Procedures

“Procedures are important in society so that people can function in an acceptable and organized manner” (Wong & Wong, 2013).

Procedures take practice. As a first year teacher you will want to implement procedures from the moment your students walk in the classroom. There are three steps to teaching procedures. Teach, rehearse and reinforce. An effective teacher teaches classroom procedures clearly. An effective teacher must rehearse procedures over and over again. Creating a culture when students perform in a manner understood to be appropriate in your classroom is necessary to having a successful first year.   An effective teacher also has to reinforce the correct procedure and reteach an incorrect one (Wong & Wong, 2013). Procedural knowledge is the knowledge about how to do things (Pressley & McCormick, 2007). Procedural knowledge is acquired after extensive practice (Pressley & McCormick, 2007). Below are some examples of the procedures you will want to focus on for your Classroom Management Plan.

• Instruct them on how to hang up backpacks and enter the room
• Instruct how to come to the carpet
• Instruct what it looks like and sounds like when sitting on the carpet.
• How are students to ask a question?
• How to go to the restroom and what you do for bathroom procedures  
• Practice lining up. What does it sound like and look like to have a good line?
• Lunch- show the routine of going to the lunchroom and walking the halls with the lunch tray. Also discuss how to throw away the lunch tray
• Practice the end of day routine and discuss what the next day will look like.

References: 

Pressley, M. & McCormick C. (2007) Child and Adolescent Development for Educators. The Guilford Press. New York, NY.

Wong, H. & Wong, R. (2013) The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc.