Back To School and a Freebie!

The time has come.  Tomorrow morning, into my carefully prepared and clean classroom will come 23 smiling, excited faces.  Every year is different and with new kids and new combinations of kids, it's a little like a bubble gum machine...you don't know what you will get....but if you love bubble gum, it won't really matter....whatever you get will be wonderful.  So tomorrow comes and I'm mentally going through the day in my mind to be sure I didn't forget anything.  And if tomorrow is like every other "first day of school" I've experienced in my 22 years, it will take on a mind of it's own after about 15 minutes or so.  And I'll rethink, change, add to and take away from those perfectly prepared plans. 
So, this year, I want to make sure that I make my expectations clear to students.  We recently had a refresher meeting on behavior.  We are a PBIS school so we have a great plan in place that clearly states expectations to students.  What I took away from this meeting was that I need to continue to teach, teach again, reteach for the umpteenth time...the rules and expectations.  I don't like spending a lot of time talking about why we shouldn't talk in the hallway. I just tell them and expect them to remember .  Not the case!  I was reminded that we have to constantly reteach....reteach...reteach.  So I'm going to remind myself daily to find that positive talk and reteach as often as necessary.  After all, they are 7 years old.  And so, being the teacher that I am and probably you are too, I created a thing to help remind ME as well as students of expectations in our classroom and school.  I wrote it so that you can use the pages where students are writing quick response answers to questions about rules and procedures, or there is another version that asks students to draw a picture of what it looks like in the hallway, cafeteria, school bus, etc.  You can see it HERE.  I've included a free page of the book here for you for free!  Click here for the freebie!

I would love to hear your thoughts about the first day of school and about how you handle rules and behavior!  Please leave me some feedback.  And one more thing....tomorrow is coming! Let's make it the best year ever!
Sharon

"Every child should have a caring adult in their lives. And that's not always a biological parent or family member. It may be a friend or neighbor. Often times it is a teacher." Joe Manchin