Over the years, I’ve come to call this time of year in school “the honeymoon period.” For better or worse (pun intended), children and teachers tend to be on their best behavior as they navigate the waters of their new learning community together. Everything in the classroom is fresh and new, from materials and books to curriculum and classmates.
Depending on the grade level and the composition of this year’s unique classroom group of children, as a teacher or parent reading this you may already be saying, “Well, I think the honeymoon is about over!” Some children are already beginning to “test the waters” they’re navigating with their new teacher, and she’s needing to respond by modeling, teaching, and reteaching rules and expectations for academic and social responsibility.
The amazing thing about teaching school is that school has to be taught! Not just reading and writing and math and science and social studies, but school. In the first few weeks, all teachers know they must instruct their students simultaneously in the skills of lining up, taking turns, and listening carefully to classmates and to teacher directions, while also beginning lessons in journal writing, calculations, vocabulary, comprehension, and observation skills.
School is hard work. It means following a schedule. Being ready. Being one of twenty or more. Changing tasks frequently, often when you’re busy doing something. Being late. Feeling frustrated because you don’t know how to do something. Not knowing how to ask for help. Learning how to begin to deal with all these things has to happen in the first few weeks of school–not just for the children, but for the teachers, too!
Wondrously, though, about the time Open House rolls around, most classrooms have evolved into little learning communities, hunkered down in the rich daily busyness of learning and living together in a school. Yes, the honeymoon is over, and the real life of day-to-day education is underway.
For help with these crucial these early weeks of school, I highly recommend The First Six Weeks of School, by Paula Denton and Roxann Kriete. This comprehensive guidebook offers teachers detailed suggestions on how to structure the early weeks so that children move ahead with a firm foundation for a year of great social and academic learning. I know many teachers have found tremendous benefit in this book; many start each school year by reviewing The First Six Weeks.
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LW – Children we teach who have mental health issues are also still experiencing developmental behavior in physical, cognitive, language and social development. With parental permission, having a school counselor or psychologist spend some time observing this student for you and conducting a functional behavioral analysis can provide you and the parent with potentially useful information aabout what might be helpful strategies for you and the child.
I have become a subscriber to your “Yardsticks” blog and have spent some time looking at the Responsive Classroom website. I have a student in my classroom this year who exhibits some schizophrenic/bi-polar behavior. I have been in contact with the mom about wanting access to the therapist so that there is some continuity. But I am trying to get as much information as I can. Do you have any suggestions or advice???
Thank you!
LW
2nd grade teacher
Gayle -I can only imagine the disruption and anxiety such natural disasters bring to school life, and your parents must be so grateful for the calm and sense of the rightness of routine your simple comment transmits about how to bring the children back into their everyday school life with comfort and security. I wish you a successful rest of the school year. Nice to hear from you. Chip
Thanks for spelling out this period of time so accurately. I’ve shared your words with my faculty. Here in South Louisiana, we’ve experienced interruptions in our “First 6 Weeks” procedures (last time was Katrina)—this time for Hurricane Gustav. We were out for 7 days, returning for 2 and then missing another day due to Hurricane IKE. It’s been a little rocky starting and stopping with our primary students but I think in another week or so, we should be at that point where you feel that continuity and bond of a learning community.
A – It depends, of course. What grade are you teaching? How many children do you have? How many children in the mix seem to have behaviors beyond the routine? How many are in need of special interventions by professional support staff in the school other than you? Sometimes having the principal come in while you reteach a routine to the whole class can help. Sometimes I’ve also found it highly effective to watch a DVD with a class of other children learning a routine. (In fact I think I’ll write about that in an upcoming blog! Thanks.) Hope this helps. Yes, patience is a virtue, but not a solution. Chip
Any advice for when the class comes in without a honeymoon period? If the routines and social goals of the first week of school are taking weeks to teach, is patience the only good answer?