30 Classroom Procedures to Head Off Behavior Problems

1. Entering the room

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QpuvJ7FUNc

2. Lining Up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDq71S0UyD8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjwdPMTraII
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kvi0Cbg8A8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKHXbR-ideg

3. Leaving the room

4. Beginning the day

• I play classical music as my students arrive. I like my third graders to start the day happy and relaxed.
• Hugs and High Fives
• Each day, I greet my students with a smile and a “Good morning,” and their choice of a hug, a handshake or a high-five.
• Just Do It
• We start with a five-minute “Do Now” exercise. I tell them, “Do it now ’cause it is due now!” Because I teach English, it is usually a quick creative writing exercise.
• A Good Run
• Each day we run in place for 12 minutes. It’s particularly great in winter, when the students need to get that energy out!
• Look Back
• I gather my students to do a recap of the day before.
• Breathe Deep
• Yoga! I have students with multiple disabilities, and many of them have a long bus ride to get to my classroom. We do yoga to get our bodies moving but also to find our calm and focus for the day.
• We go directly to morning meeting so we can have a sharing time right away. It’s a nice way to get to know students and to let them talk before the teaching begins.
• I do a temperature reading: I ask students how they feel today on a scale of 1 (lousy) to 10 (awesome). This gives me a sense of which students had a good night and which ones had a rough time and might need a little special attention.
• A little free time talking. I allow the kids to sit together and talk quietly about anything they want in the hope they will get it all out before class starts!
• We have a morning meeting where we greet each other, do a reading that relates to our character target for the week, introduce the learning targets for the day, and give announcements.
• We used to do daily oral language warm-ups, but research shows they don’t work very well. Instead, I’ll start each class with 15 minutes of heads-down reading. I’ll give a daily grade based on an independent reading rubric and my own observation of student engagement.
My favorite start to the day is a good read-aloud!
• A big hello and a brainteaser to get the wheels turning!

5. Ending the Day

Closing Routines
Cleaning up and discussing homework is an important routine for the end of the day, but it's also important to give your students a chance to further process their learning, and even to set a
goal. Closing routines allow your students to check their understanding, and they also give your students an opportunity to reflect. It's a great way to wrap up your lessons. Closing routines also honor your time together that day, as well as give your students an opportunity to use their voice. The following are three examples of “exit slips” that can be completed on a small piece of scratch paper or a sticky note at the close of class.
Rate the Learning or Lesson
This exit slip can be accomplished in a matter of mere minutes. Ask students -- on a one to 10 scale -
- to rate how well they understood the learning that day. If they rate their understanding low, ask them to write down what they may need (more time, more explanation, a graphic organizer to help with writing the essay, etc.). Students can also rate the lesson or teaching on a one to 10 scale; ask them to write a sentence or two giving feedback on the materials or activity that day.
Collect the slips, and after your students leave, make piles of similar ratings. If you have a lot of eight, nine, and 10 ratings, the lesson went well. If you have lower numbers, then it might be time to probe for further information from the whole class the next day, and then review or even reteach.
Closing Statement or Question
Ask students to first turn and talk in pairs or in a triad. What did you learn? What surprised you? What is unclear? What do you want to know more about? Then ask them to come up with a closing statement or question about the content and write it down. Collect the slip, and use these for talking points the next day, answering questions and commenting on statements they wrote.
Grab a Goal
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/6-opening-and-closing-routines-new-teachers-rebecca-alber Page 2 of 3
6 Opening and Closing Routines for New Teachers | Edutopia 6/9/17, 2:04 PM
Ask your students to think about a goal they would like to set. It can have to do with the unit of study, or it can be a personal goal outside of the classroom. Use sentence starters to prompt the writing for this one. Tomorrow, in class I will be ready to ______. Tonight, I will ____. By the end of the semester, I will ____. Have them share with a neighbor or in small groups, and ask for a few volunteers to share with the whole class. Collect the slips and sticky notes. This is a wonderful way to get to know your students. (You can do one, too!)
Writing their names on exit slips was optional for me. You decide -- perhaps sometimes yes, and other times no. Students will be more honest if it’s anonymous. Yet with goal setting, there’s more accountability if you have names, and you can check in with individuals and offer specific supports and encouragement.
Collaborating With Colleagues
Advice I like to give to new teachers: Go out and collect opening and closing routines from fellow teachers. The internet is not always the best place to seek curricular materials -- your colleagues are! Talk with colleagues during meetings and then stop by their rooms to take a look at their resources and student products.
A mistake new teachers often make is thinking they have to create everything from scratch. I explain that there are those who have been at this a long time and have honed strategies, collected data and student samples, and then adjusted that activity or project to make it even better -- and they are there, right next door, ready to share their expertise and resources with you.

