When the school years starts many teachers, especially new teachers, are pleasantly surprised that classroom management doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue.

Towards the end of the first quarter though…all that has started to change. The students have become quite comfortable with their fellow classmates and even their teacher. Unfortunately, this can often lead to an increase in classroom management issues.

It is at this point that many teachers start reacting by writing referrals, assigning detentions or using some other type of RE-active classroom management approach.

Personally, I think there is a better way…

Here’s what I did on the first day of the second quarter (just this past week). I started the week with a lesson that encompassed much of what I did during the first few days of school.

I made sure everyone still had a copy of my “5 Most Important Procedures” and I re-taught those 5 procedures.

Remember though…teaching is not just telling…first I tell them the procedure, then I model the procedure, then I have them practice the procedure.

This obviously took much less time then it did the first day of school since it was more of a refresher course.

Once we finished with the procedures, I handed out their first quarter social studies grade and had them answer a few goal setting questions:
1. Did you meet your first quarter goal? Why or why not? (all students set academic goals during the first week of school)
2. What is your goal for second quarter? (based on the your first quarter grade)
3. How do you plan to achieve that goal? (the grade sheet I gave them had their grades broken down into categories…homework, tests, classwork…this way students can specifically target their goal.)

Once goals were set, I finished the lesson by helping students get organized. They take all their notes from first quarter and put them into a folder that I keep in the classroom. This helps students stay organized and still allows them to access their older notes to study for mid-term exams and final exams.

By doing these three simple things…reviewing classroom procedures, setting goals, and organizing student’s binders…I was able to recreate the first days of school all over again. Best of all, it was done in a positive way!

Guess what I’m going to do to start third quarter? That’s right…the same exact thing!

******

Share