Easy HOW TO: Maximizing Your Classroom Management Skills with Morning Meeting
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Managing an elementary classroom is an adventure every.single.day! With all of the ups, downs, and unexpected twists that come, sometimes it can feel like all you’re doing is redirecting from disruptions and managing students’ behaviors and big feelings. However, with the right strategies and tools in place, you CAN navigate these interruptions with grace and effectiveness. Maximizing your classroom management skills with Morning Meeting is a great place to start!
What is Morning Meeting?
You might be wondering, “What is a Morning Meeting?”
In short, it’s a quick snippet of the morning that allows you to get the day started on the right foot with your students! …Seriously, think 10-15 minutes max!
It allows you to focus on the social-emotional learning needs of your students while introducing new skills and reinforcing other ones.
Each Morning Meeting should include 4 components:
- Greeting
- Share
- Activity
- Message
Beyond that, you can make your Morning Meeting as simple or complex as you’d like!
Grab these Editable Morning Meeting Slides to make your morning routine both fun and engaging for your students.
Effectiveness of Maximizing Your Classroom Management Skills with Morning Meeting
The excitement and focus students find during Morning Meeting doesn’t need to stop there.
When your students are having fun and engaged first thing each day, they’re likely to continue the day with a positive mindset. For the students who came to school in a less-than-ideal mood, this can be exactly the shift they need for a mental and emotional reset!
This positive mindset puts you in a great position with classroom management already!
Morning Meeting provides a great opportunity to help you maximize your classroom management in 4 key ways:
- Establishing Expectations
- Building Relationships
- Cultivating Social-Emotional Skills
- Integrating Academic Content
Establishing Expectations
First of all, Morning Meeting creates a predictable routine that students can count on to happen each day. This predictability can help settle any jittery feelings that might lead to disruptions from little ones.
As you create a consistent morning routine with Morning Meeting, your students feel safe and comfortable from the moment they step into your classroom each day.
Building Relationships
Positive relationships are another key piece of managing a classroom. Without good peer and peer-teacher relationships, behaviors are more likely to escalate.
Morning Meeting allows students to practice important social skills like listening, telling jokes, and asking and answering questions. They will also work to build positive relationships through teamwork activities like the daily logic puzzles found in the Editable Morning Meeting Slides.
Social skills like these are vital when it comes to developing positive relationships in the classroom!
Cultivating Social-Emotional Skills
Helping your students develop strong social-emotional skills is so important for maximizing your classroom management skills with Morning Meeting!
As students practice sharing during Morning Meeting, they have opportunities to develop and enhance important social-emotional skills like empathy, active listening, and conflict resolution.
When students begin to understand their feelings and how to express and cope with them, they’re less likely to act out and disrupt others throughout the day.
Integrating Academic Content
Finally, Morning Meeting allows for new academic content to be introduced and older content to be reinforced. The extra practice opportunities during Morning Meeting allow students to gain confidence in their skills and excitement for learning.
When students are encouraged academically, they are less likely to act out in class.
Everything you do in your classroom with your students hinges on how clearly you share expectations and give explanations! You need to tell them what you expect and SHOW them how to implement it all– for Morning Meeting, this means to GET INVOLVED.
Actively participate with your students as they work through this important morning routine!
Other Benefits of Morning Meeting
The value of Morning Meeting stretches far beyond classroom management skills!
Morning Meeting also sets the tone for a positive and successful classroom community where every student feels valued and supported.
Another teacher win– you can use your Editable Morning Meeting Slides as time filler activities or for classroom discussion time too! Subs will have no trouble using these simple slides when you’re out either.
*Remember, consistency helps students thrive and lessens difficult classroom behaviors!
Additional Classroom Management Tools
While Morning Meeting is a great way to maximize classroom management, integrating other tools can be helpful too! Social skills stories and visuals also help provide clear and consistent reminders for students throughout the day.
Social Skills Stories Great for Classroom Management
Social skills stories are great resources for helping students learn appropriate behavior and responses to a variety of social situations.
These especially are great to help manage behaviors in the classroom:
- Hallway Behavior Social Skills Story
- Tattling vs Reporting Social Skills Story
- Personal Space Social Skills Story
- Turn Taking Social Skills Story
Visuals to Help Manage Your Classroom
Use a variety of visuals throughout our classroom to remind students of classroom expectations and routines. Visuals also help students take control of their learning.
Helpful Classroom Management Visuals:
Remember, classroom management is a process. Give yourself and your students grace. Even when you have the very best tools in place, some days will just be more “adventurous” than others. Maximizing your classroom management skills with Morning Meeting will be fun & effective for everyone!
Let me know if you have any questions about anything you see here. Don’t forget to pin this post to refer to it later!
Other posts you may enjoy:
10 Expert Classroom Management Tips for the Elementary Classroom
Successful Tips How To Improve Student Behavior At Assemblies
How Social Skills Stories Build the Positive Classroom Climate You Are Craving
MAKE MORNING ROUTINES IN YOUR CLASSROOM FUN AND ENGAGING WITH THESE
Free Morning Meeting Songs & Greetings
The perfect way to get students energized and ready to go in the mornings!
Diane Romo
Thank you for being here! I love sharing ideas with other teachers! If you are looking to enhance your teaching and build a positive classroom community, you have come to the right place!
