Emily 0:36

Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today's episode, we're doing something extra fun. Earlier this year, Ashleigh from the Rainbow Skies for new teachers podcast interviewed us about procedures and routines.

Emily 0:50

It was such a great conversation, and we want to share the whole episode with you here on the Teacher Approved podcast. It's never a bad time of year to give your procedures and routines more attention, and if you like what you hear, you should check out the Rainbow Skies for new teachers podcast as well.

Ashleigh 1:08

I haven't explicitly taught any of these procedures that you're talking about at the beginning of the school year. Is it too late to do it now? Have I missed the boat?

Speaker 1 1:17

No, it is never too late. In fact, it will still be equally effective to do it now, because you have some time built in the class, the kids are a little bit aware of how things run in your room, what needs to happen during a day. It might be easier to call their focus and attention to what's happening if you're just starting this now.

Ashleigh 1:35

Welcome back to Rainbow Skies for New Teachers. Today, we have got another interview, but this time, we have got two people on the podcast, introducing Emily and Heidi from Teacher Approved podcast. They have a podcast themselves that helps teachers, and you are going to absolutely eat this episode up, we're going to be talking all about classroom procedures and routines.

Ashleigh 2:45

Now you might be thinking, Okay, how much can you possibly say about this? Have classroom procedures and routines, but don't turn us off just yet. Emily and Heidi share so many fabulous ideas and things that you can use in your classroom, starting today.

Ashleigh 3:00

Even if you think, Well, I've already set up my classroom routines and procedures, there are going to be some golden nuggets in this episode that are really going to help you with all things, procedures, routines and gaining back time as a result of putting these procedures and routines into place.

Ashleigh 3:16

Now, Emily and Heidi have a motto over on their podcast, and it is they are here to help you learn how to elevate what matters and simplify the rest. And I think you're going to see that resonate the whole way through this episode. Welcome to Emily and Heidi.

Ashleigh 3:32

A warm welcome to Heidi and Emily from Teacher Approved podcast. We are super excited to have you on the podcast today.

Speaker 1 3:40

Hi. Thanks so much for having us. This is so exciting.

Emily 3:43

Hi, Ashleigh

Ashleigh 3:45

Hi, Emily. It's super exciting because you guys are all the way over in the States, and you have got so many great gems and pearls of wisdom to share with us today. So I can't wait to dive into this episode. We're going to be talking all about classroom procedures and routines, which is just so important for teachers new and teachers that have been teaching for a really long time.

Speaker 1 4:10

We love to talk about procedures. We kind of can't get enough, which is maybe bizarre, because it's not the most fun part of teaching, a weird thing about us. But we can't get enough because if you have your procedures in place, that's what allows you to do anything else in the classroom. And if you don't have your procedures in place, you can't do anything. So they're kind of the magic tool.

Ashleigh 4:26

You're absolutely right. Yeah, they're the magic component to getting everything else done. Your motto over at teacher approved, is elevate what matters and simplify the rest. So when we're talking about classroom procedures and routines, are we elevating or are we simplifying?

Heidi 4:44

Probably elevating. We're going to elevate the importance of routines and teaching routines clearly, and then we're just going to simplify the way that we're going to unfold them in the classroom and make it just kind of run on autopilot.

Heidi 4:56

So it's not something that we have to manage consistently every day. Going to be something that just is going to run smoothly in the background, so we can actually have the time and energy to be the kind of teachers that we want to be.

Ashleigh 5:07

Absolutely.

Emily 5:08

The good procedures simplify everything else.

Ashleigh 5:11

Yes, fabulous. Okay, so we're going to just dive straight in, because I think that there's going to be so many great little nuggets and gems throughout this interview. So our audience is primarily new teachers, but I think that anyone is going to be able to benefit from this conversation. How can teachers design effective and efficient procedures for their classroom?

Speaker 1 5:31

I think the first thing, and this is the stuff I hated as a new teacher, because I'm like, Just tell me what I need to do. The first thing is, the most important thing is to figure out what should be happening. What do you want to see happening? What is the point of this particular procedure?

Heidi 5:47

If it's packing up at the end of the day, the purpose is to make sure that the kids have all the right stuff in the right place at the right time. Maybe that sounds like a silly thing to focus on, but if you don't know the purpose, you can't know if your procedure is being effective, so it's important to really kind of sit down and be like, Okay, what is the point of this procedure? What would success look like with this procedure? And that's going to affect how you design it and the steps that you follow as well.

