Classroom Management: 5 Steps for Regrouping After Winter Break

Hello, Teacher Friends! I hope you've had a restful break and didn't spend the entire time grading or planning. 

As we come back together after a break and holidays, it is a great time to work on regrouping and refocusing your class for the second half of the school year. I don't know about you, but my class of firsties became a little dysregulated during the last part of December, between the tedium of middle of the year testing and excitement over holidays. Getting everyone back on track in January is going to take some work, but it can be done! I've got five steps that I've learned to follow over the last ten years in the classroom.

1. Expectations, Expectations, Expectations

Of course, every teacher has heard to spend time after a break revisiting expectations. There's a reason this advice is so often repeated--because it's necessary. Don't feel guilty if you get to very little actual curriculum the first week or so after coming back; the time you spend reestablishing procedures will more than be made up.

2. Rethink and Reflect

This is also an ideal time to rethink expectations for yourself, not just your students. Do a little reflection: what is working well in your classroom, and what would you like to change? Are there new procedures you would like to implement? This is the time to do it! Talk to colleagues about what works well for them, read internet articles, and try something new to address specific challenges in your classroom.

3. Involve Students

Every teacher has also heard the strategy of involving students in coming up with social contracts, class rules, etc. If you have already done this with your class this year, revisiting it in January is an excellent idea. The social contract strategy has had varying levels of success for me, depending on the class. However, I had a conversation with a colleague recently about some specifics to implement with this approach that are game changers. First, make sure every student buys in. When discussing expectations, if even one student thinks they cannot meet that expectation successfully, don't add it to the class contract. Explain to them that you want them to feel successful in the expectations they create. Second, after creating your contract, frequently check in with your students--not just when they are misbehaving. Throughout the day, do a whole-class check in, during lessons or after transitions, having kids show you a thumbs up, sideways thumb, or thumbs down, to self-assess how well they are personally doing with following the expectations. (Have them do this in front of their chest rather than with their hands up high, so that other kids can't see their responses). Talk them through what they need to do to reach a thumbs up. I love the level of accountability this gives students while helping them learn to self-reflect.

4. Be Sensitive

Be a safe landing place for them to return to after break; for many kids, school is their safe place and they dread extended breaks. Not all students had an exciting break filled with lavish gifts and experiences, so be mindful of this when facilitating discussions or giving writing assignments about their favorite Christmas gifts. Returning to normalcy as soon as possible will help these students be more successful.

5. Foster Relationships

A large part of successful classroom management comes down to relationships. Take some time this week to foster relationships with your students and between your students. Talk to them, give them time to talk to one another. When students know you genuinely care about them, and your classroom is a true community or family, they are much more likely to do their best and work well together.

Of course, no classroom management plan is a complete fail-safe, but I hope these tips are helpful to your classroom as we embark on 2022!

Keep teaching with heart and passion!

5 Teacher Tips to Save Your Sanity During Distance Learning | Distance Learning Series #2

This post is second in a series on distance learning. If you missed the first installment, all about connecting with students, check it out here!

Shifting mid-year from traditional schooling to distance learning is certainly not something we ever thought we would have to prepare for as educators. There are so many questions and unknowns as we enter these uncharted waters!

I served on the Continuous Learning Task Force for my district as we figured out how to move forward for the remainder of this school year. Here are the five main things I took away.

1. Less is More
I have been repeating this often to myself over the last week or so; it's becoming my new mantra. "Less is more." Focus on the "meat" of your lessons and standards, and don't worry about the fluff. What is it absolutely essential for kids to know by the end of the year? What will they need to master before entering the next grade level? Focus on those things.

2. Keep it Simple
Don't try to learn every new platform and program. I know that I have been inundated with emails and advertisements from every education platform and website, all touting why they're the best for at-home learning, or how they are offering free subscriptions right now. Some of them sound amazing! It is tempting to try to learn and do them all. I appreciate these companies stepping up and helping teachers and parents, but it is all overwhelming. I am going to continue using platforms and programs that I have already been using, and with which my students and their parents are already familiar. We are already having too much new stuff thrown at us; we don't need to add in one more thing to figure out and adjust to.

3. Be Flexible
Some people are having a hard time wrapping their minds around this new approach to teaching, and are thinking they need to have a strict classroom schedule with live lessons at set times. That's just not realistic. Many teachers have young children at home who are going to run screaming through the room during a live lesson, or who will need to be online completing their own assignments. Many students will still be at daycare during the day and will need to complete assignments in the evening, or complete several days worth of assignments in one day. One of the beautiful things about distance learning is that it can be worked around family schedules. Give yourself--and your students--a lot of grace. Everyone is doing the best they can.

