Procedures, Procedures, Procedures

OK, I may be slow... but I think I've finally gotten down the key to making things run smoothly (eventually) in my multi-grade classroom.

The key, as Harry K. Wong, would remind us all: procedures.

I spent an entire first week of school practicing procedures with my students. Who sharpens the pencils, who straightens the books, how we line up, how & when we pack up at the end of the day, how we are quiet when others are talking, etc. Over and over and over. To this day (week 8), some kids STILL sit down as soon as we say the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag, even though we have said the pledge to the cross and the student bill of rights for our classroom EVERY.SINGLE.DAY of school right after the Pledge to the American flag. Is it really that hard to remember? Seriously?

So now that I've been reading (and finally watch the rest of the Harry Wong videos about Effective Teachers), I decided to put it into action. The premise is that every day all of us follow procedures -- how/when to answer a phone, how to go through security at the airport, how to wait in line at the grocery store, etc. Classrooms are no different. I loved Dr. Wong's comment that you can start the year with 5 rules and end up with 100s of rules by the end of the year because rules are tedious and must be enforced -- who has time to police students all day? Procedures are the WAY we do things. No right or wrong, no discipline just simply the WAY we do things.

When I'm interrupted for the 2nd time by students having their own conversation, I look at them and say, "I'm sorry but the procedure is for ONE person to talk at a time. I am talking now. Follow the procedure and stop talking." Likewise, even though our student bill of rights states that they each have a right to hear and be heard, they talk non-stop while others are talking. When I remind them of the classroom rights, they ignore it. When I tell them about the procedure, they pay attention. It's a slow process but other teachers are noticing a subtle change in my group.

I admit that it's more annoying when I must do the same thing with middle schoolers... but I do it. It gets results. This will probably end up at home with my toddler as well. I may not say "procedure" but I will say "We do not do this... we do it this way..." We'll see. :)