Transcription
Have you guys heard the line, "Don't smile until Christmas"? Like, is your behavior management the first few days of school that important? Like, it will determine what every waking and sleeping moment for the rest of your school year will look like. Is not smiling until Christmas, like, truly the way to play it? In today's times, it's generally considered bad advice. However, that advice did come from a place of necessity. Like, there is some truth to it. What I'm saying is, how you set up your classroom, how you move, the words you say, your facial expressions, literally every vibe that you put out in those first few days of school will determine what your year will look like 100%. We want to be giving confidence. We want to be garnering respect. We want to be giving respect. We want to be giving, like, emotional safety, competency, confidence. We're doing that today.
You're going to sit down and you're going to play with your team. That's me. That's your teammates. You've got a veteran teacher on the team. All your teammates here, all the teachers in the comments, all the viewers, we all have the same mindset. We want, like, a productive, efficient, calm, vibey classroom that feels good. Maybe we're like close to achieving our classroom management goals, but something just feels like not quite right. We want to, like, level up. Or we've been absolutely traumatized and we don't have the resources around us. No one in our building can help. We were not prepared in college. Our student teaching didn't help us. Like, there's no help out there for our classroom management. The help has arrived. You are on the team with some teachers who can help you get your life together. So, let's plan out our first few days of school, shall we?
Here are my credentials. I was a teacher for 13 years in a very under-resourced, very under-privileged school, where it was one of those environments where our teams were just like a revolving door of teachers every year, every semester in some cases. Behaviors, academics, the problems that our students were facing had teachers in tears, literally on day one. However, I was able to, like, cultivate a really successful classroom grade-level team along with my amazing teammates. We helped our students close gaps. We helped our students enjoy being at school again in a notoriously tough situation with fifth graders. That situation sounds familiar or resonates? Perfect, you're in the right place. Let's get into it. Also, if you are not following me on Instagram, honey, what are you doing? That is my bread and butter. Please come find me on Instagram.
Okay, in our previous classes, you guys had some homework. One was to choose your vibe words, and then we're going to use that, those words, as like your lens for setting up your classroom. I also asked you to choose some of your, like, heavy-hitter routines, plan some of those out, and also to choose some community-building activities. We're going to be using those today. So, let's see what it looks like when, like, rubber meets the road. Feel free to use the timestamps below to kind of, like, jump ahead. We're going to start by talking about, like, what my first day of school, my first few days of school literally looks like in a realistic world, what my plans are like in my plan book, what we're actually doing, what resources I'm using, everything. Then we're going to talk about, um, routines that I'm teaching, like, the first few days of school and how I teach those, and then same with community building. What activities am I doing my first few days of school to build community? Uh, and I can't forget. I'm also going to model how I do my classroom rules and how I set those up, what that activity looks like with my students. So, again, use the timestamps to jump ahead and find what you need.
Okay, so my plans were kind of formed by a few things. One, in fifth grade, we were departmentalized three ways, so I had two teammates that I switched with. We also usually started school on a Wednesday, so we would keep our homerooms Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Depending on the year, sometimes we were or weren't ready to switch classes by Friday. So, first day of school, first five minutes of school, literally, if I have not set foot in my classroom before the first bell of the year, I will be okay if I have three things. One, a slide up on the screen. Two, a sharpened pencil on every student's desk. And three, some type of, like, low-lift, very easy, calm, like, school printable. Me and my team every year would, like, collect all different types of, like, free printables that we would find and combine them into, like, one big packet called their back-to-school packet. I eventually just started creating my own resources to make it, like, exactly what me and my students needed. Course, I will link that in the description for you guys as well as a discount code.
So, my welcome slide in the morning would be the same slide that I use all year, every morning. However, it's just, like, abbreviated and tweaked a little bit to fit the first day of school. It looks something like this. I always have dim lighting in my classroom, lamps, ambient lighting. And then I always have lo-fi study beats or, like, chill study music playing on my speakers. On each student's desk is that pre-made, like, pre-copied back-to-school packet along with a pre-sharpened pencil. I made the mistake a few years in a row of staying late the night before school sharpening pencils. And then to keep things simple for that back-to-school packet, there's always, like, coloring activities. I would, um, go ahead and take, like, a cup, like, literally a tumbler plastic cup, and I would put two packs of Crayola colored pencils in that cup per table group. Enough color options for everyone, no need to talk and share and fight about what colors we're going to use. That back-to-school packet has a variety of, like, rigor, if that makes sense. Some light, easy coloring pages that require zero brainpower, some more, like, engaging academic pages for those students who are, like, ready for that on day one.
