful prompt from your grade band and situation. The prompt contains no student names, so keep names out of the box below too.

          Patterns help: when it happens, what you've tried, what makes it better or worse.

          An honest note

          Two rules come first. A student's IEP, 504 plan or behavior plan always beats anything on this page; follow it. And if there's a threat, a weapon, a risk of self-harm or anyone in danger, stop using scripts and follow your school's crisis procedure right away.

          No script fixes a school that doesn't follow through. If you're doing everything right and nothing happens after a referral, that's not a classroom-management failure; it's a support problem. What helps there is documentation: dated, observable, showing what you tried. It's what moves a request for help from "a teacher is frustrated" to "here are eight documented incidents and five interventions." Keep it in your school's system, and ask your administrator what happens next and by when.

          And if a student is in crisis, may hurt themselves or others, or tells you something that worries you about their safety: follow your school's emergency or reporting procedure right away. That comes before anything on this page.

          My kits

          Kits you've saved, with your starred lines and your own words. Stored on this device only. Back them up, move them to another computer, or send them to your team.

          Your work stays on this device. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. Don't enter student names or private details.

          Know a teacher who's running out of ways to say "please sit down"?

          Send them this. It's free, it needs no student data (so nobody has to clear it with IT), and it gives them the words before the moment instead of after.