Teaching Routines and Procedures

(upbeat music) - Hey y'all. It's Ayo here. Let's talk about teaching routines and procedures because they are the one non-negotiable for you as a teacher. When people are in an unstructured or chaotic setting, it's stressful. And this is true for everyone, but it's especially true for students with complex access needs. When a student has a bad day or makes a mistake, it's really comforting to know that there's a routine to connect back to. If you've ever seen the movie "Groundhog's Day," then you know what I mean? No matter how terrible a day was, the main character always got to start over the next morning. Now, while none of us wants to go to that extreme and wake up on a do-over forever, when things are off or disrupted, a routine is a touchstone that helps bring calm to a classroom and to your students. For years, I started each and every English class with a writing prompt for six minutes followed by a pair share and table share where the students read what they wrote to one another. Now, I know what you're thinking. Every day like this? Yep, every day. After the first few weeks, my students started coming in, getting their VODs, getting paper, getting pencil, and writing or typing without me pestering them. Some even arrived and dug right in early without those transition minutes where students sometimes get stuck in a sit-and-wait mode, which can increase anxiety and restlessness or increase non-preferred behaviors. That constant routine, no matter what, saved my sanity on so many occasions. It helped my paraprofessionals get more intensive support done, like putting students in standers and positioning them, all while knowing that the rest of the students weren't in limbo but working, and working with purpose. That's the power of having a quality routine. It's not just about the practicality of routines and procedures for lining up and dismissal or for getting a pencil. Though, those are really important. It's about setting up routines that create comfort, like a warm blanket, a favorite song, or baked macaroni and cheese. There's so much calm in that and comfort that a routine creates a feeling of goodness. So when it comes time to choose routines, you may decide to start with routines around your most chaotic or least-staffed times of day. In an elementary classroom, it may be getting to the carpet or what to do at arrival or cleaning up after centers. For a secondary teacher, it might be switching classrooms, turning in assignments, or rotating stations. When you look at your biggest struggle during the day, that's the time when you should be thinking, "What routine can save my sanity here and what routine will support my students?" That is the best place for you to start. Once you decide on setting up routines in your classroom and you figure out which ones you want to do, it's time to set your expectations and add some visual supports as well as model and practice the routine until it starts to feel like second nature. And you'll be wanting to give your students a lot of praise and reinforcement as you work to make small adjustments or corrections when things aren't working quite right. Effectively implementing a classroom routine and establishing consistency in your classroom will make your team more effective. It will build a better overall classroom climate. And most of all, it will better support your students. I'm Ayo Jones here reminding you to stay strong and teach on. (upbeat music)