A Little Thing Called “Routines”

To surpass any exercise there’s a warm-up routine, to surpass any business operations there’s a planning routine, and to surpass any classroom management there must be classroom routines.

But what are classroom routines? The best way to explain it is to refer to “educationworld.com” who state that routines are simply: “a well-rehearsed response to a teacher's directive.” Its antonym usually results in students nagging, shouting, whining, and time-wasting while the teacher attempts to control the classroom on and on throughout the year. Therefore with the use of routines within the classroom teachers can save up on labor time whilst students benefit from being thoroughly taught.

In the following article, the vitality of classroom routines will be revealed while exemplifying it with real-life scenarios.

Benefits of Routines

Routines are the backbone of daily classroom life. They facilitate teaching and learning…. Routines don’t just make your life easier, they save valuable classroom time. And what’s most important, efficient routines make it easier for students to learn and achieve more.

—Learning to Teach…not just for beginners by Linda Shalaway

Mdm. Shalaway already gives us a clear idea of why routines benefit teachers, highlighting that it saves time and nurtures knowledge in children in a much more efficient and effective manner. To add to this, routines can also minimize guesswork, frustration, and inconvenience. In other words, it can get rid of student distractions that waste time and regress the learning process in the classroom. Looking at it from the teacher’s end, it can lessen workload and stress, protecting the well-being of the teacher.

Routines can be seen as an automated task manager, it gives directions and collectively manages student activity canceling any halts or interferences. Students can know how to pass their papers, where to sit, how to enter a classroom, and when talking is allowed or not through routines. For every repetitive action within a classroom, a routine is its guide.

I know … I know, it sounds like we’re in the army. Certainly, routines were never meant to be made to lock students’ happiness and joy away. More so, it is meant to keep them safe and teach them something considered important. So routines that are absent of amusement even at a minimal level is no routine at all. It’s simply a teacher mirroring an army general, whose characteristics closely resemble an individual who has no spirit of fun and enjoyment.

You can keep everything in order without the need for cutting out happiness from the child.

Some Routines We Heard About

A while back an educator named Rick Morrison suggested that music can lead routines in the classroom. Each piece of music can initiate a different routine. For example on one occasion during his teaching career, he used “The Simpsons” theme song to alert students that it was time for them to leave their desks, sit on the classroom carpet, and get ready for a read-aloud session. The uniqueness of this comes in the fact that it’s all about the time it takes for them to finish the task. So when Rick Morrison played “The Simpsons” theme song, students had to get the task done before the theme song finished. Students love such activities because the songs are silly making the routine seem less of a routine and more of a challenge.

Other teachers create routines that seek to manage the paperwork presented to them by students. So they set up some trays and label them according to what is expected to be placed in it, i.e: homework, project ...such utilization teaches kids independence, self-responsibility, and organization during work.

One routine I've seen displayed in Lebanon is a yoga session teachers carry out for their students. During exam week, stress and anxiety among students sky-rockets. So the best thing a teacher can do is make them focus more and worry less because as we all know exams worry kids. So with the use of yoga, such built-up stress is relieved and students can focus more on their work and their studies.

Another routine we’ve heard of is done by English language arts teacher guru Kelly Gallagher called, “The Reading Minute”. The following routine demands that a teacher reads a random passage from a story, essay, poem … they’ve found online to the students once a day or a week depending on each teacher’s preference. The students from their side open their notebooks and write down a short summary or thesis regarding its significance to them. By the end of the month or year, students are asked to stand up and read aloud what they wrote recollecting what that passage meant to them back then and why so. In my opinion, such routine teaches students to be listeners and thinkers since on one aspect they are required to listen to the teacher as she reads the passage and in another aspect it allows students to think about what they wrote, why they wrote it, and what it meant to them.

Noelle Pickering, an educator, discusses a routine he calls “The Panther Express Card”. He discusses how he loves using it in class. Explaining that: “Basically every student receives one each grading period. I copy it onto colored card stock and they glue it into their journal. It keeps track of bathroom passes, minor behavior incidents, tardies, and positives.” At the end of every week, he collects the paper and sees whether a student deserves to be rewarded or not according to what he did during the week written on his express card. When the class is successful they are rewarded with fun activities such as carrying out classes outside. And as for the positive section, the more stamps each individual student receives the more rewards they achieve. Such stamps are simple to get all it needs is an engaging student, who answers teacher questions and works well during group work …

Another routine I found online is a routine developed by Fifth-grade teacher Barry White Jr. of Ashley Park Elementary School in Charlotte, North Carolina. As seen in the video, his routine is a personalized handshake for every student in his classroom. It creates an immense amount of positivity and joy for the student since they feel as though the teacher cares about them and is more than a teacher … a friend they can always come to. Furthermore, with the use of this routine teachers can also make sure that all students are present in the classroom without the need of using the traditional method of raising their hands when their name is called.

(Video Below)

- North Carolina teacher has personalized handshakes with each of his students. "It was just one or two students and then it became contagious. I saw how much it meant to them."

I think now we know why routines are essential and important. They manage the classroom effectively and move away from any halts that might cancel the learning experience of the student. However, it is important that teachers do not make the routine an enemy to the student. After all, a student who enjoys the routine they do is much more likely to grasp the important aspects the teacher wishes to plant unto them through the use of that particular routine.