When it comes to having great classroom management, one of the most important aspects is CLASSROOM PROCEDURES. Classroom procedures can make your teaching so much easier and much more effective. The number one reason a person is a great teacher is classroom management, which are mainly procedures. You can be the best teacher and have the most engaging lessons, but if you can’t manage a classroom, your students will never learn anything. 

What are Classroom Procedures?

Procedures are what your students are responsible for doing everyday. Procedures make your classroom run smoothly. Every student knows exactly what they are supposed to do at every moment in your classroom. Classroom procedures and rules are different. A rule must be followed and can be more vague or general. A procedure is just a way that we do things in the classroom. These include stuff like walking quietly in the hallway, using hand signals, raising your hand in class, etc. Classroom procedures help us have an orderly classroom, they help students become more productive and successful, and they help students learn more! These classroom procedures must be followed.

At the beginning of the school year, I explain the difference between procedures and rules. I teach and model the procedures correctly at the beginning of the year. I make sure my students know my expectations. I also have consequences when the students choose to break a rule and consequences when the students choose to break a procedure. If students choose to not follow a classroom procedure, they will practice the procedure correctly at recess. If you want to know more about the beginning of the year, I wrote another post about the First Days of School, you can check it out here. Also, we have a post about creative consequences for a unique viewpoint on consequences and a post on my classroom rules and consequences.

In this post, I am including all the classroom procedures I think are extremely important to every classroom to run more smoothly. There are many different ideas for procedures, these are just some main procedures you will need with some examples of how I implement them in my classroom. If you consider all these areas, then you will have a great start on your classroom management. These procedures I teach and model at the beginning of the school year.

1. Quiet Signal

A quiet signal is so important for good management. Most teachers will have the students work together or have partner discussions during a lesson, and once students are working or talking together you need to have a way to get their attention back. I like a quiet signal or attention signal, so no matter what the students are doing, they know to stop and look at me. I use a quiet signal a lot throughout each day, so it really is useful.

Some people like a handclap or raising your hand, but in my experience, I prefer a talking one. I personally say “class, class” and the students respond, “yes, yes” and know that they need to stop and look at me. I prefer talking over non talking signs, because students may have their back turned and not be able to see me, so when most of the class hears me and says, “yes, yes,” then those students that don’t see me, will hear everyone else and stop talking.

It doesn’t matter what quiet signal or attention signal you go with, just make sure you have one. Also, make sure that you practice it and every student knows what to do. This will come in handy quite often in your classroom and anywhere else you go with your students.

True story: At our school, we have a book mobile come to the school twice a month. All students can check out books. It is a small bus and the whole fourth grade goes on the bus together. The librarian told me something to announce to the students. I said, “class, class” and within seconds every student was quiet and looking at me. I made the announcement and told them to continue. Having a quiet signal will definitely save you in so many circumstances.

2. Classroom Jobs

Every student in my classroom has a job. This helps my classroom run smoothly and makes the students have some responsibility, which leads to them having a sense of belonging. I wrote a post on all the classroom jobs that I use in my classroom, here. Basically, classroom jobs are so important to keep your classroom running smoothly, which gives you more time to do the important stuff. This is a classroom procedure I highly recommend.

3. Attendance and Lunch Count

Taking attendance and lunch count can take up a lot of time in the morning. We already have so much to do in so little time, so you really shouldn’t waste time on this. I have magnets with the students’ number on them. Every morning when students come into the classroom, they move the magnet to hot or cold lunch. If the magnet isn’t moved, the student is absent. I can quickly look at this and see who is missing and how many are hot lunch.

This is also a good procedure to have a student take care of. This saves a lot of time. I have seen teachers make a mimeo slide or slide on the smart board for hot or cold lunch as well. There are many ideas you can do for this, but it is important to have it.

4. Morning Routine

Another extremely important procedure is a morning routine. The morning time can be hectic and a lot of time can be wasted. Having morning procedures in place let’s the students know exactly what to do, so they can make the most out of this time.