I'm standing at my front door with my clipboard. I've got two rosters. One from the front office. Two, I have the one that has my students' names along with, like, a preferred phone number, how they're getting home from school, and what they're doing for lunch. And then I also, of course, have my routines and procedures checklist. I'm standing in my doorway with my clipboard and I'm greeting my students as they come in. Sometimes students come with parents, sometimes they don't. I'm checking off their name, I'm greeting them, telling them I'm so excited to have them in my classroom, whether or not they're supposed to be in my classroom or not. Like, we always want to make those kids feel welcome, you know? I don't know if that happens in anyone else's campus, like, random kids show up at your door. To keep things simple, I have my students simply go choose a backpack hook to hang up their backpack on and I tell them they don't need to get anything out of their backpack to start. Go hang up your backpack and choose a seat. If they're holding, like, a supply pack, I'll take that and put their name on it and keep it somewhere, like, designated where I know those are their things, somewhere in my teacher space.
Now, for seats, we have meet the teacher or open house, whatever you want to call it, a few nights before. If students attend that, which I have, like, maybe three to five students who attend for my homeroom, if they come, I'll let them write their name on a sticky note and go ahead and choose their seat by putting that sticky note, like, on their desk. So, that's, like, a little perk if they come, you know, for meet the teacher or open house. Otherwise, they can choose their own seat the day of. Everyone's working silently, the music is calm, the lighting is calm, the academic work is very calm. Like I said, I'm standing at my doorway, greeting students, talking to families. I'm letting my students work for about 10 minutes after our bell rings. Honestly, however long I need because I'm getting my life together. Announcements are coming on, telling parents to please leave the building. I'm also going to use that time to put a timer up on the board. Like, students, you know, feel more comfortable if they know, like, you know, how much longer they're going to be doing this. When that timer goes off, I gather my students in a circle and we do, kind of, like, a casual morning meeting format. I first introduce myself and I tell them what they're going to ex- like, what to expect for the day. Like, immediate plans, when lunch is, when specials is, what kind of stuff we're going to be doing. And then I do this little get-to-know-you activity that I found on Pinterest, like, 10 years ago. I never said I was the queen of, like, fun creative classroom ideas. However, this works really well for my kids. Them opening up a pack of Skittles and, like, casually eating something kind of gives them something to do with their hands. It, like, lowers the the social burden a little bit. I let them choose what question they want to answer. Like, it's just a very calm, easy way to start our day and get to know each other.
Real talk, I used to try to plan out my first day in, like, an attempt to really control my day. I would plan everything out to, you know, a five-minute window. That does not work in reality, at least not in my reality. Usually, what my day looks like is from the floor after we finish our get-to-know-you activity, I send them back to their seats to go silently and independently work on their back-to-school packet. They can choose any page to work on. That was our first, like, jump back into school activity, so we kind of take a, you know, a five-minute break to decompress. I might assign them a certain page to work on so that later we can share our page. I might start, like, diving into organizing student school supplies while they're. However, one thing I do prioritize, like, pretty early in the day, you always need to make sure that you check, like, your campus schedule, is my grade-level team. We will gather in the hallway and we're going to go practice, run through the routine of lunchtime. What you don't want to happen on the first day of school is for a student to not get lunch or for your grade level to only have three minutes to eat because it took y'all 27 minutes to get through the lunch line. Whatever it is. We have to remember, at the end of the day, we are in charge of what? Like, 60 children. So, >> [clears throat] >> I'm prioritizing making sure that we get lunch down right away. As a grade-level team, we're going to go practice our cafeteria routine. We're also going to practice hallway routine and during that time, we take, like, a little tour of the building. We go by the front office, the nurse's office, the library, the counselor, show each grade-level hallway, where dismissal's going to be. That's a nice way to, like, practice practice your hallway routines. Something else I try to prioritize is my students decorate name tags for their book boxes, their cubbies, their backpack hooks. It's a nice way for your students to, like, put a personal touch on your classroom. I gave up pre-made name tags and numbers a long time ago. We're also probably going to run through dismissal, like, where to go if you're a walker, carpool, bus, because again, we are in charge of 60 children. I want to make sure that everyone gets home safely. Obviously, we're going to have specials, lunch, and recess, you know, to kind of break up our day.
