Back to School Procedures

Back to School!

   It’s that time of year again. All the school supplies are filling the store shelves. You find yourself simultaneously loathing the retailer and desperately wanting to rush through the isles before the supplies are picked over. Does anyone else LOVE the smell of new crayons or is it just me???

   Even though I have a few more weeks until my munchkins start school, my mind is already reeving up for that first week of school. I drive myself bonkers running through lists of things I need to do: visit the teacher supply store (for cute room décor I don’t really need); revise my first week of lesson plans; copy all my materials; print all my labels (because I’m OCD about organizing); rework my furniture arrangement for maximum efficiency; figure out where to stash all the new, used student books on my overflowing library shelves… the list goes on and on!

    One of the most important things I always make sure I do at the beginning of the year is to have a plan to teach procedures to my munchkins. Everyone’s heard it a million times and it sounds like something so simple, but it can make or break your entire year. This past year I had first-hand experience with this… My fourth baby arrived just in time to send me out on maternity leave before school started. As a result, my class started the year out with a (fantastic!) substitute teacher. When I arrived back on the scene just before Christmas Break, my class was running smoothly so I just jumped in and hit the curriculum hard. Pretty quickly though, it became a struggle to do some of the things that I routinely implemented in my room, like Literacy Stations.

   The groups didn’t always get along. Some of the kids couldn’t complete their stations without interrupting my guided reading group eight million times (ok. It was probably 4-5 times, but it felt like that much!). Other kids were off-task or disruptively loud while they worked. After a couple of weeks, my stress level was going through the roof and I wasn’t really sure if the stations were really as effective as I had planned.

   I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Were the kids just crazier than normal? It seemed like it. Were my raging post-pregnancy hormones making me nuts? Probably. Then, I finally realized it was because we hadn’t done our classroom procedures together. Yes, we had practiced the Literacy Station procedures and activities together for a couple of weeks, but somehow something hadn’t clicked. Looking back I’m convinced it was those first crucial weeks of school that my students and I never got together.

   This year that will change. The beginning of the year is always busy with rules and routines but I’ve tried to simplify for success this fall. This year we’re starting off right, and staying that way! I created Pencil Pouch Procedures books for my kiddos. It has been formatted specifically to fit in the lid of a standard, plastic pencil box. Each page has a particular set of rules or procedures that I want my students to learn and use fluently. We will do mini-lessons on each topic and then the students will complete the corresponding page. Once my students have completed their entire book, they will store them in the top of their pencil boxes (or in their pencil pouches). Then they can access their Pencil Pouch Procedures Book if they have a question about a classroom, or school, rule or procedure. This will help eliminate some of the repetitive questions the kids always ask and reinforce what I want them to do. The Pencil Pouch Procedures Books are simple and easy to use. No prep. Low stress. That’s how to start the year off right! If you want to see more of this handy resource, click on the image below to visit my TpT store!