5 Steps for Classroom Procedure Success [Episode 154]

Emily  0:37

Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we’re talking through how to unlock the power of your procedures and sharing a teacher approved tip for making sure those procedures stick.

Heidi  0:51

We start our episodes with a morning message, just like we used to do in morning meeting in our classrooms. This week’s morning message is take any children’s book title and replace one word with pizza. We do the deep thinking around here, don’t we? Emily, what is your new book title?

Emily  1:08

Mine is, “Don’t let the pizza drive the bus.”

Heidi  1:11

Well, that’s just good life advice.

Emily  1:13

It’s your or it could be don’t let the pigeon drive the pizza, which I think is also valid. Don’t do that. How about you, Heidi?

Heidi  1:21

I’m going with Charlotte’s Pizza. Maybe she can spell her messages with pepperoni.

Emily  1:27

I like that much more than although I don’t want to, I don’t want a spider on my pizza. So never mind. I was gonna say I like that more than the web, but no, I don’t wanna spider on my pizza. So never mind.

Emily  1:39

We got some silly responses from our Facebook community. Natalie said, Pizza Potter. Colleen went with Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad pizza.

Heidi  1:52

Oh, that would be sad.

Emily  1:53

Jennifer suggested Charlie and the pizza factory. I’d be interested in that.

Heidi  1:59

That works on many levels.

Emily  2:00

Abby invented a new character called Winnie the pizza. Kristen says, I survived pizza. That could be a whole new series. Crystal suggests, if you give a mouse a pizza.

Heidi  2:13

Kind of surprised, that’s not part of that series already.

Emily  2:15

I know, it would be perfect. April went with the Lion, the Witch and the pizza. Shelby has where the wild pizzas are. I would read that. And Janina asks the most important question, are you my pizza?

Heidi  2:30

Yes, yes. Is the answer to that one.

Emily  2:33

We’d love to have you join the conversation over in our teacher approved Facebook group.

Heidi  2:38

Now that we have had a podcast for three back to school seasons, we have talked a lot about procedures. We’ve talked about why they matter, how to teach them, how to plan them, and how to fix them. But we have never put all of that information together. But we are fixing that right now.

Emily  2:55

Yes, because today we are sharing the five plans you need to unlock the power of procedures in your classroom.

Heidi  3:01

We promise this is not as overwhelming as it sounds. We will walk through it step by step.

Emily  3:06

When your procedures run smoothly, efficiently and automatically, you have the time and energy to teach instead of having to spend all day putting out management fires.

Heidi  3:17

And that’s what we want for you. We want all of these background tasks to be running mostly effortlessly, so you are free to be the kind of teacher you want to be.

Emily  3:28

So let’s dive into our first plan for procedure success, a plan for what needs to happen. Start by imagining yourself as a student coming into school. Think through exactly what students need to do as they start their day and then continue thinking through everything your students need to do to be successful in your classroom throughout the day.

Heidi  3:48

That list of activities is going to help you identify which procedures you need. When students arrive at school, they need an arrival procedure that explains where they go first and what they do. They might need a separate entering the class procedure and a procedure for unpacking their backpacks. This list is going to get long and that’s okay.

Emily  4:07

Our goal here is to be really concrete with the structure of the day, so that students don’t have to think about what to do next. Not only does this eliminate potential problem areas, but it frees up our students mental space to engage with what matters most, learning new content.

Heidi  4:25

To help you keep track of this lengthy list of needed procedures, check out our procedures and routines checklist and guiding questions. In this first step, we just want the checklist.

Emily  4:36

To use the checklist start by deleting anything that doesn’t apply to you and then add anything we forgot to include. Some items can be summed up with an explanation, like, if you find a crayon on the floor, put it in this bin, or if you feel like throwing up, just run to the bathroom or garbage. Done. You don’t need a bunch of steps to teach those kind of explanations.

Heidi  4:56

But of course, there are still plenty of times you are going to need a full procedure, and you can easily mark this on the digital version of the checklist.

Emily  5:05

Once you’ve figured out which items need an explanation and which need a full procedure, decide roughly when you want to teach each one. The most important ones are probably going to be introduced on day one, and the others can be introduced in the first week or two of school. We’ve color coded the list so you can easily see what needs to be addressed on specific days.

Heidi  5:26

Now that you have your plan for what needs to happen, you know which procedures you need to teach your class. So let’s get started on our second plan, a plan for preventing problems.

Emily  5:36

Preventing problems is a teacher’s love language, or at least it’s ours, and the way we prevent problems is to think ahead.

Heidi  5:44

For each procedure, generate a list of efficient steps for the students to follow, your responsibility in helping the procedure run successfully, and how you’ll respond when it doesn’t run successfully.

Emily 5:56

If you want some support with this step, use the guiding questions pages from our routine checklist and guiding questions resource. This document is very robust.

