The Present Teacher Podcast

Steal the 7 Step Process I Use to Teach My Classroom Procedures

• Helena Hains • Season 1 • Episode 101

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Seeing everyone mention how important it is to teach classroom procedures during back-to-school season but not sure where to start?


Here's a breakdown of not which classroom procedures I like to teach during back to school, but also my 7-step process on how I teach every single classroom procedure. I share my secret to modeling the classroom procedure so your students understand, but also how to practice it so you can automate your classroom management in a matter of weeks.


These classroom procedures will help you confidently minimize disruptive behavior, save time in the classroom, and be confident in your classroom management skills.  


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//  ABOUT


I’m Helena, a coach for new and first-year teachers sharing knowledge on how to have a thriving career and personal life.


The Present Teacher Podcast is a resource for classroom management, classroom organization, time management, and teacher wellness. Follow along and learn how to thrive in the classroom and in life.


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Helena:

Hey there, teacher Bestie, and welcome back to the Present Teacher. I am so glad that you are here. I know over the summer it's a great time to kind of look at some things that may have been going well for you and some things you want to work on, and one of the things that I know that is essential to classroom management is procedures. So procedures are the things how you want your students to interact with each other and items throughout the classroom, and you might be wondering how do I teach procedures during back to school? Well, today I'm going to be diving in to exactly how I teach classroom procedures in my classroom. So, with that being said, let's dive in. Hey, teacher Bestie, my name is Helena and I'm the creator of the Present Teacher Podcast. I'm a first year teacher coach and in this podcast, you are going to learn everything from simple, actionable classroom management, social learning and teacher wellness strategies. You know, that impact you want to make in the classroom we're going to make it happen here. You wanna make in the classroom we're gonna make it happen here. Before we dive into how I teach classroom procedures, let me give you a quick list of some of the procedures I like to teach in my classroom. Now, in past weeks I definitely covered the procedures I like to teach in the first two weeks, depending on which grade level. So make sure to check those out. But in the meantime, here are some general procedures that you know are great ideas to teach during the first week, or just in general, and that is lighting up, raising your hand, class calls, using the restroom, grabbing a pencil, etc. So essentially, you're just setting the expectations of how you want students to again either interact with each other, whether that's, you know, turning and talking, if you do a turn and talk, or a think-pair-share, or how you want them to interact throughout the room, so, for example, with you if you were teaching a class call. So all of these are different types of procedures. So now let's dive in to the seven step process I use to teach every classroom procedure.

Helena:

The first one is to introduce. Now, obviously I'm not going to be in my office teaching a classroom procedure, but let's just pretend, for example, I'll go back into second grade, ms Haynes version of me, and I'm going to start off the beginning of the day. So, good morning class. Good morning, ms Haynes. Today we are going to learn something super fun that I like to call a class call. Now, a class call is how I like to make sure that I have your attention and to give you next steps when we're transitioning from one thing to another. Now, there's different kinds of class calls, but for now I'm going to practice a simple one and throughout the year we're going to add more to it, so I'm going to model what it looks like. So, class class yes, yes, I'm going to model it again. Class class. Now, pretend I'm a student. Yes, yes, all right.

Helena:

So now that I've modeled what a class call is, let's discuss. What did it look like and sound like? So, stepping back from the teacher version of E, so I went ahead and I modeled what it looked like and sounds like, and now I'm going to lead them into a discussion. During this section, we like to discuss what it looks like and sounds like, to do the whatever it is. So, going back into teacher mode, what did you notice that it looked like when I was doing the class call? And then you know you'll call on students. Maybe that my mouth was at a level zero. My eyes were directed at you, my hands were in my lap and I was still. And then what does it sound like? And this is a great time if you wanna create whether it's a slideshow presentation or whether it's, I don't know an anchor chart, this is a great time to maybe jot these down so you can refer back to them later throughout the year, because you will want to review these throughout the year. But then you can then have this discussion with them on what it looked like and sounds like. So then we could talk about what it sounded like. Oh, you are at a level zero and your hands were still in the room.