In the afternoon, I usually do this, like, community-building activity called "Find Someone Who." It's where students just kind of mill about the classroom trying to find different people, meet different people that fit different criteria. I've used this activity since I was a first-year teacher. I personally made my own because I don't really love the ones that are out there that talk about, you know, doing fun things over the summer, going different places, these different experiences. I try to choose a "Find Someone Who" activity. My criteria are a little bit more inclusive, so just be mindful of that depending on your school environment. I like to jump in and participate with my students. You know, I have my own clipboard with my own "Find Someone Who," and, you know, they might have my name on theirs. I have their names on mine, and then at the end, we kind of get together and share those things. I also like to do this "Details Flower," which I know is like, again, I'm not the queen of, like, creative cutesy classroom things. However, my campus did depth and complexity icons several years ago, and even after my campus left that behind, I stuck with it. I loved it. It's super simple. You can use yours to introduce yourself to your students. It's very simple. Your name goes in the center because you are, like, the main idea, and then each petal represents a detail about you. It's really nice because it is very easy to differentiate. My minimum is that there are four petals, but you can also add as many petals as you want. And for those students who want to add, like, 30 petals, and then not have the details to put in them, my criteria for them is that the students have to write out their details on the back first, and then draw their petals. That way they can make sure they can actually fill out their details. That's something that I can hang up, you know, on my door outside of our classroom, literally on, like, day two of school when those are finished. We can share those at morning meeting. Great, easy way to get to know your kids. And then also in my, like, agenda, my planner, I also list out, like, a few small time-filler activities. Sometimes you'll get to two things on your whole list that you had out planned out for the day. Sometimes you'll constantly have, like, these big gaps of time that you're trying to fill. I'll pull some books for some read-alouds or find some on YouTube. There's an activity that I started doing, like, several years ago that I read about in a book where you put those little dot labels, like, those stickers on students' foreheads and you have three different colors, four different colors, and students don't know what color they have and they have to, like, mill about the classroom silently and group themselves by their color. That one's fun because it requires teamwork. The shy kids kind of get a chance to, you know, cooperate appropriately with their classmates. And then you can also use those colors later in the week. If you had a pink dot, you're going to be this. If you're a green dot, you're going to be this. It also includes some movement, which is always good. And then I also like to do this activity called "House of Cards" where students get together in groups. It could be their dot group. They get together and they have to find things that are in common, that they all have in common, write that down on an index card, and they're using those index cards to build a house of cards. They cannot use an index card until they have written something on it that they have in common. We all like spicy food. Great, we have one card for our House of Cards. We all have a younger sibling. Great, now we have another card. Cute, fun, team building.
Now, new teachers or if you have not had a first day of school, you're a mid-year hire like I was, here's some first day realities for you. One, it's a hot mess. It's literally a hot mess. At least at my school, no one in the building for sure knows what they're doing. Plans are changing constantly. You're forgetting stuff constantly. It's going to be a hot mess. Two, you and the kids are going to be uncomfortable and awkward, especially, like, those first five to 10 minutes. It can be very socially awkward and uncomfortable. That's why I love that back-to-school packet. It, like, lowers the social pressure for everyone. Just sit down and do a coloring page. Who doesn't love that, you know? Some bad news, but I also think it's good to, like, be realistic. Behavior is typically very good on day one, two, three, first few weeks, honestly. Your kids are being great, you're not having any behavior problems. That does not mean you start to lower your guard, drop your guard a little bit. No. They're just scared. They're feeling you out. They're not comfortable with you yet. It'll come. And hey, if you got a kid who's wilding out on day one, day two, congrats. You don't have that honeymoon phase. You already know what you're getting into.
Let's talk about your vibe. "Don't smile until Christmas." Look, here are my two rules. If you don't normally smile, don't force yourself to smile. If you are a smiley person, don't, like, hide that away. Just be your normal self. Don't commit to anything that you can't commit to the rest of the year. Do you know what I mean? I'm not bubbly, you're not going to catch me being bubbly at my door. My other rule is be warm but firm. What does that actually look like though? If you said something, you gave an expectation, you told students they have to stay in their seats, they cannot come up to you, you have to stick with that. You can stick with it and be warm and kind, but you need to stick with it. If it's not in your natural personality to be comfortable redirecting students, you're going to have to practice. What do they call it in therapy? Exposure therapy. You're going to have to just do it and be uncomfortable with redirecting kids. "Sit back down." "The expectation that you raise your hand." "Yep, try again." You're not shaming anyone, you're not yelling at anyone. You're being firm. You're holding your boundaries. Warm but firm.
