Who Taught that Any Way?

I vividly remember the day when my wife brought our youngest home from day care, and she said, "You will never guess what your son said today." First, it's important to note in this particular situation our son is now MY son. Second, my immediate response to said story, "He didn't hear that from me." Now, my wife is not a teacher as a first career, but in a mere two years, she has mastered the teacher stare. You know, the one where it says, "Busted." Se also has impressive wait time. Something, mind you, she hadn't even learned until I taught her-my bad.

Nevertheless, we have all been there. With our students in the classroom, we ink it daily. Yet, how do we go about going from the after the fact teacher stare to the preemptive strike? It's easy. Assume nothing. Do not assume any behavior that you want to have happen has been previously taught.

I will never forget the first day of teaching first grade. Mind you, I went from teaching fifth grade to first. I made a lot of assumptions back then. I made several mistakes that day. I invited them to join me in a circle. Did you know 20 little six year olds cannot form themselves into a circle? Later, line up to wash hands. Wow. What is a line--if we were really teaching math vocabulary, we would ask them to form a segment not a line. The point is...we must teach the expected behaviors.

I border on the organizational spectrum as obsessive compulsive-just a little to the right of the center on that continuum. Our classroom cubbies had to be organized. I had to teach them what it did and what it did not look like. We had to practice that routine daily. I checked it to be sure all my little friends had it. Then, we practiced again. Waiting for Mr. D. In the morning also had an expectation of behavior. Clipboards and paper in direct instruction had a specific way to run.

In other words, leave NOTHING to change. Make no assumptions, don't let the previous year's teacher take care of the routines, and practice! After all, they cannot read what you want from the inside. They have to practice what you say from the outside-then the can internalize it.