 to my channel, apples and tiaras. So today I'm going to be doing a video all about starting out the year with procedures and expectations. I'm going to be giving you guys a brief list of the procedures and expectations that I teach in the first weeks of school and then I'm going to go through a few of the ones that you guys posted on my Instagram. I asked you guys to list your top three policies, procedures, or expectations that you guys teach in the beginning of school and I'm actually going to be sharing a few of those with you guys. Something that's really important when you're teaching procedures and expectations just keep in mind that your students are not going to do them perfectly in the beginning and they're definitely not going to only need one day and one time to learn and practice them. You're going to need to teach them over time as well as practice them multiple times a day, multiple times a week until they have perfected them. Also keep in mind as a teacher over time your students are going to need refreshers and need to practice these expectations and procedures over and over again because they sometimes forget. I wanted to make this video to help all of the newer teachers out there. I remember being a new teacher and thinking on the first week of school what am I supposed to do? All about me Steph. Let's do some coloring. Art projects, you guys it's really important to teach and solidify your expectations and your procedures in the first week of school and make sure that you are consistent in making sure that those kids follow those procedures and expectations because if you're not consistent and hard in the first week of school you're going to lose them. So one of the ways I like to present my procedures and expectations is just through a presentation and this presentation isn't mostly for the students to be looking at. I mean yes it's aesthetically pleasing to them but it's mostly for me to organize my thoughts and kind of just go through the checklist. This PowerPoint is also organized to match the first three days of school. Basically it goes through all of the procedures and expectations in order that we would perform them in a normal school day. Obviously the first day of school we cover a lot of things that they are going to want to know slash need to know like what do I do if I need to go to the bathroom? Where can I find the tissue box? Things like that those are things that you're definitely going to want to cover in the first day of school and then they shouldn't need to be asking those questions again but if they you can refer back to oh I explained that on the first day of school. Also just a helpful tip don't try to teach every single procedure or expectation in the first day of school just nail down the really important ones. I'm going to explain that a little bit more in just a minute. So one of the very first procedures or expectations I like to teach is attention grabbers. These are our call to attention like class class yes yes these are the ones that you're going to use the first week the first few weeks I would stick to maybe like one or two just so that the students really memorize those attention grabbers and utilize them correctly. Throughout the year I definitely recommend you switching up the attention grabbers using the ones that work using the ones that the kids like and just creating new ones because it keeps it fun and exciting. The second most important procedure that I like to teach is entering the classroom or morning procedures. As you're planning these procedures it is important for you to sit down and think about your morning and what you expect from your students. Do you want them to come in talking? Do you want them to come in and read a book? Do you want them to come in and start morning work? What is it that you want your students to do in the morning? Make a list of all the steps you want them to follow and then teach those steps and then make them practice and practice and practice and practice. With entering the classroom you're obviously going to want to teach your attendance procedures. Do you just call their names and have them say here? Do you have them move the magnet? Do you have them click in on class dojo? How is it that you're taking attendance? You also want to consider that in your arrival or morning procedures. I also teach breakfast procedures in my classroom because at my new school we do have breakfast in the classroom so that is an added procedure for the morning that I need to teach and practice. Another super important one that kids always want to know right when they walk in the door what do I do if I need to go to the bathroom because you know they always want to just go to the bathroom all day. So you're definitely going to want to teach those bathroom procedures first thing on the first day. Another procedure I teach first day of school and throughout the entire year is lining up. There's two different ways that they line up. They line up in the classroom and they line up outside of the classroom. It's really important for you to practice both with your students. Find a time in the first day of school where you can take your students outside to practice where they line up after lunch, where they line up after recess, where they line up in the morning so that they can practice doing that correctly. You're also going to want to practice lining up inside the classroom and or inside the building. I don't know about you guys but I expect my students to line up in alphabetical order when they're inside the building or when they're coming inside the building. You're also going to want to talk about those expectations of when they're in line. Are they still? Are they silent? Are they straight? Are they smiling? That's a little 4s trick that I like to teach. I like to have a marching song with my students in line and if you guys have been watching my channel for a long time you guys know that we march to the imperial march. Darth Vader's theme song and my students really love walking in line to that and it really does help them stay in formation. Another procedure you're going to want to talk about is class numbers. I know that a lot of us label our things by number and we assign our students a number and they're supposed to memorize this number so you're going to want to talk about the importance of the number and when to use it and to respect other people's numbers and to make