Teacher Approved Tips: Make Hallway Behavior Management Fun and Classroom Escape Rooms [episode 90]

Emily
Hey, there thanks for joining us today for teacher approved tips, a special series from the teacher approved podcast. Every Thursday, we’re bringing you a weekly bonus episode highlighting new and favorite teacher approved tips from us and other amazing educators.

Emily
Our first tip is turn walking in the hallway into a game.

Heidi
So in Monday’s episode, we did a deep dive into hallway procedures. There’s a lot of questions to consider, and plans to make when it comes to walking in the hallway. And if you want some help thinking through all of those questions, and making a really well thought out plan, we’ve got a freebie that will guide you through all of that. And we’ll link to that in our show notes.

Heidi
But Monday’s episode really focused on the technical details. Today, we want to talk about how to add a little fun into your hallway walking.

Emily
One suggestion is to keep track of compliments your class receives from other adults at the school. Then once your classes earn a certain number of compliments, maybe they get three compliments, they get a big reward like a round of heads up seven up.

Heidi
I like that idea because it makes kids eager to show how good they can be in the hall. But the downside is that they can’t control the results. They may be perfect in the hall, but maybe you don’t pass another adult or the adult you do pass doesn’t comment on their behavior. And in that case, it can be hard to maintain motivation.

Emily
Yeah, to keep kids willing to try you might want to pair compliment collecting with another kind of challenge like mystery walker.

Heidi
Yeah, mystery walker is great because it keeps kids really engaged.

Emily
Plust it’s pretty simple to manage. So before you step into the hall announce that you’ve chosen a mystery walker. As you’re in the hallway, you’ll be watching to see if this person is following all of the hallway rules.

Emily
Once you get back to class, you announce if the mystery walker succeeded or not. If they didn’t, you don’t announce their name. But if they did, that student earns a reward.

Heidi
So kids love a mystery, especially if it’s a mystery that might earn them a reward. If kids see you choose the name of mystery walker, whether you know you’re choosing a popsicle stick or you’re looking at a class list or something, it will increase their level of concern, and also increase their willingness to follow directions.

Emily
And don’t go easy on them. If you reward less than perfect hallway behavior, then less than perfect becomes the standard.

Heidi
Of course, you do have to be sensitive to kids whose best behavior isn’t the level that you’d expect from other students. Have high expectations but hold kids accountable for achievable results.

Emily
Another way to boost the fun of hallway walking is to add some competition.

Emily
Because I had my students walking in two lines, I had them compete for best behaved line. So if we’re walking and one line was doing great, you know, I’d give them a thumbs up or a wink. And typically that made the other lines try and up their game. When we got where we were going, the best line got to enter first. And if there was a tie, the line leaders got to play rock paper scissors to determine line supremacy.

Emily
That is a perk of having two lines because the fun of competition is already built into your routine.

Heidi
But even if you don’t have two lines to compete against each other, you can still have the fun of a class challenge. As you are reviewing your hallway behavior expectations before you leave the class, explain that you want the kids to do something different. Maybe they should keep their arms straight at their sides or have a super big smile.

Emily
Or you can make it a real challenge and have them do jazz hands as they walk or turn their hands into binocular. As long as it’s not causing problems, the sky’s the limit.

Heidi
Then any kids who are still doing the challenge when you get to your destination get a reward. So if you have class points or some other reward system that works great as a prize.

Emily
But you can definitely keep it simple and still have it be effective. Everyone who meets the challenge of walking with their hands on their head gets a fist bump when we get to the computer lab.

Heidi
Or everyone who has their arms folded gets a nose boop or a high five or a head tap. Getting that little moment of recognition from their teacher will motivate a lot of your class. And the ones that aren’t particularly motivated by back pat’s will still play along because they don’t want to be left out.

Emily
This is a great tip because it’s minimal prep. But to keep this fun, I probably wouldn’t use it every time we went in the hall. It’s a great way to add some surprise and delight to your hallway walking, but will lose some magic if kids can expect to every time you leave the classroom.

Heidi
Do you have any suggestions for how to add some fun to your hallway routines? Please come share your thoughts over in the teacher proof Facebook group.

Emily
Our second teacher approved tip today comes from Teresa Kwant.

Teresa
Hi teachers, I’m so excited to be sharing my teacher tip this week. My tip is how to use Escape Rooms in the classroom.

Teresa
If you’ve never used an escape room before, it is similar to a scavenger hunt, and students are solving puzzles and riddles, and they’re collaborating together to solve a problem.

Teresa
What I love about escape rooms is that it fosters collaboration and critical thinking. I especially love to use Escape Rooms at the beginning of the year, as students get to know each other. They can learn what other strengths their peers have, as they solve the puzzles together.

Teresa
Escape Rooms are also a great way to teach different standards to your students in a new way. So instead of just doing a boring lecture up in front of the class or doing a worksheet to review a concept, you can use an Escape Room where they are not only learning the standards that you are reviewing with your students, but they are also learning like I said critical thinking skills, learning how to solve problems and learning the different strengths that other students in the classroom have.

Teresa
When you do an Escape Room, you’ll see that some students will really shine in a leadership role that you didn’t really notice before, because maybe they were shy in class or were afraid to volunteer, but in a smaller setting, they are happy to contribute to the group. And so it just is a little more comfortable for students to be in a small group rather than in the front of the entire class.

Teresa
I also love it because you can differentiate and you can have students who might be really good at the math concept, if you’re doing a math escape room game, you might have other students that are currently struggling with that standard or concept. And you can put them together in the same group and they can help each other learn those skills and review. And again, in a more closed off setting or a more setting that’s more comfortable for them that isn’t in front of the entire class for the entire group.

Teresa
Escape Rooms are so much fun. And you can use digital escape rooms, you can use principal escape rooms, there are so many different ways to do them. And if you’re a teacher that doesn’t like to do a lot of prep, because some escape rooms can be a lot of prep, it can take a lot of time, there are some escape rooms that are literally just print and go.

Teresa
You print the pages, you put them in a quick little file folder, and you hand them to your students, and they’re ready to go. And if you like more of the digital versions, there are so many different ones to do, whether it’s on Google Slides, or Google Forms, or even in PowerPoint.

Teresa
So I challenge you to use Escape Rooms this year with your students to see how they can learn and grow this new way. And if you’ve done them before, I challenge you to try a new one. I have hundreds of them in my store for all different grades and for all different concepts. So make sure to check them out and see if there is one you would like to do with your students this year.

Emily
Thank you, Teresa for sharing that tip with us to give Escape Rooms a try. I think Escape Rooms are such a fun way to boost engagement and they’re a great tool to have in your toolbox.

Heidi
And I love her point about how Escape Rooms really foster collaboration. It’s so great to have your students work together to solve a problem. And as she pointed out, those smaller settings might be just the place for some of your more quiet students to show their strengths.

Emily
You can connect with Teresa at @teresakwant on Instagram and we’ll link to her website in the show notes.

Heidi
That’s it for today’s episode. Add some fun to your hallway routines. And remember Teresa’s teacher approved tip to give classroom escape rooms a try.