While it doesn’t always look like it, our students crave structure. To make the back to school weeks go smoothly, it is important to establish structure and routines from the first day of school. Not only will this set the class up for success, it will help students become more independent.
Routines Of The Schedule
Begin by deciding which routines you want students to know for the rest of the school year. While there are a lot of routines we want students to know, prioritizes the routines that students will need to know for the rest of the school year. In special ed., we often have more information on students than general education teachers. Use that information to help you prioritize.
Since my students all have difficulty with transitions, I work on teaching transition routines from day one. Even though we aren’t going to do any real work the first week of school I try to keep the structure of the what will be our normal schedule. For example, eventually, we will be doing work centers or direct instruction every morning for an hour with a 3 minute “cash in” time in the middle. I want to establish this routine on day one, so we work on completing a task at the centers and then switching. Since it is the beginning of the school year, the activities we are doing are mostly fun.
Behavior Management System Routines
Arrival & Dismissal Routines
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