Summer is nearing an end and you might be feeling the start of school jitters. Everyone seems to get them. That tingling sensation in your gut. It is excitement and anxiety rolled up into a nice little knot in your gut. Students are sad summer is over. Teachers are sad too, but there is also an eagerness. New faces, a whole other year of things to do and learn! There is so much to look forward to this school year! A good start can make all the difference. So lets talk about how to get the school year off to an excellent beginning.
Read the “First Days of School” by Harry Wong*. If you haven’t read it yet, you need to. I do not recommend very many education books, but this one is a must read for every educator. Mr. Wong describes the essentials for starting off every school year. The first few days set the tone for the whole year. So make sure the tone you set is the one you want.
*Biologicool is not associated with Harry Wong, we just like his work!
Everyone is different and every classroom will have a different feel. Some teachers are strict and other teachers are loose. You have to decide how strict or how loose you want to be. But I will just go ahead and say it. You are going to think I’m crazy or that maybe this doesn’t need to be said. But I think it is the most important thing in this blog post. It will solve many problems before they arise. Do what you say you will do.
That sounds simple. Of course, I do what I say I am going to do. You said you would send the next kid who talks to the principals office. Then Jimmy gets back from the bathroom and asks why everyone is so quiet… The key to doing what you say is to be careful about what you say you will do.
Start with boundaries. Define your boundaries now, before students show up. Some things you might think about:
When are you going to work?
Will you work the week ends? Nights?
When can students show up for tutorials?
How late will you take student late work?
How quickly will you grade assignments?
Some of these things will be defined by your administration. As always, follow your school guidelines. Don’t think you can get out of duty because you read a blog saying you should set boundaries. It probably won’t fly. At the same time, teaching is a marathon. A years long, slow paced, slog to the finishline. If you don’t pace yourself you are sure to end up on the sidelines. Possibly curled up in a ball crying. We don’t want that. So to make sure that does not happen, set boundaries and stick with them. Clear consistent boundaries help your classroom run smoother and reduce your workload.
By that I mean, you don’t have to think about how you will deal with this particular situation. You decided already. Now you just have to stick to your choices. There are always exceptions. Of course, but most of the time keep your boundaries. In fact, if you don’t have a good reason for breaking a boundary (crying children do not count) stick with your boundaries. Do not go to the Saturday meeting because your principal thought it would be a good idea. You are not getting paid for that. You don’t have to do it. Unless you are getting paid for it, or it is in your contract… You get the idea.
Work needs boundaries, but so does your classroom. You need to decide how you will handle discipline before the first kid ever shows up. Here are some things you should consider:
Procedural Stuff
How do students leave for potty breaks? Do they need to sign out? Do they need a pass?
What kinds of penalties will you put on late work?
What do you do with assignments that have no name?
How are you going to take attendance each day?
What do you do when someone is absent? How will they get their assignments?
Discipline Stuff
What do you do when someone breaks classroom rules?
What do you do when someone breaks school rules?
What do you do when someone breaks lab safety rules?
What do you do for dresscode violations?
What about tardies?
Many of these questions will be answered by your administration or if they do not have a set procedure in place, your administration can help you answer them. Just make sure you know the answer to these questions before school starts. You can get a free printable questionnaire with all of these questions and more here.
Maybe you are still thinking about how to set up your classroom. Well I will tell you my answers. Your answers don’t have to match mine, but maybe they can help you in some way.
Every day when students walk into the classroom, there is a this or that question in the hallway. I bought a little chalk board that can stand in the hallway. I write my questions on the chalkboard. It is just three words “Cats or Dogs” or sometimes, “Coke or Pepsi” or “Movies or TV Shows”. Simple questions that students can answer as they come in. It gives students a way to interact with me every day. It is simple and it works as a great icebreaker if students have real questions they need answered. You know like, “when is the homework due?”, or “did I miss anything yesterday?”
