Thinking through procedures is a lot of work. Teaching those procedures is even more! But what happens when we don't spend time and energy on procedures? Listen in as Linda shares why not prioritizing procedures will sabotage your classroom management.
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The Importance of Classroom Procedures
Today we're talking about the number one mistake teachers make when it comes to procedures in the classroom, and this is one that can seriously make or break your classroom and your classroom management. And here's the mistake. Too often we as teachers do not insist that our procedures are followed. In fact this can have really devastating consequences that go far beyond what you might realize.
Getting Rid of Chaos
Why? When a classroom has good procedures and they're followed consistently, it creates a relatively smooth running classroom, or at least it diminishes a lot of chaos. On the other hand, if procedures are haphazard, meaning they're not really well thought through, or they're not followed consistently by the students, that leads to a whole lot of chaos.
Now, let's understand why. If we have a procedure for lining up, it's supposed to make that smooth and not chaotic. Likewise we have a procedure for when students enter our classroom at the beginning of a period, it's supposed to reduce chaos. So when our students follow the procedure, it does reduce chaos. When they don't follow it or when the procedure just isn't very good, then there is more chaos.
Send Students The Right Message
The second reason is that how we uphold or enforce our procedures sends intangible signals to our students about how seriously we take our classroom and how seriously they need to take it.
So if we set a procedure for coming into the classroom and we tell our students what is expected, but then we don't actually insist that they do it, or do it completely, we are subtly saying they donโt really need to follow the procedure. We are intangibly saying that the procedures are not important.
Take the classroom seriously
Because of that, we are saying we donโt take our classroom seriously. And when students start to pick up on those signals, they don't just apply it to procedures, they apply it to other things like rules and work.
Whenever we are not upholding procedures in the classroom, we're setting a tone that we really don't want to set. On the other hand, when we do take them seriously, and insist they are done correctly, that sends very good intangible signals to our students.
It says, โI take this seriously and you need to too. I mean what I say. We're going to actually stick with what we say in this classroom.โ All of those intangible signals, once again, don't just apply to procedures. Students realize we are going to hold them accountable in behavior and in schoolwork.
Set Yourself Up For Success
Now, does this solve every single classroom issue? No, but we're setting ourselves up much better to handle other issues. Those good intangible signals are going to have ripple effects one way or the other. Given that, we want those intangibles rippling in the right direction.
Are you really taking procedures seriously? What procedures can you think of where students half-follow them or even a third of the students don't do them? This is not sending the right message. What can you do?
Well, you can do two things. First, we're going to talk about creating high quality, helpful procedures in the classroom. Then we're going to talk about how to teach procedures (or reteach them) in the middle of the year.
Creating Effective Procedures
First of all, you want to make sure that the procedure is good. Take a moment and think right now of one area in your classroom where there is some chaos. Entering the room, cleaning up, transitioning activities, going to lunch. Now, the procedure is either not the best or it's not being followed.
The first thing you want to ask yourself about that is, is the procedure itself good or not? Sometimes the procedure itself is great, it's just not being followed. But sometimes the procedure is actually kind of problematic.
An Example
For example, if we have kids lining up to go to lunch or recess in an elementary classroom, but they are lining up right in front of the mailboxes that at the same time that I want students to put things in, that's not going to work because I'm going to have this continual traffic jam.
Or at the beginning of class students are coming in and they're not going straight to their desk. They're milling around, and it is causing all this chaos because we donโt have a good procedure in place.
In light of that, change the procedure. Begin by asking if there is a different procedure or is there a way to do the procedure a little differently that would work?
Teaching and Reinforcing Procedures
Explain
Practice
Correct
Redo
Where to begin
Troubleshoot + Keep Going
Practice and Have Grace
Procedures Make A Difference
Classroom Management Resources
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Frustration Ends Here!
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Need ideas on what procedures to actually teach?
In Classroom Procedures that will Save Your Sanity, you'll discover 50 procedures in just one hour that will help you make your classroom calmer & more efficient...and walk away with resources & templates to put them to practice easily!
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