I also think it's important for your students to know, no matter what your vibe words are, that you're, like, being responsive to them. Kind and fun and happy and nice, that's not going to make your students, like, you as a teacher, appreciate you, respect you as a teacher. Being responsive to them, their needs, that's going to make them respect you and like you. If you're concerned about them liking you. What that might sound like in a classroom is, like, "Man, recess was so chaotic or practicing hallway was so chaotic. Let's take some quiet time. Let's just watch this jellyfish video or do some mindful breathing, something." "We're going to go run through our cafeteria expectations. I have everyone's lunch number right here on my keychain. I don't want anyone to be stressing out about, you know, their lunch number or not getting lunch. I want to make sure that we know where to go for dismissal. I don't want anyone stressing out about, 'I don't know where to go, I don't know if my car is going to be here.'" See how you're, like, checking in with their emotions and you're responding to them? I really want you guys to be comfortable working with each other, working with anyone, maybe if you don't even know each other. So, let's do some team-building activities. Let's do, you know, some group work activities.
Okay, and then here, here are our team rules. Our grade-level team and our team planning right now, here's our rules for the first day of school. Our rule number one, don't lose a kid. Fifth grade, it's that doesn't happen as much, but rule number one, don't lose a kid. If you don't lose a kid, you had a great first day of school. Rule number two, team, we are taking our lunch no matter what on the first day of school. If someone didn't come for cafeteria duty, send somebody out there to go find someone for cafeteria duty, we are taking our lunch on the first day of school. We are humans with basic needs. Rule number three, team, we are also going to roll with the punches, read the room. If my plans were all laid out perfectly and I'm like forcing a square peg to fit into a round hole, I'm going to pause and read the room for a second. Let's do a brain break. Hey, let's go outside and practice recess and then play a game of Red Rover, something. Rule number four, this is mostly for me, we got to work on learning those names. Try to use names as often as you can. And rule number five, this is something that I would have written on sticky notes, on my computer, on my desk. My priorities, when I get overwhelmed, when I get flustered, when it feels like it's too much on the first day of school, I'm going to bring it back. My priorities are safety, community, and making my classroom a comfortable space. And how do you do that? I'm so glad you asked. We are going to do that with our routines and procedures.
So, team, let's talk about which routines we want to do on day one and two. Yes? I don't know about you guys, the one that I am teaching on the first day of school, like, almost immediately, we sit down and we're doing that Skittle activity. I'm going to teach my students my attention getter. When you know what hits the fan on the first day of school, you always, no matter where you are, you need a way to be able to get your students back under your control. They're out of control, you come and ask me how to help you, I I don't know. I don't know how to help you. I know that I've taught my students how to respond to my voice. And here's how I do it. Hey, when I need y'all's attention, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to hold up my hand and you're going to hear me start counting down from five. Sometimes it's going to be from 10, sometimes it's going to be from three. When you hear my voice start counting down, I want you to think, "Oh, shoot. She's about to say something important. I'm going to start wrapping up my conversation. I'm going to start wrapping up whatever I'm doing." By the time I get to zero, I want to see everyone's eyes on me, there's nothing in their hands, and they're ready to follow directions. Let's practice, shall we? I want you guys to give them some turn and talk topic, and then practice your attention getter. They're probably going to nail it the first time. You're going to use it multiple times throughout the day. Ooh, I noticed that we were not all silent by the time I got to zero. Let's practice again. Do it again. Let's practice again. Okay, I got 100% of eyes on me this time. That's the expectation. You're laying the groundwork now, so you don't have to worry about it come October. I suggest finding somewhere in your first day of school plans, plugging that in there somewhere. Plugging in teaching your attention getter right there in the morning on day one.
The next routine that I'm teaching on day one is recess, and like I said, lunch in the cafeteria. I'm going to make sure that I am checking the building schedule because I know kindergarten is probably going to be in there practicing, going through cafeteria. There's usually a very small window when fifth grade can squeeze in to go practice running through the lunch line. Same with the playground for recess. In the cafeteria, we are going through things like their lunch numbers, that we are silent in line, what is, like, appropriate behavior in the food line, how to carry our lunch trays, where we're sitting, how we throw away our trash, what our tables should look and sound like, what hand signals are we using, when do we need to get the teacher's attention, voice levels. And then at recess, the big one that we're going to practice is them responding to our attention getter and lining up. If you've been with me for a while, if you know me well, you know that I hate recess duty. I every year I haven't done recess duty in years because I always switch with my team to do lunch duty. I will take lunch duty any day over recess duty. But I do know that they're covering things like where they're allowed to play on the playgrounds, how they should be playing on the playgrounds, how to use the equipment appropriately, how and where to line up, when they should line up. Anyways, you won't catch me at recess. Like I said, we're also going to do our tour of the building and practice those hallway expectations. At my campus, I have never seen another campus have as rigid of expectations around the hallway as my campus, and that's because we need it. My campus needs that structure. So, while we're taking that tour of the building, I'm giving them our expectations for our hallway procedure, I'm giving reinforcements, redirecting, giving verbal praise as we're walking around the hall. And then like I said, we are also going to cover dismissal. We're I'm going to do, like, a full pack up and dismissal, but we're at least going to go to our different dismissal locations and talk about what that's going to look like at least on day one. Because what's rule number one of first day of school? Don't lose a kid.