Ashleigh 6:12

Yes, I think it's like giving yourself a little learning intention for your procedures.

Ashleigh 6:13

It actually does matter as much as we like to skip over that every single time.

Ashleigh 6:15

So talking about procedures, we know it needs to be clear in our mind as teachers, but how can we clearly communicate those expectations for our students and for their behavior when it comes to completing these procedures in the classroom?

Speaker 1 6:39

So we actually have a four step system that we like to use to teach any kind of procedure or expectation, and just to help remember the steps. We call it, tell, try tally, talk. Of course, they all start with T.

Heidi 6:51

So we start by telling where we're gonna lay out what we want students to do in almost excruciating detail, like every step. And this is extra helpful. If you have it, you can project the steps so they can read while you're explaining, you're modeling as the teacher. You're kind of being the world's most boring sportscaster, and you're like, and now I'm walking over here, and look how I carry my tray, like this. And everything you want the students to be able to do, you have to be able to explain to them.

Heidi 7:16

And then after you have told it and modeled it, it's the students turn to try. So I like to start with choosing a volunteer who's willing to come up and model how to do it for the class. And again, I'm sportscasting this like, oh, notice how he carried his scissors just like this, and she put her pencil right where it needed to be. You're pointing out everything good that's happening, getting everything into those neurons in the brain. So it becomes second nature for our kid.

Heidi 7:40

After a few students have tried modeling for the class, then it's time to have the whole class give it a shot. And as it's happening, like, it's so important as the teacher, like, you're dialed into what's going on, so you can be like, Oh, wait, not like that. Remember we talked about this? Like, so you're correcting any misbehavior at the get go, because the absolute worst thing that can happen is a little slip up becoming a bad habit that you have to fight all year, right? So we're just gonna nip those in the bud right away.

Heidi 8:04

After your whole class has tried. You gather everyone back, and we're going to tally. We're gonna talk about, how did it go? Did we follow all these steps? If you have your steps posted, this is even easier. Did remember to do step one? Did we remember to do step two? What was our noise level like? How did we do we're gonna assess how well everything flowed. Did we follow all the steps?

Heidi 8:22

And then the last one is to talk. We're going to make a plan as a class like, Okay, tomorrow, when we have to do this for real, what are we going to remember? What are the important things to remember? What do I want to see happening? Right? So we're always kind of keeping that plan going forward, of what comes next, what do I need to remember? What's important to happen?

Heidi 8:37

And these four steps will get any procedure in your classroom, anything, if it's how to get a book from the class library, how to carry your tray in the lunchroom, how to work during work time, like anything that you need to have happen, you can use these four steps to teach.

Ashleigh 8:53

I really love that, because it's like a gradual release of control. So you're showing them. It's like that. I do, we do, you do kind of strategy where the kids are seeing it being modeled explicitly. They know what is really expected of them, but then by the time you get to the end, they're telling you and they're taking responsibility for what is expected of them.

Emily 9:14

Yes, absolutely.

Ashleigh 9:16

And I think that's really what building a classroom community is all about. It's really about coming together and the kids knowing clearly what your expectations are, and knowing clearly themselves of what they need to do to be able to execute that and to be successful.

Speaker 1 9:30

Procedures are such an underestimated part of classroom climate and how your community forms, but it becomes this hallmark of like this is how we function in this space. This is our identity as this class like these are how we do these things.

Heidi 9:36

As you have new kids come in during the school year, part of welcoming them into your space is getting them up to speed with how the procedures happen in your classroom, right? That becomes such a strong part of your classroom culture.

Ashleigh 9:56

I'm gonna ask you a question now that we haven't discussed that, we're going to ask. Oh, I think there's going to be fairly easy and straightforward listening to what you're saying. As teachers, we need to know in advance what we want the students to do. But if you're a new teacher and you're thinking, but I don't even know what classroom procedures to teach, like, what ones do I need? How can we tackle that?

So we actually have a resource exactly for this, because we are crazy, and we think through every little detail of everything. And so we have gone through every classroom procedure under the sun and thought of every possible question you should ask yourself about what you want to happen in this procedure, what details you should consider to help you narrow down what steps need to be in your procedure.

And we have a free set for planning your hallway behavior procedures. We'll give them all the questions to ask themselves so they can plan the perfect hallway behavior routines. And if they want some more guidance with that, we've got a very robust resource that they can check out as well.