Helena:

With silent, I say great, now let's model the wrong way to do it. So I'm going to go back to teacher mode. All right, class. So I'm going to model now the wrong way to do it Class class, or sorry, I went this way Class class. Oh yeah, so I'm so excited for recess. Do you want to play football? Yeah, I think that's great. All right class. What did you notice? That it didn't look like and sound like. So right now we're having a discussion on what it doesn't look like in Sedlink and they're going to point out that I didn't stop, I didn't say it back. I continued to talk, I continued to maybe move around the classroom and it wasn't at a voice level zero. So after we have that discussion, we're going to discuss why it's important. So why it's important that we do it this way. So all right class. So why is it important that we do it the right way versus the wrong way, and they're going to help you come up with ideas like we want to be considerate of learning. We won't know what the next steps are. We might be lost, we might fail the grade, we might fail the test, et cetera. So when you give students the buy-in as to why it's important, they're more likely to remember to do it later.

Helena:

Now, backstoring, when I first started teaching, or when I was a little kid, I constantly asked my family and friends why we did things the way we did. And it wasn't because I wanted to be rude or condescending. It's because if I could figure out why people did the things they did and why they did it that way, I could then kind of copy and paste this scenario for other situations later. So it's just like learning the why, and so that's why I highly recommend you have this conversation with your kids when you're having discussing a procedure. So after you discuss the why with them, then you have them practice. You might ask for two volunteers. They might get up and practice and then you'll have the whole class practice.

Helena:

Now there's this distinction between being cranky and grumpy and mean and just having high expectations. The sweet spot for me, I found, is I will have my students practice over and over and over and over again until they do it to an expectation that I have, not in a way to be mean, but because I want that structure so it gives us space to have fun later. And in order to have that, I need to have structure in the classroom. That's just the way I do it. You don't necessarily have to do it that way, but I highly recommend you practice a couple times and practice throughout the week, practice throughout the day and really focus on that procedure until it becomes a habit. They say that it takes, on average, 21 times for something to become a habit. So realistically, you want to have your kids practice 21 times at a really good level. That way it just becomes a habit and they don't have to think about it.

Helena:

So, reviewing the steps that we went over, my seven step process for teaching classroom procedures is one introduce Introduce what the procedure is. Two model Get up physically and model what it looks like. Step number three discuss what it did look like and sound like. Step number four either you or a student can model the wrong way to do things. And then, number five discuss what does doing that procedure not look like and sound like? And then discuss the why. Why do we do it the right way versus the wrong way? And number seven practice.

Helena:

So with that recap of all the steps of how I teach procedures in mind, I'm going to do a different scenario. So I'm going to, for example, let's do getting in line for recess. Now, obviously I'm not going to move the camera around, that's going to be a little hectic in my office but I will show pushing my chair and walking across that direction. It's just modeling. Okay, so I'm going to go into teacher mode and just have this whole example for you ready to go. So again, introduce model, discuss, model wrong way, discuss again why it's important, and practice. So I'm going to go through this again. So, class, class, yes, yes, good morning, class, good morning, ms Haynes. Today we're going to go over a really important thing and that is how we are going to get in line. So this is a really important thing that I want to make sure we have right so that we can keep each other safe.

Helena:

So, that being said, I'm going to model what it does look like and sound like to do this procedure to get in line, all right. So I'm going to model to you like I'm a student on what it does look like and sound like to get in line All right, class. So what does it look like and sound like? When I got in the line? Oh, you're right, I did have walking feet, I did push in my chair, my hands were to myself, I was at a level zero. That's what it sounded like, great job. So we had this discussion on what it does look like and sound like. Now let's talk about the wrong way to get in line. So let's say that I hear a class class, yes, yes. And I hear the song or it's that we need to get in line. Oh, yeah, yeah, I think it was, it was. Yeah, yeah, I liked that assignment. It was, it was awesome and okay, you couldn't see that, but I totally just did a little run, okay. So I ran a bit. So, all right, class.

Helena:

Now that I've modeled the wrong way to do it, let's discuss what it doesn't look like and sound like. You're right, I was still talking to my friend and having a conversation. You're right, I wasn't using walking feet. And, yes, you're right. So I wasn't using walking feet. I was still talking to my friend, I was still talking in the line.

Helena:

And now that we've talked about the wrong way to do it, why do you think we have us do it one way over the other? So, you're right, the reason that we do it that way is to keep us safe. We use walking feet because if we run, we might trip and fall. Okay, you're right. So we're at a voice level zero, not because Ms Haynes is being mean, but because we need to listen for directions in case we need to go somewhere or to find out where we're going. If Ms Haynes hasn't told us yet. You're right, I do keep my hands to myself because I want to not distract from others if it's just me lining up. So again, you're having this discussion on why. All right, class.

