Blog #5

"Classroom Routines"

• Create end of day routines. Teach students how to put materials away, to straighten furniture and sit quietly until they are dismissed. This creates order at the end of the day.

• Help your students help themselves, rather than doing it for them.

• Create charts with room arrangements for the students to learn and know in any given time. About four room arrangements are ideal- seminar format, discussion format, small-group format, and team format are examples.

• Create a signal so the students know when the class is beginning and give them a routine for what they are supposed to do when they hear that signal.

• Make "stop and go" cards. This helps the teacher give support when she leaves working with a small group and begins to circulate the classroom.

• Use Visual cues. Post signs around the classroom to help direct students.

• Have a morning routine. This reinforces a sense of community and individual responsibility.

• Create a "Red Cross Emergency" system. This helps the teacher become quickly aware of students who are feeling really stuck, despite other options for assistance.
  

• Use goal cards. Have the students write goals or steps they will follow on an index card. Students can check of the goal or step as they achieve them. This helps the teacher monitor the students.

• Recap what students have learned, analyze their working progress, and raise interesting questions that lead to the next days discussion.