Spring Fever: 3 Tips to Help Your Spring Classroom Management [episode 124]

Emily  0:37

Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we give our best suggestions for combating spring fever and share a teacher approved tip for maximizing your class rules.

Heidi  0:51

We start our episodes with a morning message just like we used to do a morning meeting in our classrooms. This week’s morning message is what are you most looking forward to doing this spring break?

Emily  1:01

Most people have probably already had their spring breaks when you’re listening to this so let’s look back fondly at all the things people hoped they were going to get to and I hope that they did.

Emily  1:11

Deb was looking forward to taking off her winter coat. Melinda said she was going to sleep. And I think she spoke for a lot of teachers who were planning to relax and rest. At this point of the year, I think that is the best kind of vacation.

Heidi  1:28

Oh hands down.

Emily  1:29

Ellen plan for a visit with her daughter who lives out of state. Hope they had fun. Nicole planned on not planning. Shelly was recharging by the ocean. Jealous. Laurie was staying home sleeping until seven and going to the bathroom whenever she needed. If sleeping till seven is sleeping in man I guess I sleep in every day. Well, not every day but most days.

Emily  1:55

Bill was heading to the northern coast in Oregon. And LeathAnn wasn’t going to be too far from Bill. She was troll hunting in Seattle, I want to do that. Shareka lucked out and got a spring break on a different week than her children’s spring break. So that’s a definite win. Chris was doing all the work the rest of us were skipping. She said working outside with my hands, building a garden wall putting stone on the pillars I built late last fall. Maybe putting up a fence if I get that far. Go Chris.

Emily  2:26

And lots of people. We’re spending time with kids and family and friends. Hopefully everyone got a nice recharge to help them through the last few months. We’d love to hear about your spring break over in our teacher approved Facebook group.

Heidi  2:40

Well Emily, I think we might finally be done with winter.

Emily  2:43

It is about time feels like we haven’t seen the sun in months.

Heidi  2:48

And even if the weather does turn back to snow as it sometimes does in the spring, my allergies have decided that it is officially spring so I can’t really argue with that.

Emily  2:56

No, I guess not. Spring definitely has its own issues to worry about besides allergies. We have every teacher’s most dreaded affliction, spring fever.

Heidi  3:07

Not spring fever. If it hasn’t started in your class, be on the lookout symptoms include short attention spans, increased arguing, general goofing off and non-stop talking.

Emily  3:19

If you have any of these symptoms, please contact now not your medical professional. Sorry, but we are here to help. And don’t forget the symptoms of teacher exhaustion and headaches.

Heidi  3:30

Yes, spring fever is not a picnic for anyone. But it’s hard to blame the kids completely because I totally feel it too.

Emily  3:39

Oh, I’m so antsy already for summer and I’m not even teaching right now. I just I just want to be done with school stuff and my kids going to school.

Heidi  3:48

Yeah, it just kind of feels like you’re finally waking up after sleeping all winter.

Emily  3:52

Yeah. How amazing would it be asleep all winter, though?

Heidi  3:55

I vote for that every year and I always get out voted.

Emily  3:59

Even if we haven’t been hibernating. We all started to get a little restless in spring.

Heidi  4:04

Now if you could take the kids outside for a two hour recess spring might not be too bad.

Emily  4:10

I know I would love to know if you can get your principal on board plan if you try.

Heidi  4:16

So how do we manage to be productive these last months of school when all we really want to do is frolic and feel the wildflowers?

Emily  4:24

I think you’d be sneezing while you’re doing it though. Okay, so frolicking is out, two our recess is probably out unless you’re really lucky. I’m not sure what we’re left with here.

Heidi  4:37

Well I don’t think there’s much. Just kidding. Of course, there’s plenty we can do to redirect this newfound spring liveliness into positive directions.

Emily  4:48

Because spring fever is a management problem. Let’s start by looking at our management plan.

Heidi  4:54

We did a deep dive into management plans back in episodes 101, 102, and 103. You know, it’s a deep dive we got to do three episodes. So definitely go back and check those out if you’ve missed them.

Emily  5:06

As a refresher, a classroom management plan has three pillars. The first pillar is prevent management problems, then we have pillar two plan for management problems, because there will still be some even if you try to prevent the ball. And the third pillar is predict management problems that are going to arise a difficult times like spring fever.

Heidi  5:27

Let’s take a look at how those three pillars apply to managing spring fever. Our first goal is to prevent management problems. And the key to successfully preventing problems is keeping students engaged with what you want them to be doing.