6. Taking out/putting away/caring for supplies

http://cdn-media1.teachertube.com/audio604/9732.mp3

7. Participating in group lessons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mb9-At2Ss0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU-FHjCouBM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XflWMaW7P1M

8. Obtaining help with assignments

9. Handing in finished work/homework

Collecting student work
Passing in papers
Have one member of each group (or the last person in each row) be responsible for collecting all work for the team. This way you will never have students who ‘forget’ to turn in their work or ‘lose’ it immediately after finishing (which happens much more frequently than I ever would have imagined before I began teaching). This person may also be assigned the task of checking for names and handing papers back to anyone who hasn’t used the correct heading.
Insist that students pass in papers so that they are all facing the same direction. We practice this a LOT at the beginning of the year, and if (more like WHEN) they get lazy about it during the year, I have the Paper Collector give all the papers back to their owners and they do it again, with reinforcement narration, until they get it right.
You may want to use baskets when kids pass in their papers. Some years I have a small class or fairly mature class that doesn’t need them, but in general, I’ve found that papers are far less likely to be dropped, shuffled, or lost when kids pass a basket instead of a pile.
Placing papers in a designated spot to be graded
After papers have been passed to one person in the group or row and that person has begun checking to see that all papers are headed correctly and facing the right way, a Paper Collector can take the stacks. My Paper Collector job is separate from my two Paper Passer jobs, because sometimes I need to have a set of materials distributed immediately after the old ones are collected.
The Paper Collector should have one consistent place to always put papers. The designated spot should NOT be on your desk!If you’re like me, you’ve got enough stuff on your desk as it is—you don’t need kids adding to the clutter. I use the top of a low file cabinet to hold trays for student work. In the past, I had a small student desk adjacent to my own where papers went. A shelf or windowsill would work just as well.
Your Paper Collector can put a paperclip on each stack of work, if you like. He could also put the work in alphabetical order if that makes it easier for you to record the grades. Simply assign each child a number and teach students to write it in the top right hand corner of their papers: the Paper Collector can then just put papers in number order. The process can take a minute or two to complete, but if you need it done, you may find it’s worth training students to do it for you.

10. What to do with unfinished work

11. When and how to use the school restroom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTQe2tlndaE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7XHc9tdLpE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fxSUNHSECI

12. When or how to use the drinking fountain or sink

13. When and how to use the pencil sharpener

14. Being a classroom helper/learning a classroom job

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjFTl7OChng
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxyfpjSoEIk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Su_k5XP_8

15. Getting into work groups

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzr5x2cLljg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mb9-At2Ss0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy0RzRAfiHs

16. Using the classroom library

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmR03uDmsQU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjwpBpPxekE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWDC8RmGeFM

17. Handling seatwork pages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLVwP6LFwRg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NerztgwFo2c

18. Preparing for lunch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDq71S0UyD8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qArU7TjSBV0

19. Getting a tissue

20. Lunch count/attendance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9yDAEdwBDk

21. Throwing away trash

22. Turning in lost items

23. Locating Lost Items

24. Pledge of Allegiance

25. Visitors in the classroom

26. Fire Drill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TYsHRV4pGU

27. Signals for attention

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WbhWKilmHs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78eiLtQjmss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Iz6VT-Hu10

28. Helping other students

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly3v2n6hhpk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkqvC9xwJ3E

