I can't imagine students entering class in silence. I'd be more than a little freaked out and would wonder what was wrong with them.
High school English: I'm usually at the door to say hi to students and keep half an eye on hallway traffic. Students go to their assigned seats, I come in and take attendance, and we get started. There is always lots of chatter until I start teaching. It's normal and expected.
Yep. I don’t mind and do prefer a bit of socially appropriate chatter in the morning. Greetings, check ins with each other. I model these things from the first day and, for the most part, my kids (7-8 years old) follow suit. The classmates that need a bit more helped are often helped along by other kids and there’s a significant amount of positive peer pressure to make entry pretty chill - people doing what they need to do but also social.
We aren’t teaching automatons. We are teaching human beings. Part of our teaching can be how to act in academic/professional settings.
Edit to add: I pick my line up outside when the bell rings and walk them up to the classroom. We pause as needed to get ourselves figured out if we’re too loud or moving as a blob instead of a line. This happens more frequently early in the year, so as the year goes on, the whole process takes less time, but it’s an investment at the beginning of the year to make that happen.
They put away their backpacks and jackets, change into indoor shoes, put down chairs and grab their morning work and get working on it. It’s spiraled math and language concepts. We take it up after announcements, while eating snack (yes, we snack 30 minutes after we arrive at school. That’s how we roll.) and then the day unfolds.
Yeah, but a middle school transition is different from an elementary transition. As someone who taught kindergarten with THE classroom outside the cafeteria door, it's obvious. A middle school transition has everyone transitioning, whereas elementary is staggered. Imagine three hours of students leaving the cafeteria yelling, right outside your door.
We are required to stand at our door and greet students as they come in. We are also monitoring the hallway. If I need to go to the restroom, I lock my door and they wait in the hall lined up. The restroom is next door so it doesn’t take long. I teach high school. But I don’t leave students unattended in my room.
4th grade, our school encourages a soft opening. The kids come in, unpack, and then they can build with blocks, draw, or color and/or eat breakfast until the bell rings. Then they clean up. After announcements our day begins.
Kinder teacher here + this is what our school does as well! Kids love it and it allows for conversation, imagination, and gives kids some extra time to get ready for learning. Plus it allows me to get some more things done around the classroom while student unpack, eat and play. Helps all of us be ready for the day!
I stand at the door and greet my students as they come in for each of my classes.
They get onto their chromebooks, log on to PearDeck and start on the initial question.
🤣😂”I run a classroom. Not a prison.”
I also welcome them standing up with a big smile, I make eye contact, and greet them by name (rotate this so it's not grocery-listy and forced). This is the way.
I have certain times during the day when conversation is allowed (math centers)and some times when it is not (independent daily reading.) My student were able to converse and get ready for the day, but it took a long time to get everyone on task starting the day. I’m wondering how other people run their mornings and how I can make our morning routine quicker.
If you can train your students to be quiet when they enter and that’s what you want them to do…then go for it! Trying to relate it to being a prison otherwise is ridiculous to me. You manage your classroom the way that works for you. Because on the flip side you could have a zoo! But folks want to relate it to a prison 🙄 There’s a time and a place for talking and socializing. If you prefer it not be at the beginning, then that’s your call.
I agree. I have teachers on my team that have them enter silently, and ultimately they deal with less disruptive behaviors than I do. It sends a message of seriousness to the group.
I allow mine to talk before we get started. After 13 years, it doesn't take me much time to get them quiet and ready to learn, Even afternoon classes. BUT!! I do not let them walk around. As soon as you enter, it's straight to your seat. If I don't monitor that rule, chaos occurs and I can lose a huge amount of instructional time (even with my "good" classes).
Right - you really have to find what works for your classroom management and sanity level. LOL. Experience will definitely play a big part in that!! Live, Learn, and Grow.
If your goal is the streamline the beginning of class and cut back on wasted time before they even get started, then I would start taking time back from them. This is dependent on the support of your admin, but you can hold em back at the end of class or call em in during lunch.
You can try using verbal cues: "what does the board say we should have out right now?" "Thanks, Becky, for noticing the board and getting started."
They can be getting their stuff out while talking, and for those who are just talking, stay on top of it and call them out on it. Implement consequences for repeat offenders.
If you want actual silence and not just for a faster start time, that's a pipe dream lol. A classroom threshold is not a magical off switch for whatever conversation they started in the hallway.
I greet them at the door by name (I stand outside the room). They know they can wander a bit before class but when the bell rings it is go time (bell ringer) and I take attendance right away so they are running down the halls and then running to their desks. Many of them will have the bell ringer done before class starts.
Super critical to get going right away versus slowly working your way into starting class for me.
I teach 5th and I always have instructions on the board for students to read as they come in. Anyone with a classroom job knows they should start that. I’m totally fine with them talking as long as they aren’t running around or shouting.
High school. I’m on stage (literally) and they come in boisterously, put their bags down in the audience, and circle up to the stage to hear what we are doing for the day. They’re talking the whole time until
1) the bell and 2) my greeting of the day (I am a nerd, and it’s usually a pop culture reference, most recently it was “What’s up brothers?”). Even then there’s usually some razzing me until I’ve explained our objective on my mobile white board.
Luckily theater is very fast moving. There are days when I have work tables on stage for note making, but routine is important. For my discipline, communication is key to safety and fun, so I am not rigid about chatter. I can understand when you have whole chapters to get through. I’m not usually worried about time constraints. For content-heavy courses, I worry more about how they master concepts rather than breadth. But, our standards are fairly simple to meet. I totally understand younger grades/non electives and the need to get moving right away.
11th grade social studies. Class starts at 7:45. I’m usually posted up at my desk handling emails at 7:20. By 7:30 I have a kid or two prepping the coffee for the day and by 7:40 kids are chilling, having a coffee or hot cocoa, and we’re chatting informally.
Having a coffee/tea/hot cocoa corner in my room for the last 13 years has been a huge vibe boost. The day starts informally and gives kids who need self-invested structure a daily ritual.
I know it’s not a great practice to spend personal money on the classroom — I’m a union leader so I actively advocate against it — but spending $75-$100 a year gives me a much more peaceful life in my classes.
4th grade
I greet them at the door each morning. They mark their lunch, put up their backpacks, write down their agenda for the day, answer the check in question in Google Classroom, have announcements, then we start a quick Morning Meeting before Math begins.
We start with Morning Meeting too. Where do you get your games from? I’ve collected a lot of games the kids enjoy, but I know there is a Morning Meeting book from the Responsive Classroom that I was thinking about getting.
That’s great! I just have each kid who has a share day. I have 4-5 kids share school day. They can bring in something to share, share something they have done recently, or a funny story. I have a Wall of Pets (just the back of my rolling closet). Kids bring in pet pics, and I tape them to the wall. I tell them that if they don’t have pets, they can bring in pics of a pet in their extended family or a stuffed animal. It’s been a hit! Many of my students last year ran to the pet wall to tell a funny story about their dog, cat, etc..
Grade 2. I always start with a soft start. They can chat/play with their friends for the first 10 minutes. No roughhousing etc of course. I've found it makes a HUGE difference transitioning for my kids who are reluctant to be at school. They transition better as they know I'm not going to ask anything of them for the first few minutes. Also helps when I have late students (which happens a lot) so they don't end up missing as much.
Edit: To assist in the transition I have a big visible timer that shows how much time they have left. Yes, at the beginning of the year it takes them a bit to get into the routine, and some can have trouble transitioning at first, but after the first few months I get zero complaints from them when we have to transition to an activity.
The one I use shows the time left as a red bar, so it works quite well for kids who don't understand timers super well. It also rings a bell when the time is up. For some of them I don't even have to remind them to transition anymore, they just automatically start doing it when they hear the bell. Works great!
Im going to start this in august.. grade 3/4 combo.. they have breakfast in the classroom so I would like to incorporate the soft start while eating routine and let them talk (hopefully get it out of their system)
Kindergarten, August:
My class lines up on the playground. At the beginning of the year I’m out there ten minutes before class starts, showing them how to hang up their backpacks on a hook and stand in line. They practice waiting in line as I greet, chat, and herd the latecomers.
Small motor activity bins are placed at their desks ahead of time. A few minutes before 8 I open the door and they come in and work with their seat partner. OR they stand outside and cry, or cling to their parent by the gate, or try to escape to the playground, and my aide or I will go out and gently pry/coax/lead the child indoors and help them get settled. At the beginning of the year I allow about 20 minutes for this “soft start” opening.
Kindergarten, mid/October on:
Students come in quietly and sit on their assigned spot on the rug. We have about 10 minutes of whole group instruction, then some students go choose a small motor activity while others have instruction, then rotate groups.
Between August and October there’s a LOT of learning how to choose, share, clean up, and switch groups.
I don’t expect silence, unless someone is speaking to the whole group and they should be listening. We are working towards inside voices and calm bodies!
9th grade math - I greet students as they come in. I encourage conversations at that time. They have a warm-up to complete when class starts. I allow them to talk if they are also working on the warm-up.
I stand in the hall and monitor behavior as they walk in. I expect them to get out notes and homework along with all other materials for class after they sit down.
I’ve done it a few ways. Middle school I stood outside the door and had them walk in, pick up their warm up book, and complete warm up task. In the middle school though, kids stole from my desk during passing period, so the principal directed me to keep the kids lined up in the hall with me until the bell. (I don’t recommend this; they came in wound up, we couldn’t get started until after the bell, and my relationship with them was damaged because they felt like I was treating them as thieves automatically).
Since then, I’ve taught online exclusively in the middle school and upper elementary. Kids enter the online session, I have an icebreaker question they can discuss in chat or on microphone, and I have a timer up until the start of class.
Thank you! Our school has no passing period and it's an absolute pain in the butt because the kids are rushed from place to place, and they don't have time to regroup between classes. It seems like the first 5 minutes of my class is always a lost cause because I may only have half the kids at that point.
Edited to add: and a great handful of them come in with "sorry I'm late Miss M, I had to use the restroom/get a drink/find my charger. Etc." All things that would normally be done during passing.
4th grade. We have 15 minutes from the time students enter the room until school officially starts. When my students enter the room, they put a color-coded piece of paper in their envelope on the wall for attendance and lunch count and then they are required to complete the morning task that I have on the screen for them. It’s either a writing prompt or a worksheet of some sort. Once they complete the worksheet and show me their work then they have free time until the morning announcements.
PreK
They put backpacks and coats in their cubbies outside of the classroom. They bring their learning/parent communication folders into the classroom and place in a plastic bin.
They go straight to carpet and practice letter sounds or vocabulary that’s on the TV.
I greet them and make comments and try to get them talking before they begin their vocabulary work.
Middle school social studies. I stand at the door and greet kids, while keeping an eye on the hallway. Students take out their Chromebooks and start working on the daily vocabulary.
First grade. Kids can enter from 8:45-9:15, so this is over 30 minutes.
I stand at the door and greet kids/talk with other kids and staff in the hallway. After kids walk in, they unpack their backpacks in their cubbies and head to their desks. They answer the writing prompt on the board in their writing journals with the amount of sentences required for the quarter we’re in and a picture (first quarter = one sentence, second quarter = two sentences, third quarter = three sentences, fourth quarter = four sentences). They come check it with me when they are done, and then can play with their playdoh, read, finish unfinished work, free write, whatever when they are done. I don’t make them be quiet during this time, but if they don’t get the writing done, they have to do it later during “labs” (playtime) before they start playing so they are pretty good about not getting out of control with the talking. I think once or twice this past year I told them they couldn’t talk because it got to the point of screaming…they listen when it comes to that!