Emily  5:43

We talk a lot about the balance of novelty and structure in the classroom. Both of those characteristics are necessary for student engagement. When we tip too far, either way, we have problems, too much novelty and the kids are overwhelmed. Too much structure and the kids are checked out.

Heidi  5:59

Now here’s where it gets tricky. In the springtime, the kids are tired of the routine they’ve had all year, they are craving novelty. But they are only one overly loud assembly away from completely tipping into overwhelm and losing their little minds, you know that you have lived that. So as the teacher, you are walking a very thin line between checked out students and out of control students.

Emily  6:24

One way to manage the balance is to add novelty to your structure. Maybe start with your seating arrangement, you could change it once a week instead of once a month. Or try different arrangements to keep things interesting.

Heidi  6:36

And unusual seating arrangement always feels novel to kids. If you’re strategic about assigning seats, the novelty doesn’t come at the cost of losing the structure. Keep your little rascals as close to you as possible separate your targeted ones. That’s tricky in the spring, I’m not going to deny that. It’s going to take a little work to think through it, but it is worth it for the peace that it will buy you.

Emily  7:00

We have a digital seating arrangement tool to help with this. It includes dozens of different desk and table arrangements, and lists the pros and cons for each one. Plus, we walk you step by step through how to assign your seat strategically so you can minimize the problems with those chatty little darlings.

Heidi  7:18

Another way to add novelty to your structure is to mix up your regular routines. We normally recommend only having a couple of different attention signals so that students can develop an automatic response as soon as they hear it. But for the last few weeks of school, you know go ahead, why not mix it up.

Emily  7:37

So here are some fun ones for spring. Will you help me out with these Heidi?

Heidi  7:41

Yes.

Emily  7:42

Cheep cheep.

Heidi  7:43

Not a peep.

Emily  7:46

Hip Hop.

Heidi  7:47

That means stop.

Emily  7:49

April showers bring..

Heidi  7:51

Students who listen the first time and follow directions without causing problems. So they’re already tired teacher doesn’t have to resort to eating other candy stashed in the back of her desk.

Emily  7:59

Okay, I thought it was made flowers, but hey, do whatever works for you.

Heidi  8:04

Another idea is instead of rotating class jobs, you could have the students write persuasive letters about why they should be hired for a class job for the rest of the year.

Emily  8:14

I always love when you can work in extra writing. Plus, this takes managing class jobs off your plate. So win win.

Heidi  8:21

Another way to mix, novelty and structure is to give choices. We make sure that as the teacher, we can live with all of the options that we’re providing, you know, that’s our structure. But giving students that autonomy to choose gives us our needed novelty.

Emily  8:37

When I think of giving students choices, I tend to think it’s more work for me. In the back of my brain, I equate student choice with big plans, students could complete assignment a which meshes STEM learning and artistic representation. Or they could complete assignment B which requires writing and performing plays where students rap about quadrilaterals.

Heidi  8:57

While that is definitely one way to give students a choice, but it really doesn’t have to be complicated. You can give students the choice of completing their assignments in pencil or in marker, you can give students the choice of working at their desks or under their desks. Simple choices can still be powerful.

Emily  9:13

Yeah, just tiny little switches can buy you a big boost of engagement.

Heidi  9:19

Now let’s look at our second pillar management plan for management problems. And guess what we’re going to talk about here.

Emily  9:27

Hmm, let me guess. What is our favorite thing to talk about?

Heidi  9:31

Procedures. Of course.

Emily  9:34

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that because it’s the end of the year, it’s too late to fix problems with your procedures. You’ve still got time. You can use our procedure ratings slides to guide a class discussion on what’s going well and what needs to be better with your students behavior.

Heidi  9:50

Or you could make procedure review just a part of your daily schedule at the end of the year. If you’ve got our tell, try tally talk slides, dust them off and choose Just one procedure to review each day. Or if you really need it one in the morning and one in the afternoon. You don’t have to do all of the steps, you can probably just get away with a quick review.

Emily  10:09

But definitely don’t be afraid to have your class work through a full tell try tally talk lesson if there’s a procedure that’s really gotten rocky. Once students understand that you mean business, their misbehavior will be greatly lessened.

Heidi  10:23

Well, it will be lessened if you hold students accountable for meeting your expectations.

Emily  10:27

Oh, yeah, the hard part.

Heidi  10:28

Yes, especially when you’re so tired. But if they sense that you are letting little things slide, they’re just gonna push everything downhill.

Emily  10:37

And that’s an avalanche nobody needs. So make the effort to hold your students accountable, even though it’s hard. Have them go back and try it again, if they didn’t do it, right.