At my school, students are required to eat breakfast in the classroom. So, I give 15 minutes to eat breakfast and complete the morning procedures. I normally have the students move their hot/cold lunch magnet, unpack, eat, sharpen pencils, complete the morning message, fill out their agenda, and then read or complete unfinished work if they finish everything. After this, we have a morning meeting. If you want to read more about my morning procedures and morning meeting, click here.

My students know exactly what they need to do in the mornings. I taught it to my students so I don’t have to do anything. They do it all on their own. Ideally, if I was ever not in the room or if I had a sub, I want my students to go about their morning routine without prompting.

5. Pack Up Routine

The morning procedure time is extremely important to start the day right. A pack up routine and procedures is equally as important to end the day right.

In my classroom, the end of the day can be chaotic. Sometimes, it is rushed and students are excited to go home. Basically, I always leave 10 minutes for these procedures. If you want to read more about my end of the day procedures, click here.

For my end of the day procedures, I call the students to pack up by groups. They get the papers from their mailbox and pack up their backpack. While students are packing up, I am reading to the students. This way, we end the day quietly. 

6. Line Up and Hallway Procedures

It is extremely important to have some type of hallway and line up procedures. You do not want your students to be unruly in the hallway. It is a distraction for others. I teach my students exactly how and where they should line up in my classroom. I also teach them where to stop and wait in the hallway. For example, I like my students to stop at the end of the hallway or bottom/top of the stairs. This just lets me keep an eye on everything.

Despite how old the students are (mine are 4th grade), you NEED to specifically teach how to line up and hallway procedures at the beginning of the year. 

7. Bathroom Procedures

Many teachers have different views on the bathroom time. Some teachers give whole classroom breaks or have sticks on the number of times the students are allowed to go during the day. In my experience, I have found that not having really specific bathroom procedures work well for me. I tell the students they can go whenever, as long as I am not in the middle of teaching. We have a bathroom hand signal and I just shake my head yes or no. I have found that this doesn’t draw a lot of attention to the bathroom and I usually don’t have students take advantage. I do warn them that they need to be quick and not go too many times or I will be talking to them and figuring out if there is a problem. 

No matter how you decide to do bathroom procedures, you need to have some kind of idea of how you want to deal with it.

8. Sign Language 

I love using sign language in my classroom. I use the actual sign in sign language for drink and bathroom. Also, I use a 1,2,3 hand signal for pencils, throwing trash away, and getting a tissue. I think of all the ways that students might need to get out of their seat during instruction and make hand signals for them.

I love hand signals, because the students are silent when they do it so it doesn’t bring much attention to the student and I can easily shake my head yes or no. I have found that when one student asks to go to the bathroom and everyone else hears, then everyone suddenly needs to go.

Hand signals are an easy way to communicate in the classroom without talking or distracting others. I also love that I will never be teaching a lesson and a student raises their hand for what I think is an answer and it’s actually asking to go to the bathroom.

9. Pencil Procedures 

This may not be the most important procedure in your classroom, but it could easily become a distraction. In my classroom, I emphasize that I do not want the pencil sharpener running while I am teaching or students are working. This can just be a huge distraction and I do not want to talk over it. I tell my students to sharpen pencils at the beginning of the day during morning procedures.

If students need a pencil throughout the day, I have an unsharpened and sharpened cup. They can put their unsharpened pencil in the cup and get a sharpened one out. This is also a classroom job, where the student will sharpen all unsharpened pencils in the cup in the morning, making sure we have enough pencils for the day. This is a procedure that I have found really useful in my classroom.

10. Instruction Procedures

I know it’s not often thought about, but you should really have some procedures about what the students should be doing while you are teaching. If you set the expectations, it will be much easier to teach. I tell the students that their eyes are to be on me or the materials I have given them. I also tell them they must raise their hand to speak.

Another expectation is that they may not leave their seat while I am teaching for any reason. We have the hand signals, so the only way to get out of their seat is to do a hand signal and I have to shake my head yes. Other than that, I want all students to remain in their seat while I am teaching. I know it may seem silly or unnecessary to go over this with the class, but it will be beneficial in the long run for students to know exactly how to behave.

