♪[theme music]
Good morning. My line looks so perfect already. Face forward for me, hands to your side.
Face forward for me, hands to your side, zero voice.
Thank you. Grab the line. Awesome.
Wow! Look at this.
Hands to your side, facing forward. Good morning Kiana, welcome.
Alright my friends, are we ready to go?
Yes. Alright, we're going to walk to the end of the ramp my friends. If you left
your backpack on the side...
So as opposed to getting started right away with standards, establish the culture
that's going to happen in your classroom throughout the year.
It allows students to feel comfortable and also to get them to understand what you
expect of them and then get to know how the classroom works. [teacher greeting]
Welcome. Look at that smile.
At the beginning of the day I always stand at the door and I greet students with either
a high five, a fist bump, a handshake, or a hug towards the end of the school year.
I just like to set my day off right with a positive tone.
Who doesn't want to have a nice, smiling face when they come in... for work basically.
This is their-their job you can consider. So when they come in, I like them to feel
like I want them here, that I've been waiting for them to get here. And I believe
that when you start your day off like that, you're setting them up for a positive day.
Right now we're going to get your desk organized first. Okay. So go ahead and take your
binder off and you can put it down next to your table, next to your seat.
Just quickly on the floor is fine. You can check it out as you do so.
In your desk you are going to have two sides. A right side and a left side.
And one side is going to be for your soft books. And the other side will be for your
hard books.
So, here's what I want you to do. I want you to find your left hand.
It's important to invest a lot of time in your routines at the beginning of the year
because that's when you have the most time to establish them. So I start at the beginning
and I spend a lot of time on my routines and my expectations, doing things, doing
things again, and even doing things again. And as the time goes throughout the school
year, I have to spend less and less time and those things become second nature
to the students.
And you're going to put your My World Social Studies book on the left hand side
of your desk. And it goes in this way.
Not this way. So when I look in your desk, I should see pages.
Not spine. Okay? Go ahead and do that now.
So the procedure for their desk organization is really simple.
All their books that are paper back books I like on one side of their desk and then
their hard back books are on the other side of the desk. That way when I ask students
for a particular book, they can look in their desk, they know what side it is on
and they can get it easily. I want students to be able to access what they need
very quickly. Transitions are very important and they can take a lot of time if they're
not established at the beginning. So I try to alleviate any hurdles from students
that might cause my transitions to run long. And not being able to find something or
something not being in it's proper place is something that makes a transition very difficult.
Using the restroom during your recess.
Using the restroom during your lunch...
is you showing me and everyone else around you that you are responsible.
However, I do understand that things happen. Right? Sometimes things happen.
If you're in class and you have to go, you have to go.
And so when that happens, you put one finger...
just one...
in the air and then you wait for a non-verbal cue for me to tell you
to go to the restroom.
And it will usually look like this: You put your finger up, I'll point at you, and then
I'll point at the door and that means that you can go. Okay.
Now, show me the restroom sign.
Thank you.
Notice that there is no "Miss Martin" with it.
It's not, Mrs. Martin...
That non-verbal signal is something that I can do while I continue to teach.
So if I see a pencil hanging in the air I can just go like this and continue talking.
The same with going to restroom or going to water so it doesn't interrupt the flow
of the lessons.
I am going to teach you how to come to your seat to the carpet to meet me.
Okay.
So, in order to do that we need to be able to know exactly where we're going
and exactly how we're supposed to get there. Okay.
So we're going to take some time, and I'm going to show exactly where I want you to sit
and how I want you to get there quickly. Okay.
So for my ELA transition, I start with students numbers, usually alphabetically
at first, and then I give them an exact spot to sit on at the carpet.
And then I explain to them exactly what I want them to do. When you hear your number
or your name, I want you to get up, push your chair in, and come to this particular seat.
Sarah, Adam, and Kayden...come.
It's important to make sure students are following your expectations
on the first day of school, on the first week of school because if students know
exactly what it is you want them to do, or in this instance exactly where it is you
want them to sit, then they can rely on that and that makes your transitions so much
faster and then you can get to things like your lesson much quicker.
No. Honey, sit right next to her.
Scoot up right next to her.
During that ELA transition, I had them practice it over and over again because I want
for them to know exactly where they sit so that they can get there quickly.
Please join me on the carpet.
[inaudible noise played at fast speed]
It took us one minute and eight seconds which is not too bad. Okay.
As we continue to go throughout the school year, we are going to be looking to chop
down just a little bit, second by second at that time. Okay.
But look it...
everybody remembers where they're supposed to go.
Give yourselves a round of applause. [students clapping]
That was very good for the first time.
Think about where your spot is...
because I am going to set the timer. Remember it took us one minute eight seconds
yesterday. Let's see if we can shave a little bit of time off of that today.
Go.
[inaudible noise played at fast speed]
Fifty-six seconds. Good job my friends. Excellent work.
Alright my friends, so Brennan...
Kids pick up on things - your attitude, your behavior so you want to be very cautious
of those things at the beginning of the school year
because students are looking at every piece of you as a teacher and they're also
looking at every piece of your classroom.
So you want to make sure that you're warm. You want to make sure that your classroom
is inviting, that they can see themselves as part of this classroom and that they know
that you want them to be there and that this is a safe place for them to be throughout
the school day.
Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to day two of fourth grade.
How are you feeling? [students in unison] Good
Did you go home yesterday completely exhausted?
[students in unison] Yes.
I was so tired yesterday. Guess what? My legs were super sore. Your's were too? My legs...
So now that we've wrapped up the first week of school, I am just scratching the surface
of working with routines and procedures. It's something I will carry with us
the entire school year. At the beginning of the year is not when you stop working on
routines and procedures. And every time you introduce something new to students you need
to establish a routine and a procedure for what it is you are introducing.
...is a signal to me that you need help on directions just a little bit.
♪[theme music]