A well organized classroom with clear procedures and consistent consequences sets the stage for a great year. Here are my top 3 tips for the back-to-school season.
A PLACE for EVERYTHING and EVERYTHING in its PLACE
Organization is key! I can’t stress this enough--a well organized classroom is crucial for a successful year. A disorganized classroom can cause the class to feel chaotic. It can also overwhelm students who have sensory issues. Having too many things out and around a student can be overstimulating and cause their brain to focus on the mess rather than the message.
I always find that when I have visited other teachers' classrooms who weren’t the most organized, I spend my time looking at all the things out of place and piles of papers deciding how I would organize them if this were my classroom instead of listening to the teacher. Talk about an OCD, Type A personality. (Hey….I’m trying to do better!)
Places such as Walmart, Dollar Tree, Amazon, and many, many others have such cute organizational items for the classroom, you can just about go anywhere to grab some and get your classroom looking great and organized at the same time.
With specialized bins, baskets, buckets, and boxes (shout out to alliteration) holding items in their forever home, you can instill procedures in your classroom to keep everything organized. However, keep in mind that without the proper procedures, the room will get messy quickly and you will be more like a maid cleaning up after your students than a teacher…so teach your students how to keep your classroom clean and organized.
Plan for EVERYTHING! (more procedures with link-the down-low on classroom procedures)
Plan for everything, not just your lessons. Try to think of every procedure or possible situation and make a plan before school even starts. This will do two things. First, it will help your students understand how you and your classroom work and what your expectations are from day 1. Second, it will keep you consistent when dealing with your students. So it may seem like overkill at the beginning of the year, but it will be worth it to start off your classroom on the right foot.
I’ve seen teachers try to make up procedures and/or consequences as they go throughout the year, and it never ends well. The students don’t know what to expect and the teacher isn’t able to be consistent amongst the students.
If you can help it, don’t wait until the year starts to begin thinking about what you want your procedures to be. A good idea is to start thinking about what you want in the summer, jot those down, and keep a running list, so that by the time the teacher in-service starts for the new year, you will have almost everything planned out.
Because this task can be overwhelming for some teachers, especially new teachers, there are many places online where you can get a free list of procedures you should have in place and some lists are very detailed. I would also recommend making procedures for everything whether you anticipate needing it or not because it's always better to have a plan in place and not need it than to need a plan and don’t have it.
The good news is that once your list is made you’ll be able to use it year after year. Even if you move grade levels, schools, districts, etc. you should only have to make minor changes to fit with your new classroom.
You can also see what works and what doesn’t and make plans to change some of your procedures around for the next year. If you are having trouble thinking of ideas or not sure what will work best, the best place to get ideas is from your fellow teachers, especially the veteran teachers.
Consequences, Consequences, Consequences
Once you have your procedures in place it's time to think about what the consequences will be. What will you do if a student doesn’t follow a rule or procedure correctly? Many of your procedures will only need gentle reminders throughout the year, but there will be some that will require a stronger consequence.
A good rule of thumb is to ensure the punishment fits the infraction. In other words, small infractions should not have heavy consequences. This may mean sometimes you have to get creative with the consequences.
For example, if a student cannot stay in his seat, then the punishment could be that he has to stand at his desk for the entire class time the next day instead of getting to use his chair. Hopefully, after having to stand for a while he will appreciate the ability to use his chair.
Another example, if a student cannot keep her hands to herself or talking to her neighbors, she will have to sit alone in the corner of the room during class the next day and not have the ability to interact with her classmates; again, hopefully the isolation will help her realize that following the rules/procedures allows her to be a part of the group.
And of course, make sure you have a multi-level consequence plan, so if a student continues to break the same rule over and over, their consequences will become more and more severe.
Your consequence list should also be well thought out, so I would start thinking about this in the summer as well. Keeping a list until school starts. The internet is a good place to find some ideas, and as always, ask colleagues for ideas or what works in their classroom.
Hopefully, these 3 tips can help you start off the new school year with a bang. If you are looking for ideas for classroom organization, procedures, or classroom management check out these resources. Looking for ideas? Check out this list of procedures and list of consequences
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