Helena:

So now that we've discussed what it does look like and sound like, and I modeled the right way and wrong way to do it, I'm looking for two volunteers to show me what it does look like and sound like. To get in line, can I please have student A and student B please show us what it looks like and sounds like. You can even go further what did you notice that they did do right and what it looked like and sounded like? All right, now let's have the whole class do it and the whole class does it. So this is how I teach procedures and this is how I initially introduce all the procedures during the first two months of school. This is how I initially introduce all the procedures during the first two months of school. Now, throughout the year, I will go back and review and it depends on what level I feel like I need to go. Obviously, I don't necessarily need to introduce, but I could say all right, boys and girls, I noticed that we're having a really hard time following the expectations of sitting crisscross, applesauce, at the carpet for a whole group learning. So we're going to practice that procedure today.

Helena:

No-transcript. The point of these procedures is you want to set expectations of what it should look like and sound like and you definitely want to model what it looked like and sounds like. Now, one mistake I made when I started teaching is I didn't go through this whole process. Maybe I introduced it the first day of school, but then I never touched on it again, and then I was frustrated when my kids didn't follow the expectation later in the year. Kids are kids. I can't tell you how many times I forgot something that I've already learned. It's great to refresh throughout the year.

Helena:

Second thing I don't know why I never thought to apply good teaching practices to classroom management, but I didn't think about that. So that's why I highly recommend you model what it looks like and sounds like. That way, there's no miscommunication on what your expectations are. It's the same thing for an assignment. You often have an example or a template or a rubric to show students what the expectations are. So there's no room for miscommunication and it clearly demonstrates or articulates what you're wanting, and that's why it's important to model the expectations in your classroom.

Helena:

So, with that being said, I'm going to do a quick recap on the seven steps to how I teach every classroom procedure. First one introduce the procedure. Second step I model the procedure. Third step I discuss the procedure. Fourth step I model the wrong way to do it. Fifth step I discuss the wrong way to do it. Sixth step discuss why it's important. And seventh step have the whole class practice until it becomes a habit. Again, 21 times for it to become a habit. That wraps up the seven step process I use to teach every classroom procedure in my classroom.

Helena:

If you want to dive deeper into classroom management, I have way more content on classroom management, so feel free to dive into that. I also have an ultimate classroom management guide. These are the 10 questions I often get asked in regards to classroom management and I put them all in one easy ebook for you to download for free, and I also link to additional YouTube and podcast episodes on classroom management. In case you want to dive into deeper, for a deeper explanation and if you want to take it a step further, very soon I will be hosting a 15-day classroom management challenge. Now, one thing I definitely struggled with my first couple years of teaching was classroom management. So I wanted to create a quick, easy put together your classroom management plan for back to school in one place. So I thought a 15-day challenge would be a lot of fun.

Helena:

So how this challenge works is every single day in our community or in your email, or however it's going to run. I'm going to send you a prompt on what you need to do for that day to set up your classroom management plan. The whole goal is to have you confidently manage the classroom from day one of the school year. So we'll be talking about things like procedures, talk about things like how you're going to interact with students when they're being disruptive, your rules, and stuff like that. So it's going to be over the course of three weeks. Each day that you complete the challenge for that day, you're going to be entered into a bingo card, or you can mark off in your little bingo thing that you did it, and if you have all 15 filled out, you can then submit to be a part of a prize. So super fun. And then also there's going to be three different trainings released, one each week. That's something in depth about how to go about teaching or doing something for your classroom management, or a template or something like that.

Helena:

So, with that being said, we'd love to have you join us. Make sure to check the link in the description below. As always, remember, we are stronger together, and I'll see you in the next one, teacher Besty Bye. I'll see you in the next one, teacher Busty Bye. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode. I hope that you were able to take away some value that will help you thrive inside and out of the classroom. It would mean the world to me if you could take five seconds right now and leave a review on this podcast. And if you found this podcast especially helpful, make sure to take a screenshot of this episode right now and tag me on your socials to let me know you're listening. As always, remember that we are stronger together with all the love in the world. Helena, aka the Present Teacher. See you next time. Teacher Bestie.

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