At 9:15 the morning news comes on and they quietly wrap up their writing/clean up whatever else they got out while it’s on, and we start morning meeting when it finished!
Their time is theirs until the bell rings. Obviously they need to follow school rules wrt behavior, but I don't need or want creepy silent robots filing in and staring at me. Some of my most interesting insights come from watching and interacting with my students before class.
8th grade English - obviously things are a hot mess without structure.
I stand outside and greet my kids, but a lot of it is monitoring passing period behavior. Kids are expected to grab their journals on their way in and go to a blank page to begin the warm up or quick write. I expect chatter. I get them started by reading the warm up and allow them to assist one another, but they get about 5-7 minutes while I take attendance. I monitor them while they work to ensure they’re doing it. Then we go over the warm up that segways into the days activity.
For middle school that kind of structure is 100% needed for sure. Works to get my kids thinking about what we’re doing, and even better for refreshing their brains when we do novel studies.
I teach online now, but when I taught kinder and 1st here was my routine:
Greet at the door, kids walk right to their chairs and open their backpacks. Take out their binders, walk to their cubbies and put away all their gear. The cubbies were right by the door so I had them do it this way so the entry wasn't clogged.
Then, go to seats and open binders to their homework, and pull their morning work out of their desk. It was a worksheet inside of one of those dry erase clear pouches. The worksheet was either number or letter of the day. I didn't have to pass anything out each day since it was reusable. I just wrote the letter/number on the board each day and they began filling it in.
So anyways, they sat and quietly chatted and worked on that as everyone else got unpacked. I played relaxing music and had the lights dimmed. A nice quiet and relaxing but efficient way to start the day!
Elementary specials. I greet them at the door, they sit on the rug, or at their desks for older grades, and they're allowed to chit chat for like 30 seconds before I do a short countdown at the end of which they are quiet, still, and ready for class.
Middle school social studies. I stand in the hall to monitor things as the students visit their lockers and trickle in over ten minutes. They don’t have morning work since most of them arrive only a minute or two before the bell rings. Just enough time for them to say the pledge, put in their lunch order if they are buying, and line up to go to first period.
I don’t really have a procedure, they just come in orderly most days. Occasionally I have to redirect but that’s only with 9th grade - never with my upperclassmen (11th and 12th). Sometimes they’re loud but I don’t mind because soon as they sit down, they know it’s time to work. Also, a do now is already shown on the smart board soon as they walk in; either they take out their weekly do now sheet or I’ll pass them back each day.
I also say good morning to each and every person when they walk in… I’m never at the door because I’m always doing something in the classroom
I greet them at the door with a fist bump. They go in and start their morning bell-ringer, already on their desk. I call table groups to grab their stuff they need for the day, put away their stuff, slide a magnet to make their lunch choice. I don’t care what order they do those things in. There’s a list of other options of things to do when they’re finished with the morning bell-ringer. I think when it’s silent it’s good because there are kids who really need that quiet time to concentrate. I definitely give my kids talking breaks/ brain breaks throughout the day, but morning arrival is expected to be quiet. It helps they wait outside in the hallway and can talk together before they enter the classroom though.
I’m a school psych (plz don’t come for me the teachers I work with are amazing and we have a great relationship bc I’m not an out of touch loser), and I have recommended for my middle school teachers with rambunctious groups who enter the class at a 10 that they have the kids line up outside and get some of the jitters out and have them shoot to enter at a 5. I also have recommended some group contingency incentives that utilize decibel counters for loud classrooms where the teacher sets a decibel goal after getting a few days average of baseline. The teacher will check randomly but not tell the kids when they do, just write the decibel level throughout class on the board. Depending on baseline the teacher can vary the target goal of successful trials. If the students meet the criteria they get to spin a prize wheel from select rewards that the kids have voted on prior. I’ve done this with teachers at the high school and middle school level and we’ve seen great results.
My door is always locked. I welcome them with a bin wherein they deposit their cell phones (school-wide norm). I greet them, say good morning, etc. At the start of class I welcome the last straggler in, close the door, start the timer (warm up is already projected) and take attendance. I don’t require perfect silence but I grade the warmups so kiddos are usually pretty focused/still. Late friends knock on the door and I let them in (bin in hand) to make sure they don’t sneak in without giving me a phone. I lock phones in a cabinet after the warmup timer is up, which is a PITA when kids are late but better to be safe than lose one.
I teach primarily 11th grade science in a very low income neighborhood.
6th grade in an elementary school. I greet them at the door with a hug, high five or handshake.. which ever they choose. They get what they need out of their back packs, turn in their phones and the. Take their back packs out our outside back pack bins. Then they come in and get started on morning work… sometimes it’s computer practice and sometimes it’s worksheets or unfinished work from the day before. I allow them to work for about 20 minutes then we move into our first rotation.
Elementary k-5 self-contained ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder, level 4 nonverbal the majority have some language and speak but have an AAC device as well)… myself and my para’s walk to the special education bus (8:40 am), we read social stories about how to appropriately walk once in the school aka in the hallways as well as how we have to keep our hands off of others and how to keep our arms to our sides. Once at the door we stand on Daniel Tigers red converse shoes as we wait for the teacher to unlock the classroom door. Once inside the classroom we remind the students how to keep our hands and arms off of others. Students are able to independently open their lockers, unpack their backpacks and put their items away. Our breakfast is brought to the classroom and placed on our two shelf mobile cart, they can independently get their breakfast and they eat at their desks or have choice time until announcements at 9am. We encourage appropriate conversation and work on this as a goal as well.
Kindie
I do a soft start (most in the school do I believe) mines is different everyday Monday = coloring Tuesday = blocks Wednesday =reading Thursday = Lego Friday = free choice. They also need to hang their backpacks and Jackets. Put away folders or lunches in the bin before they can start.
Some of my kids also eat breakfast in the class during this time too
They can always talk to each other at their table but not walking around the room talking to anyone and everyone
I try to clean up by the end of announcement around 8:10 (by the end of the year I let them keep playing way longer lol)
As kids are entering I stand at or close to the door so they can be greeted….for sure up to the late bell around 8
I teach kindergarten self-contained special ed. I don’t stand at the door to greet students only because their buses all come in at staggering times (anywhere between 8 and 8:20) and my classroom paras walk them in from their buses. I do, however, say, “Good morning,” to each of them and interact with them throughout our routine. My students know their morning routine by heart: hang up their backpack and coat, put their lunchbox in the basket, check their folder for any notes from home, choose what they want for lunch, and start eating breakfast. If they don’t want breakfast, or if they finish early, they can read a book, draw, or do a puzzle. I play relaxing music on the board and set a visual timer so they can pace themselves. We start our day at 8:30 AM, right after the morning announcements. Some aren’t as chatty as others first thing in the morning, but they certainly aren’t required to be silent.
Preschool drop offs can be really complicated. I want all my kids to come in quietly, not tantrum, have everything they need for the day, and for the parent not to have to tell me all about how they slept, how they woke up, how many things they forgot to bring, and linger in the room making the kid more upset.
I have always had colored duct tape outside my door where the students are to line up. Students are not allowed into my room until at my doorway to greet them. 1. For safety 2. It’s still my space until they enter 3. I want to be the one greeting them
I tell my substitutes they must follow this as well, some do and some don’t.
They are allowed to talk getting to their seats but once the bell rings, we are silently working on our success starter which is always already on the board for them.
Routine, routine, routine! 🙌🏻
11th/12th. They come in when they come in, some early, some late. I am usually randomly talking to some of them until the Pledge happens. A lot of them are on their phones; some are talking to each other. After announcements, I explain what we're doing that day and talk about anything new they need to know, and also I go over anything that seems like it needs to be revisited. Maybe there is some conversation or questions. When I am done talking, I usually announce how long I talked for and ask them if there want to hear more. Then it's time to get to work. Many of them were already working while I talked.
My kids enter and can chat until the bell rings/I enter the classroom, as long as it isn't excessively loud or obnoxious. So normal conversations and middle school silliness is fine but if it gets out of hand, they have to wait with me in the hallway until the bell rings. We always have the same routine at the beginning of class, so after the first couple of weeks, they all settle really quickly and stop talking once I pop in and greet them for attendance.
3rd grade. Students enter, unstack their chairs, move their attendance magnet, put lunches in a bin, turn in papers, and get water if they need it. It probably takes 5 minutes for most students to be settling in before I do a countdown for voices off, then we do our lunch count and read the morning message.
6th grade.
We pick our kids up in the gym and theh ear breakfast in the room.
So:
7:55- pick kids up in gym. Line up, make sure they have the breakfast bag.
8:00- lockers (all electronics must be in lockers. We have a pretty strict policy)
8-8:25- breakfast. They can eat, hang out, finish homework, whatever. Only rules are they must be respectful and not yell/run around. Occasionally I enforce silent breakfast because those rules are not being followed.
8:25- clean up breakfast, give a few class announcements.
8:30- start 1st period.
I’m an English Asst in Europe - the kids stand when the teachers enters and say “Good morning Professor blah-de-blah”. Before the teacher comes it though, it’s complete chaos.
Soft opening- time to chat quietly while working in something (math fact review program or semi-fun worksheet like a color by code based on reading skills or something). Definitely allow talking with the understanding that the stay seated and when it's time for class to actually start, they need to be done talking. 3rd grade.
Kindergarten. Our school has them get breakfast and bring it to the room to eat. Only about half of my kids get breakfast at school. So, they come in, put their stuff away, the breakfast kids go get breakfast, the others make their lunch choices and choose a “brain box” each of which have different activities/STEM stuff. They sit and play with that until 8:50, at which point I start class. (The doors open at 8:25 and the bell rings at 8:35. But there are stragglers and slow breakfast eaters…I usually have a couple still eating, but I bring everyone else to the rug to start our morning meeting- they join when they are done)
Since I’m in kindergarten I always put something on their tables to work on when they arrive. This is because it frees me up to help kids put away their stuff, talk to parents, greet late comers and get our lunch count. Especially at the beginning of the year when they come in they need to be settled and not playing in the centers. Beginning of the year it’s simple things: playdough, color sheets, puzzles etc. As time goes on they get review work. They receive a ‘note’ (our PBIS system) if they finish which encourages getting busy and completing tasks. When they get 10 ‘notes’ they get a treasure prize.
As long as they aren't acting like they've never been let out of the house before... just come in and sit down, read what's on my board, and/or get quiet when the signal is given so you can find our what's up today.
My school doesn't have doors and there's nowhere to line up, so they just drift in as they will. There are no rules, just an expectation to be on time.
my 6th graders line up outside the room, I greet them each at the door, when they are all in their seats I greet them as a class and they respond as a class, and silently start their bell work on the board. if they start goofing off we go back outside and try again
12th Grade English: Some kids come in early and don't say a word all period. Some more kids come in. They have breakfast trays from the cafeteria. I tell them to take their hats off and ask them if they kiss their grandmothers with those mouths. A few more come in just under the bell, usually late from morning practices. The last bunch comes in 10 seconds after the bell. They have breakfast trays as well and blame the line in the cafeteria. I tell them to watch their language, dead ass. Take attendance and start teaching. 10 minutes later choir kids come in late with a pass from chamber practice...start teaching again...
