I received "The First Days of School" book after graduating from college 11 years ago. Throughout the years, I have highlighted and starred many items. Two big stars can be found on both sides of the following quote on page 83: "Effective teachers MANAGE their classrooms. Ineffective teachers DISCIPLINE their classrooms." I can't express how important the first few days/weeks of school can be when it comes to setting the tone for how your classroom will run for the whole year. Over the next few weeks, I encourage you to think about how you will manage your classrooms. Bring any questions or thoughts when we first meet on the 14th of August. Liberty has many things put in place as some of you know and I'm sure your grade levels will be able to share what they do as a team. See you soon!
Jodi is so right. The investment of time in building routines, modeling the behavior you expect and practicing, practicing, practicing is worth every minute.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jodi and Tammy! This is such great information! I have also read this book before, once during my senior year in high school when it was given to me as a gift, and also during my junior year of college. This book has really helped me to gain an idea of what is really important in not only those first few weeks, but in my first year. I am anxious to hear some ideas that you and the different grade level teams may have. Classroom management is such an important part of getting the year off to a great start. I want to make sure that I have all the information I can to help me do that!
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