sure that they memorize them. You're also going to want to teach your behavior management system whether it's cards or sticks or class dojo or clip-up charts however it is that you manage your classroom behavior you're going to want to talk about that on the first day of school and then continue to talk about it throughout the first week. You're also going to want to talk about consequences and rewards. Whatever system you use in your classroom you definitely want to tell your students about on the first day of school. It kind of motivates them on the first day of school. Now I like to use class dojo and whole brain teaching scoreboards in conjunction with each other but I do not give or take away dojo points in the first week of school. I use that as kind of like a grace period. Another really important procedure that you need to talk about is getting up out of your seat. When is it appropriate to get up out of your seat? What are the reasons that you should be getting up out of your seat and where are the things that you're going to want when you get out of your seat? So tissues, supplies, drinking fountain just talk about what you want your students to do before they get out of their seat and when they get out of their seat. For example if you get out of your seat should you be having a conversation with someone who's in their seat? No, no. Another really important procedure that I like to talk about on the first day is pencil sharpening and I talk about when it's okay to sharpen a pencil and when it's not okay to sharpen a pencil. Also you definitely want to have a conversation about pencil sharpeners. If you have an electronic pencil sharpener how hard to shove that pencil in there. What types of pencils not to shove in there? Color pencils, short pencils. Don't be doing that. You're also going to want to talk about class jobs, how to use supplies correctly and where they are stored. If you have cubbies and book bins your expectations for keeping those clean and organized. You're going to want to talk about class rules obviously. Now all of the class procedures that I just mentioned those are the ones that I formally talk about on the first day of school. They're really super important they need to know them first day so that they can implement them throughout the day through the second and third day and the rest of the school year. I also have a list here of procedures and expectations that you guys mentioned in my instagram. You're going to want to talk about your classroom library expectations, backpack expectations, what not to bring to school and what you should bring to school, homework expectations and procedures. If you have a homework folder, if you have a if you have some kind of like homework chart you're going to want to talk about homework expectations. You're going to want to talk about and practice your dismissal procedures and expectations which include packing up and cleaning up. You're going to want to talk about your lunch expectations and behavior expectations in the cafeteria. If you do whole group teaching on the carpet or on the floor you're going to want to talk about what they should be doing when they're there, how to sit correctly, what will happen if they don't sit correctly. You're going to want to practice practice practice your transitions, hallway expectations, active listening and of course safety drills. If you're using flexible seating in your classroom you're going to want to really really talk about those expectations and procedures. I also have on here the I'm done expectations and procedures. Some of these expectations and procedures don't really need to be covered on the first day of school especially if you're not using them. For example, I don't assign homework on the first days of school so I usually talk about my homework expectations on the second week before homework is assigned. Now the next couple of expectations are ones that I don't necessarily teach in the first week of school but I teach them eventually when we get to that. These are collaboration expectations, what it looks like to work with a group, what it looks like to talk with a partner and these expectations and procedures can be taught when that situation arises in the classroom. For example, if you're going to use a group steam activity in your first week of school you would definitely want to teach working as a team or collaborating before you give that assignment. You're also going to want to talk about turning assignments in, where to turn them in, what the assignment should have on the top of it, for example title name date if that's something that you require. Another really important procedure to teach is definitely centers behavior and expectations. This is where if you have a small group and you don't want your students to bother you you need to teach them not to bother you. If you have them transitioning from center to center to center you need to teach that as well. You can't expect your students to just know what you want. If your school has a PBIS system you need to teach that as well. If you do go noodles or brain breaks you need to teach your students the expectation of what they should be doing before and after those. You also need to talk about behavior in specials classes. If your school doesn't implement a behavior scale you need to think about coming up with one so that your students are accountable for their behavior in specials classes. Like I said the purpose of this video was to help any of you new teachers out there who are struggling with figuring out what to do in that first week of school. Personally I try not to include any hard content in the first three days and I just like to focus on classroom management, classroom procedures, classroom expectations, behavior, and community building. I hope this video was helpful and if you guys have any other expectations or procedures that you like to cover in the first weeks of school that I didn't mention comment them down below and I will approve them so that everybody can see. Some of the videos that I want to produce for you guys are actual explanations of the procedures and expectations that I have for my classroom so that you can have a little bit more insight. Also if you're interested in the t-shirt I'm wearing it says teaching with finesse you can get this t-shirt from lipsticklittles.com and if you use my code apples you can actually get 15% off of your order.