Speaker 1 11:02

And if you're a new teacher, chances are you probably don't know how to answer every one of those questions, but that also gives you a tool to let you can go to someone who's been at that school longer, or who has taught that grade longer, and you have questions to ask them instead of just being like, teach me how to teach my hallway procedures. Teach me how to do lunch.

Like you can say, Oh, what do the kids do with their lunch boxes after they eat? Where do the kids go at this time? What happens if a kid spills something? Like you have specific questions you can ask so that it's not tell me everything I need to know.

It gives me some more tools to get support. And also, it might feel like these are a lot of unnecessary questions, but we really tried to filter this through, like, do you need to know this? And a lot of times you may just make a default decision, like, where am I going to store my extra pencils? Maybe you didn't sit and figure that out. You just shoved them in a cupboard somewhere.

And maybe that's fine. Or maybe there is a more convenient place where you could have stored them if you had taken 30 seconds to think, like, Oh, where do I want to store my extra pencils? Or how do I want my kids to line up in the classroom.

We have so many decisions to make as a teachers, and so I think a lot of times we just default to like, what is quickest, what we grew up with, what we've seen other teachers do, when maybe none of those things are actually gonna observe us in the situation that we're in now.

So if we're taking the time to really think through this, Emily and I taught a workshop a few weeks ago two veteran teachers about hallway procedures, and several of them said, like, Oh, why have I never stopped to think this through? And it's because you're so busy and it doesn't feel like hallway procedures or, you know, recess procedures are the most important thing.

But if those aren't giving you headaches during the day, just imagine how much more time and energy you have for figuring out your science lessons and helping your reading groups that are struggling. That frees you up, if you can just get this out of the way.

You are right. And sometimes we don't realize we need a procedure or a routine until there is like a problem that comes up, until you see all of your students lunch boxes scattered all over the playground, or until every time you get back into class, they're saying, Can I go to the bathroom? And you're like, Oh, we just had breaks.

So sometimes that is a telltale sign. If there's things that are popping up that are frustrating you through the day, or that you're seeing is a problem, that's the time to sit down and think, Okay, it's time to put in a procedure or a routine to help your students, as you said, will, in turn, help you gain more time back in your day.

Now I want to talk about time, because listening to you talk about your your steps, tell try tally talk. That's all great, but teachers out there are probably thinking, but we're so time poor as teachers, is it even worth investing time to teach these procedures when there's so much curriculum to cover and so much to do in the classroom?

Speaker 1 13:39

That's a really good question, and it's really common. We even get a lot of pushback from more veteran teachers who maybe feel like this is a waste of time when you've got curriculum, you've got to be teaching. But there's a quote we love that I'm just going to summarize, but it says, do it right, or do it all year long, like, introduce it right, or you're going to be fighting these same battles all year long.

And that is going to take up more time than it would to take 20 minutes now and teach your procedure the way you want, or you can spend the next eight months correcting the misbehaviors that are happening because you didn't take that time at the front to make things work the way you want them to.

The wasted time throughout the school year adds up a lot more than the time you would take to invest at the beginning of the year. So you're actually saving a ton of time in the long run by intentionally setting aside time at the beginning of the school year.

Yeah, I know as a teacher too, one of the things that can really get to me is when I get frustrated as you're doing particular things, because things aren't running smoothly, and that frustration takes time and positive energy away from your classroom.

And if you teach those procedures and the kids know what's expected of them, then it really lowers that down. It lowers that down for you as a teacher, but I'd imagine for the students as well, because everyone wants to know. Know what they need to do. Everyone wants to know what's expected of them.

Well even if you teach it right at the beginning of the year, your students will get sloppy sometimes. That is just the nature of working with children, but I do think it happens to a smaller degree if you taught it well at the beginning of the school year.

And then when it does get sloppy mid year, it's a lot easier to fix up, because you can return to the steps that you already taught and see where it's falling apart and help them revisit them a lot of times, all it takes is a review of that and another practice of doing it right to get things back on track.

Okay, so we were going to talk about what happens when it gets sloppy, and I'm glad that you kind of normalized that in saying that this does happen, things do slip. And in Australia, we usually work for 10 weeks and then we have two weeks break, and then we go for another 10 weeks and have two weeks break.

So often when you come back from those break times, things just need to be reminded a little bit. Are there any other things you can do if the students start to get sloppy with these procedures?

Well like Emily mentioned, you know, having a review goes a long way, because you're just showing the kids, oh, this matters to me. You're reminding them of the expectation. And if kids were able to do something at the beginning of the year, and come the middle of the year, they're not doing it. You know, the problem isn't their ability, which is good. You're like, Okay, I know they're capable of this.

