My plan with this blog is to provide useful tips and ideas a few times a week. Since school has already begun, I may backtrack a bit, but hopefully, some of my tips and ideas may help you anyway.
Today's Totally Terrific Tip: Establish procedures and routines the first day of school.
I attended a professional development workshop today that reinforced this for me. When I first started teaching, I used to send home a list of all my "Persnickety Procedures." Now, that idea has evolved into a booklet I send home with students called "4th Grade from A to Z." I list all of my procedures & expectations in it. I will work on posting this booklet in the future.
The secret to establishing procedures and routines is to teach, model, and practice them EVERY DAY! You may have to do this for many weeks, or even months until it becomes a habit. With the procedures I notice my students having the hardest time with, we chart it and post it on the wall for easy reference. I take it down and replace it with a different chart later on, but I can always repost when needed!
