How To Begin Each Day On The Right Classroom Management Foot

Can you tell if you’re going to have a long behavior day within the first few minutes of the morning bell?

Most teachers can.

Dark clouds on the horizon will appear before your students even sit down.

Maybe it’s in the way they enter the classroom—unrestrained voices, excitable energy, careless silliness.

Maybe it’s when you find yourself rushing around, directing behavior, just trying to get them to settle down.

Whatever the signs, a day that starts off on the wrong foot tends to stay that way.

Unless, that is, you don’t leave it to chance.

How To Set The Tone

The first few minutes of the school day set the behavioral tone for the rest of it. It’s not something you want to cross your fingers over.

Hope, after all, is never a good classroom management strategy.

It’s better to know your students will be focused and ready for learning… before they even walk through the door. Here’s how to start every school day on the right classroom management foot:

Make it a procedure.

Make the first ten minutes or more of the school day one seamless procedure. Your students should know exactly what to do, and be busy doing it, until it’s time for you to teach your first lesson of the day.

Model it.

Model your opening procedure as if you’re a student. Start outside your classroom–with backpack on–and walk through the entire routine as your students follow closely behind. Show them precisely what you want.

Use the how-not strategy.

Now show your student how not to come in the classroom. Think of the behaviors you’ve seen from your students that you don’t want—and model them. This reverse modeling is so effective that you’ll rarely see any unwanted behavior that you’ve previously modeled for your students.

Have a student model it.

Now ask one student to model the same procedure. Watching a classmate successfully complete the procedure cements learning and eliminates excuses for not doing it correctly. Choose a not-so-perfectly behaved student in order to make the modeling lesson most effective.

Practice it.

Take all of your students outside the classroom with their backpacks and let them practice the procedure from start to finish. You’ll simply observe and make corrections along the way.

Repeat it.

Repeat the procedure a second time regardless of how well they performed during the first. If they’re able to do it with only minimal reminders, then they should be ready roll in real time the next morning.

Use the do-it-again strategy.

Your job is to make sure the procedure is done right. So every day watch closely as your students work their way through the procedure. If ever you don’t like what you see, send them back outside and have them to do it again.

Line up outside.

If your class doesn’t typically line up outside your room before school, I recommend you require them to. By having your students come in together, you can more easily associate the inside of your classroom with doing things the right way.

Greet first.

It’s important to greet your students first thing in the morning, but without interfering with their routine. Therefore it’s best to meet them at their line before school begins. Hang out, chat, and enjoy being with them–with no strings attached.

Good Day Sunshine

Starting each day with a detailed procedure is a simple way to ensure your students are ready for learning.

It gets them thinking less about themselves, their neediness, and what you can do for them, and more on their responsibilities.

It also weans them from dependence on you, eliminates distraction-causing misbehavior, and keeps them goal oriented and zeroed in on excellence.

Best of all, it guarantees you a bright, sunshiny day.

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