Bad news is the problem is that it means that you are the problem. You're not holding them accountable for meeting your expectations. So that means that you have to do that work, which is hard because you're tired and you have other things to do.

But it really comes down to if kids are supposed to be putting their papers, turning their papers in to the inbox, and the inbox is a sloppy mess. It's stopping what's happening, even though that is not part of your to do list that day, calling everyone's attention to it being like, come get your papers. We're gonna try this again, because I know you know what to do, and giving it another shot.

And making them redo it as much as it takes. And even if it's just one or two kids that are having the problem, then one or two kids are maybe gonna have to practice. If it's the whole class being sloppy, the whole class is gonna have to practice.

Yeah, that really goes into that idea of reflecting on your teaching and your practice and how that can really help with things like classroom procedures and routines.

Speaker 1 17:17

Yeah, especially when you just have so much that you're trying to get through in a day. It's just easy to be like this isn't the hill I want to die on today. Sloppy papers in the inbox is not worth the battle when I'm trying to get through this math lesson.

But it's the phrase something about like death by 1000 paper cuts, right? Those are the things that build up. Right now it's papers in the inbox, and in a little while it's gonna be paper towels in the sink, and it's all of these things that suddenly you're taking all of your attention and all of your energy when, if you take a minute to pause and reflect on what's happening, where are the hiccups in the flow of my classroom.

And being aware of that so that you can course correct instead of just trying to, like, push through to the next thing. That makes things in your classroom just run so much more smoothly, and it makes you a happier teacher, because you're not constantly having to fight these battles of the tiny things that are going wrong, escalating to the big things going wrong.

And another thing that when you mentioned that in Australia, it's common to do 10 weeks and then have a two week break, that's actually perfect for a practice we like to do where about every quarter, we like to have the students reflect on how well they're doing the procedures.

We do it with a slideshow where we go through our most important procedures and we ask them, What do you think? What's the star rating? How many stars do you think we're doing on this? And they get to reflect on it most of the time they're pretty honest. Of like, we're probably not doing that as well as we could.

And then that's the perfect opportunity, probably, when you come back from that break to be like, All right, let's review that one really quick. And so if that was part of your practice, every time you came back from a break, you would prevent a lot of these problems from escalating any higher.

Yes, I love that idea of a star rating. Like kids would love that. It's kind of just making it that little bit more fun, isn't it?

Speaker 1 18:59

And we just have them show on their fingers. Because, like, you know, oh, hanging up your backpacks when you come in, how are we doing? Show me on your fingers. 1234, or five stars. So that everyone is having to contribute to the conversation, even if they aren't making a verbal contribution, they're all having to reflect on that.

Yes, it's good to get everyone involved. It's like the idea of everyone writing on a whiteboard when you're doing your explicit teaching, but having the fingers there, you don't need to organize anything everyone can contribute. That's fabulous.

I can imagine that there's new teachers out there they might be driving on their way to school listening to this, and they're thinking, actually, we had one of these inside our membership the other day, and they said, I haven't explicitly taught any of these procedures that you're talking about at the beginning of the school year. Is it too late to do it now? Have I missed the boat?

Speaker 1 19:46

No, it is never too late. In fact, it will still be equally effective to do it now, because you have some time built in the class, the kids are a little bit aware of how things run in your room, what needs to happen during a day. It. It might be easier to pull their focus and attention to what's happening if you're just starting this now.

And you can also point out the problems of, hey, we need this procedure this way because of these problems. And if the kids can understand the reason behind why you're doing something, they are way more likely to follow those directions, like, if it's just not an arbitrary these are the rules, because I'm the teacher, right? If they can see, oh, we were having a problem with the books in the classroom library being left everywhere. They're more likely to buy into following the procedure to keep everything nice.

So it really is never too late to introduce procedures. And maybe you introduced 75% of your procedures at the first of the year. But then Ashley, as you mentioned, you get in and you realize, oh, there's a problem with this, and there's a problem with this, and there's a problem with this, and there's a problem with this. So either you need a new procedure or you totally need to revamp your procedure.

That is actually just part of being a good teacher is reflecting on like, this is working, this is not working, and I'm gonna correct that. And I think when I was a new teacher, when I would have those moments, it felt like I was a failure, because in my head, I should have known at all. Somehow I should have magically known everything the kids were gonna do and all of the problems were gonna arise. And so I kind of resisted course correcting, because I didn't want to feel like the floundering new teacher I was.