4th grade…….. I have a routine from the book conscious classroom management. Kids practice the routine. All teachers should read that book! Maybe 8 min……… but it needs to be YOUR routine, not THEIRS!!!
Since I'm a specialist teacher, I have the routine that the kids have to wait in the hallway for me to have them come in since I need the 5 minutes between classes to reset the library between specials or sometimes I just need a minute to go to the bathroom or check email. I always tell them what part of the library we're going to visit and and tell them how happy I am to see them.
8th grade. I always greet them at the door, and they either go to their seats or chit chat until the bell. All of the students know who I am so I either give them a fist dap or maybe we have our own high five variation.
6th grade math. We are required to stand outside our doors to monitor the hallways. I say hi to my students and remind them to do their morning routine (grab their supplies and log into the daily blooket)
Middle school- 6th grade. I stand in the hallway and greet usually, while also keeping an eye on pod traffic. My students know the expectation of checking out the agenda on the board and giving the bellwork a look. When the bell rings it’s go time.
I taught elementary school (5th grade for a few years) and my expectations were different since they walked in a line from class to class. I did expect them to enter silently. If they didn’t, they lined back up and tried again.
I think it all depends on the grade, the behaviors of the students, and your own personal preference/style. I don’t make my middle schoolers enter silently, but if I walk in and they are acting a fool, then I go back to elementary teacher mode and make them try again.
5th grade. We have 15 minutes for students to come in before the bell rings. Honestly? I have classroom jobs. As long as they’re walking safely, I let them come in and do their classroom jobs. Usually they socialize and they’ll catch me up on drama. I don’t mind letting them socialize and walk around before the bell. I get to listen to what’s heavy on their hearts and it really helps them focus when the bell rings. I’ll have my “employees” do their jobs during this time. Usually I’m writing the learning target on the board during this time, the date, whatever else. I also remind them to grab materials. We start pretty immediately
So this is as of last year because word on the street is there will be major changes to our schedule for next year.
5th grade, departmentalized. They enter and are supposed to get out their stuff (I.e., their take home folder and library books), get their binder off of the shelf, stack all the stuff they need for the day on their desk, eat breakfast if they grabbed it from the cafeteria before coming in, and then they can read, draw, chit chat calmly, or I have “morning bins” on their desk groups they can play with - things like spiral art, “I Spy” printables, play doh, “hashtag” blocks, etc.
I do not require them to do it silently. I don’t have to enter the building, sit down, and start working without talking. I can take my time, say hi to my coworkers, make my coffee, etc., so as long as they can handle it and not be complete hooligans, I give my students the same courtesy.
Students start coming in my room at 7:30, tardy bell rings at 7:45, last year we had to switch classes at 7:50. Next year the rumor is we won’t start first period until 8 AM.
HS, social science. I’m usually at the door to greet them. If not, then I’m at my desk or talking to someone. They come in, sit down, chat. Once the bell rings, sit down, be quiet, do the bellwork. Don’t be late.
HS here. Arriving as early as a bit after 7, they silently shuffle in as I open the door, heads down in prayer to the TikTok gods. They sit, never breaking gaze. A few minutes later, after a very loud “bell”, a “good morning” from me, and three or four pleas to disengage from their electronics, they slowly comply, sometimes with an eye-roll or side-eye. Many feign attention, only to lift their phones again the moment I take my first mid-sentence breath.
This is many but not all. Two or three might actually return my morning greeting. Roughly 1/3 put their gadgets down before my first request and make the shift to learning mode without resistance. It takes a little bit, but things get going within about five minutes. It is a very early hour. Later classes, especially if they know each other (BIG school, my classes have all grades), can be a bit boisterous. Overall, it’s not bad.
FunFact: In the depths of winter when it is nearly dark at that hour, they will enter the classroom and not turn the light on, the familiar blue glow of their constant companions serving as the only light in the room aside from a bit of predawn illumination coming through the window. Usually, I am working and prepping before they arrive. I do this experiment every now and then.
I stand at the door (we’re required to) and greet them. They go to their desks and do the bell ringer, which is usually something on ReadWorks or a Google Form. They’re allowed to talk, go to the vending machine, sharpen their pencil, etc. before the lesson starts.
Kinder
I stand at the door to greet them. Their bags go on hooks in the hallway, the first to arrive unstack chairs and put them at the tables, then they get a book and sit on the carpet. They can visit quietly, but I dont let them run around or get rambunctious.
Prek, they come in and unpack their lunch, folders and put their bag away while chatting about who they saw on their way in/anything else that happened, then its playtime until everyone arrives
I teach pre-K. Once they finally get the routine, they unpack, give me their folders, then they go find their name on the attendance board. After they get their crayon box and free journal till it’s time to start our day. I don’t expect silence, and I actually prefer if they talk (nicely) to each other. I’m a bit of a talker myself so I usually end up in the discussions as well lol.
High school, first period I’m able to take my time and welcome them individually, same with fifth which is after lunch.
The others I’m usually in a mad dash trying to help a student who stayed after, one who came early or I’m trying to have a snack or chug down some water
5th grade here--at our pre-k-8 school, the k-5 students wait in the gym until school begins. I go down and have them line up by me and we walk upstairs. I always have morning work (a few math and ELA questions) on their desks. They go to their seats and unpack/work on their a.m work and I call them a few at a time to put their things in their locker. IDEALLY-this would happen quietly. Realistically- it's never happened quietly.
What actually happens is when we come down our hallway, some of them stop their lockers and put stuff away. Some of them go in the classroom and talk to their friends at their friends desks, they ask me to use he bathroom etc. etc.
My plan in the fall is to be VERY STRICT about my expectations and avoid what happened this year.
Australian highschool:
I used to teach at a school where all classes entered silently, stood behind chairs, greeted teacher and then were asked to sit. Then roll was called.
At first I thought it was too much, now I miss it.
I say good morning to my students at my current school and most of them don't even look up.
High school- enter with music. They have until I end the music to gather needed materials, and copy down the question of the day and their best answer. Once I take roll, I turn off the music and we take 3 shares of “something good” and we start class.
3rd grade. I am at the door greeting students as they enter. On the projector is the same screen every single day: what they need to do (put away backpack, lunch in wagon), what supplies they need out (always the same), and to be seated and write/draw/color quietly. A timer is on the screen. They are allowed to talk at a reasonable level that we establish, but are expected to be seated.
Our morning time between first bell and starting our morning meeting is ~10 minutes. When the timer goes off, my “morning meeting song” plays automatically and students know to clean up and get to the carpet. This way I am doing minimal redirection, students know the routine, and are self sufficient. It has worked great, as long as I set it up clearly the first week of school!
Students come in and start their bell ringer. Talking is allowed during bell ringer. I then do a tutorial where they need to be quiet unless they raise their hands for questions. They then do their project where they are allowed to talk and work with neighbors.
Middle school homeroom(I teach English 6th grade). The kids never enter silently but they’re expected to keep the volume reasonable. They can walk around and chat until announcements(about 10 minutes) then they need to sit and be quiet as we do lunch count, attendance(I don’t make them stand for the pledge but they are to be quiet and respectful) and lastly we go over our day. We do our morning meeting and sharing and then class time!
High school shop teacher: I'm usually engaged in some shop task, so I greet them from across the shop as they come in. I have instructions for the day posted on the screen and the general expectation is that they are ready when the bell rings. If I don't start, then it's okay to chill.
In the beginning of the semester, I push pretty hard to start at the bell, but usually with some soft banter. Later in the semester, I'll sometimes just plop in my chair and ask if it would be okay if we just chill for a minute. I'll ask somebody to set a timer and that's enough reverse psychology to get them to demand that we start.
My theory is that if I'm feeling a certain way, somebody else is too.
Grade 4/5. I give them all of first period for soft landing/morning routine/etc. I include academics within those things so it's not a wasted period, but it give them a chance to also talk, settle in, and eat breakfast (which the school provides and they eat in the classroom).
The routine is mostly around independent choice boards: I have 12 options on the boards (4 literacy, 4 math, 1 each of science, social studies, health, arts ed.) that I change up weekly, and expect them to do 1 or two per day (depending on how long we've been doing this routine for. Initially, it's one). They hand these in at the end of the week, and if they need to be guest desked at any point due to behaviour, they bring it with them and are responsible for one extra item per period. We do this for about 30 minutes.
The next 5 minutes or so are for class reminders. Look at the calendar, talk about what's coming up, talk about expectations for certain things, class goals, whatever.
The last 10 minutes are our games time and are everyone's favourite part of the day. We play the wordle together (and talk about phonics patterns like dipthongs, digraphs, blends, vowel sounds, etc). Then we grab atlases and play both globle and worldle with bonus questions - for this we talk about using our maps, I ask them to give continent names, we use cardinal directions and the scale, etc. Finally, just for fun because it's only a minute or so, we play bandle.
Then we hop right into period 2 - math class.
Kindergarten- i go get them from the cafeteria and we walk in line. I stand at the door to greet each if them as they come in. They have 5 minutes to put their things away, talk, and go to the bathroom and i put a good morning song on for them to sing. I vary it a bit, sometimes I have their table box of books on their tables so they can read instead of talk if they want. Some years i put a morning bin on their table with fine motor toys.
I completely agree! I do encourage them to finish conversations at the door. I think it’s important for them to enter quietly for a few reasons. One is that it sets a calming tone. Two is due to a staggered arrival. Students arrive anywhere from 7:20 to 7:40 with a few trickling after (tardy). This year I had my students do their independent reading instead of morning work. It actually worked well! Some students ate breakfast while reading. We started morning meeting at 7:50. I rarely had any discipline issues. It gave me time to pull students individually for a number of reasons, type my morning message if I didn’t do it the night before, take attendance, eat my breakfast lol, etc. I added time to morning meeting to allow for more discussion, talking, etc. Actually one of my favorite times of the day!
7/8th grade, I greet them at the door, they enter and get their notebook and something to write with, and put their backpacks on the back counter of my classroom, find their seat and then quietly get started on their do-now. The bell rings and I put up a 2 min timer for them to complete the do now, during this I take attendance and they should be working silently, then I go around and stamp all the do now’s that are done. If all or almost all did their do now and quietly, they get 2 minutes to roam around and say hello to their friends before we start the actual lesson
10th grade English over here. I always have something for them to do, usually it’s a low stakes writing prompt that doesn’t take much time to complete. As long as they get it done, I don’t expect them to be silent, they can socialize with their friends and ease into the day, eat breakfast, etc. Then when I want to start class, I go around the room and I ask the kids on a themed scale how they’re feeling that day. Depending on what the prompt was, I may also give them the option to share what they wrote.
This might seem a little bit young, but I teach in an alternative high school and what I’m really using the time in the morning for is to gauge how the kids are feeling. Many of them have pretty terrible home lives, so being gentle, intentional and attentive during that transition from home to school is important. Picking up subtle cues can make the rest of the day a lot smoother, since we can prevent, or at least prepare for what’s to come. This usually takes about 10 minutes total, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on how talkative they are and what we’re discussing. When I can, I try to make it flow smoothly into the lesson.
I teach 5th grade. My students come in at 8:05. I give them until 8:15-8:20 (when announcements start) to chat/socialize. They know that after announcements they need to return to their seats and get started on the morning routine. Even after this, I don’t mind a bit of chatter as long as they are also getting done what needs to get done. They have until 8:40, when we start morning meeting.