Heidi  6:05

Yeah, it contains about 500 questions, and I know that feels like a lot, but these are all questions you need to know the answers to for your class to function well. You need to know the policy for what students should do when they arrive late, and how you’ll get assignments to kids who are absent, and how you’ll cover your class jobs if the student isn’t there to do them. You can either think through these ahead of time or default to a split second decision in the moment.

Emily  6:07

Because we have so many decisions to make, teachers often default to what they grew up with or what they’ve seen other teachers do instead of thinking about the best option for their needs. Running a classroom on default decisions can be challenging though. Your default solution may be exactly what your class needs, or it may be making your job harder. So use the guiding questions to help you make the decisions that best serve you and your students.

Heidi  7:00

And if you want more suggestions for using guiding questions, go back to Episode 150 where we share 10 ways that guiding questions can assist you in setting up your ideal classroom.

Emily  7:10

Now we have a plan for what needs to happen and a plan for preventing problems. Let’s take a look at our third plan, a plan for teaching our procedures.

Heidi  7:10

But first, let’s talk about what not to do. Don’t make a first day PowerPoint with a slide for each procedure and then run through them all at once. Oh no, no. And I have seen lots of these posted online. Don’t fall for it. Also, you can’t get away with just posting a bunch of charts around your room with steps to follow and thinking that that will be enough. If you want your students to learn your procedures, you have to actually teach your procedures.

Emily  7:47

If you rely on explanations to teach your procedures instead of planning actual procedure lessons, you’ll be correcting students all year long.

Heidi  7:56

All of our procedure lessons follow the same four step method. We call, tell, try tally and talk.

Emily  8:03

First, you tell your students what you want them to do and why the procedure is important. Post these steps where they can be easily referenced, and model the procedure in detail, narrating each step.

Heidi  8:14

After telling move on to try. Choose a volunteer to model the procedure and talk about what that student is doing correctly. Ask for additional volunteers if needed, and have the class try the procedure. Watch closely and correct mistakes immediately.

Emily  8:30

Next, we’re going to tally. Ask students to evaluate how well they follow directions, point out what went well and offer guidance if needed. If students feel they did well, and you agree, moove on to the last step, if not, return to tell and try steps until they get it right.

Heidi  8:47

Finally, talk. Review the steps, check for understanding and make a plan for going forward. Have students turn and talk to their neighbor about what they’ll remember about the procedure.

Emily  8:57

Once you’ve done a couple of these lessons, you’ll see how naturally the four steps flow together, and because the students are actively engaged in the process, it really helps them internalize your expectations.

Heidi  9:09

And speaking of expectations, we like to get into the weeds when it comes to separating expectations and procedures. We use a totally different lesson format called Guided Discovery to introduce our school tools like scissors, glue and pencils. Because we’ll be using scissors in lots of different ways during the school year, we don’t have a set procedure for scissors. Instead, we focus on expectations for using them successfully.

Emily  9:34

You can learn all about Guided Discovery and school tools in episodes 146 and 147 or you can check out our Guided Discovery resource with already done for you lessons, and there’s a link to that in the show notes.

Heidi  9:47

Okay, we have a plan for teaching procedures. Let’s move on to our fourth plan, a plan for revisiting expectations.

Emily  9:55

No matter how well you teach procedures at the start of the year, you will need to revisit your expectations from time to time. This is one of those things we tell ourselves we’ll do, but we never follow through with. So you can get ahead of the game by scheduling this now.

Heidi  10:11

Make a set plan for when to revisit procedures, such as at the end of every term, or maybe after returning from a long break, like winter break, or before a substitute arrives. even. Don’t wait for problems to arise. Make reviewing procedures a regular part of your routine.

Emily  10:28

To really get ahead on this, you can make your slide deck now. Don’t feel like you need to review every procedure. Focus on the procedures that matter most or are most tricky. Ask your students to reflect on how well they’re meeting expectations and what changes need to happen going forward.

Heidi  10:45

If you don’t want to make your own slide deck, we have some already set up. You can just add your own procedures to the slides and then have your students rate themselves on how well they are doing with that procedure.

Emily  10:55

This is so easy peasy, if you remember to schedule it ahead of time and grab our done for you, slide decks too, and then you won’t forget in the middle of the hustle and bustle. And then when the schedule comes up, you will be ready to go.

Heidi  11:08

And that brings us to our fifth plan. Make a plan for addressing problems. Tell us about this one, Emily.

Emily  11:11

Now no matter what, some problems are still going to arise. Since we’re all about five today, we have five questions to help you zero in if you discover that one of your procedures is not working the way you want it to. If you’ve got a procedure that’s giving you headaches, ask yourself these five questions to pinpoint the problem.

Heidi  11:35

Question one, do I have a clear vision of what should be happening? Question two, did I introduce this procedure properly? Question three, did I give my students enough practice? Question four, this is the hard one, am I holding my students accountable? And question five, does this procedure need to be re-evaluated?

Emily  11:55

We raced through those questions, but if you want to hear about each question in more detail, we have an entire episode about this. In episode 32 we break down all five questions in detail.

Heidi  12:06

I think this is the part where Cookie Monster pops up and tells you that today’s episode was brought to you by the number five in the letter W.

