When I ask teachers, especially new teachers, what they want support with the top answer is “classroom management”. Classroom management has many facets. The underlying key to classroom management is building relationships (more about that soon!), but even with the best relationships, students need to know what to do. In fact, students WANT to know what is expected of them, and having clear procedures makes a classroom run more efficiently (less interrupted instructional time).
Depending on the grade level you teach, your classroom procedure list will be different. This article by Melissa Kelly lists the top five scenarios to consider when creating policies and procedures:
Beginning class
Asking questions
Student restroom use
Collecting work
Ending class
The article includes things to consider for each scenario (keep your students’ age and maturity level in mind when coming up with specific procedures).
Side note on PROCEDURES and ROUTINES: My thinking is that a procedure is how we do something (the process). So, how we enter the classroom and what we do immediately upon entering, or how we sharpen a pencil while class is in session. Actions that happen frequently, such as entering and exiting the classroom, or transitioning between activities have a process, but the process happens so frequently that we don’t give it much thought and the action becomes routine.
If you are creating procedures for your classroom here are a few things to keep in mind:
ask other teachers at your site what their procedures are
think through the school day - what do students need to know how to do
model the procedure with your class
practice the procedure with your students
And, remember, your procedures can CHANGE if they are not working for you and your students. If you notice something you put in place is not running smoothly, or another scenario pops up that could benefit from a procedure (for me it was how students check calculators out to use during class time), create one!