Sara, I really appreciated this post. I also really appreciated your simple suggestions for the do now! May I ask what classroom entry routines you established and what you did to sustain it?
We set whole-school expectations at the beginning of the year that are non-negotiable for everyone. Some of these include transitioning between classes, entering and exiting buildings, beginning and ending lesson routines. As a smaller middle school team we discussed what that would look like in our building. From there, we explain the expectations to students, model repeatedly and troubleshoot. For example, my lines were becoming noisy due to friendship groups, so we changed to roll order. Classroom entry routines for us are: lining up in roll order in our designated areas, voices off before we come inside, walking to our classroom, completing our entry task as soon as we enter and/or getting resources ready to start the lesson. This is supported with alot of targeted positive praise. Having a task ready to go upon entry to the classroom seems to nullify a large majority of those usual transition distractions.
Sustaining the routine seems to really come down to consistency. If behavious starts to slip, we go back and model again. I've had to walk my class back out to our lining up spot many times in Term 1, and you do need to go over the expectations again throughout the year.
I also think clear communicatin of why we do this helps too. We tell our students that our goal is to maximise safety and learning. To do this, we need routines that are calm and allow us to get into the learning faster. Most students respond well to this!
One of my favourite routines to implement came from leadership, which was building a sense of gratitude amongst students. When we end the day we thank our students for learning with us, and they thank us for teaching them. We also thank our ES staff. It seems simple, but with support from leadership we've been able to build this lovely culture where students are thanking staff and going home feeling grateful for their day. It's also had a huge impact on staff wellbeing.
This is extremely helpful, thank you! I especially love the gratitude routine. I’ve been thinking of adding a gratitude piece to our culture, so I’m glad you included that part.
I do have one more probing question if that’s ok? How do you handle students putting away their backpacks, coats, etc at the beginning of the day in an orderly, efficient manner?
That's a really great question. We have large bag lockers that are spread alongside two walls, so that makes it a little easier. Walking them inside in one line can also help to minimise the disruption.
I think because they enter the room knowing that there's something on their desk for them to do, they tend to get round to it fairly quickly. That being said, it takes weeks of practice and modelling to get to that point. And there are certainly some mornings when they come in buzzing and it's harder to settle...but once they sit down and get going on the task, the noise does tend to drop away fairly quickly.
Great insights! If fellow math teachers haven't stumbled upon Barton's and Lovell's deep dive on the Do Now, get on it. 6+ hours on the power of a good Do Now.
I love this so much! This year is my first year teaching year 1/2 and experiencing all the morning issues that come with this age group. A few weeks in I decided to put up a ‘Boggle’ task on our morning slide for students to get started on once they are organised for the day. I’ve found it’s helped create a calm start to the day and gives me that few minutes to check in with individuals as you said. I was worried students would get bored doing the same thing each morning and was considering changing it to another activity but they love it so much. They race in to get started and try to create as many words as they can! I had never heard of a “Do Now” task and know of Ollie Lovell but didn’t realise he had a podcast… off I go to check it out. Thanks for sharing!
Sara, I really appreciated this post. I also really appreciated your simple suggestions for the do now! May I ask what classroom entry routines you established and what you did to sustain it?
Loving these guest contributor posts, Dr. Swain.
I am very lucky that so many amazing educators are willing to share insights from their classroom! Very keen to hear Sara’s response.
Hi Laura,
We set whole-school expectations at the beginning of the year that are non-negotiable for everyone. Some of these include transitioning between classes, entering and exiting buildings, beginning and ending lesson routines. As a smaller middle school team we discussed what that would look like in our building. From there, we explain the expectations to students, model repeatedly and troubleshoot. For example, my lines were becoming noisy due to friendship groups, so we changed to roll order. Classroom entry routines for us are: lining up in roll order in our designated areas, voices off before we come inside, walking to our classroom, completing our entry task as soon as we enter and/or getting resources ready to start the lesson. This is supported with alot of targeted positive praise. Having a task ready to go upon entry to the classroom seems to nullify a large majority of those usual transition distractions.
Sustaining the routine seems to really come down to consistency. If behavious starts to slip, we go back and model again. I've had to walk my class back out to our lining up spot many times in Term 1, and you do need to go over the expectations again throughout the year.
I also think clear communicatin of why we do this helps too. We tell our students that our goal is to maximise safety and learning. To do this, we need routines that are calm and allow us to get into the learning faster. Most students respond well to this!
One of my favourite routines to implement came from leadership, which was building a sense of gratitude amongst students. When we end the day we thank our students for learning with us, and they thank us for teaching them. We also thank our ES staff. It seems simple, but with support from leadership we've been able to build this lovely culture where students are thanking staff and going home feeling grateful for their day. It's also had a huge impact on staff wellbeing.
I hope that helps!
This is extremely helpful, thank you! I especially love the gratitude routine. I’ve been thinking of adding a gratitude piece to our culture, so I’m glad you included that part.
I do have one more probing question if that’s ok? How do you handle students putting away their backpacks, coats, etc at the beginning of the day in an orderly, efficient manner?
That's a really great question. We have large bag lockers that are spread alongside two walls, so that makes it a little easier. Walking them inside in one line can also help to minimise the disruption.
I think because they enter the room knowing that there's something on their desk for them to do, they tend to get round to it fairly quickly. That being said, it takes weeks of practice and modelling to get to that point. And there are certainly some mornings when they come in buzzing and it's harder to settle...but once they sit down and get going on the task, the noise does tend to drop away fairly quickly.
Great insights! If fellow math teachers haven't stumbled upon Barton's and Lovell's deep dive on the Do Now, get on it. 6+ hours on the power of a good Do Now.
I love this so much! This year is my first year teaching year 1/2 and experiencing all the morning issues that come with this age group. A few weeks in I decided to put up a ‘Boggle’ task on our morning slide for students to get started on once they are organised for the day. I’ve found it’s helped create a calm start to the day and gives me that few minutes to check in with individuals as you said. I was worried students would get bored doing the same thing each morning and was considering changing it to another activity but they love it so much. They race in to get started and try to create as many words as they can! I had never heard of a “Do Now” task and know of Ollie Lovell but didn’t realise he had a podcast… off I go to check it out. Thanks for sharing!