If there is something that students do every day or every week in your classroom, you should have a procedure to make it happen with minimum drama. These don’t have to be perfect from the first day, because you can make small adjustments as you go. The important thing is to put some advanced thought into how you’d like your students to handle the procedures below.
- Starting class
- Ending class
- Participating in classroom discussions
- Dealing with broken pencils or other learning supply needs
- Charging devices when needed.
- Group work (when the time is right to introduce this)
- Classroom games and group activities (when the time is right to introduce these)
- Requesting a pass to leave the classroom
- Requesting and limiting bathroom breaks for older students
- Bathroom lines and bathroom behavior for younger students
- Enforcing consequences
For a new teacher, a good starting point is to ask teachers at your school how they handle these things. Here is a list of other questions you may want to ask your mentor teacher or colleagues.