The Students are Here! Now What?
Truth Bite
The first week of school is always exciting and a little scary for both teachers and students. But there are a few things that you need to get done to insure smooth planning and learning into this new year.
Visionary Check
Collect Baseline Data
Core skill mapping will give you an exact starting line. It is imperative. It should not take long. Conduct one 5–7-minute check per core skill the first week. Save the results in a simple tracker. Now you are ready to go You will know who and what needs review and what you can dive straight into.
Truth Bite
Teach Procedures not Rules
What not to do comes later, first arm your students with what they ARE to do, and you will have much better luck implementing them.
Visionary Check
Procedures, Procedures, Procedures!
Procedures will take time. But procedures also assure you don't lose instructional time throughout the year. Sometimes it can even save your voice!
The procedures you need to include are varied depending on your class and what you teach. Most common are entry into the classroom, attention signals, transitions, where to find materials, how to put away materials, when to dispose of trash, bathroom procedures and activities for early finishers.
You may have more you want to include but remember to only teach one at a time per class or per subject if self-contained. You will need to model, practice and redo! And time them! Students love to beat the clock!
We will go into more detail about procedures and attention grabbers in next week's blog. But make sure you know what procedures you want to implement ahead of time this year. Your classroom management is at stake and your sanity will thank you.