Heidi  10:48

So far, you are preventing problems by increasing engagement. And you are planning for how to deal with problems by revisiting your rules and procedures. Now, we are going to use all of our years of experience to predict when problems are likely to arise and make a plan to head them off.

Emily  11:06

Let’s start with the biggest spring fever headache, which is recess. It’s so good for kids to be outside, especially in the spring. But they’re bored with the options. They’re bored with each other. And now you’re spending 20 minutes after every lunchtime recess, unraveling all the drama that unfolded on the playground.

Heidi  11:24

So let’s go back to our engagement model, the structure has led to boredom. So we need to increase novelty. But we also need to do that in a way that isn’t going to escalate the hyperactivity that they’re already feeling. So one way to deal with this problem is to introduce some new recess games.

Emily  11:42

If you’ve listened for a while, you might remember that we recommend teaching recess games at the beginning of the year. But the end of the year is a great time to add some more choices to your students recess repertoire.

Heidi  11:53

That way you are making recess exciting again by creating new options, but you’re also increasing the structure. By teaching the whole class the game together, you’re making sure everyone understands the same set of rules. And that’s going to cut way down on arguments.

Emily  12:09

If you can get your team on board, you can make this a grade level activity. Have the students rotate to different teachers to learn new games. One teacher can teach new jumprope rhymes one teacher can teach a basketball game like horse, etc.

Heidi  12:22

But that teacher will not be me. Teaching a new game like what time isn’t Mr. Wolf is much more my speed. Nothing that requires coordination please for all of our sakes.

Emily  12:34

So as spring fever takes us all in its grip. Remember to boost student engagement to prevent management problems, review rules and procedures as a plan for dealing with management problems, and predict where problems like recess fights are likely to escalate and make a plan for how to nip them in the bud.

Heidi  12:52

We would love to hear how you cope with spring fever. Please come join the conversation in our teacher approved Facebook group.

Emily  12:59

It’s time for our procedure spotlight where we highlight a classroom procedure or routine and share our tips for making sure it’s running as smoothly as possible in your classroom.

Emily  13:09

This week, we’re looking at the procedures of recess. And we’re discussing the question, how can you support students developing friendship skills like how to ask someone to play how to join in etc? Do you have any thoughts on this Heidi?

Heidi  13:23

Well, I think one thing that’s really important is that, you know, we’re looking at recess games as a way to keep students engaged increased the structure. At the same time, we’re increasing the novelty. But we also have to remember that recess is more than just the activity kids have to know like, how to work together with each other and how to get along.

Heidi  13:43

And we really actually need to teach these skills. And obviously, this fits really well at the beginning of the year. But don’t underestimate its importance of the end of the year, because new issues have cropped up in the past few months.

Heidi  13:55

And so teaching specific lessons on these regular playground skills, like how to join into a group that’s already playing a game, or like if you are playing the game and you see someone on the outside, how to have them join in, or how to solve a problem over the rules. All of those things that crop up. If we give kids the tools to manage it, then we’re not having to manage it for them. And that just makes recess work better for all of us.

Emily  14:21

Absolutely. We pulled this question from our procedures and routines planning guide. This is a detailed workbook that can help you design the specific procedures that will make your classroom run efficiently and effortlessly.

Emily  14:34

If you’re interested in taking a reflective look on your own classroom procedures, make sure to check it out. You can find a link to the procedures and routines planning guide in the show notes.

Emily  14:43

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 keep the rules alive. Tell us more about this Heidi.

Heidi  14:58

We make sure to introduce our class rules at the beginning of the year. But if you’re like me, they then just become kind of a poster on the wall. If we want kids to actually be following our rules, we need to make sure that they become an important part in guiding our students actions. This is especially important as we approach the end of the school year.

Heidi  15:19

So how do we do that? Right? One way to keep the rules alive is to revisit them each day. In the morning, you can have kids look over the rules and decide which one they’re really going to focus on that day. Obviously, we want them to follow all of them. But what are they going to try really hard at that day, maybe it’s be respectful or be kind or whatever rules you have.

Heidi  15:38

And then you can take that a step further and have them write down what rule they’re focusing on and how they’re going to do it. Maybe someone focusing on be respectful is going to try hard to use a whisper voice during centers or not touch the walls in the hallway.

Emily  15:53

And if you don’t want to have students write about it, you could have partners turn and talk with each other about their goals for the day.

Heidi  15:59

That’s a great idea for keeping things effective, but also quick and easy. You also can set aside a couple of minutes before dismissal to have students reflect on if they met their goal or not. They could write it down and share with the class or with a partner. There’s lots of options.