During instruction, I also teach my students to use hand signs if they agree or disagree with something someone says. I use the “me too” sign in sign language if they agree and a thumbs down if they disagree. This easily gets more students engaged at once. I encourage them to agree or disagree with what others say so everyone is engaged with the conversation. 

11. Absent Procedure

There are many different ways to do this procedure, but you need to consider what you are going to do when students are absent. Some teachers have a folder for each day or put the work in the student’s mailbox.

What I did in my classroom was an absent folder. I had about five absent folders that were bright yellow. Whenever a student was absent a group member would go get an absent folder and put it on their desk. Any papers I passed out throughout the day would go into the folder. I also just had notebook paper in the folder, so if I assigned work that wasn’t a worksheet, a group member could write it on the piece of paper for the absent student.

When the absent student returned to school, they had all the assignments they missed in one spot on their desk. This worked extremely well in my classroom. Basically, you just need to have a plan to deal with absences. It will make your teaching easier!

12. Unfinished Work Procedure

This is another procedure that I found really helpful. There are always things that we don’t have enough time to finish or students that just work slowly. Whenever we had an assignment that wasn’t quite finished, the students had a Work In Progress folder to put it in. The students called this a WIP folder and would keep any unfinished work in it. Every Friday, I would tell them to look through their WIP folder and make sure everything was completed and turned in. I really liked having this procedure in the classroom. It kept my students and myself organized.

13. Classroom Library Procedure

Some classroom libraries can be pretty elaborate and some not so much. Whatever your classroom library is like, you may want to think about the procedures you want to have.

In my classroom, I had a sign in/out sheet when students took a book. I also had a bin to return library books when the students were done. One classroom job in my classroom is a librarian and they will return the books from the bin to the correct bin in my library. These procedures kept the classroom library organized and easy to use. I also can see which books were checked out.

14. Finish Work Early Procedure 

It is inevitable that you will have students that finish work way earlier than other students. These students can ultimately become a distraction for other students that are still working. My go to in my classroom was read silently to yourself if you finish early. This just helped to make sure students were quiet while others were still working.

I also made an enrichment center box that my students could work on if they finished early. This box had different activities like story starters, math flash cards, tangrams, extra math worksheets, or puzzles. The students could choose something from this box to do while they were waiting for others to finish.

15. Turning in Work and Teacher’s Mailbox

Another simple procedure that you might not think about is turning in work. I had a turn in tray in my classroom. Whenever work was collected, it was put in that tray. Anytime students finished an assignment, it was put in that tray. This helped me to stay organized and keep all papers that I needed to grade in one spot.

I also had a little box for my teacher’s mailbox. I told students that any important papers that went home and were returned with a parent’s signature needed to go in my teacher’s mailbox. Any paper, like absence excuses or any other important paper, needed to go in my mailbox. This helped me to have all important papers in one spot and separate from papers I needed to grade.

16. Classroom Transitions 

This procedure needs to be taught at the beginning of the year, right along with lining up and hallway procedures. Students need to know how to move around in the classroom. In elementary, you move from one subject to the next. Also, I had station rotations for math and reading. Students needed to know how to move to the next station or move to the next subject. I always told them that they should always move quickly and quietly in my classroom. Students should only walk, but make sure it is a priority to get to the next spot. I also taught them to listen to a bell to move stations. I had a small bell that I would ring to signal the change. Simple procedures like this really help your classroom run more smoothly.

I hope these classroom procedures are beneficial for your classroom. It is so important to make sure your students know your expectations at the beginning of the year. A lot of these procedures need to be specifically taught and practiced over and over again until the students have mastered the procedure and know exactly what to do.

Classroom procedures are one of the most important ways to have great classroom management. 

At the beginning of the year, I teach all these classroom procedures to my students. I use a PowerPoint to do this. If you want to check out my PowerPoint click here!

Thank you for Continually Learning with us!

Kyle and Sarah