But in reality, the kids you have this year are not gonna be the same as the kids you have next year. So what works for this class may totally know her for the next class. As a teacher, you're just always, always monitoring and adjusting, like it's just constantly course correcting, so you can always add to what you're doing.

Yeah and sometimes classes don't respond to things either. I know that there's been many times in my career when routines, procedures, everything has fallen down, and I've just gone into the classroom really honestly and said, right, we're going to start afresh, starting today. We're going to change a few things up, because I need to be a happier teacher. I want you guys to be happier students. I want this classroom to run more smoothly, and when it runs more smoothly, we'll have more time to do fun things.

And that's just the honest truth. If you're freeing up time with saying this isn't organized, we need to do this. Tidy up this. If you're freeing up all of that time after you're taught the procedures, then you're going to have more time to do those fun things, those brain breaks, a little game at the end of the day. Starting afresh your students are going to be open to that too. So it's okay to go in and say, This isn't working for me. I'm sure it's not working for you. Let's work together to try and fix this.

Speaker 1 22:20

Absolutely and we like to have something we call shock and awe too. So if you have taught a procedure, you've reviewed the steps, you've had them practice, it's still not working, then you kind of have to do something to shake it up a little bit. Okay, none of us can take soccer balls out. Do you see soccer or football?

None of us can take the soccer balls out at recess until you show me you can respect that. It's okay to really up the consequence to a place where they can see, oh, if we aren't making the kind of good choices that we have been taught to make, then we don't get that privilege anymore.

It's okay to escalate that as high as it needs to go if your expectations are reasonable, and they have shown you that they can do it in the past. It's okay to maybe put some pressure on and be like, okay, the classroom library is closed, or the classroom drinking fountains off limits, or whatever it is needs to be so that they understand that you mean business.

Yeah, for sure. And also to understand that if there is some sort of routine set into place, that there is a consequence for you not participating as a part of the class team in doing that, because everyone needs to work together, right for this to happen to work well.

Speaker 1 23:27

And unfortunately, you will occasionally have little ones who are dealing with some issues, and so they might chronically cause problems. And so that's not a situation where you want to be punishing the whole class because one student has some behaviors that they're trying to work on, so it's a hard balance to strike.

But if it's a situation where, like, several kids, or all of the kids are having an issue, those are the moments when you need to up the ante a little bit on what's going on in your room. And that doesn't mean that you have failed as a teacher. Doesn't mean that you didn't teach things well enough. Kids, just sometimes need a little nudge, or maybe a little more of a nudge to get back on track, and it's just part of teaching children.

Yeah, if you had to go into a classroom tomorrow, and you're starting at absolute fresh first day of school, what is the very first routine or procedure you would teach?

Well, there is nothing worse than being somewhere that you've never been before, and needing to go to the bathroom and not knowing what you're supposed to do. So the very, very, very first routine you want to teach on that first day is, how do we go to the bathroom in this class? How do we ask for permission? Where do we go? How do we let the teacher know that we've gone?

Whatever your procedures are going to be in your classroom, you're going to teach that one first, and you're going to practice it and going to practice it, and you're all going to go find the bathroom together and make sure that everybody with their nervous tummies on the first day of school knows where the bathroom is. And so that is the perfect one to start with, and you can use that tell try tally talk method first thing in the morning, and make sure that you get that one up and running right away.

Speaker 1 25:00

And then our second always go to procedure is our quiet signal, because you can't teach them anything if you can give their attention. Ance they know where the bathroom is, then we teach the quiet signal.

What's your go to quiet signal?

Well, we we both have done some different ones over the years. We came across one that we both fell in love with, that is pirate themed, where we say to our students, all hands on deck, and they reply, I captain, and make a little salute with their hands. And the reason I like that is it means they have to have a free hand to do that. They need to set down what they're working on.

And because it's so funny and silly to get to say that for some reason it seems to not lose its novelty. It works really well. And I can be just exasperated all hands on deck, aye, captain, so that's one of the ones that we love, but there are so many good quiet signals out there. In fact, I think we have a whole podcast episode about attention signals and how to find the one that works best for you.

And it's also good to have an attention signal that you can do without saying anything. So it's sometimes good to have a second one that you do, that you could do in an assembly when you want to get their attention, but you can't yell at your class like a symbol you could make to them. That's always something to consider too. Sometimes want one or two.