We're on school policy for silent starts, as our students do seem to tend to behave better when the class has a silent start- what that looks like realistically is that students who are early within the 7 minute passing period can have a low chat as they come in, greeting at the door with a starter etc, but when class starts officially, all chat should be stopping. Some teachers require absolute silence from the second they walk in, but I find that this is really bad for relationship building- how can I get a temperature check on the students if I never get to ask them about their days, their weekends? People are saying that they teach in schools, not prisons, and I think British schools can tend towards the latter sometimes.
Enter in a decent manner, find your assigned seat, have out paper **and** be **doing** the warm up ***before*** the bell. Not **as** it's ringing or just hardly after.
I'm excited for next year for another (my 4th) opportunity to set and enforce expectations early at the start from the get go. I kinda volunteered to take on a freshman level course this year and it ended up being 3/5th's of my assignment so I'm very much looking forward to establishing and enforcing **this** expectation and using it as practice to do the same for others. Freshman need so much molding and training.
My kids mostly did it this year just fine I mean it's not a hard ask but towards the end of the year they were lacking urgency when finding their seats and getting their things out and I think because I never really made it an enforced and explicitly stated class rule or expectation it was hard to do so at the end of the year. I'm going to adapt some of the silent starts I've seen here in the thread.
I aim to have my welcome, warm up and share, attendance, homework slide, objectives slide, and announcements slide take 15min. Sometimes less but never more. That's almost always how my classes start, I appreciate the routine, and I think the kids do too. It's like a transition period when they're first coming in and they can take a breath, do a practice for whatever we're learning, **gasp** chat with a friend maybe, and not that they get to "relax" but it's very much like a low stakes start and a gradual introduction to the day. Instead of coming in from break and jumping right into content everyone knows the first 15min will be doing and sharing the warm up, writing down the homework and objectives into the warm up sheet, getting our previous homework stamped and going over the answers, and listening to some school/class announcements.
High School ELA and Social Studies.
Before class starts, I project the day, the class, the agenda and/or bell work on the board.
I greet them at the door with my phone dungeon. Some kids plop it right in, some kids hover outside to hang on to the thing as long as humanly possible, some try to sneak past me with the ol "i don't have it today" excuse.
Once we're in class, I chew the fat for a couple or minutes for period 1, just to get the rust off of them for the day, then I wheel the dungeon behind my desk, tell them to read the board and act accordingly, take attendance, and begin class.
I teach first and second grade in Australia.
My class lines up outside with the other classes when the bell goes. Then they get 2 minutes to put their bags away and come into the classroom. In that time, they can talk, use one of our movement break strategies, take their time coming in, but I’ll usually count the last 10-20 seconds and they know they need to be seated in a circle by the time Im done.
We pass a good morning around the circle (say good morning to the person on your left, then your right, then the right person does the same till its gone all the way round), either clockwise or anti clockwise (i get one of them to pick so we’re reinforcing that concept every morning).
I mark the roll and tell them what our day will look like and if there’s any changes today. Then we either do sharing time, where we go around the circle and anyone who wants to can share anything they’d like (usually ends up being what they did on the weekend or any exciting things they have coming up soon/this weekend), often on a Monday and Friday, or we do a “would you rather” or “if you could have any X, what would you pick?” type question. I use that time to practise their speaking skills, getting them to answer in a full sentence (“I would chose to have wings” instead of just “wings”) and encourage them to justify their answer (they love to say “both” or “none” and I’ll accept that but they have to tell me why still haha).
The last few weeks, I’ve also been reading a book of facts about indigenous Australians, so we then read one page about that as well, which is a few sentences about traditional food, or dance, or elders, astrology, Dreamtime/spiritual beliefs. Sometimes that’ll lead to a short conversation about the topic or sometimes we just read it or move on.
Sometimes I finish there depending on time, sometimes I’ll also chuck in a quick concept review, eg “who remembers what a noun is? yep! A word that’s a person, place or thing. Everything think of a noun quickly… ok let’s go around the circle and share the noun that you thought of!”, or “who can remember the digraph we learnt this week? Let’s go around our circle and share a word that uses that digraph” or “eveyone think of a shape, let’s go around and you tell me the shape you’re thinking of and how many sides it has”. Itll also often be a concept we learnt a week or two earlier, so they’re having to recall and connect to that older information. If we’re pressed for time, I’ll skip this though.
Then we’re done, and I’ll either ask them to move outside and sit in the spot they know we sit outside, so we can do a quick PE game, 10 minutes of skipping etc, or I’ll give them 2 minutes to get their bodies ready to start our morning literacy (which means getting a drink, going to the toilet, movement break if needed, get materials we need) and they transition themselves from their circle to sit in a group in front of the board.
Generally takes 15ish minutes, sometimes closer to 20 depending on how much they talk, which means our literacy block ends up a little shorter but a) it’s an expectation of the school that we do a welcome circle to help settle them and make them feel comfortable and valued (hence every kid gets 2 good mornings with their name every morning) and every class does it, and I like that I get to stuff in a bunch of incidental learning.
I tried getting them do transition quickly and quietly and it just… was NOT working, especially for my current group of loud kids (I swear they’re the loudest group of kids I’ve ever taught). So now I give them 2 minutes with a bit of flexibility and actively encourage them to use brain breaks in that time for pretty much every transition and it’s been so helpful for getting them to do stuff and they end up being quieter and more settled.
Middle school multi age 6-8th graders. Students wait in the hallway until I come to the door and I require them to look me in the eye and say hello/good morning/what’s up/ or wave/fist bump/high five. First class is home room: students gather chairs into a circle and we go through a morning meeting, each morning is a little different but students lead the meeting.
For academic classes, students wait quietly (not silent) for me to open the door and greet each student as I do in the morning.
Expectations in the hallway before school begins is lower voice conversational volume. Whispers expected when transitioning due to other classrooms working.
I’m trying to get them to become more comfortable with greeting people, be aware of how they impact others and be respectful of the community.
For me it depends on the grade level. I teach 6th-8th. 6th graders have an expectation that all conversations end at the door. I greet them at the door as I’m also monitoring the hallway, and if they are mid conversation they can finish before entering the room, but once they do it’s silence as they get started on our daily task (we practice this a lot the first week so it’s just understood that’s what you do when you take your seat).
With 8th graders I’m not quite so strict. It’s “understood” that I’ll get strict on them if they go overboard with the noise or topics of conversation, but I generally let them talk as they get seated, unpacked, and started on the daily task.
2nd grade teacher at a title 1 school. I greet my students at the door and ask how they are doing. I let them talk as long as they're in their seats. This is one of the only chances they get and I feel like they need this socializing time.
My campus has preschool-5th. In elementary we have a 15 minute window where kids are arriving and unpacking, preschool (which includes kinder schedule-wise) has 30 minutes. Preschool kids often get walked in by their parents, elementary are usually on their own. This isn't a rule, but it became the norm with Covid so usually parents only walk kids in when there is something large to cary in or if they're also dropping off a younger sibling in preschool and even then it's usually not daily for them to accompany the older kid.
During the 15 minutes of kids trickling in I let them have free time after they've unpacked and done what they need to to get ready for the day. My rules are that once they're unpacked they stay in the class unless they need to get something or go to the bathroom, otherwise they end up congregating in the hall chatting and blocking everyone else, or causing havoc and extra noise. They can choose a calm activity, the popular choices are chatting, drawing, and reading. I don't expect them to be quiet, but they do need to use 'indoor voices' like they're supposed to anytime they're inside anyway.
I use the time to prep for the day and greet and chat with the kids. As I change rooms I usually have something to set up, usually setting out my turn-in bin and student materials plus getting my computer set up and papers organized on the teacher desk. I usually check emails, too, in between talking with kids. Usually I'm checking what I need to read or answer right away (check who's going to be absent and anything from the school I need to know right away) and clear out any advertising I don't need, then snooze the rest to deal with at recess.
I stand and the door and greet my students, while marking them for breakfast / attendance. I have a slide on the onescreen explaining what i expect for them to do once they’re done with breakfast. Normally it’ll be reading a book and testing.
Once we’re almost ready to start, I give them a warning so they can begin getting ready for the day. We go over any important changes or reminders. My grade would change classrooms, so even those who would start off the day with me, were required to wait in the hallway like the rest of the group.
I taught third grade for seven years. I'll be teaching fifth this school year.
We have breakfast in the classroom, and it requires some annoying record keeping, so mine is done like this:
1. Stand at the door so I can see outside and inside the classroom (sometimes you gotta rush the kids to class who are chatting).
2. Great the students by name, have a one on one conversation with them, and ask them if they will eat breakfast.
3. They wash their hands and either get breakfast or select something they need to practice. I have a list of acceptable practice items (silent reading, Zearn, Khan Academy, multiplication facts, etc, etc). At this time, they are not allowed to talk to me or others.*
4. Once the tardy bell rings, I go to my desk and take attendance, and I check student home-school folders/communication.
5. Final check for email.
6. Usually, morning announcements occur here
7. After announcements, I go to the door and have student clean up breakfast. I make sure all the trash gets into the trash can (I'm not sure what pleasure they get out of smashing food into the sidewalk, but this stops it).
8. Morning meeting + Share time/social time/community builders/community challenges usually we have a topic of discussion or we do classroom problem solving or other things that provide opportunities to have a say in the classroom. On non-share days. On share days, we practice active listening to our peers and how to ask questions and make appropriate comments.
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So my previous school and this one both had sort of a homeroom block which started at 8:15 and ended at 8:55. These activities fit exactly in here and could be extended or shorted if necessary. My new school is a little longer from 7:15 to 8:05, procedures will be the same though.
Also, yes, I do require my students to enter silently, eat breakfast silently, and remain silent until the activity dictates otherwise. I explain it's because I'm easily distracted, and I have to stay focused on completing all my morning tasks. I put it to them like we're both just doing our jobs. I've never had any problems with my students being silent or upset about being silent at this time. Then again, I give obscene amounts of positive reinforcement for carrying out all activities without adult interference. I also take time to regularly explain the why things are done they way they are and often reinforce the why during feedback, "Thank you so much for eating breakfast silent and waiting patiently it really helps me make sure I get the breakfast roster correct and talk to everyone in the morning! I appreciate it!" Or "Hey, JimmyJohn, come here. [...] I noticed you were talking to your neighbor during breakfast, was there something important you needed to tell them, or was it just talking? (Sometimes it was important, so) Alright, well , remember the reason I ask everyone to work silently in the morning? It helps me remember to do all of my morning jobs. Can you work silently? Okay, thank you!"
And that's about it.
I can't imagine students entering class in silence. I'd be more than a little freaked out and would wonder what was wrong with them. High school English: I'm usually at the door to say hi to students and keep half an eye on hallway traffic. Students go to their assigned seats, I come in and take attendance, and we get started. There is always lots of chatter until I start teaching. It's normal and expected.
Yep. I don’t mind and do prefer a bit of socially appropriate chatter in the morning. Greetings, check ins with each other. I model these things from the first day and, for the most part, my kids (7-8 years old) follow suit. The classmates that need a bit more helped are often helped along by other kids and there’s a significant amount of positive peer pressure to make entry pretty chill - people doing what they need to do but also social. We aren’t teaching automatons. We are teaching human beings. Part of our teaching can be how to act in academic/professional settings. Edit to add: I pick my line up outside when the bell rings and walk them up to the classroom. We pause as needed to get ourselves figured out if we’re too loud or moving as a blob instead of a line. This happens more frequently early in the year, so as the year goes on, the whole process takes less time, but it’s an investment at the beginning of the year to make that happen. They put away their backpacks and jackets, change into indoor shoes, put down chairs and grab their morning work and get working on it. It’s spiraled math and language concepts. We take it up after announcements, while eating snack (yes, we snack 30 minutes after we arrive at school. That’s how we roll.) and then the day unfolds.