29. Organizing desk

8 Foolproof Ways to Help a Disorganized Student
By: Janelle Cox
A disorganized student is often described as forgetful and messy. They have a hard time keeping track of their materials and using their time efficiently. These students tend to have messy desks and repeatedly forget their homework. The simplest of tasks can baffle a disorganized student. This lack of organizational skills can be easily fixed by providing students with a few strategies to keep them on track. Use the following tips to help disorganized students become organized and learn how to manage their responsibilities.
Set up and Stick to a Routine
Establishing a daily routine will help disorganized students feel less frustrated and give them a sense of structure.
Provide students with a class schedule that they can reference throughout the day. Place this schedule in their take home folder, tape it onto their desk, and post it in the classroom. If you make it accessible, then this will lessen the student's confusion of what it expected of them.
Clean Out the Clutter
Disorganized students tend to have very messy desks. They will never voluntarily choose to clean them out, so it is up to you to set aside time each day or week for them to do so. Show them specific ways of how to keep their desks tidy. For example, throw away old assignments and materials you no longer use, place small items such as pencils and scissors in a container, etc. Doing so will give them the skills they need to maintain an organized life, and manage their responsibilities.
Monitor All Schoolwork
This tip goes hand-in-hand with enlisting support from the parents. Require that homework goes home each night, and is signed and returned to school every day.
This will ensure that students are staying on track, and will encourage students to be responsible for their belongings.
Enlist Help From Parents
Parent-teacher communication is essential when you are dealing with a student who has no organizational skills. Keep parents in the loop daily or weekly by notifying them on their child's progress. Having parental support will show the student that you mean business, and you are working together as a team to help them become self-sufficient.
Create a Checklist
Clearly define expectations by creating a checklist. This is truly the best tool to help students visually see what they need to accomplish and stay on track. Show students how to prioritize their list and check tasks off as they complete them.
Use Memory Aids
Memory aids are a great way to help disorganized students remember their tasks and class materials. Provide students with aids such as sticky notes, rubber bands and timers. Have them tape checklists and class schedules to their folders and desks. Teach students acronyms such as CATS (C=Carry, A= Assignment,T=to, S=School) or PANTS (P=Parent, A=Assignment, N=Notebook, T=Textbook, S=School) to help them remember what to bring to school.
Use the Buddy System
Enlist the help of a classmate to remind the disorganized student of important tasks and student expectations. Pair the student up with a responsible student thatyou can trust, to help them out when you are busy or absent.
Label and Color Code Everything
The best way to keep students organized is to label and color-code all of their materials. Students who have a lack of organizational skills may feel overwhelmed when their materials are all over the place. Having specific colors for each subject will help students find assignments quickly and effortlessly.
All of these ideas can help transform your disorganized student into an organized one. These strategies will give students the tools and skills they need to manage their obligations and lead an organized life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8dBXbo-7aE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8-rjSXqr8c