Okay, your homework assignment for today is to plan out what are, like, your ride-or-die must-do safety routines. Mine is lunch, recess, hallway, and dismissal. Oh, and my attention getter, of course. And like I said, we need to roll with the punches on day one, so plan, like, in your planner when you're going to teach those routines, but just know you might need to be a little bit flexible there. And for routines on day two, I'm going to teach my students my pack-up routine. I don't play when it comes to my pack-up routine. My first year in the classroom traumatized me. My mentor team lead that year helped me, and my routine really has not changed in that whole 13 years. Pack-up is a notoriously chaotic time in elementary schools. If you struggle with behavior, if you struggle with a chatty classroom, you're going to have to clamp down on pack-up and dismissal. Pack-up and dismissal is a routine where I have written out my expectations ahead of time. I made an anchor chart ahead of time, and I'm going to teach my students step one, this is what you're going to do. This is what how I want it to look. I don't want you to be doing this. We're not going to be doing this. Again, this is what this will look like. You will sit down. You'll be silent. You'll be waiting for me to call you to, like, I'm telling them step by step what they're going to do.
I'm also going to teach my students my morning routine or, you know, since I'm departmentalized, our entry routines, like switching classes. That is also another routine that I swear by. I do not play about it. It really sets the tone for your classroom management. It's very much first impression, setting the tone for what you will and won't allow. What, like, the academic, social vibe is for your classroom. I'm actually over on Patreon. You know I do my extended cut office hours over on Patreon. Today, along with answering two viewer questions, I'm also going to show you guys my morning routine and go through exactly how I do it. It was one of my very first viral videos back when I used to, like, vlog in my classroom. My morning routine was the first video where I was like, "Whoa, okay. People are really into this." I don't know if soft start or slow start was a thing before I posted about this, but I know that it's certainly I started seeing a trend of this happen in classrooms, um, in recent years as far as morning routines goes. We had, like, a weekly rotating schedule Monday through Friday of what our students were doing. It was so calm, so vibey. I swear it is what made me the teacher I am today. Anyways, come join us over on Patreon for office hours if you want to see, like, what the morning routine is all about.
I'm also going to try to teach my students how we want to do morning meeting, what our expectations are for morning meeting, and I'm also going to teach my students what my expectations are for talking in my classroom. For this lesson, I do it, like, morning meeting style. It's It's one of those routines which I talked about in the last video where you're doing, like, a collaborative discussion and you're letting the students kind of generate the expectations, but you already have your expectations written down and you're kind of guiding them to get there. We wind up making a lovely anchor chart of our talking expectations that we can hang up in our classroom, and the students have a lot of buy-in because they helped create those expectations. Their voice is included in those expectations. And you have very clear criteria for when you do and when you don't talk. And hopefully, if you've been watching my videos, you know what I'm talking about from the last one. If you don't have those clear expectations, it's not just, "Well, I told my students they can't talk, so they shouldn't talk." That's not what I'm saying. You need those clear expectations so that you can redirect and then follow up as needed. If you've been watching my videos consistently, you should be like, "Oh, yeah, connecting the dots."