4. Be Available
While being flexible, it is important that you are available to your students and parents. Distance learning is not "set it and forget it". You cannot upload assignments for the week and then enjoy a week of "paid vacation". Students and parents will have questions and need assistance. Students will miss you and want to connect with you. You might choose to schedule some live videos or lessons so that you can connect with students, but make sure to record them and upload them to your chosen platform so that all students can access them later.
Many districts are recommending set office hours. This can be difficult to achieve for those of us who have littles at home, but make sure you are checking your email, messages, etc. multiple times a day and responding promptly. You are still their teacher, and you still have an obligation to give them a quality education.

5. Set Boundaries
Being available does not mean that you are obligated to respond to parent emails and phone calls at 10:00 pm or on weekends. If you choose to do that because it works for you and your schedule, great! Just remember that you are not constantly on-call, and it is okay to set aside personal time when you are not available. If you need to schedule a set lunch and planning time during the day in order to ensure you don't get burnt out, do it. Whatever works for you, just don't forget to take care of yourself. You can't pour from an empty cup.

Stay tuned for more tips on distance learning, and remember to breathe. We will get through this together! Even in the midst of the unknown, keep teaching with heart and passion!

First Grade Classroom Reveal!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on one of my links, I'll receive a small commission at no cost to you!

You guys, I am in love with my classroom this year! I love how all the decor came together, and I love the overall "feeling" when I walk into the room. It's bright, cheerful, and welcoming.

Seriously how perfect is this lamp?! I found it in my parents' basement and had to "steal" it!

Our school theme this year is "Just Be...", as in "Just Be Respectful", "Just Be Kind", etc. so I painted the "Just Be...You" banner to hang above my windows. After I put it up and put the shapes posters on either side of it, I thought it still needed a little more color. This rainbow bunting was exactly what I needed!

I opted to get rid of the rug that was in here when I arrived and just use carpet spots. They're amazing!

My shelves look so bare because I was waiting for our new curriculum to be delivered! I didn't get a close up, but I used these Storex cubby bins for my leveled readers that you can see in the corner, and they are perfect!

My word wall cards make me happy!

My room is such a hodge-podge of things that came together perfectly. This crate bench was given to me by another teacher who didn't want it anymore.

Positive affirmations to encourage my students (and myself!) every day! I brightened up this space with these watercolor dot decals and I love it!

This focus wall is quick and easy to change! I bought these dry erase pockets because I wanted one of each color, and didn't need a whole ton of extras. Oh, and isn't this bulletin board trim amazing?! I was ecstatic when I found it!

These Storex book bins are great for my classroom library! Confession, though: I ordered the orange bins directly from the Storex website because I really wanted orange, and I needed 6 colors for the 6 units in my reading curriculum.

My bookshelves look a little sparse here, but I am happy to say that my shelves are now fully stocked, thanks to some generous donations through Donors Choose for a new classroom library!

You can find the number posters here!

I didn't plan out the spacing very well on my job chart, haha!

Here's a close up of my classroom schedule and job chart.

Rainbow class calendar! It can also be used in a pocket chart or as a linear calendar.

Rainbow weather and seasons set!

My teacher toolbox is a lifesaver, especially when working with paras or subs! Get the editable labels here, and check out this post for step-by-step instructions on how to make it!

Have you noticed I'm a tad obsessed with my color-coded organization? Editable binder covers and spines here!

Editable lunch attendance system here!

The idea for this headphones organizer is not new with me, but it has worked perfectly! Find it here!

I always want my students to know that I love them and want the best for them. When they leave my classroom, they are left with this goodbye message. 

My school uses the Zones of Regulation and has the students check in daily. I check in, too, and we talk about our emotions a lot throughout the day. (Due to copyright restrictions on the Zones of Regulation, I cannot offer this check in system for sale. I created it for my own personal classroom use.)

Display outside my classroom door. The paint splotches are attached to clothespins where I will hang student work throughout the year.

We have these display cases outside our doors, so of course I had to hang a trauma-informed poster!

Morning greeting choices are all the rage right now, and I can see why! My students love it, and I love how it allows me to make a connection with each child every day in a way that is most comfortable for them. Find this set here!

I've saved the favorite part of my classroom for last! This area is my peace corner. It's an area where students can go to self-regulate.

Right above my peace corner is my birthday calendar. Students love seeing their pictures and being able to see when their friends' birthdays are! Find the birthday calendar here!