Emily  12:14

Okay, get the five. But why the W?

Heidi  12:17

It’s because planning and teaching your procedures takes a lot of work, but it is always worth it.

Emily  12:25

Okay, I see what you did there.

Heidi  12:28

Big Bird would be proud. Procedures are how you empower students to act independently, instead of needing your intervention for every issue. They make the good parts of teaching possible and give a roadmap for dealing with many of the less than good parts of teaching.

Emily  12:45

So as you’re making your back to school plans, take some time to really zero in on your procedures. Make a plan for what needs to happen, a plan for preventing problems, a plan for teaching what should happen, a plan for revisiting expectations down the road, and a plan for handling the problems that will still arise.

Heidi  13:07

And visit the links in the show notes to find all of the resources that we have to help you make all of those plans.

Emily  13:13

We have all the resources. Really, we’re here to help. We’d love to hear about your plans for procedures. Come join the conversation in our teacher approved Facebook group.

Emily  13:24

Now let’s talk about this week’s teacher approved tip. Each week we leave you with a small, actionable tip that you can apply in your classroom. today. This week’s teacher approved tip is teach it before you need it. What can you tell us about this, Heidi?

Heidi  13:39

When I was a newer teacher, I used to wait to teach my procedures until I needed them. So the first time I explained how to do a fire drill was right before we had a fire drill, and the first time I explained our assembly procedures was right before we had an assembly. The advantage of this was that I didn’t have to find 15 minutes somewhere to teach these things ahead of time. But the disadvantage was that doing it in a moment really added to my stress.

Heidi  14:04

If I’m worried about not holding up the entire school by being late to the assembly, I can’t spend the time being picky about how my students are carrying their chairs, which means I end up having to reteach our assembly procedures every time there’s an assembly because I couldn’t do it justice the first time around.

Emily  14:21

Not to mention if you’re teaching a procedure right before an event, like teaching recess procedures right before recess happens, the kids are not focused on what you’re saying. They’re focused on getting to recess or the assembly, or watching for the fire alarm to start blinking.

Heidi  14:36

Yeah, we get ourselves into a bind when we introduce a procedure in a moment where we have to watch the clock. It’s much easier to work through all of the details when we have a buffer of time to do it. The best time to teach how to walk in the hallway is not right before specialty classes. The best time to teach how to walk in the hallway is well before you need to walk in the hallway.

Emily  14:59

Now it’s not always practical to teach a procedure well in advance. If you go to lunch at 11:30 teaching your lunch procedures at 9:30 doesn’t make sense. This is when we come back to our hinge events. If you need to teach a procedure right before an event, leave a comfortable buffer of time so that you’re not racing the clock. Schedule more time then you’ll likely need then use your time filler activity list to fill in any leftover minutes.

Heidi  15:26

If you want a refresher on hinge events and time fillers, and who doesn’t really, go back to Episode 144. And as you’re making your plans, remember to do what you can to teach your procedures before students actually need to use your procedures.

Heidi  15:42

To wrap up the show we are sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily  15:47

I’m giving extra credit to, I think it’s pronounced this way, Sukeen cooling towels. So my oldest daughter is doing color guard, and this summer, she’s had practice almost every day out in the hot Utah summer sun, and it is so hot and so hot and dry. She says these cooling towels are the only thing that have saved her.

Emily  16:08

They’re pretty cool. You just get them wet and, like, shake them out a little, and then somehow they stay super cool. I don’t really understand it’s magic. Never had I heard of these before, but I’m pretty impressed. And she says a lot of the kids are using these at their color guard and marching band practices, and they are life savers. So if you have to be out in the heat, check out these cooling towels.

Heidi  16:33

I’m glad she’s got something, because it has been brutal out there, and they’re out there so long.

Emily  16:38

I know her sunburns that turned into epic farmer tan really show how, how hard she’s been working this summer. Bless her. What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Heidi  16:49

My extra credit goes to the electric scissors I just got. It would probably be more exciting to give extra credit to my new TV, but it’s fine. It’s a TV. It does what it’s supposed to do. But however, this new TV left me with a giant box that I added to my giant box collection in my garage that I have been too lazy to break down. So it’s just such a pain to try and slice up boxes manually.

Heidi  17:16

So I decided to see if there was an electric cardboard cutter. And there is who would have guessed. So this works great. It’s rechargeable. Gets the job done, like, get you split, and it saves my poor hands from trying to force the scissors to tackle that thick cardboard. You know, that’s just too big. There’s a lot of different brands of these on Amazon, but in the show notes, I’ll put a link to the ones that I got.

Emily  17:37

And I’m pretty sure I gave extra credit to these very same things, like a year ago or two years ago, I guess I should have asked for my no they should have sent you a link. You should check the extra credit next time. We do have some pretty good stuff on that list.

Heidi  17:51

That’s it for today’s episode. Remember these five plans for planning your procedures, and don’t forget this week’s teacher approved tip to teach your procedures before you need your procedures.