30. What to do during free time

https://www.whatihavelearnedteaching.com/80-sponge-activities/

Educational Sponge Activities
A to Z Countries As a class, try to name countries beginning with the letter A all the way to the letter Z. As time allows, see if your kids know where these countries are located around the world.
Class Drawing Create a drawing with each student adding a part. Students will take turn going up to the board and drawing a line or shape that will connect to the previous student's drawing. In order to make it more challenging, pick a topic such as person, animal, place, or thing. It will be fun to see what the picture turns out to be!
Description Exercise Present an object to the class and have them come up with as many words as they can to describe it. List these words and talk about the importance of using many different kinds of description when writing.
Simon Says Play Simon Says with your class. Start off by being the leader and then let other students take over. Kids love playing the game and it really can help enforce listening skills.
A New Animal Have your students create a "new" animal using features of several other animals. For example they might make a combine an elephant's head with a giraffe's neck, a zebra's body and a bird's legs--a zebraphant! Let them be creative and come up with an original name.
Pocket Count Have the class find out how many pockets are in the classroom. Let them come up with a plan for how they want to do the calculation. If you still have time, have the students find the average number of pockets and you can make a quick graph on the board.
I Spy Start this activity by locating something in the room without letting your students know. Start describing the object to your kids. For example, you might say, "I spy something red!" or "I spy something that starts with the letter G!" Your students can guess what it is and the students that guess correctly gets to start a new round.
What Is It? Put something in an opaque bag. Have students sit in a circle and bring the bag around the circle, letting students feel the objects without looking at it. After everyone has had a chance to think about what the object might be, list his or her guesses on the board. In order to eliminate certain guesses, have students list the
properties of the object that they were able to ascertain from touching it. Narrow the choices down to those that fit with the descriptions.
Create Critters Let your students have fun transforming the regular, "boring" letters of the alphabet into totally cool creatures! They can keep these worksheets in their desks and each time you have a couple of extra minutes, have them pull these out and start working on them. They'll love it.
Guess the Title Read a short story to your class or a picture book and have students guess what the title is. Discuss why the students choose the titles they do.
Syllable Count Have students make number cards for the numbers 1-6. They can simply fold a sheet of paper into sixths to do this. Randomly callout words and have students hold up the card with the corresponding number of syllables.
Related Word Toss Use a beanbag or small ball for this activity. One person starts the game by calling out a word and then throws the beanbag to another student. That students must call out a word that relates to the previous word as quickly as they can. You should assign a time limit on how long each person can hold the bag before saying a word and tossing the beanbag to the next person. Those students who take too long are "out" of the game.
Quick Math Have your class figure out some of the following problems: 1. How many hands are there in the classroom? 2. How many fingers are there? 3. How many noses? Encourage the students to find answers without counting one-by-one.
Twenty Questions Pick a topic such as An Object in the Room, A Famous Person, An Animal, etc. One student must think of something in that category without telling the rest of the class. Everyone else must guess what the object is by asking Yes or No questions. The student that picked the object must ONLY answer Yes or No to the questions asked. The class has twenty guesses.
Team Pictionary Separate the class into two teams. Have an easel with a pad of paper in front of the class where both teams can see it. Have a list of words ready that you want the class to try and depict. The teams take turns drawing and guessing. One person from Team A draws first and their team tries to guess what they are drawing by shouting out guesses. If they guess correctly they get 5points. If they don't guess it, Team B can try to guess for 5 points. Usually a one minute time limit is given per word.
Story Chain Arrange the class in a circle on the floor. Pick one student to start a story with one or two sentences. Students continue around the circle with each adding another sentence or two to the story. You can assign a specific topic for the story or you can let the students decide. To make it more challenging, have first person begin the story with a word starting with "A" and have the next student start the next sentence with "B" and so on.
How many words can you find? Give students a word that they have been studying recently and have them find words contained within that word. Make it a contest, seeing who can find the most words.
Mapping it Out Have the children write out the directions or draw a map from school to their home, Covington to Memphis, Mrs. Jones room to the library, etc.
Top Ten Ask the children to make lists of their 10 favorite foods, singers, songs, television shows, or whatever else you decide. Do you need more time? Have them alphabetize the list.
A Hoarse Horse Write sets of homonyms and illustrate them or write a sentence using both of them.
Line up Codes Ask the children to get in line by calling their names in alphabetical order and see if the children can tell why you are calling them in the order you have chosen. You could go from A - Z or try Z -A for a change.
We Had a Great Day! Before dismissal, tell the children that they have had a great day. Ask them to tell you who helped it be such a good day. If they can't list the reasons, help them see that quiet workers, polite children, thoughtful comments caused all of you to have a good day. Let them know you are proud of them and they should be proud of themselves.
Just have a minute or two? Try these middle school ideas.
• ♦List as many nouns in the room as you can.
• ♦List as many models of cars as you can.
• ♦List as many things as you can that have two wheels.
• ♦Name cities in Tennessee, the United States, foreign countries.
• ♦Give a multiplication or division problem and call on a friend to give the product or quotient.
• ♦List words you believe will be in today's lesson.
• ♦Write a paragraph which involves several of those words or ideas.
• ♦Scan the text to locate some of these words. If some are located, read the selections aloud and discuss the meaning in context. (This is good preparation for reading assignments.)
• ♦List the continents of the world.
• ♦Name as many kinds of storms, gems, precious stones, teachers at this school, countries and their capitals, states and their capitals, cartoon characters, etc.
• ♦Name all the colors you know.
• ♦List as many parts of an automobile as you can.
• ♦List types of transportation. Write a paragraph describing your favorite and least favorite and why.
• ♦Write one kind of food beginning with each letter of the alphabet.
• ♦List all of our city facilities that serve the community.
• ♦Describe five conditions that would be best for plant growth. Have them list the opposite and why those conditions would fail.
• ♦List the simple machines and an example of each.
• ♦Describe an animal's habitat, biome, or environment and choose one to read aloud and see if the class can guess what animal would live there.
• ♦Write a paragraph about your favorite holiday.
• ♦Explain which explorer you would like to be. Why?
• ♦Complete an open-ended story or a story-starter.
• ♦Look at a picture and write a story about it.
• ♦Describe one interesting experience you have had.
• ♦Create a picture out of a number.
• ♦Count by 2's, 3's, 4's, etc. How far can you go?
• ♦Brainstorm lists of words for themes--ex: autumn, space, heroes, winter
• ♦Write down one good thing about each of your classmates.
• ♦Have an "Indian Stones" Tournament
As quickly as you can, name as many:
-gems or precious stones -kinds of flowers-colors-countries of the world -breeds of dogs
Write or tell me:
-teachers at this school -kinds of ice cream -models of cars-things made of cloth -foods that are alphabetical -states-U.S. presidents -cities or towns in Texas -movie stars -holidays -about your favorite book-three smells you like and why-what would you do if you saw an elephant in your back yard? -names of cartoon characters-ordered pairs of numbers-adjectives that begin with each letter in your name
Play:
-Twenty Questions -Simon Says -Quiet Game
Make up:
- 5 things you do after school - a sentence using alliteration -I Spy-ABC game-Who Am I? (guessing famous people) -Charades--Silent Water, Still Water--First person makes a sentence that uses all "A's", second person gets B, and so on... -three names for rock groups -one sentence using the words _______
Read:
-a famous quote & discuss its meaning -tongue twisters
Give them:
-mental math problems to solve -time to describe an object they see -minute mysteries
- logic problems - flash card relays - words to spell - brainteasers- word puzzles