I always want my students to feel safe and loved, especially when they're upset!

My peace corner has a basket of items to help students calm down and regulate.

So there you have it, my new classroom! I know the bright colors can be overstimulating for some kids, so I have to balance that by keeping everything very neat. I work hard to keep it organized and free of clutter. Clutter stresses me out, and I think it can also stress students out. So far all of my new friends seem to be settling in well and enjoying our new space; we're off to a great start to our school year!

Want all of the rainbow decor? Get the bundle here and save 20%!

Morning Greeting Choices

I have an announcement to make! After five wonderful years in Pre-K, I am switching it up and moving to first grade this fall. I have the opportunity to teach closer to home, which will take over an hour off my daily travel time. I'm sad to leave my school and my little learners, but I am thrilled for more time with my family, and excited about new opportunities. I already have so many plans for first grade!

One thing I plan to implement is a morning greeting choice board. They are all the rage right now, and for good reason. They are such a great way to start every day by building relationships. Greeting students in their preferred way goes a long way toward establishing trust and respect.

This beautiful poster will hang outside my door, so that students can select how they want to be greeted every morning.

I've also included some options for differentiation. While I won't be in a special education position at my new school, I still have my special education license, and, more importantly, will always hold a special place in my heart for students with special needs, so my resources will continue to reflect that! This morning greeting choice kit contains a sensory-friendly poster with a plain background.

It also includes some individual choice boards for students who need it. I would use hook and loop tape on these and attach them to a clip board so that students can reuse them daily. These are great for students to use with a para!

My quick-reference lanyard visuals and potty training visuals have been so popular that I decided I needed to create a version for morning greeting choices!

While I anticipate most teachers will use the poster option, these layered morning greeting choices are ideal for staff members who aren't typically able to greet students at a classroom door. They're handy for administrators, counselors, or others who greet students daily, or for teachers who are working car rider duty, etc. They're also perfect for those days when you are greeting your students at an assembly instead of in your classroom.

I can't wait to put these into use this fall! Want to try it out yourself? Head on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store to get all of these visuals to use in your own classroom!

Have any experience using morning greeting choices in your classroom? Leave a comment to tell me how it went for you!

Visuals Lanyard for Behavior Expectations

I hear often about the importance of using visuals with students with special needs. It's true that visuals provide a good way to communicate with these kiddos, as some of them do better with processing an image than the spoken word. I like to take visuals one step further, and use them with all early childhood students. My classroom is made up of students with special needs, and those who are at risk, including a high number of ESOL students. I have found that all of them respond positively to visuals!

Visuals provide the advantage of actually showing students your expectation. I also love that they can be used to give a direction while you are still teaching. Often, in the middle of a lesson, I will hold up a visual to a student who is off-task, while not missing a beat with my instruction. This is why I LOVE the quick-reference design of these visuals in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Another powerful thing about visuals is that they lead to fewer power struggles and defiant behaviors. Students don't feel as challenged when presented with a visual as they do with a verbal command. They don't feel as much like they were called out in front of their peers; in fact, often times their classmates don't even notice the direction has been given, since the teacher is able to continue seamlessly with instruction. While this doesn't hold true 100% of the time, and of course some students will still choose to not listen, I have found that, by and large, a child who is calmly shown a visual to "sit" or "be quiet" will respond better to it than being told verbally to "sit" or "be quiet".

I attach these visuals to my lanyard so that they are always ready to go. When needed, I usually hold up the visual and give it a tap, then when the student complies I give a quick smile and a thumbs-up. We have an entire exchange without any words, and without them feeling embarrassed in front of their classmates. It's quick, easy, and effective.

If you have any experience with using visuals for behavior expectations in your classroom, I would love to hear about it! Drop me a comment below!

Easy Classroom Setup with Fun Classroom Decor Bundles

It's mid-July and we are now past Independence Day, which means it's the time of year we start seeing back to school stuff everywhere. I know that makes us teachers do a deep sigh, as we just want to enjoy our last few weeks of summer. However, this is also a great time to start getting things ready for the next year before the insanity of in-service and professional development starts.

I've been working on projects like purposeful morning work for the entire year, (get yours here!), and setting up task boxes for small groups. I'm really excited about my new task boxes, and plan to share them with you after I'm back in my classroom this fall.

All of that purposeful planning takes time, so today, I wanted to share lots of classroom decor and organizational items in several fun themes to make your classroom setup a breeze. Whether you want something whimsical and cute, or a little more sophisticated, I have decor you're sure to love!