Okay, and then in the following days, as I get to them, this is kind of, like, going with the flow. We're going to be doing those housekeeping routines, things like pencils, bathroom, tissue, where extra papers are stored, things like that. We're going to cover our snack time routine because I don't know about it y'all's schools, but in my school, fifth grade lunch is very late in the day. I think that's pretty normal. So, we have a snack time in the morning. The bread and butter to my classroom are must-do and can-do work format. I use that for literally everything. We're going to cover that routine. Obviously, we're going to cover, like, our bathroom break expectations and, like, fire drills, evacuations, lockdowns. New teachers, you don't need to stress about, like, Chromebooks, devices, library, those things in the first few days of school. Those typically come, like, the second week. You know, there there are a lot of routines that you can teach as they come up, if that makes sense. For example, those instructional routines like setting up your notebooks, um, shopping for books in the classroom library, doing your math workshop, collaborative group roles. There are so many routines. If y'all have seen my checklist, it's a freebie, my routines and procedures checklist, I will, of course, link it in the description for you guys. It's two pages long, double-columned. There are so many routines that you don't realize you have to teach. I'm not getting to all of those on day one and two. Those take me, like, sometimes up to three weeks to cover everything. And if you are so overwhelmed by, like, "I don't know how to do these things." I made a document because of that problem. Teachers saying, like, "I I don't know how to write a routine. I don't know what my students, you know, will understand and won't understand." I have two documents. One of them's called "No Detail Left Behind." For every routine and procedure on my checklist, I wrote questions underneath or, like, prompts underneath to get you to think about, like, "Oh yeah, what should their voice levels be? Oh yeah, what should their bodies be doing? Oh yeah, should they be doing this, you know, from their seats? Where should, like, there's so many questions to help you write your own routine." The example breakdown is how it looked in my classroom. I'm literally writing out my procedures from my classroom for everything on that checklist. Not because I think it was perfect, but a lot of people were asking because they needed to know, like, "What do other teachers do? How does a veteran teacher do this?" Both those documents, I've heard, are very helpful. I will link them in the description for you guys.
We are so productive in our planning session today. So, those are the routines that I teach in the first few days of school. Let's talk about, like, community-building activities for the first few days of school. So again, if you've been following along this summer, in video one, I gave you guys a homework assignment to scour the internet, go on social media, go on Pinterest, talk to your team, find some community-building activities. However, I told you to find, like, a variety of formats. Some where they're sharing things, like they did, like, some independent work and then they shared individually, meeting with different people and collaborating in pairs, they are working in groups, you're getting to know them, they're getting to know you, like, lots of different formats, right? In my first week of school, in my first few days of school, I'm trying to hit all those different community-building formats. I want a collaborative classroom, so that means that my students are working together. That means my students are working in table groups. Believe it or not, I've never really had the problem of students, like, refusing to work together. Sure, there's been an exception of, like, you know, one kid who doesn't get along with his table group, but in general, I can put students in any grouping and they know how to work together. Grumpy, crabby, surly fifth graders. Yes, it's possible. I credit all of these community-building activities to that, like, working. Like I said, first day of school, we do that lame Skittle activity. I shouldn't say it's lame. Like, I've used it for years, obviously it works. It has a very low social risk. That's why I use it. We're doing the "Find Someone Who" where students are not sitting in a circle sharing, you know, you know, one-on-one with the group. They're milling about the classroom asking them things like on their checklist, also very low social risk. I might have them do something from their back-to-school packet. I might assign them a certain page and then have them share those with their shoulder partner or at their table groups on day one just so that we get comfortable, like, sharing with our tables.
Your homework for this section of our lesson today is to plan out two things. One, plan out a community-building activity for, like, first thing in the morning, getting to know everyone's names, you telling them who you are, something low social risk, something that's going to make them feel comfortable first thing in the morning. Then choose something else for later in the day. With more experience as a teacher, you'll have an idea of, okay, my students need something where they're able to mill about the classroom and talk to each other. Or this group's a little bit more shy, they don't really know each other that well, you might want to choose an activity that's a little bit more lower lift, if that makes sense. Like I said, my two activities are get-to-know-you Skittles right away and in the afternoon "Find Someone Who" where they get to move about the classroom. It's collaborative and we're moving. Day two community building in my classroom, like I said, is that um we do that silent dot activity. Again, it's movement, it's interactive. Like I said, we might use those groups from their silent dot activity to do those "House of Cards," you know, the index cards where they write something they had in common. We're going to do our group discussion, our morning meeting style lesson on our talking expectations when we talk versus times that we're silent. There are also a lot of other, like, collaborative morning meeting style lessons that I like to do with my class. In the beginning of the year, I will do these with all three of my classes. Yes, that will slow us down on my content pacing calendar, but I'm going to be behind on my content pacing calendar all year if my students don't know how to work together, if my students won't shut up, if my students are disrespectful and out of control. So, I'm doing again, I'm going to do a lot of work at the beginning of the year to make sure that we can get our lives together the rest of the year. I do a lot of lessons on respect, how we like to be respected, what respect might look like at school versus other places, home, with your friends, with your family. What does respect look, sound, and feel like? I usually do one on the teachers' job and the students' jobs. I always do a lesson on appropriate greetings because you guys know it's one of my favorite Teach Like a Champion strategies where you stand doorway and like filter students into your door by greeting them. All of my switching classes, my homeroom, when we come back from specials, I'm greeting them at the door. It's like a super powerful classroom management strategy. And then also with all three of my classes, we're doing our classroom rules. How do I do my classroom rules, you ask? I'm going to walk you guys through that process in just a minute.