Heidi  16:14

But the idea is just to keep the rules alive in your students minds. So they don’t get the idea that their behavior doesn’t matter anymore.

Heidi  16:23

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

Emily  16:28

I’m giving extra credit to my new puzzle table. As you all know, because you’ve been on this journey with me, I am now a puzzle person. I have gone real deep real fast into puzzle culture. It is now I think my whole identity.

Heidi  16:42

I think we might need an intervention.

Emily  16:44

No, that’s what Addie said. Why do we this is so much better than lots of things I could be doing. Okay.

Heidi  16:52

It’s not drugs. I tell myself.

Emily  16:55

And I’m not on my phone as much. I’m being present with the children. Like I don’t know what everybody’s problem is with my puzzling seriously.

Emily  17:05

Having a table for my puzzles is a real game changer. It’s kind of more of a board or a tray than a table. But let’s call it a table. So my main headache with puzzles is that the most convenient place to do them was my kitchen table. But that made having meals a little difficult. So I tried some different solutions like a felt mat that you could roll the puzzle up in. And that did work mostly okay, but I just didn’t like the feeling of doing a puzzle on felt because the pieces would get like stuck on the felt while you’re trying to slide them around.

Emily  17:35

I didn’t like it. So then I tried setting up a card table just for puzzles, assuming I would only want to do puzzles once in a while. But now I’m doing one pretty much all the time. And so I didn’t like having this random extra card table setup all the time in my kitchen.

Emily  17:49

So I invested in this puzzle table. It’s so far superior because it has an edge all the way around. So your pieces are always contained. And it has four like really shallow drawers that you can slide out to use for sorting pieces. And mine is on a lazy Susan. So you can turn it which is probably my favorite feature, especially when you’re working on a really big puzzle. And you can even tilt the whole thing to work at an angle if you’re tired of hunching over your table.

Emily  18:15

And the ladies that organized my closet and garage a couple weeks ago texted me after they left to ask for a link to the puzzle. Oh, wow. I mean, I’m not crazy here if you would like puzzles you understand. And Heidi just doesn’t understand because she’s an outsider to the puzzle world. Okay, so if you too are a serious puzzler now or you want to become one, I will link the puzzle table in the show notes. Heidi, what is your extra credit so I can make fun of your extra credit?

Heidi  18:44

Well, I just I can’t touch that. That’s, that’s amazing. I feel like we’ve been on such a journey the past few months to go from zero to 60 like that. But good for you. It is a really pretty like tray table thing setup. No, it looks nice, easy. Yeah.

Heidi  18:59

Okay, well, my extra credit goes to Julian Sewell on Instagram. I’m sure he’s also on Tik Tok. He is a teacher from New Zealand. Okay, stay with me takes a little bit of an explanation. So last year on the Oscars, he made like a silly video pretending to be a bunch of fictional actresses, as their nominations were mentioned. And it took off and all year he’s been adding to the backstories of these actresses, and especially everyone’s favorite Paloma Diamond. I just have to smile even saying her name. I love her so much.

Heidi  19:30

The past few months, he’s been putting out trailers for this year’s fake Best Actress nominees. They’re so funny. But my absolute favorite part are not the videos. It’s the comments on the videos. And honestly, how often can you say that on social media that the comments are the best part. So here are a few of my favorite comments from Palomas trailer for Breathe.

Heidi  19:52

Someone said is the film that defined a generation. I think this really elevated the book and anyone who liked the novel better is kind of being a lit snob. And this Paloma’s approach to method acting pushes the boundaries of dedication and authenticity. This is like a two minute video. It’s just cracked me up.

Heidi  20:14

And then there’s also the controversy people have big feelings. One person commented, I don’t know I preferred Katharine Hepburn’s portrayal in the 1948 original. And I wouldn’t go that far, but I definitely think that Paloma’s role last year in the Remedy was much more compelling, but her performance and Breathe was still a masterclass and inhabiting a character. So I will put a link to Julian’s Instagram account in the show notes. If you also want to get insanely invested in this made up drama.

Emily  20:44

No, you really are very invested. Every day, it is very funny and the comments are a hoot.

Heidi  20:51

And like it’s been picked up in like magazines and stuff, so I’m not just crazy, doing puzzles on the corner, whatever.

Emily  20:58

Hey now. Hey, now.

Heidi  21:01

And if you haven’t seen this already, if you’re familiar with his account, please come by the Facebook group and we can totally dish on Lorelai Lynch because you know she is the worst.

Heidi  21:12

That is it for today’s episode. Remember the three pillars of classroom management as you prepare to battle spring fever. And don’t forget this week’s teacher approved tip to keep the rules alive.