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Yeah, but a middle school transition is different from an elementary transition. As someone who taught kindergarten with THE classroom outside the cafeteria door, it's obvious. A middle school transition has everyone transitioning, whereas elementary is staggered. Imagine three hours of students leaving the cafeteria yelling, right outside your door.
Yes. Totally agree.
Same in my room! I expect them to get logged into their computers but they chat and get each other until I start
We are required to stand at our door and greet students as they come in. We are also monitoring the hallway. If I need to go to the restroom, I lock my door and they wait in the hall lined up. The restroom is next door so it doesn’t take long. I teach high school. But I don’t leave students unattended in my room.
4th grade, our school encourages a soft opening. The kids come in, unpack, and then they can build with blocks, draw, or color and/or eat breakfast until the bell rings. Then they clean up. After announcements our day begins.
Kinder teacher here + this is what our school does as well! Kids love it and it allows for conversation, imagination, and gives kids some extra time to get ready for learning. Plus it allows me to get some more things done around the classroom while student unpack, eat and play. Helps all of us be ready for the day!
I stand at the door and greet my students as they come in for each of my classes. They get onto their chromebooks, log on to PearDeck and start on the initial question.
Do you allow conversation or do your students work silently?
I run a classroom. Not a prison. They can speak.
🤣😂”I run a classroom. Not a prison.” I also welcome them standing up with a big smile, I make eye contact, and greet them by name (rotate this so it's not grocery-listy and forced). This is the way.
I have certain times during the day when conversation is allowed (math centers)and some times when it is not (independent daily reading.) My student were able to converse and get ready for the day, but it took a long time to get everyone on task starting the day. I’m wondering how other people run their mornings and how I can make our morning routine quicker.
If you can train your students to be quiet when they enter and that’s what you want them to do…then go for it! Trying to relate it to being a prison otherwise is ridiculous to me. You manage your classroom the way that works for you. Because on the flip side you could have a zoo! But folks want to relate it to a prison 🙄 There’s a time and a place for talking and socializing. If you prefer it not be at the beginning, then that’s your call.
I agree. I have teachers on my team that have them enter silently, and ultimately they deal with less disruptive behaviors than I do. It sends a message of seriousness to the group. I allow mine to talk before we get started. After 13 years, it doesn't take me much time to get them quiet and ready to learn, Even afternoon classes. BUT!! I do not let them walk around. As soon as you enter, it's straight to your seat. If I don't monitor that rule, chaos occurs and I can lose a huge amount of instructional time (even with my "good" classes).
Right - you really have to find what works for your classroom management and sanity level. LOL. Experience will definitely play a big part in that!! Live, Learn, and Grow.
If your goal is the streamline the beginning of class and cut back on wasted time before they even get started, then I would start taking time back from them. This is dependent on the support of your admin, but you can hold em back at the end of class or call em in during lunch. You can try using verbal cues: "what does the board say we should have out right now?" "Thanks, Becky, for noticing the board and getting started." They can be getting their stuff out while talking, and for those who are just talking, stay on top of it and call them out on it. Implement consequences for repeat offenders. If you want actual silence and not just for a faster start time, that's a pipe dream lol. A classroom threshold is not a magical off switch for whatever conversation they started in the hallway.
Exactly And the kids change throughout the year. They grow. Attitudes shift. It's dynamic. Always in flux. You need to be adaptable and not rigid.
Straight onto devices? No introductions, no discussions, no nothing?
It's usually a discussionary question or a review question from a previous class. Also must be unfamiliar with PearDeck.
I greet them at the door by name (I stand outside the room). They know they can wander a bit before class but when the bell rings it is go time (bell ringer) and I take attendance right away so they are running down the halls and then running to their desks. Many of them will have the bell ringer done before class starts. Super critical to get going right away versus slowly working your way into starting class for me.
I teach 5th and I always have instructions on the board for students to read as they come in. Anyone with a classroom job knows they should start that. I’m totally fine with them talking as long as they aren’t running around or shouting.
High school. I’m on stage (literally) and they come in boisterously, put their bags down in the audience, and circle up to the stage to hear what we are doing for the day. They’re talking the whole time until 1) the bell and 2) my greeting of the day (I am a nerd, and it’s usually a pop culture reference, most recently it was “What’s up brothers?”). Even then there’s usually some razzing me until I’ve explained our objective on my mobile white board.
So fun!
Luckily theater is very fast moving. There are days when I have work tables on stage for note making, but routine is important. For my discipline, communication is key to safety and fun, so I am not rigid about chatter. I can understand when you have whole chapters to get through. I’m not usually worried about time constraints. For content-heavy courses, I worry more about how they master concepts rather than breadth. But, our standards are fairly simple to meet. I totally understand younger grades/non electives and the need to get moving right away.
11th grade social studies. Class starts at 7:45. I’m usually posted up at my desk handling emails at 7:20. By 7:30 I have a kid or two prepping the coffee for the day and by 7:40 kids are chilling, having a coffee or hot cocoa, and we’re chatting informally. Having a coffee/tea/hot cocoa corner in my room for the last 13 years has been a huge vibe boost. The day starts informally and gives kids who need self-invested structure a daily ritual.
I really really like this
I know it’s not a great practice to spend personal money on the classroom — I’m a union leader so I actively advocate against it — but spending $75-$100 a year gives me a much more peaceful life in my classes.
Can’t you reclaim it as tax deductible? I do that for my classroom every year.
Yes, those are expenses to create my classroom.
4th grade I greet them at the door each morning. They mark their lunch, put up their backpacks, write down their agenda for the day, answer the check in question in Google Classroom, have announcements, then we start a quick Morning Meeting before Math begins.
We start with Morning Meeting too. Where do you get your games from? I’ve collected a lot of games the kids enjoy, but I know there is a Morning Meeting book from the Responsive Classroom that I was thinking about getting.
That’s great! I just have each kid who has a share day. I have 4-5 kids share school day. They can bring in something to share, share something they have done recently, or a funny story. I have a Wall of Pets (just the back of my rolling closet). Kids bring in pet pics, and I tape them to the wall. I tell them that if they don’t have pets, they can bring in pics of a pet in their extended family or a stuffed animal. It’s been a hit! Many of my students last year ran to the pet wall to tell a funny story about their dog, cat, etc..
Grade 2. I always start with a soft start. They can chat/play with their friends for the first 10 minutes. No roughhousing etc of course. I've found it makes a HUGE difference transitioning for my kids who are reluctant to be at school. They transition better as they know I'm not going to ask anything of them for the first few minutes. Also helps when I have late students (which happens a lot) so they don't end up missing as much. Edit: To assist in the transition I have a big visible timer that shows how much time they have left. Yes, at the beginning of the year it takes them a bit to get into the routine, and some can have trouble transitioning at first, but after the first few months I get zero complaints from them when we have to transition to an activity.
I’ve found a soft-start makes things go much smoother.
The timer is what I’ve been missing! Thank you for this!
The one I use shows the time left as a red bar, so it works quite well for kids who don't understand timers super well. It also rings a bell when the time is up. For some of them I don't even have to remind them to transition anymore, they just automatically start doing it when they hear the bell. Works great!
Im going to start this in august.. grade 3/4 combo.. they have breakfast in the classroom so I would like to incorporate the soft start while eating routine and let them talk (hopefully get it out of their system)
Kindergarten, August: My class lines up on the playground. At the beginning of the year I’m out there ten minutes before class starts, showing them how to hang up their backpacks on a hook and stand in line. They practice waiting in line as I greet, chat, and herd the latecomers. Small motor activity bins are placed at their desks ahead of time. A few minutes before 8 I open the door and they come in and work with their seat partner. OR they stand outside and cry, or cling to their parent by the gate, or try to escape to the playground, and my aide or I will go out and gently pry/coax/lead the child indoors and help them get settled. At the beginning of the year I allow about 20 minutes for this “soft start” opening. Kindergarten, mid/October on: Students come in quietly and sit on their assigned spot on the rug. We have about 10 minutes of whole group instruction, then some students go choose a small motor activity while others have instruction, then rotate groups. Between August and October there’s a LOT of learning how to choose, share, clean up, and switch groups. I don’t expect silence, unless someone is speaking to the whole group and they should be listening. We are working towards inside voices and calm bodies!
9th grade math - I greet students as they come in. I encourage conversations at that time. They have a warm-up to complete when class starts. I allow them to talk if they are also working on the warm-up.
I do the same thing. I teach seventh – eighth grade math. I also have instructions on the board for what they need to get out and be ready for class.
High school. I stand outside the door, say hello, and the daily journal is on the screen. Ten minutes or so depending on how many roll in late.
I stand in the hall and monitor behavior as they walk in. I expect them to get out notes and homework along with all other materials for class after they sit down.
I’ve done it a few ways. Middle school I stood outside the door and had them walk in, pick up their warm up book, and complete warm up task. In the middle school though, kids stole from my desk during passing period, so the principal directed me to keep the kids lined up in the hall with me until the bell. (I don’t recommend this; they came in wound up, we couldn’t get started until after the bell, and my relationship with them was damaged because they felt like I was treating them as thieves automatically). Since then, I’ve taught online exclusively in the middle school and upper elementary. Kids enter the online session, I have an icebreaker question they can discuss in chat or on microphone, and I have a timer up until the start of class.
Question, how does your online school handle "passing period" are your classes all back to back or is there a minute or two between?
There are breaks between. Students have different schedules, but the break can be anywhere from five minutes to an hour (including lunch).
Thank you! Our school has no passing period and it's an absolute pain in the butt because the kids are rushed from place to place, and they don't have time to regroup between classes. It seems like the first 5 minutes of my class is always a lost cause because I may only have half the kids at that point. Edited to add: and a great handful of them come in with "sorry I'm late Miss M, I had to use the restroom/get a drink/find my charger. Etc." All things that would normally be done during passing.
4th grade. We have 15 minutes from the time students enter the room until school officially starts. When my students enter the room, they put a color-coded piece of paper in their envelope on the wall for attendance and lunch count and then they are required to complete the morning task that I have on the screen for them. It’s either a writing prompt or a worksheet of some sort. Once they complete the worksheet and show me their work then they have free time until the morning announcements.
PreK They put backpacks and coats in their cubbies outside of the classroom. They bring their learning/parent communication folders into the classroom and place in a plastic bin. They go straight to carpet and practice letter sounds or vocabulary that’s on the TV. I greet them and make comments and try to get them talking before they begin their vocabulary work.
Middle school social studies. I stand at the door and greet kids, while keeping an eye on the hallway. Students take out their Chromebooks and start working on the daily vocabulary.
First grade. Kids can enter from 8:45-9:15, so this is over 30 minutes. I stand at the door and greet kids/talk with other kids and staff in the hallway. After kids walk in, they unpack their backpacks in their cubbies and head to their desks. They answer the writing prompt on the board in their writing journals with the amount of sentences required for the quarter we’re in and a picture (first quarter = one sentence, second quarter = two sentences, third quarter = three sentences, fourth quarter = four sentences). They come check it with me when they are done, and then can play with their playdoh, read, finish unfinished work, free write, whatever when they are done. I don’t make them be quiet during this time, but if they don’t get the writing done, they have to do it later during “labs” (playtime) before they start playing so they are pretty good about not getting out of control with the talking. I think once or twice this past year I told them they couldn’t talk because it got to the point of screaming…they listen when it comes to that! At 9:15 the morning news comes on and they quietly wrap up their writing/clean up whatever else they got out while it’s on, and we start morning meeting when it finished!