Once students enter the classroom, they are to get started on their word of the day and question of the day. I wrote about the word of the day in my last post. But I will give you a quick recap. Every day there is a new vocabulary word on the board. Under the word is the definition. Under the definition is the etymology of the word (if it would help students understand the word). Students should come in and copy the word, definition and etymology if there is one. Then students read and copy the word of the day. I should probably mention that I teach honors. My students are capable, used to, and expecting a challenge. If you have on-level students, you might ease them into this or choose a word of the day or a question of the day or break it up, one at the start and the other at the end of class.
About one minute before the bell rings for class to start I will remind students to complete the word of the day and the question of the day. Yes. I remind them every day. They are ninth graders who forgot what T-shrit they put on this morning. A little reminder isn’t going to hurt them. At the end of the year students will start rolling their eyes and saying my little phrase with me, “Don’t forget to complete your word of the day and your question of the day”. I even had students that would remind the class for me. I think they were hoping I wouldn’t remind them too… I reminded them again anyway.
At the start of class I preview what we are going to do and let students who are still finishing up the word and question of the day get a chance to finish. Then we do the lesson. I post all assignments and relevant material online. Sometimes there are manipulatives or it is easier to work with hard copies. In those cases, I pass out physical copies. Otherwise everything is online. Whether completed digitally or physically all work must be submitted online. My district uses Canvas, and requires us to post all assignments online. They don’t make students submit everything online, but I find if everything is turned in the exact same way EVERY SINGLE TIME. Then I cannot lose it and students always know where to turn things in. Yeah, that one kid will forget like 12 times and try to turn it in by hading it to me, but I just say, “Cool!” and hand it back. They look at me puzzled and say, “Aren’t you going to take my work.” and I say, “Everything is submitted online.” They look me in the eye while the cogs in their brain begin to turn. They remember what I said at the beginning of class (cause I remind them every day) then say, “Oh Yeah! I almost forgot!” and turn it in online.
At the end of class students write a summary of what they learned that day. Note it is “what they LEARNED” not what they did. Not how many TikToks they completed. The idea is for students to review the content. This helps them move what they learned form short term to long term. It also acts as a way for students to review. They can look at their summary and know what they covered in class.
That is basically what I do every day. This year I am trying something new. I have been doing card groups for years. If you aren’t sure what that is you can check it out for free here. But anyway, I am adding a little bit to it this year. I am going to give each student a different roll depending on their suit. It will look something like this:
Card table daily roles and responsibilities
Spades– team leader
Ensures everyone stays on task and brings any problems, questions, or concerns they cannot handle to the teacher.
Clubs– Word of the day and warm up reviewer.
They ensure everyone has completed the word of the day and lead the discussion of the question of the day.
Diamonds– Daily Summary checker.
They make sure everyone has completed and submitted the assignment and the daily summary before they leave. They help anyone who needs a reminder of what we talked about.
Hearts– Materials and Daily Clean Up.
They are responsible for getting all materials and ensuring they are returned every day. They also check the table and make sure everyone packs up their stuff and cleans up any messes that were made.
My hope is to get students to help students. The things I am asking them to do are things I want done in my classroom every day. Staying on task, completing the assignments, and keeping the classroom tidy are things everyone should want. I don’t think it is too much of an ask. I will rotate seats every unit or so students can rotate through the roles. Bing materials and clean up leader all year sounds awful. Necessary, but awful. This is way we should always be kind to our custodial staff. I will be sure to remind any student that complains.
When students are absent in my class it is their responsibility to find out what they missed. They can do this by going to Canvas. Because everything is posted on Canvas it means they can always see what we are doing, what we have done, and what is coming up. I know other teachers use folders and place extra worksheets in the folder for each day. Anyone who is absent can check those folders to find any work they need to complete. For most students these methods work just fine. If you have any accommodations for “reminders to stay on task” or the like, you might make special note of them. It is okay to remind students to visit these resources. I like to email students who are absent to give them a reminder and post any notes about what they need to do. This is especially true if we have a lab that cannot be done at home. In the email I will give details about the alternative assignment. I do not always have time to email so I make no promises to my students. The email is me being nice, it is not a requirement.
Before you read this section you should remember that I teach high schoolers. My discipline methods are specifically for high school. Those who teach a lower grade may find my methods not suitable for small children.