If you are like, "Oh my god, I want to do these morning meeting lessons. I want to have these, like, collaborative discussions and let my students come up with expectations for how they're going to respect each other." It gives such good buy-in, student voice and choice. Just the process alone is a great responsive community-building activity. All of these are listed out, like, kind of like lesson plan format in my morning meeting starter guide. I will link that in the description for you guys. You want a discount code? Sure, I'll give you a discount code.
Okay, let's talk about, like, coming up with classroom rules, what that process looks like. Okay, so this activity has morphed throughout the years, but essentially, it all came from an activity in the first six weeks of school. The way they have it in the book is by giving students this, like, principal activity on day one or day two, and it's called "My Hopes and Dreams." Some years I have used that, like, physical printout. Other years we've just had, like, a morning meeting discussion. Essentially, you're asking students, "What are some problems you've experienced in school in recent years?" Students might reflect on, you know, like, true classroom management issues where kids are just out of control. Kids might reflect on them having problems, you know, in math. Kids might reflect on social issues that they had, recess issues, friend issues. So, either using that worksheet where kids, you know, write their struggles from last year, or in your discussion where students are sharing those things, you then shift to, like, "Okay, so what are your goals for this year then? What would you love to see for yourself this year?" Again, kids might think, like, academic things, friend goals, whatever it is. On the actual worksheet, there's a place for that. They can illustrate a picture, they can write about it, or you can just have your students share. "What would you like to experience this year?" Kids say things like, you know, "I want to, um, feel more confident with division. I always lost my work last year. I want to be more organized this year. I sat alone every day at lunch last year. I would really like to have some people I can sit with at lunch. I was always in trouble last year because I was never paying attention. This year I want to do better with paying attention." That is a situation where I do prefer the worksheet because that one can kind of take some think time on the kids' parts, you know, reflecting on what they want for the year. So, I usually do make copies of this sheet that's in here. I give it out on day two. They work on it, you know, in the afternoon on day two. They work on it in the morning on day three, and then we have a morning meeting on day three about it. They bring their paper with them and we share. Even if they're not finished with it, they still at least have an idea of what they want to accomplish this year and we'll share that.
So, as students share these things, my next question is, "Okay, so what are some things that we can set up in our classroom? What are What are, like, some systems or some rules that we could set in our classroom that will help us accomplish these things? We want friends at lunch. We want to be able to talk to anyone at lunch. A lot of our supplies got broken last year and we couldn't use scissors and glue anymore. What could be a rule for that? I really struggled with math last year and I felt like I could never get the teacher's attention and I could never get help from the teacher because she was always dealing with whatever was going on over there." Kids are taking think time to think about, like, how we can solve those problems. "Wow, y'all were really chaotic during pack up last year. So, a rule that we could come up with would be, 'Sure, stay in your seat.'" And I'm writing down what my students are sharing. That's what's going on our anchor chart. "Oh, we were always caught up in friend drama last year. Okay. Oh, no, and it trickled over into the classroom. What's a rule we could come up with to solve that problem? We come to school to learn, not play with our Nidos. We want to get better at division this year. We're really going to have to." What could we do? "Sure, give your best effort." Kids will start generating, like, a ton of ideas for classroom rules. Doesn't matter what they say. You might need to, like, change the wording a little bit, but you're writing down everything they said. "Be silent and listen when someone's talking." "Follow the teacher's directions." "Keep your hands to yourself." "Let others learn." "Always walk in the classroom." Like, they'll be able to come up with rules. And then you're going to realize, "Oh my god, I have all these sticky notes. Look at all of these amazing rules you guys came up with. I'm starting to notice, like, a theme here. All of these rules kind of fit into three different categories." You could let the students talk about what those categories might be. They can talk in pairs. They can talk in table groups. They can share out if they're sitting in a circle. These rules, like, help others have to do with, like, like kindness. And you can start grouping them on your anchor chart. Hmm, "Share and be considerate." That sounds like it, like, a kindness rule. But then there's rules like this. "Always walk in the classroom." That's not so much kindness. That's more like being safe. Sounds like a safety rule. "Push in your chair." Sounds like a safety rule. "Keep your hands to yourself." Yeah, that's