This week’s tip continues our current theme: establishing an effective morning routine that prepares students for a great day of learning.  Every morning my students and I participate in a four-part morning movement warm-up.  Executing these movements helps my students achieve what I consider to be an ideal mindset for learning: calm, relaxed, focused, and confident.  Over the next four weeks I will describe these four movements, one per week.  I start by describing Cross Crawls.

This week’s tip continues our current theme: establishing an effective morning routine that prepares students for a great day of learning.    

The 7 Life Roles

For about five minutes every Wednesday morning, my students and I discuss one or more of the 7 Life Roles, sets of expectations and responsibilities that all individuals currently perform or will perform in the future.  Identified by author Dale Parnell in his excellent book, Why Do I Have to Learn This?, the roles include Lifelong Learner, Citizen, Consumer, Producer (Worker), Individual (Self), Family Member, and Leisure Participant.

Last week’s tip about having students check in each morning by sharing a number between one and ten launched our new theme: establishing an effective morning routine that prepares students for a great day of learning.  This week I describe the Quote of the Day, another highly beneficial component of a strong morning routine.  

The Quote of the Day
An effective way to bring out the best in our students, develop lasting habits, and help establish an enthusiastic, productive, team-oriented classroom culture is to feature a “Quote of the Day.”

The first seven Teaching Tips all focused on important beginning-of-the-year priorities.  Last week’s tip about reviewing the class mission statement once a week so that it serves as a consistent reference point throughout the year concludes this theme and transitions us into our next one: establishing an effective morning routine that prepares students for a great day of learning.  I mentioned that my students and I read and discuss our mission statement every Friday, and these short conversations help get our Fridays off to a great start.  In the coming weeks I will describe other elements of an effective morning routine that you can use with your students.  

Checking In