While giving the January spelling assessment, I paused to look around the classroom and here's what I saw: Sara was yawning. Ben held his head in his hands. Julie's head was down on her paper, and Justin was tapping his pencil while jiggling his feet under his chair. It was not a picture of first graders doing their best to "show what they know" about all they'd learned in spelling. I knew I had to stop and do something to get them all back in the groove. Movement breaks to the rescue!
The school year is drawing to a close. It’s been a year filled with many learning experiences for the children and for you. Though learning doesn’t end just because school does, it’s good to help children bring a sense of closure to the year of classroom learning. This article highlights the benefits of doing so and offers some suggestions that you can easily adapt for children of different ages.
Closure activities help wrap up the year on a positive note and provide children with many benefits:
A: A few years ago I decided to make sure my class would have time for saying goodbye on the last day of school. To help them prepare, the night before I gave them “thinking homework,” asking them to reflect on what they remembered about the school year and to be ready to share their memories with the class.
Our appreciation for social media grew quite a bit when we asked "Educators, how was the day?" on the Responsive Classroom Facebook page on Monday afternoon, and over 100 people responded. We were so glad to hear from you! Your stories reflect the range of what elementary educators are going through this week after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Recently I left my coat in a classroom in northern California, lost the cover for my Blackberry somewhere between California and Greenfield, Massachusetts, and made a pot of soup for dinner that was inedible. There was a time in my life when mistakes like these would have left me undone. I would have felt mortified and chastised myself for days. One of the blessings of aging is that I'm learning to be easier on myself when I make mistakes.
As we approached testing season, the already anxiety-prone fourth graders I teach began asking questions about test dates, format, and content. These signs of stress, combined with antsiness brought on by the arrival of long-awaited spring weather and a week of spring break, all came at once this year. I was feeling stressed, too. I had a lot to "get through" before our standardized state testing in May, and I felt pressured to get the information out as quickly as possible.
A: Edward often clowned around during work times, keeping everyone from getting work done. When logical consequences didn’t help, I decided to try a problem-solving conference. I thought this might be effective because Edward could get defensive at times, and in this conference I could begin by naming the positive aspects of his humor.
One key to success with routines is helping students understand that by following routines, they make their classroom and school a better place to be. When students understand this, they're more likely to feel invested and to take more responsibility for their behavior. We teachers need to clearly explain to students why routines matter, and we need to establish clear expectations and teach students how to meet those expectations. Then we need to share responsibility for following routines with our students.
Here are some ways to help students become more invested in routines:
(This is one of a series of posts about reteaching everyday classroom routines, such as lining up or responding to the quiet signal.)
Once you and your students have gotten classroom routines back under control, the key to keeping them crisp is paying attention! This is what makes the effort you've put into teaching and practicing everyday skills pay off. It's unrealistic to expect children to maintain the standards you’ve set without support from you. Instead of waiting until things start slipping again, try some of these ideas:
It's never too late to revisit or reteach any classroom routine. In fact, here's a story from the Responsive Classroom newsletter by a teacher who started her whole year over in November!