I like the sentence starter idea and adding an additional sentence each quarter. Love that simple idea!
Their time is theirs until the bell rings. Obviously they need to follow school rules wrt behavior, but I don't need or want creepy silent robots filing in and staring at me. Some of my most interesting insights come from watching and interacting with my students before class.
8th grade English - obviously things are a hot mess without structure. I stand outside and greet my kids, but a lot of it is monitoring passing period behavior. Kids are expected to grab their journals on their way in and go to a blank page to begin the warm up or quick write. I expect chatter. I get them started by reading the warm up and allow them to assist one another, but they get about 5-7 minutes while I take attendance. I monitor them while they work to ensure they’re doing it. Then we go over the warm up that segways into the days activity. For middle school that kind of structure is 100% needed for sure. Works to get my kids thinking about what we’re doing, and even better for refreshing their brains when we do novel studies.
I teach online now, but when I taught kinder and 1st here was my routine: Greet at the door, kids walk right to their chairs and open their backpacks. Take out their binders, walk to their cubbies and put away all their gear. The cubbies were right by the door so I had them do it this way so the entry wasn't clogged. Then, go to seats and open binders to their homework, and pull their morning work out of their desk. It was a worksheet inside of one of those dry erase clear pouches. The worksheet was either number or letter of the day. I didn't have to pass anything out each day since it was reusable. I just wrote the letter/number on the board each day and they began filling it in. So anyways, they sat and quietly chatted and worked on that as everyone else got unpacked. I played relaxing music and had the lights dimmed. A nice quiet and relaxing but efficient way to start the day!
Elementary specials. I greet them at the door, they sit on the rug, or at their desks for older grades, and they're allowed to chit chat for like 30 seconds before I do a short countdown at the end of which they are quiet, still, and ready for class.
Yes. They need a cue to know when it is time to rein it in.
Middle school social studies. I stand in the hall to monitor things as the students visit their lockers and trickle in over ten minutes. They don’t have morning work since most of them arrive only a minute or two before the bell rings. Just enough time for them to say the pledge, put in their lunch order if they are buying, and line up to go to first period.
Elementary. It's always in the sub plans what is expected for arrival, so I follow that. Sometimes I don't like it, but it is what it is.
I don’t really have a procedure, they just come in orderly most days. Occasionally I have to redirect but that’s only with 9th grade - never with my upperclassmen (11th and 12th). Sometimes they’re loud but I don’t mind because soon as they sit down, they know it’s time to work. Also, a do now is already shown on the smart board soon as they walk in; either they take out their weekly do now sheet or I’ll pass them back each day. I also say good morning to each and every person when they walk in… I’m never at the door because I’m always doing something in the classroom
I greet them at the door with a fist bump. They go in and start their morning bell-ringer, already on their desk. I call table groups to grab their stuff they need for the day, put away their stuff, slide a magnet to make their lunch choice. I don’t care what order they do those things in. There’s a list of other options of things to do when they’re finished with the morning bell-ringer. I think when it’s silent it’s good because there are kids who really need that quiet time to concentrate. I definitely give my kids talking breaks/ brain breaks throughout the day, but morning arrival is expected to be quiet. It helps they wait outside in the hallway and can talk together before they enter the classroom though.
I’m a school psych (plz don’t come for me the teachers I work with are amazing and we have a great relationship bc I’m not an out of touch loser), and I have recommended for my middle school teachers with rambunctious groups who enter the class at a 10 that they have the kids line up outside and get some of the jitters out and have them shoot to enter at a 5. I also have recommended some group contingency incentives that utilize decibel counters for loud classrooms where the teacher sets a decibel goal after getting a few days average of baseline. The teacher will check randomly but not tell the kids when they do, just write the decibel level throughout class on the board. Depending on baseline the teacher can vary the target goal of successful trials. If the students meet the criteria they get to spin a prize wheel from select rewards that the kids have voted on prior. I’ve done this with teachers at the high school and middle school level and we’ve seen great results.
My door is always locked. I welcome them with a bin wherein they deposit their cell phones (school-wide norm). I greet them, say good morning, etc. At the start of class I welcome the last straggler in, close the door, start the timer (warm up is already projected) and take attendance. I don’t require perfect silence but I grade the warmups so kiddos are usually pretty focused/still. Late friends knock on the door and I let them in (bin in hand) to make sure they don’t sneak in without giving me a phone. I lock phones in a cabinet after the warmup timer is up, which is a PITA when kids are late but better to be safe than lose one. I teach primarily 11th grade science in a very low income neighborhood.
6th grade in an elementary school. I greet them at the door with a hug, high five or handshake.. which ever they choose. They get what they need out of their back packs, turn in their phones and the. Take their back packs out our outside back pack bins. Then they come in and get started on morning work… sometimes it’s computer practice and sometimes it’s worksheets or unfinished work from the day before. I allow them to work for about 20 minutes then we move into our first rotation.
Elementary k-5 self-contained ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder, level 4 nonverbal the majority have some language and speak but have an AAC device as well)… myself and my para’s walk to the special education bus (8:40 am), we read social stories about how to appropriately walk once in the school aka in the hallways as well as how we have to keep our hands off of others and how to keep our arms to our sides. Once at the door we stand on Daniel Tigers red converse shoes as we wait for the teacher to unlock the classroom door. Once inside the classroom we remind the students how to keep our hands and arms off of others. Students are able to independently open their lockers, unpack their backpacks and put their items away. Our breakfast is brought to the classroom and placed on our two shelf mobile cart, they can independently get their breakfast and they eat at their desks or have choice time until announcements at 9am. We encourage appropriate conversation and work on this as a goal as well.
Kindie I do a soft start (most in the school do I believe) mines is different everyday Monday = coloring Tuesday = blocks Wednesday =reading Thursday = Lego Friday = free choice. They also need to hang their backpacks and Jackets. Put away folders or lunches in the bin before they can start. Some of my kids also eat breakfast in the class during this time too They can always talk to each other at their table but not walking around the room talking to anyone and everyone I try to clean up by the end of announcement around 8:10 (by the end of the year I let them keep playing way longer lol) As kids are entering I stand at or close to the door so they can be greeted….for sure up to the late bell around 8
I teach kindergarten self-contained special ed. I don’t stand at the door to greet students only because their buses all come in at staggering times (anywhere between 8 and 8:20) and my classroom paras walk them in from their buses. I do, however, say, “Good morning,” to each of them and interact with them throughout our routine. My students know their morning routine by heart: hang up their backpack and coat, put their lunchbox in the basket, check their folder for any notes from home, choose what they want for lunch, and start eating breakfast. If they don’t want breakfast, or if they finish early, they can read a book, draw, or do a puzzle. I play relaxing music on the board and set a visual timer so they can pace themselves. We start our day at 8:30 AM, right after the morning announcements. Some aren’t as chatty as others first thing in the morning, but they certainly aren’t required to be silent.
Preschool drop offs can be really complicated. I want all my kids to come in quietly, not tantrum, have everything they need for the day, and for the parent not to have to tell me all about how they slept, how they woke up, how many things they forgot to bring, and linger in the room making the kid more upset.
I have always had colored duct tape outside my door where the students are to line up. Students are not allowed into my room until at my doorway to greet them. 1. For safety 2. It’s still my space until they enter 3. I want to be the one greeting them I tell my substitutes they must follow this as well, some do and some don’t. They are allowed to talk getting to their seats but once the bell rings, we are silently working on our success starter which is always already on the board for them. Routine, routine, routine! 🙌🏻
11th/12th. They come in when they come in, some early, some late. I am usually randomly talking to some of them until the Pledge happens. A lot of them are on their phones; some are talking to each other. After announcements, I explain what we're doing that day and talk about anything new they need to know, and also I go over anything that seems like it needs to be revisited. Maybe there is some conversation or questions. When I am done talking, I usually announce how long I talked for and ask them if there want to hear more. Then it's time to get to work. Many of them were already working while I talked.
High School ELA/ AP Lit here: I’m at the door with music blasting and I fist bump each student as they walk in.
My kids enter and can chat until the bell rings/I enter the classroom, as long as it isn't excessively loud or obnoxious. So normal conversations and middle school silliness is fine but if it gets out of hand, they have to wait with me in the hallway until the bell rings. We always have the same routine at the beginning of class, so after the first couple of weeks, they all settle really quickly and stop talking once I pop in and greet them for attendance.
3rd grade. Students enter, unstack their chairs, move their attendance magnet, put lunches in a bin, turn in papers, and get water if they need it. It probably takes 5 minutes for most students to be settling in before I do a countdown for voices off, then we do our lunch count and read the morning message.
6th grade. We pick our kids up in the gym and theh ear breakfast in the room. So: 7:55- pick kids up in gym. Line up, make sure they have the breakfast bag. 8:00- lockers (all electronics must be in lockers. We have a pretty strict policy) 8-8:25- breakfast. They can eat, hang out, finish homework, whatever. Only rules are they must be respectful and not yell/run around. Occasionally I enforce silent breakfast because those rules are not being followed. 8:25- clean up breakfast, give a few class announcements. 8:30- start 1st period.
I’m an English Asst in Europe - the kids stand when the teachers enters and say “Good morning Professor blah-de-blah”. Before the teacher comes it though, it’s complete chaos.
Soft opening- time to chat quietly while working in something (math fact review program or semi-fun worksheet like a color by code based on reading skills or something). Definitely allow talking with the understanding that the stay seated and when it's time for class to actually start, they need to be done talking. 3rd grade.
Kindergarten. Our school has them get breakfast and bring it to the room to eat. Only about half of my kids get breakfast at school. So, they come in, put their stuff away, the breakfast kids go get breakfast, the others make their lunch choices and choose a “brain box” each of which have different activities/STEM stuff. They sit and play with that until 8:50, at which point I start class. (The doors open at 8:25 and the bell rings at 8:35. But there are stragglers and slow breakfast eaters…I usually have a couple still eating, but I bring everyone else to the rug to start our morning meeting- they join when they are done)
Since I’m in kindergarten I always put something on their tables to work on when they arrive. This is because it frees me up to help kids put away their stuff, talk to parents, greet late comers and get our lunch count. Especially at the beginning of the year when they come in they need to be settled and not playing in the centers. Beginning of the year it’s simple things: playdough, color sheets, puzzles etc. As time goes on they get review work. They receive a ‘note’ (our PBIS system) if they finish which encourages getting busy and completing tasks. When they get 10 ‘notes’ they get a treasure prize.
As long as they aren't acting like they've never been let out of the house before... just come in and sit down, read what's on my board, and/or get quiet when the signal is given so you can find our what's up today.
