Top 5 Teaching Best Practices - Routine & Consistency

Routine & Consistency

Written By: Alyssa Scheidel

“You will never get your first week of school back.” “Routines and expectations are the most important part of setting up your classroom structure.” “Kids thrive on consistency.” These were the quotes I heard over and over as I was getting ready for my first year of teaching in August of 2017. “Awesome! Something I’m good at,” I thought to myself. Boy, was I wrong!

Well, I wouldn’t say I was wrong, I just didn’t get it right, right away. After graduating from college with your bachelors degree, you have all of these ideas in your head that you “think” will be perfect for your first classroom. I remember thinking that my classroom routine plans would work quite flawlessly. I wish I could remember how many times I said, “We’re going to try this another way” to my first group of students. Whether students are full in the classroom, or a part of an online environment, it is critical that classroom routines and consistency are present.

What is Classroom Routine and Consistency?

Classroom Routine and Consistency falls under the umbrella of classroom management, which refers to all of the things that a teacher does to organize students, space, time, and materials so learning can take place in a consistent environment. Classroom routines need to be taught throughout the first week of school so students know exactly what is expected of them. In my opinion, set expectations high and your students will rise to meet them. Students thrive off those routines, knowing what is coming next, where things go, and how daily tasks are accomplished. To go along with that, teachers need to be consistent when it comes to positive and negative reinforcement when students do or do not meet classroom expectations. When behavior management is in place and classroom routines are running smoothly, teachers will experience a more positive teaching environment and students will thrive in their learning environment.

Why Emphasize Routines and Consistency in a Blended Classroom?

There are several reasons to set up routines and consistency in a blended classroom environment. When thinking about technology in this setting, it is critical that school districts have an LMS and that their teachers have training on their LMS. Teachers need to be well versed in their district’s LMS so they can properly organize it for their students in a way that works with their style. Proper organization of an LMS will help to keep things consistent for students so they know where to find their work, how to complete it, and how to turn it in to their teacher.

A big part of successful routines and consistency in a blended classroom has to do with schedules. If I forget to change my daily schedule board before my students arrive, they instantly begin their day with a panic. They also become extra eager and curious if they see something on the schedule board that isn’t “normal.” It is important that teachers stay consistent with their daily, weekly, and monthly routines in order to keep their students cool, calm, and collected.

Implementation at Rockford Public Schools

RPS has done a tremendous job at working to keep things consistent around the district, even with 8 elementary schools (another one being built in the near future). The district provided their teachers with several documents to help their planning. Some of the key documents were a remote learning plan and remote daily schedules. These documents helped to not only keep the teachers on track, but also helped families plan their schedules. This was especially helpful for families with multiple children. Several teachers at Rockford Public Schools would tell you that although it was a tough year, the district put in place several beneficial routines and plans to keep our staff united. “The Power of One” was our motto this year!

Top 5 Teaching Best Practices - Assessment & Feedback

Formative Assessment & Intentional Feedback

Written By: Alyssa Scheidel

A couple of big educational catch phrases right now are learning purpose and success criteria. Teachers tell their students at the beginning of each lesson what the learning purpose is and what their success criteria looks like. As teachers, we find ourselves explaining the “why” behind what we are teaching and expect that our students can tell someone what they are learning and why (if we want to be a highly effective teacher).

If we want to reach the point of having our students use the success criteria for improvement (per the 5D teacher evaluation system), then we need to design formative assessments which provide comprehensive information about students' thinking and needs.

What is Classroom Formative Assessment & Intentional Feedback?

Classroom formative assessment refers to a variety of tools and approaches to gather comprehensive and quality information about students as individuals and a class as a whole. There are lots of ways to formatively assess your students, and that is what makes it so fun! As teachers, we have the ability to be creative and switch things up for our students. From Edutopia’s 7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment, my favorite is exit tickets.

Exit tickets not only allow the teacher to quickly gather data on which students “got it” and which ones did not, but also allows students to easily self-assess themselves.

Intentional feedback is critical in all classrooms. Feedback allows for relationship building, student self-assessment, and student growth and achievement. Intentional feedback could look like a quick 1:1 meeting, meeting in small groups, written feedback, typed feedback, or even video feedback. When students receive intentional feedback they are able to feel loved, make corrections, self-monitor, and determine their next goal.

Why Emphasize Formative Assessment & Intentional Feedback in a Blended Classroom?

Where do I begin? There are several reasons why it’s important to emphasize formative assessment and intentional feedback in a blended classroom. As a teacher, you commit to the job of helping your students move from point A to point B. The interesting thing, especially in today’s world, is that all students point A’s and B’s are different. So now we have an extra big job. We not only need to move all of our students from their personal point A to point B, but we have to create individualized plans for students and/or small groups. This is why formative assessment (and keeping track of that data) is so important. It will help us stay focused on each and every one of those goals.

Intentional Feedback ties right into that. Students thrive off knowing their goals and striving to reach toward those goals. Teachers and students need to work as a team to communicate about where they are at and where they are heading. Without intentional feedback, students will not feel connected to their education and therefore, could lose purpose in what they are doing.

Implementation at Rockford Public Schools

Rockford Public Schools has recently begun the steps to become a PLC district. A PLC is a professional learning community. In a professional learning community, teachers and other teacher leaders work together to create plans and learning environments where all students can reach their fullest potential. A recent ISTE blog post gives 4 Benefits of implementing an Active Professional Learning Community.

1. PLCs allow educators opportunities to directly improve teaching and learning.

2. PLCs build stronger relationships between team members.

3. PLCs help teachers stay on top of new research and emerging technology tools for the classroom.

4. PLCs help teachers reflect on ideas.

RPS dipped their toes into the PLC process over the 2020-2021 school year, even in the midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Teaching grade level teams at each school worked together on a collaboration cycle where we focused on a few key questions:

1. What do we expect our students to learn?

2. How will we know if they learned it?

3. What do we do if they didn’t learn it?

4. How do we extend the learning once they do learn it?

This is only the beginning to this robust PLC process, but I am glad we were able to come together in a tough year and begin our thinking.

EDU642 Week 3 Blog Post

This week definitely pushed my thinking. I really wanted to create videos that I could use with my students at the beginning of the school year. This was tricky because we have not received all of the info about the start of our remote teaching expectations yet. I did not want to create something that I would potentially have to redo later after we receive the information at the beginning of next week.

Overall, I am happy with my video creations this week. I love that they are videos I will be using with my students during the first week of school. I definitely plan to continue creating read aloud videos for my students to view during this school year.

The three videos I created this week will all be included in my “Welcome to Team Scheidel” presentation that will be sent to my families next week. I think these videos will help me connect to the students and parents and start to build those important relationships.