Episode 3 - Let's talk routines and procedures (pre-feedback)

The transcript is about the importance of routines and procedures in the classroom. Routines are daily habits and practices that students can expect, while procedures are specific behaviors expected of them for different tasks. Routines and procedures help create a structured learning environment, reduce confusion, and increase student confidence. They are essential for classroom management and help promote self-monitoring behavior. Different teachers have different routines and procedures tailored to their teaching style and classroom layout. They are important for all age groups, including elementary students who benefit from knowing what to expect and reducing test anxiety. Overall, routines and procedures are non-negotiables in the classroom and are used to create a positive and organized learning environment. Hi all, and welcome to Spill It! I'll be your host, Elizabeth, and I'm here to spill the tea about schools. For those of you that aren't aware, Spill It! is an educational podcast about education. My goal is to make education feel more accessible for everyone. I do this by breaking down different things about the education world, whether it's terminology, questions, or best practices. Last week, we covered misconceptions or questions regarding education. We brought in a guest star, Sam, someone completely removed from this world, the education world, not Earth, to ask questions from someone without a stake in the game. This week, my goal is to talk about routines and procedures within the classroom. Before we get started, I want to make sure that we differentiate between routines and procedures. While most people know that they mean different things, they're oftentimes just lumped together in the education realm. It's important that we know the difference between them and the how and why behind teachers using them. First, let's talk about routines. Routines are the daily habits you work into your classroom. These are the practices you do on a daily or weekly basis so that your students always know to expect them. These obviously can differ from teacher to teacher. Think of routines as your schedule. Do you start class the same way every day and with the same activity? Do you do classroom jobs on a certain day or always take a quiz on Fridays, et cetera? What in your calendar, your schedule, do the students know to expect? Procedures, on the other hand, are the behaviors that students need to do to complete tasks expected of them. What behaviors are expected of them in each scenario? This is your students knowing that they need to write their name on the board if they want to borrow your pencil. This is them knowing to raise their hand to ask a question. It's knowing that their assignment that's complete gets turned into that tray in the corner. It's their day-to-day behaviors that they know to associate with different tasks. Routines are the schedule. Procedures are the behaviors and the actions. So, routines and procedures are non-negotiables in the classroom. Everyone uses them and everyone relies on them, even though the reasons may vary. Before I talk about the why, I want to provide specific classroom examples. I want you to be able to picture what's being done in the classroom when I'm explaining the reasoning behind it. So, obviously, let's start with my own classroom routines. My classroom routines are set up on a daily structure. My students come in and they know right away to get started on their daily grammar practice. They don't have to be told because we do it each class. This means that while I'm standing at the door and greeting kids as they enter, those in the room are pulling out their Chromebooks and logging in. While I'm taking attendance, they're doing their practice. They know what's expected of them during this time and that allows me to do what I need to do at an administrative level. They know that once our grammar practice timer goes off, Chromebooks are put away. They know that next comes direct instruction in some capacity. Either I'm reminding them of a past assignment that they're continuing that day or they're learning a new skill. Once that's done, they know it's work time. Then, with five minutes left of class, it's cleanup. Honestly, if you're like me and you have a set cleanup time, once you're a couple weeks in, I don't even have to be the one to keep track of it. A student will let me know that it's 5 till and then I'll remind everyone to start tidying up. They know this because we do it every single day. They come in knowing what to expect. Procedures or routines in my class vary, but they are very specific to my style and the layout of my classroom. My students know that any assignment they turn in on paper goes in one singular tray. This cuts down on lost papers because they gave it to me or left it on my desk or put it in X folder. We establish on day one that all assignments go in the turn-in tray. For the remainder of the school year, I'm not wasting time telling kids different places to put their work or, let's be honest, trying to remember where I told them to put their work. It's one of those things that we're using, a behavior we're using, to cut down on issues. My students know that if they need to use the bathroom while I'm teaching, they don't interrupt me. They grab a clothespin off the back board. This serves as a visual for me and for them, but they are able to let me know what they need without interrupting the learning of others. A more complex example of procedures in my room is when I do stations. Stations are when I have five or six different activities set up around the room, and students go from station to station to practice different things. We have procedures within these stations. Students know not to move from their station before the timer goes off. They know without asking that their next station is whichever is closest clockwise. And they know that they need to reassemble their station and its materials before they move on. This ensures that a busy day with multiple activities isn't bogged down by slow-moving transitions. To show that routines and procedures are in every room no matter what, I want to briefly bring in Jake. Jake, come on in! So, while he's getting in here, Jake is a paraprofessional in an elementary class. We have worked together before, haven't we, Jake? Yes, that's right, we have. I've bounced around as a long-term sub next to your room before I was a para. But now you're consistently in one classroom? Yes, yes I am. With a teacher and an age group that are very different from mine. Someone who has been in your room before, I can say it is very different. I don't think I want to know what he's insinuating with that, but cool, let's get started. Let's start with routines. What routines do your second graders learn and follow? Routines. Yeah, our simplest routine is that we go through our subjects in the same order every single day. They know that every day we start off with spelling and we end with science. At a young age, emotional regulation is hard. The comfort in knowing what to expect takes away from added heightened emotions. Alright, that makes sense. What else? Another example of a routine in my classroom would be our weekly spelling words. They