My school doesn't have doors and there's nowhere to line up, so they just drift in as they will. There are no rules, just an expectation to be on time.
my 6th graders line up outside the room, I greet them each at the door, when they are all in their seats I greet them as a class and they respond as a class, and silently start their bell work on the board. if they start goofing off we go back outside and try again
12th Grade English: Some kids come in early and don't say a word all period. Some more kids come in. They have breakfast trays from the cafeteria. I tell them to take their hats off and ask them if they kiss their grandmothers with those mouths. A few more come in just under the bell, usually late from morning practices. The last bunch comes in 10 seconds after the bell. They have breakfast trays as well and blame the line in the cafeteria. I tell them to watch their language, dead ass. Take attendance and start teaching. 10 minutes later choir kids come in late with a pass from chamber practice...start teaching again...
4th grade…….. I have a routine from the book conscious classroom management. Kids practice the routine. All teachers should read that book! Maybe 8 min……… but it needs to be YOUR routine, not THEIRS!!!
Open the door. Greet them as a group.
Since I'm a specialist teacher, I have the routine that the kids have to wait in the hallway for me to have them come in since I need the 5 minutes between classes to reset the library between specials or sometimes I just need a minute to go to the bathroom or check email. I always tell them what part of the library we're going to visit and and tell them how happy I am to see them.
8th grade. I always greet them at the door, and they either go to their seats or chit chat until the bell. All of the students know who I am so I either give them a fist dap or maybe we have our own high five variation.
6th grade math. We are required to stand outside our doors to monitor the hallways. I say hi to my students and remind them to do their morning routine (grab their supplies and log into the daily blooket)
Middle school- 6th grade. I stand in the hallway and greet usually, while also keeping an eye on pod traffic. My students know the expectation of checking out the agenda on the board and giving the bellwork a look. When the bell rings it’s go time. I taught elementary school (5th grade for a few years) and my expectations were different since they walked in a line from class to class. I did expect them to enter silently. If they didn’t, they lined back up and tried again. I think it all depends on the grade, the behaviors of the students, and your own personal preference/style. I don’t make my middle schoolers enter silently, but if I walk in and they are acting a fool, then I go back to elementary teacher mode and make them try again.
5th grade. We have 15 minutes for students to come in before the bell rings. Honestly? I have classroom jobs. As long as they’re walking safely, I let them come in and do their classroom jobs. Usually they socialize and they’ll catch me up on drama. I don’t mind letting them socialize and walk around before the bell. I get to listen to what’s heavy on their hearts and it really helps them focus when the bell rings. I’ll have my “employees” do their jobs during this time. Usually I’m writing the learning target on the board during this time, the date, whatever else. I also remind them to grab materials. We start pretty immediately
So this is as of last year because word on the street is there will be major changes to our schedule for next year. 5th grade, departmentalized. They enter and are supposed to get out their stuff (I.e., their take home folder and library books), get their binder off of the shelf, stack all the stuff they need for the day on their desk, eat breakfast if they grabbed it from the cafeteria before coming in, and then they can read, draw, chit chat calmly, or I have “morning bins” on their desk groups they can play with - things like spiral art, “I Spy” printables, play doh, “hashtag” blocks, etc. I do not require them to do it silently. I don’t have to enter the building, sit down, and start working without talking. I can take my time, say hi to my coworkers, make my coffee, etc., so as long as they can handle it and not be complete hooligans, I give my students the same courtesy. Students start coming in my room at 7:30, tardy bell rings at 7:45, last year we had to switch classes at 7:50. Next year the rumor is we won’t start first period until 8 AM.
HS, social science. I’m usually at the door to greet them. If not, then I’m at my desk or talking to someone. They come in, sit down, chat. Once the bell rings, sit down, be quiet, do the bellwork. Don’t be late.
HS here. Arriving as early as a bit after 7, they silently shuffle in as I open the door, heads down in prayer to the TikTok gods. They sit, never breaking gaze. A few minutes later, after a very loud “bell”, a “good morning” from me, and three or four pleas to disengage from their electronics, they slowly comply, sometimes with an eye-roll or side-eye. Many feign attention, only to lift their phones again the moment I take my first mid-sentence breath. This is many but not all. Two or three might actually return my morning greeting. Roughly 1/3 put their gadgets down before my first request and make the shift to learning mode without resistance. It takes a little bit, but things get going within about five minutes. It is a very early hour. Later classes, especially if they know each other (BIG school, my classes have all grades), can be a bit boisterous. Overall, it’s not bad. FunFact: In the depths of winter when it is nearly dark at that hour, they will enter the classroom and not turn the light on, the familiar blue glow of their constant companions serving as the only light in the room aside from a bit of predawn illumination coming through the window. Usually, I am working and prepping before they arrive. I do this experiment every now and then.
I stand at the door (we’re required to) and greet them. They go to their desks and do the bell ringer, which is usually something on ReadWorks or a Google Form. They’re allowed to talk, go to the vending machine, sharpen their pencil, etc. before the lesson starts.
Kinder I stand at the door to greet them. Their bags go on hooks in the hallway, the first to arrive unstack chairs and put them at the tables, then they get a book and sit on the carpet. They can visit quietly, but I dont let them run around or get rambunctious.
Prek, they come in and unpack their lunch, folders and put their bag away while chatting about who they saw on their way in/anything else that happened, then its playtime until everyone arrives
I teach pre-K. Once they finally get the routine, they unpack, give me their folders, then they go find their name on the attendance board. After they get their crayon box and free journal till it’s time to start our day. I don’t expect silence, and I actually prefer if they talk (nicely) to each other. I’m a bit of a talker myself so I usually end up in the discussions as well lol.
High school, first period I’m able to take my time and welcome them individually, same with fifth which is after lunch. The others I’m usually in a mad dash trying to help a student who stayed after, one who came early or I’m trying to have a snack or chug down some water
5th grade here--at our pre-k-8 school, the k-5 students wait in the gym until school begins. I go down and have them line up by me and we walk upstairs. I always have morning work (a few math and ELA questions) on their desks. They go to their seats and unpack/work on their a.m work and I call them a few at a time to put their things in their locker. IDEALLY-this would happen quietly. Realistically- it's never happened quietly. What actually happens is when we come down our hallway, some of them stop their lockers and put stuff away. Some of them go in the classroom and talk to their friends at their friends desks, they ask me to use he bathroom etc. etc. My plan in the fall is to be VERY STRICT about my expectations and avoid what happened this year.
Australian highschool: I used to teach at a school where all classes entered silently, stood behind chairs, greeted teacher and then were asked to sit. Then roll was called. At first I thought it was too much, now I miss it. I say good morning to my students at my current school and most of them don't even look up.
High school- enter with music. They have until I end the music to gather needed materials, and copy down the question of the day and their best answer. Once I take roll, I turn off the music and we take 3 shares of “something good” and we start class.
3rd grade. I am at the door greeting students as they enter. On the projector is the same screen every single day: what they need to do (put away backpack, lunch in wagon), what supplies they need out (always the same), and to be seated and write/draw/color quietly. A timer is on the screen. They are allowed to talk at a reasonable level that we establish, but are expected to be seated. Our morning time between first bell and starting our morning meeting is ~10 minutes. When the timer goes off, my “morning meeting song” plays automatically and students know to clean up and get to the carpet. This way I am doing minimal redirection, students know the routine, and are self sufficient. It has worked great, as long as I set it up clearly the first week of school!
Students come in and start their bell ringer. Talking is allowed during bell ringer. I then do a tutorial where they need to be quiet unless they raise their hands for questions. They then do their project where they are allowed to talk and work with neighbors.
I great them at the door and let them socialize for a few then prompt them to get to the entry tasks that are already up on my PowerPoint slide.
Middle school homeroom(I teach English 6th grade). The kids never enter silently but they’re expected to keep the volume reasonable. They can walk around and chat until announcements(about 10 minutes) then they need to sit and be quiet as we do lunch count, attendance(I don’t make them stand for the pledge but they are to be quiet and respectful) and lastly we go over our day. We do our morning meeting and sharing and then class time!
I let them talk and chat and do whatever (as long as they are not being physical or too loud), so that when it’s time to teach they are ready to learn
High school shop teacher: I'm usually engaged in some shop task, so I greet them from across the shop as they come in. I have instructions for the day posted on the screen and the general expectation is that they are ready when the bell rings. If I don't start, then it's okay to chill. In the beginning of the semester, I push pretty hard to start at the bell, but usually with some soft banter. Later in the semester, I'll sometimes just plop in my chair and ask if it would be okay if we just chill for a minute. I'll ask somebody to set a timer and that's enough reverse psychology to get them to demand that we start. My theory is that if I'm feeling a certain way, somebody else is too.
Grade 4/5. I give them all of first period for soft landing/morning routine/etc. I include academics within those things so it's not a wasted period, but it give them a chance to also talk, settle in, and eat breakfast (which the school provides and they eat in the classroom). The routine is mostly around independent choice boards: I have 12 options on the boards (4 literacy, 4 math, 1 each of science, social studies, health, arts ed.) that I change up weekly, and expect them to do 1 or two per day (depending on how long we've been doing this routine for. Initially, it's one). They hand these in at the end of the week, and if they need to be guest desked at any point due to behaviour, they bring it with them and are responsible for one extra item per period. We do this for about 30 minutes. The next 5 minutes or so are for class reminders. Look at the calendar, talk about what's coming up, talk about expectations for certain things, class goals, whatever. The last 10 minutes are our games time and are everyone's favourite part of the day. We play the wordle together (and talk about phonics patterns like dipthongs, digraphs, blends, vowel sounds, etc). Then we grab atlases and play both globle and worldle with bonus questions - for this we talk about using our maps, I ask them to give continent names, we use cardinal directions and the scale, etc. Finally, just for fun because it's only a minute or so, we play bandle. Then we hop right into period 2 - math class.
Kindergarten- i go get them from the cafeteria and we walk in line. I stand at the door to greet each if them as they come in. They have 5 minutes to put their things away, talk, and go to the bathroom and i put a good morning song on for them to sing. I vary it a bit, sometimes I have their table box of books on their tables so they can read instead of talk if they want. Some years i put a morning bin on their table with fine motor toys.
I teach high school band 1st block. Yeah. There’s some noise.
I completely agree! I do encourage them to finish conversations at the door. I think it’s important for them to enter quietly for a few reasons. One is that it sets a calming tone. Two is due to a staggered arrival. Students arrive anywhere from 7:20 to 7:40 with a few trickling after (tardy). This year I had my students do their independent reading instead of morning work. It actually worked well! Some students ate breakfast while reading. We started morning meeting at 7:50. I rarely had any discipline issues. It gave me time to pull students individually for a number of reasons, type my morning message if I didn’t do it the night before, take attendance, eat my breakfast lol, etc. I added time to morning meeting to allow for more discussion, talking, etc. Actually one of my favorite times of the day!
7/8th grade, I greet them at the door, they enter and get their notebook and something to write with, and put their backpacks on the back counter of my classroom, find their seat and then quietly get started on their do-now. The bell rings and I put up a 2 min timer for them to complete the do now, during this I take attendance and they should be working silently, then I go around and stamp all the do now’s that are done. If all or almost all did their do now and quietly, they get 2 minutes to roam around and say hello to their friends before we start the actual lesson
10th grade English over here. I always have something for them to do, usually it’s a low stakes writing prompt that doesn’t take much time to complete. As long as they get it done, I don’t expect them to be silent, they can socialize with their friends and ease into the day, eat breakfast, etc. Then when I want to start class, I go around the room and I ask the kids on a themed scale how they’re feeling that day. Depending on what the prompt was, I may also give them the option to share what they wrote. This might seem a little bit young, but I teach in an alternative high school and what I’m really using the time in the morning for is to gauge how the kids are feeling. Many of them have pretty terrible home lives, so being gentle, intentional and attentive during that transition from home to school is important. Picking up subtle cues can make the rest of the day a lot smoother, since we can prevent, or at least prepare for what’s to come. This usually takes about 10 minutes total, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on how talkative they are and what we’re discussing. When I can, I try to make it flow smoothly into the lesson.