kind of kindness, but it's also kind of safety, right? Let's put that one in safety. And then there's a third category I'm noticing. What about this one? "Be prepared with your stuff." "Challenge yourself." "Let others learn." These are all rules kind of around learning. So, all of our rules fit under three categories, either learning, safety, or well-being. And you can either, like, grab the sticky notes individually and sort them with the kids, or you could grab the sticky notes and pass them out to a table group. Here, sort those. Safety, learning, well-being. And then have those table groups share. You could simply hold up a sticky note and they can show you, like, a hand signal, safety, learning, well-being, whatever. I'll put a finished product up on the screen for you guys. You're basically going to generate one rule that is, "We respect ourselves and each other's safety, learning, and well-being." And that covers everything. And then you have, like, all these little details underneath that. One time I got points off on my evaluation because I wrote the sticky notes. You could have the students write their ideas on the sticky notes. My assistant principal said, you know, it would show more, like, student involvement, student ownership, if the students' writing was on the chart. So, yes, you could have students write on the sticky notes and place those. When we're done with our charts, I laminate it with those sticky notes, like, smashed down under the laminator, and we have that up in our classroom all year. Yes, one rule works for me because my classroom does not run on a rule, my classroom runs on, like, a system. What is that system? Routines and procedures, right?
Speaking of which, one of my most commonly asked questions this summer has been, "What do I do with all of my anchor charts?" Like, all of my routines, expectations, procedures anchor charts. So, one, I leave one of my I have two big whiteboards, one of them is for anchor charts. Two, I will, like, stack them up. I'll, like, put ones on top of these and, like, rotate them as needed. So, if I just taught our pack-up routine and it's on an anchor chart, which it will be, we're going to leave that one up for, like, a week. Once we kind of have that, I might cover it up and do, like, um, our Chromebook routine or our snack time routine, whatever it is. So, yes, one, I do have a lot of anchor charts up. We love a print-rich environment, right? Two, they're not always up. I kind of rotate them, if that makes sense. You do want to have them up because, like I said, you need to be able to refer to them. And if you don't have them up, what expectations can you refer to when you're redirecting? Oh, you guys told me use kind words. Is Cybelle using kind words? No. It's nice to refer to that, right?
Okay, you guys are not new students of mine anymore. You guys know where I'm headed. I'm headed to office hours. How do you get up to office hours? Patreon. It's linked in the description for you guys. Like I said, over in office hours, it's like an extended cut. It's a little bit less polished, a little bit more, like, face-to-face. It's office hours. You're meeting with your professor, that's me, for one-on-ones, for tutorials, for, like, the real behind-the-scenes talk. I already said I'm going to go over my morning routine. Like I said, when I was vlogging, that, like, went viral and I was like, "Oh, okay, the people like this." Two, I'm answering two viewer questions today. This first question, I'm not reading it like as a flex. This first question is so real. She says, "The knowledge I've gained from my videos and resources has given her the confidence to go back into teaching after she left the classroom due to traumatic years just full of behaviors, no support, and minimal practical knowledge on classroom management from her teacher prep program." Like, that's why we're here. That's why we're here because you're not alone. Like, that is, unfortunately, the common experience. She says, "One thing I've been wondering about is what do you do and recommend regarding motivation and reward/incentives um outside of relationships and verbal praise. Obviously, I'd love for my students to be intrinsically motivated all the time, but that isn't realistic, right? However, I don't love the idea of rewarding for expected behavior, good grades, etc. The school I just hired at PBIS school and uses ClassDojo a lot, and the teachers use the points as currency for their class stores. Do you recommend something similar or have you seen / used better systems? What would you reward for and what would those rewards look like as far as like tangible privileges goes. Thank you so much." Really good question. Very, like, relatable and realistic, very real.
The other question I'm answering today in office hours is, "Ooh, this person obviously watched video one. I want a collaborative classroom, but I have found that in group work, despite assigning roles and going over those, often my students with disabilities sit back and let others do the work. The work can be at their frustration level. Tips on this would be super helpful." Also, a very good question. I know a lot of you guys out there are like want to do table groups, and they just don't work for you. Talking, obviously, is like the first problem that we have to tackle. Two, yes, relying on others, like, not doing the work. Great questions. Again, I'm going to go answer those over on office hours. I hope you join us, but if not, I will see you all next time.