Yeah, you do want to you want a few in your little tool bag. I can imagine that would be a really good party trick when the principal comes in and you start to yell out, and then everyone says, up and says, I captain. It's super cute.

I was organizing a bachelorette night the other night, and I was in charge of it, and I had to get everyone's attention. And you know, as a teacher, that's something that you're quite used to getting a group of people's attention, but not always adults. And I went to go to my go to clapping the you know how you clap, and then they repeat the clap back, but I knew that they weren't going to repeat the clap back.

And then I was like, Oh my gosh, all of my strategies weren't going to work with these group of women. It's so easy to fall into those. You have little signals that become your go tos. And I love the clap. That's my go to because I think it works with any class, whether you know them or not.

Speaker 1 27:06

Plus, like Emily mentioned, it's nice to have a signal where their hands have to be empty, so you know they've stopped what they were doing and actually paying some attention to you.

Yes, yeah, that's exactly right.

All right well, that has almost given us a wrap today, but that has been awesome. I actually didn't think that we could go into so much depth and so much great ideas when it came to classroom procedures and routines, like there was so much goodness there. And also just talking about making the classroom that little bit more fun and ready for learning, which has been really good.

Now, you guys have got a little tradition that you like to do at the end of your podcast episodes. So we are stealing your tradition. And I'm going to put the question back on you so you always say to your guests, what is one small actionable tip that teachers can apply to their classrooms today? So can you give us one actionable tip that our teachers can apply to their classrooms?

So Emily and I are each gonna share one, so I guess you get double for your price of one. So one thing that we like to do is maybe add some, we call it surprise and delight, into what we're doing, just to keep it a little exciting, help kids wanna engage more. And so one of our favorite little hallway tips is to do something called mystery walker.

So before you take your class in the hall, right? Because we're not talking in the hallway, you tell the class like, Oh, I've picked a mystery walker. So you've chosen one of the students. And the whole time that you're walking, you're kind of just checking on how the student is behaving in the hall. Are they meeting your expectations for appropriate hallway behavior?

Now none of the kids know who the mystery walker is, so it could be any of them, and they know if you reach your destination and that person has met the hallway expectations, then they get some kind of reward. And you can make that whatever it is, something out of the treasure basket, or some kind of extra time doing a favorite activity, or they get to sit in a special chair. Whatever motivates your class. Maybe it's a sticker. It doesn't have to be big.

So if they reach the destination and your mystery walkers follow the expectations, they get that reward. But because none of the kids know if it could be them or not, they're all going to be a little more motivated to be just a little bit better. So it helps keep the hallway procedures tight, but it adds an element of fun and competition as well.

Okay and my tip is a total different one, different direction. So since it's back to school season down in Australia, we wanted to do a tip that you could use right now as you're setting up your classroom.

So we have found that when it's time to set up your classroom, it is really nice if you have a go to box. This is the first box I'm gonna get out when I'm ready to start setting up my classroom. And in that box you're gonna have, things like your stapler, your hole punch, whatever things you know you're going to need when you're putting up your bulletin boards or whatever.

Because there's nothing worse than going to set up your classroom and you need 20 different things, and you don't know where any of it is, especially because in some cases, people have to pack up their rooms almost completely between school years. So to make it simple, you want this go to box. Well, it's the start of the school year. You're probably thinking, Well, I didn't make that. How can that help me now?

Well, what you can do is help next yourself by right now, as you are setting up your classroom, making a list of the things you need right away, when you first get back in the classroom to start setting things up, you start making your list. Then in the end of the school year, when you are packing up that classroom for your break, you can use your list to put that box together.

So this is actually a gift you're giving to your future self right now that when you're setting up your classroom, pay attention to all the supplies and things in your room that you need very first thing, and make your list. So at the end of the school year, you can pack up this like open first box that has everything in it that you need to get started.

That is great. Even if you have to pull things down off the walls and you think, I want to put that back up next year, you can put that one inside the box. Or if you're moving classrooms, that is another genius tip, because you lose your stapler or your thumbtacks, then you're like, ah, can't do anything.That is fabulous.

Well, thank you so much, ladies for joining us on Rainbow Skies for New Teachers. It has been a pleasure, and we really appreciate you giving up the time to help talk all things classroom procedures and routines.

Speaker 1 31:21

Thank you so much. This has been just a delight to get to chat with you. We'll have to do it again sometime.

Yes, we will.

Yes, it was so fun chatting with you. Thanks, Ashleigh for having us.