I offer the components individually, and also as part of money-saving bundles. Each of my themes is available in two smaller bundles; one is geared toward early childhood, with things like alphabet, shapes, and color posters; the other, called my teacher organization bundle, has labels, name plates, and the like, and is appropriate for all of elementary. Or, save even more and buy the complete bundle, with all of the resources in each theme! There are also some great coordinating freebies like welcome banners and file, grade, and copy labels, so make sure to check them out in my TPT store!

These classroom decor items make classroom setup so simple--just print and go, and you've got a totally coordinated classroom, with everything from job charts to birthday calendars to teacher toolbox labels. Many of the components are even editable, to make life easier for you! What's better than a darling, coordinated, welcoming classroom with as little effort as possible? That classroom environment is so important, but easy setup allows you to focus on what's truly vital: planning quality education for your learners.


Currently, I have 9 themes available in my store:

Yellow, Teal, and Gray--my bestselling theme! It's simple, pretty, and classy. Great for upper elementary!

Chalkboard decor is all the rage right now! I love this clean look for any grade level.

Is there anything more classic for early childhood than primary colors?

I love this versatile popcorn theme! Use as-is, or pair it with circus animals or movie and film decor!

Who wouldn't love some mischievous monkeys to liven up their classroom?

This comic book theme is fun for all ages, and a hit with teachers whose style isn't so "cutesy".

Check out this Candy Shop themed decor to lend a whimsical feel to your classroom!

This colorful decor pack is fresh and bright!

This black and white classroom decor is perfect for when you don't have access to a color printer, but still want a cute room!

I hope you enjoy these classroom decor themes, and if you have any ideas for future themes, leave them in the comments!

Encouraging Mindfulness in Early Childhood

Last year, I had some rough behaviors in my room. I mean, rough. As the year went on, I became frustrated and exhausted, but I also discovered one important commonality: these kiddos who kept acting out had all experienced trauma.

I don't just mean what my therapist husband calls "Little t trauma", I'm talking about "Big T Trauma". Stuff little kids should never have to worry about.

Kids don't know how to appropriately process and respond to that kind of stuff (and if we're honest, many of us as adults don't know how, either!), so they react. They lash out, they act up, they do anything they can to try to gain some kind of control over their little worlds, and to make sense of their lives.

Unfortunately, there is not a thing we as teachers can do to change situations in these kids' lives outside of school. We are completely powerless in that area. BUT, what we can do, is give them tools to process what they are going through. After the year I had last year, I spent all summer researching. How to calm irate children, how to stop outbursts and misbehavior. What I found is not at all surprising: there is no easy fix. The important thing is to give kids strategies, to teach them how to respond instead of react.

One word that kept coming up in my reading was mindfulness. Eagerly, I searched and searched for articles explaining how to teach mindfulness in early childhood, but I kept coming up empty. The problem is, mindfulness is something that must be learned, but it isn't something you can really teach. It's something that must be done intentionally and with practice. I realized that I must teach my kids strategies, help them learn to feel and identify their emotions, and give them time and space to process and respond to things happening around them.

I made some big changes in my room this year. First, I set up a mindfulness corner.

This space is reserved only for kids who need some space to calm down and regroup. It is NOT a time-out area; kids can choose to go there if they feel sad or angry, or even if they feel too excited and wound up. At first, it was an area of great interest, and all of my kids would ask to go in there to read or play. They quickly came to understand, though, that's not what the space is for, and now they only use it if they need it. In the mindfulness corner are some calm down cards, with choices for students to help them relax. There are also posters to help them identify their feelings.

We have also been starting every day with meditation. One of my awesome paras spent a year teaching in Thailand, and told me how all students there meditate at the beginning of every day. I loved the idea, so now that's how we start our mornings. The kids are used to it now, and it gives us a positive start to our day. Just 4 minutes of sitting quietly, listening to calming music. We more than regain that 4 minutes the rest of the day, as the students are then ready to learn!

We have been practicing different breathing techniques, such as the Balloon and Drain from Conscious Discipline. One of my favorite things has been Daniel Goleman's suggestion to use Breathing Buddies. Breathing Buddies are stuffed animals that help students focus on their breathing. They lie on their backs with the stuffed animals on their tummies, and watch as their breaths make the animals go up and down.

The kids love using Breathing Buddies!

All in all, we are off to a much calmer, smoother start this year. I think starting our day with meditation helps establish that the classroom is a calm place to be. Giving kids practice identifying emotions and the space to process those emotions, as well as strategies on how to respond, gives them a sense of control over their lives, and with it, some peace and a renewed focus for learning!