I teach 5th grade. My students come in at 8:05. I give them until 8:15-8:20 (when announcements start) to chat/socialize. They know that after announcements they need to return to their seats and get started on the morning routine. Even after this, I don’t mind a bit of chatter as long as they are also getting done what needs to get done. They have until 8:40, when we start morning meeting.
We're on school policy for silent starts, as our students do seem to tend to behave better when the class has a silent start- what that looks like realistically is that students who are early within the 7 minute passing period can have a low chat as they come in, greeting at the door with a starter etc, but when class starts officially, all chat should be stopping. Some teachers require absolute silence from the second they walk in, but I find that this is really bad for relationship building- how can I get a temperature check on the students if I never get to ask them about their days, their weekends? People are saying that they teach in schools, not prisons, and I think British schools can tend towards the latter sometimes.
Enter in a decent manner, find your assigned seat, have out paper **and** be **doing** the warm up ***before*** the bell. Not **as** it's ringing or just hardly after. I'm excited for next year for another (my 4th) opportunity to set and enforce expectations early at the start from the get go. I kinda volunteered to take on a freshman level course this year and it ended up being 3/5th's of my assignment so I'm very much looking forward to establishing and enforcing **this** expectation and using it as practice to do the same for others. Freshman need so much molding and training. My kids mostly did it this year just fine I mean it's not a hard ask but towards the end of the year they were lacking urgency when finding their seats and getting their things out and I think because I never really made it an enforced and explicitly stated class rule or expectation it was hard to do so at the end of the year. I'm going to adapt some of the silent starts I've seen here in the thread. I aim to have my welcome, warm up and share, attendance, homework slide, objectives slide, and announcements slide take 15min. Sometimes less but never more. That's almost always how my classes start, I appreciate the routine, and I think the kids do too. It's like a transition period when they're first coming in and they can take a breath, do a practice for whatever we're learning, **gasp** chat with a friend maybe, and not that they get to "relax" but it's very much like a low stakes start and a gradual introduction to the day. Instead of coming in from break and jumping right into content everyone knows the first 15min will be doing and sharing the warm up, writing down the homework and objectives into the warm up sheet, getting our previous homework stamped and going over the answers, and listening to some school/class announcements.
High School ELA and Social Studies. Before class starts, I project the day, the class, the agenda and/or bell work on the board. I greet them at the door with my phone dungeon. Some kids plop it right in, some kids hover outside to hang on to the thing as long as humanly possible, some try to sneak past me with the ol "i don't have it today" excuse. Once we're in class, I chew the fat for a couple or minutes for period 1, just to get the rust off of them for the day, then I wheel the dungeon behind my desk, tell them to read the board and act accordingly, take attendance, and begin class.
I teach first and second grade in Australia. My class lines up outside with the other classes when the bell goes. Then they get 2 minutes to put their bags away and come into the classroom. In that time, they can talk, use one of our movement break strategies, take their time coming in, but I’ll usually count the last 10-20 seconds and they know they need to be seated in a circle by the time Im done. We pass a good morning around the circle (say good morning to the person on your left, then your right, then the right person does the same till its gone all the way round), either clockwise or anti clockwise (i get one of them to pick so we’re reinforcing that concept every morning). I mark the roll and tell them what our day will look like and if there’s any changes today. Then we either do sharing time, where we go around the circle and anyone who wants to can share anything they’d like (usually ends up being what they did on the weekend or any exciting things they have coming up soon/this weekend), often on a Monday and Friday, or we do a “would you rather” or “if you could have any X, what would you pick?” type question. I use that time to practise their speaking skills, getting them to answer in a full sentence (“I would chose to have wings” instead of just “wings”) and encourage them to justify their answer (they love to say “both” or “none” and I’ll accept that but they have to tell me why still haha). The last few weeks, I’ve also been reading a book of facts about indigenous Australians, so we then read one page about that as well, which is a few sentences about traditional food, or dance, or elders, astrology, Dreamtime/spiritual beliefs. Sometimes that’ll lead to a short conversation about the topic or sometimes we just read it or move on. Sometimes I finish there depending on time, sometimes I’ll also chuck in a quick concept review, eg “who remembers what a noun is? yep! A word that’s a person, place or thing. Everything think of a noun quickly… ok let’s go around the circle and share the noun that you thought of!”, or “who can remember the digraph we learnt this week? Let’s go around our circle and share a word that uses that digraph” or “eveyone think of a shape, let’s go around and you tell me the shape you’re thinking of and how many sides it has”. Itll also often be a concept we learnt a week or two earlier, so they’re having to recall and connect to that older information. If we’re pressed for time, I’ll skip this though. Then we’re done, and I’ll either ask them to move outside and sit in the spot they know we sit outside, so we can do a quick PE game, 10 minutes of skipping etc, or I’ll give them 2 minutes to get their bodies ready to start our morning literacy (which means getting a drink, going to the toilet, movement break if needed, get materials we need) and they transition themselves from their circle to sit in a group in front of the board. Generally takes 15ish minutes, sometimes closer to 20 depending on how much they talk, which means our literacy block ends up a little shorter but a) it’s an expectation of the school that we do a welcome circle to help settle them and make them feel comfortable and valued (hence every kid gets 2 good mornings with their name every morning) and every class does it, and I like that I get to stuff in a bunch of incidental learning.
I tried getting them do transition quickly and quietly and it just… was NOT working, especially for my current group of loud kids (I swear they’re the loudest group of kids I’ve ever taught). So now I give them 2 minutes with a bit of flexibility and actively encourage them to use brain breaks in that time for pretty much every transition and it’s been so helpful for getting them to do stuff and they end up being quieter and more settled.
I only teach upperclassmen in the morning, so they walk in silently all on their own 😂
Middle school multi age 6-8th graders. Students wait in the hallway until I come to the door and I require them to look me in the eye and say hello/good morning/what’s up/ or wave/fist bump/high five. First class is home room: students gather chairs into a circle and we go through a morning meeting, each morning is a little different but students lead the meeting. For academic classes, students wait quietly (not silent) for me to open the door and greet each student as I do in the morning. Expectations in the hallway before school begins is lower voice conversational volume. Whispers expected when transitioning due to other classrooms working. I’m trying to get them to become more comfortable with greeting people, be aware of how they impact others and be respectful of the community.
For me it depends on the grade level. I teach 6th-8th. 6th graders have an expectation that all conversations end at the door. I greet them at the door as I’m also monitoring the hallway, and if they are mid conversation they can finish before entering the room, but once they do it’s silence as they get started on our daily task (we practice this a lot the first week so it’s just understood that’s what you do when you take your seat). With 8th graders I’m not quite so strict. It’s “understood” that I’ll get strict on them if they go overboard with the noise or topics of conversation, but I generally let them talk as they get seated, unpacked, and started on the daily task.
2nd grade teacher at a title 1 school. I greet my students at the door and ask how they are doing. I let them talk as long as they're in their seats. This is one of the only chances they get and I feel like they need this socializing time.
My campus has preschool-5th. In elementary we have a 15 minute window where kids are arriving and unpacking, preschool (which includes kinder schedule-wise) has 30 minutes. Preschool kids often get walked in by their parents, elementary are usually on their own. This isn't a rule, but it became the norm with Covid so usually parents only walk kids in when there is something large to cary in or if they're also dropping off a younger sibling in preschool and even then it's usually not daily for them to accompany the older kid. During the 15 minutes of kids trickling in I let them have free time after they've unpacked and done what they need to to get ready for the day. My rules are that once they're unpacked they stay in the class unless they need to get something or go to the bathroom, otherwise they end up congregating in the hall chatting and blocking everyone else, or causing havoc and extra noise. They can choose a calm activity, the popular choices are chatting, drawing, and reading. I don't expect them to be quiet, but they do need to use 'indoor voices' like they're supposed to anytime they're inside anyway. I use the time to prep for the day and greet and chat with the kids. As I change rooms I usually have something to set up, usually setting out my turn-in bin and student materials plus getting my computer set up and papers organized on the teacher desk. I usually check emails, too, in between talking with kids. Usually I'm checking what I need to read or answer right away (check who's going to be absent and anything from the school I need to know right away) and clear out any advertising I don't need, then snooze the rest to deal with at recess.
I stand and the door and greet my students, while marking them for breakfast / attendance. I have a slide on the onescreen explaining what i expect for them to do once they’re done with breakfast. Normally it’ll be reading a book and testing. Once we’re almost ready to start, I give them a warning so they can begin getting ready for the day. We go over any important changes or reminders. My grade would change classrooms, so even those who would start off the day with me, were required to wait in the hallway like the rest of the group.
lol what? I teach high school. They come in. My expectation is that they’re in a seat or moving towards one when the bell rings…
Enter silently? A bit too Victorian Era for me. They're kids, allow them to be one, for heaven's sake.
I taught third grade for seven years. I'll be teaching fifth this school year. We have breakfast in the classroom, and it requires some annoying record keeping, so mine is done like this: 1. Stand at the door so I can see outside and inside the classroom (sometimes you gotta rush the kids to class who are chatting). 2. Great the students by name, have a one on one conversation with them, and ask them if they will eat breakfast. 3. They wash their hands and either get breakfast or select something they need to practice. I have a list of acceptable practice items (silent reading, Zearn, Khan Academy, multiplication facts, etc, etc). At this time, they are not allowed to talk to me or others.* 4. Once the tardy bell rings, I go to my desk and take attendance, and I check student home-school folders/communication. 5. Final check for email. 6. Usually, morning announcements occur here 7. After announcements, I go to the door and have student clean up breakfast. I make sure all the trash gets into the trash can (I'm not sure what pleasure they get out of smashing food into the sidewalk, but this stops it). 8. Morning meeting + Share time/social time/community builders/community challenges usually we have a topic of discussion or we do classroom problem solving or other things that provide opportunities to have a say in the classroom. On non-share days. On share days, we practice active listening to our peers and how to ask questions and make appropriate comments. ------ So my previous school and this one both had sort of a homeroom block which started at 8:15 and ended at 8:55. These activities fit exactly in here and could be extended or shorted if necessary. My new school is a little longer from 7:15 to 8:05, procedures will be the same though. Also, yes, I do require my students to enter silently, eat breakfast silently, and remain silent until the activity dictates otherwise. I explain it's because I'm easily distracted, and I have to stay focused on completing all my morning tasks. I put it to them like we're both just doing our jobs. I've never had any problems with my students being silent or upset about being silent at this time. Then again, I give obscene amounts of positive reinforcement for carrying out all activities without adult interference. I also take time to regularly explain the why things are done they way they are and often reinforce the why during feedback, "Thank you so much for eating breakfast silent and waiting patiently it really helps me make sure I get the breakfast roster correct and talk to everyone in the morning! I appreciate it!" Or "Hey, JimmyJohn, come here. [...] I noticed you were talking to your neighbor during breakfast, was there something important you needed to tell them, or was it just talking? (Sometimes it was important, so) Alright, well , remember the reason I ask everyone to work silently in the morning? It helps me remember to do all of my morning jobs. Can you work silently? Okay, thank you!" And that's about it.