The Pinspired Teacher

My #1 Back to School Must Have: Classroom Procedures

Back to School· Classroom Management· Most Popular Posts

This baby has been a sad, sad little list that I’ve clutched onto year after year. I decided to glam her up & make her presentable to the world.

Classroom Procedures Checklist by The Pinspired Teacher

I think almost all behavior problems in the classroom can be solved by setting up clear classroom procedures and routines at the beginning of the year and practicing and reinforcing them throughout the year. Thus, this blog post will be all about…..[drum roll please]…………:

In the past, I have relied solely on a list of procedures I wanted to cover and practice throughout the first weeks of school and my class did just that-read over the list then practiced when the opportunities presented themselves. I had to be honest with myself-teaching classroom procedures were dreadfully boring for both myself and the class.

Finally, I had enough and decided I was going to make learning our classroom procedures fun for both the students and myself. My students looove the iPoet anchor chart because it’s highly relatable to their tech-obsessed world so I created a similar tech-themed format for our Classroom Procedures Game: “iPractice our Classroom Procedures” and “iKnow our Classroom Procedures.”  I compiled a total of 30 classroom procedure apps that I felt were essential to learn and practice during the first month of school.

Being a pinspired teacher, I have seen several uses for cooking sheets in the classroom on Pinterest. I originally found baking sheets at Wal-Mart (3 for under $5!) and they are conveniently shaped like an iPad so adding the apps was as simple as laminating and slapping a magnet on the back and boom! Instant app fun 🙂 I made two baking sheets one for classroom procedures our class still needed to learn or practice and labeled it “iPractice” and the other was labeled “iKnow.” The “iKnow” cookie sheet houses the classroom procedures the class has mastered with little to no guidance from me. It takes several weeks for some of the practices to become a known routine so patience is key. Modeling as the teacher is also essential. I always have a student model the incorrect way and the correct way after I model each time we practice during our first few times practicing the procedure.

It also works very well with a jewelry organizer because it’s portable!

When I introduce the procedure, we make an anchor chart using a bigger version of the classroom procedure apps:
Can I say eww to my handwriting? Anyways, it varies whether or not I make notes for every single procedure, some I find my students get with practice, other times I find it necessary to lay out as many visual cues as possible for consistent reinforcement.
Once a procedure has been moved to “iKnow,” I make it a very big deal. Once the class masters all the procedures through several, several practice sessions, all procedures will fill the “iKnow” side. We celebrate their achievements with a classroom party. This year I’m thinking about a Halloween-inspired party since my school doesn’t have official classroom parties. It’s the first big thing the students look forward to for the year.
 
 Later on, if a particular procedure, such as walking in line is not looking like the way we practiced it, we place the specific procedure back into practice mode where they have to earn it back. It’s important that the students work hard for the procedure to be moved to iKnow so they don’t even want to risk going back into practice mode. Typically, just the mention of that being a possibility straightens them right up.
How do you teach classroom procedures?
If you’re interested in The Classroom Procedure Game you can click on any of the pictures above, or click on the product’s cover page below:

Happy Pinning!

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Comments

  1. Katie Cowgill says

    I love your idea of the two boards, iPractice & iKnow. I am currently working on getting all of my routines typed up and this would be a great way to work on them with my students. Thanks for the great idea!

    Katie
    Cowgills Corner

  3. Muriel Weidemann says

    Love this idea! Where did you get the jewelry organizer (or what size do the pockets need to be and how many pockets are needed)? Think I want to try this out but need to get going if I’m going to get it done in time for first week of school (under 2 weeks now)!

    • pinspiredteacher@gmail.com says

      I’ve seen jewelry organizers everywhere, but mine are from TJ Maxx and Burlington Coat Factory. I hope your classroom procedures transform your class this year!