get the words for that week on Monday every week and a copy is sent home to their parents as well. We practice their words Monday through Thursday and they know we do a review game on Thursday and a test every Friday. Kids knowing when their spelling test is every week helps them know how to prepare for it. I mean, that's wonderful and it seems fitting for the age group. Test anxiety can start at a really young age and knowing exactly when it's coming I'm sure helps relieve some of that pressure. Absolutely. What about procedures? I personally have always felt that this would probably be harder to do with younger kids. Honestly, I see where that comes from but it's not too bad. Our procedures just aren't as complex as yours. We teach general school procedures. Well, what qualifies as a general school procedure? The procedures students learn in early elementary school are ones that transcend most schools. Things like if you want to speak out, you raise your hand first. If you want to go from point A to point B, you need to walk in a single file line. You need to ask permission before you get up and go to the bathroom. All of that fun stuff. So what I'm hearing is I owe a massive thank you to a lot of elementary teachers for the procedures they taught? Absolutely you do. Gosh, they scare me to talk to. They're so organized. I know. All right. Do you have any procedures that aren't just the basics? Of course we do and they differ from teacher to teacher. But one thing, they're generally minor. They're fairly minor items. One example in my classroom is story time. When it's story time, our students know to go to their rug in a very specific way. If you want to be able to sit on the rug with your story buddy, you got to do it step by step. The first step is you stand up. Second, you push your chair in. Third, you walk over to the rug and start working on your story. If you miss one of those steps, you got to start over and try again. Repetition. Repetition. Gosh, it does leave an impact. Don't we know it? It's definitely a key. Yes, it is. Well, I appreciate you coming in, Jake. I know this isn't super within your realm of comfort, so I appreciate you making the time. Absolutely no problem at all. All right. Bye, Jake. We're going to give him a minute to disappear because I don't know if I can deal with his fidgeting during the time that I have to finish this episode. Goodbye. Goodbye. All right. So while Jake's leaving, you've now heard from two different educators in two different realms about how procedures and routines are used in their classroom. Let's talk about the why. I'm going to get a little wordy here for a moment. An article by AmericanEnglish.state.gov, which is a resource for learning American English and culture and is developed by the Office of English Language Programs, talks about the importance of routines and procedures. In their article involving students and classroom routines and processes, they state that this is an essential part of good classroom management. It increases confidence and comfort levels and promotes self-monitoring behavior. This goes to show that this isn't just my own personal opinion. As much as I think my own personal opinion is just fabulous, that's not really enough to back myself up. Teaching professionals agree that these things are needed. They are essential for classroom management. So routines, let's start there. They're used as an early intervention for problem behaviors and to boost student confidence. When students come into class knowing what to expect, it puts them at ease. Your more nervous students find comfort in knowing what's coming. Let's use Jake's class for an example. In second grade, there are still kids that get nervous coming to school. All those kids there and all those activities can feel like a massive wild card. However, because of how Jake and his classroom teacher set up that room, the students at least have something answered for them. They're starting with spelling. It's one less thing for them to stress over. Your students who have issues regulating their behaviors also benefit in knowing what's expected, what's next. Rather than coming into class and goofing around until you get things started, they know that they need to come in and get started working on X assignment. Students thrive in structure and providing that structure gives them a focus for their energy and efforts rather than acting out. Procedures are used for almost the same reason. If students know what they are supposed to do, they can move from task to task without having unstructured time as they wait to be told what to do. Or let's use my restroom procedure as a better example. Middle schoolers look for approval from their peers. This isn't a judgment. It's just where they're at developmentally. If I stop teaching every time someone needed to use the restroom, I'm providing a very focused audience. Very is generous to myself. I'm providing a somewhat focused audience for my students to razzle dazzle. I'm not trying to stereotype. I love teaching middle school. But there are too many different and silly ways to inform me that you need to go potty. And I'm not giving them an audience to try all those variations out. By removing that interruption, I'm keeping teaching going while also not giving them an opportunity to make an irresponsible choice or comment. Procedures can be about safety. If we think back to Shakespeare in the rug, that's all about safety. They're removing tripping hazards by pushing their chairs in. They remove slipping or colliding hazards by monitoring the walking. It's showing kids that safety needs to be prioritized. Sometimes with procedures especially, these things in the classroom can come across as a power struggle. It might seem silly that your child had to turn back to put the paper in the tray rather than on my desk, or that your child had to try three different times to successfully get to the carpet. I've heard complaints about teachers' procedures all the time. But I hope you've been able to see that these aren't for our own authoritative stance. We have the procedures in place to protect your child's safety and your child's education. The protection of someone's education is a discussion I have with students often. Just because you weren't physically harming someone doesn't mean that you weren't impeding their ability to learn in the way that they are rightfully owed. The procedures are put in place to protect that right to education. So, as is my specialty, I've babbled on for quite a bit. I hope you feel like you've learned something today. Maybe you had once gotten annoyed with your child's teacher's procedures and now you understand why. Maybe you saw a coworker do something that you never understood but now could see some validity in. As we wrap up our third episode, or I clean up my spill, so to speak, I want you to please let me know if there's something you want to share with me. Did I teach you something new? Do you disagree with some of the routines or procedures in my own room? Let me know. As I say every week, learning goes both ways. And I hope to learn as much from my listeners as they learn from me. Until next week, my friends. Boom. Boom. Tune in next Sunday for a new episode of Spill It. Elizabeth will cover lesson plans.