Prevention is the first line of defense. We want to be clear with our rules and expectations. The CHAMPS training is all about that (Biologicool is not affiliated with CHAMPS). Set clear guidelines and expectations. Give students a routine to help them flow through class. And always make sure you have engaging lessons to redirect students toward. You cannot expect students with nothing to do to always make good choices. Make sure you always have something educational (or educational-ish) for students to do. If you want some help in that department, check out the Biologicool TpT store.
I do not have frequent discipline issues in my class, but I will describe what I do when discipline needs to be handled. When students are misbehaving the first thing I do is attempt to redirect. This can be by distraction, “hey look at this work you have yet to start” or if we are in the hallway, “what is your answer to -insert this or that question of the day here-” or if we are somewhere else a dad joke or silly question. Having a few in your back pocket can help diffuse situations sometimes. I am going to be honest though. This does not always work. When it fails, I move to step two. Step two: directly address the issue. Students did not catch the hint at the redirection. I make sure they know what behavior they are doing that is not acceptable. “You are doing ___. A better choice would be to ___.” Most students after this step understand that what I was doing before was a soft redirect. They understand what needs to happen now and comply. But I am going to be honest though. This does not always work. Sometimes students do not want to do the thing you ask. So I move to step three. Step three: explain why their actions are poor choices and why the thing I want them to do is a better choice. That sounds like it is going to take a lot of on-the-fly thinking and quick wits. It does not. You can say, “If you keep doing ___ then -insert consequence here- will happen” good classroom consequences you can mention:
Most of the time I will actually explain why playing on their phone or listening to music instead of paying attention is really not the best choice for them. Or if they truely don’t understand how their actions are poor behavior, I will explain it to them. If I haven’t had enough sleep though I might skip the explanation. Nobody’s perfect.
Unless they are posing a clear and present threat to themself or someone else, this is where the discipline interaction ends. If they continue to make poor choices I follow through with the consequence I said. If not, then it ends there and I put it behind us. In all discipline interactions my goal is to de-escalate. That means calm the student down and get them focused. Safe learners learn better. I do not want students to feel like they are in a place that is going to attack them for no reason. I want students to feel like they have choice. Because we always have a choice. We can choose to make good choices or poor choices. We are the only ones who can decide what we will do.
Ok well, that was for minor discipline issues. Dress code, being off task, making a ruckus, and things of that nature. If students are in a full-blone fight or more likely, doing something unsafe in lab. I skip to step two. That is I address the issue right then. If students do not comply, I use the teacher voice. You know the one. The scary voice that compels students to behave. If you don’t have your teacher voice, you need to find it. Use it sparingly for maximum effect. For lab safety violations, I give one warning that comes with the direct redirect. If students continue to make poor lab safety choices, they are out of the lab and start the alternative assignment. I do not mess around with safety concerns. Students find this is my strictest set of rules. No closed toed shoes, no lab for you. Hair not tied back? NP I have a hair tie for you. Keep taking off your goggles? Here is the alternative lab. Have fun. (P.S. they are never as fun as the real lab).
If students fail to comply after that, I involve admin. Note, this is only for major discipline issues like fighting or lab safety. Things that pose a clear and present danger to students. Administrations is your last line of defense and once you involve them it is out of your hands. That can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing. Once you involve admin, admin is going to decide the consequences for the student. It also means they could give a consequence you do not agree with. If they do something less than what you would have done, it could undermine your authority causing you to lose report with your students. Remember, you have to see these students all year long… We also do not want to over tax our administration with every little issue. Admin are busy, they have jobs too. We need to respect that and only call on them when necessary. It sounds like I am backing away from using admin. But let me be clear here: if students are doing something dangerous and refuse to stop, please call for help. We all need back up sometimes.
Ok, that was a tough conversation. No one likes discipline. The best thing to do is avoid it. You can do that by ensuring you have well crafted lessons that engage students. Students who want to be doing what you have prepared for them will follow the rules. You can find resources to help you keep students engaged at my TpT store. Check out the Biologicool store here.
There is one more thing you might find helpful. What happens when you need to contact home? How can you do that? What does that look like? You can check out this free product that has sentence stems to help you get started emailing home.
