My first year of teaching was a complete train wreck. In fact, the phrase, “train wreck,” doesn’t even begin to describe how lost I was as a teacher.
I had just graduated college, moved to a new city, and entered a classroom with 28 students and my own naïve mindset.
I thought, “I’m nice, patient, & know my stuff! This will be a breeze.”
Oh, how wrong I was.
I remember sitting in my classroom during the Spring semester and reflecting on the “coaching” advice offered to me. (I put coaching in quotes because it wasn’t true coaching, it was more of a “do this, and everything will work out!” sort of mindset). Others were telling me to hold kids accountable, repeat procedures and routines, & find your teacher voice. This is very difficult to do when you have no idea what any of those things look like!
Hitting the reset button didn’t feel like a viable option. The reset I needed was a hard reset, one that would come over summer break and begin the first day of my second year of teaching.
10 years into this career, though, I’m beginning to see that a reset doesn’t take a whole new year. While resetting in the Spring semester is more difficult than resetting in the Fall, it is possible.
Part of what makes my job as a coach so rewarding is getting to be the coach I wish I had my first year of teaching. Instead of saying, “Just hold kids accountable! Do this thing you never saw modeled; it’ll work!” I can say, “Watch me, do it with me, and now, do it by yourself.”
If you don’t have a coach, though, here are some practical steps you can take to reset your classroom. The key is to start somewhere and to start small.
Community Building as a way to reset
Often, what allows a reset to be successful is the perspective shift we take when thinking about and relating to our students. Have you found yourself frustrated, annoyed, or in a general mood of unhappiness when it comes to thinking about your students?
A small, quick win, would be to list your students from “annoys me the most to annoys me the least.” Then, (this is the hard part), write a brief note of gratitude to those at the top of your list. If you’re stuck, ask God to help you see something in them that He created and you can be thankful for.
This small step will help you reach the reset you want to implement.
Procedures & Routines to Streamline
Is there a part of the day that frustrates you the most? Working by yourself or with a trusted colleague, pinpoint the one procedure that misaligns all the other procedures. It could be turning in work, passing out paper, calling on volunteers, seating, partner work, etc.
Start small.
If turning in work is chaotic, redesign how work is collected.
Here’s an idea:
- Teach and model for students how to pass work to the person on their left (or right). Then, practice it! Time students or turn it into a competition between classes (if you have the brain space for this). Identify the ending points of turning it in and have those students over until the pile of work is with one person and that person is sitting by the turn in area. If you want to go one step further, have that person paperclip the work before putting it in the basket.
If transitions are chaotic, implement a verbal cue.
Here’s how it works:
- Reframe how you give directions. Say to kids, “When I say, ‘Go,’…” Then, give them exactly how you want them to move and what voice level to use. If you find yourself saying, “Work with your partner…” stop, and say, “I apologize, I’d like to try that again with more specific instructions. Alright, when I say, ‘Go,’ walk to your partner and discuss at voice level 1…Go!”
- The key is to train yourself to say the cue phrase. Practice it at home, on your drive to school, and every time you give instructions.
- You can use “Go” or a domain specific word. I liked having a word of the week that related to content in our class and reinforced academic vocabulary.,
The goal of a reset is to help kids AND you end the school year well.
Even if it’s just one small change, that change can snowball into other changes and propel you into the next school year on a stronger foot.
