I really appreciate all the help you veteran teachers have given to us newbies. Something that would REALLY help me out would be if some of you would list the proceedures you go over the first week and how you teach them. Thanks, Amy
MissAmy - I'd like to see these responses too - one suggestion - check out the book The First Six Weeks of School by Paula Denton, it gives some great suggestions for grades K-6.
How to enter the room Where to put belongings: backpack, lunch box, notes from home, money for something requested, homework Lunch orders Bathroom & water fountain procedures Hand washing Blowing nose/sneezing How to push in chairs How to walk in the hallway How to address the teacher and other adults Trash How to respect classmates and self What signals you will use for attention, end of a segment, time to cleanup, time to go to lunch, etc. When to use our mouths, when to use just our ears Packing up: what goes home, what stays in room Use of classroom materials: games, manipulatives, center materials, books What to do if you get hurt/someone hurts you What to do if you feel sick What to do if you forget your lunch Good touch/bad touch (may depend on curriculum or school rules)
I find that most times it is effective to model the procedures. At any grade level you can show a non-example (the bad habit or the way you do not want them to do it), then discuss the problems this causes, then show the way it will be done. With younger kids, you can also have a classroom puppet or two to 'model' the correct behaviors. If you can work it in, a little bit a of humor when showing the non-example is a great attention getter and makes it a little more memorable, or at least interesting. You may have charts, posters or other visuals that you can point out to the students. Here are a few other things that I teach: How and why we ask a question Appropriate noise levels during work times and when entering the room How to use the classroom library (how books are organized) My 'no put-downs' policy... what a put down is and why it is not allowed, what to do or say if someone does give you a "put down"
Last year I made a list of the "Top Ten things that bug Mrs. ___" as an introduction to procedures. The kids got tickled finding out the things that bugged me (the sound of electric pencil sharpeners, being asked a bajillion times "Can I go to the bathroom?", being interrupted when I'm working with someone, etc...) and then we had fun discussing the way to handle these situations the right way. (i.e. my procedures). I started out by thinking of all of the procedures that I wanted to teach, and then honed the list down to 10 biggies.
