Duration: 13:50
About the teachers
Dave Chettle has been teaching for 17 years. He became a teacher following a career in sales. He has taught both primary and secondary students in a metropolitan context.
Danny Buller began teaching 2 and a half years ago, transitioning from a career as a personal assistant. She has taught students in the early years (Kindy, Year 1 and Year 3) in a metropolitan context.
Henri King is completing his Master of Teaching through a teacher training program. Henri was previously a youth worker.
Transcript
[On-screen text] Viewer advice: First Nations people should be aware that it is possible that some individuals depicted in this video may have since passed away.
Dave Chettle, classroom teacher, Woodcrest State College: The entrance routine helps set the day up. It makes the class orderly and safe, and the students know what's expected of them, and everyone walks in, gets ready for work. It also calms me down, so when I walk into the classroom, I'm ready to go.
Danny Buller, classroom teacher, Briar Road Public School: I think the entrance routine – particularly at the beginning of the day – sets the tone for the rest of the day. It lets students know that they're to walk into the class settled, that when playtime's finished, now it's time for learning. And it really helps them get into that mentality of ‘We're in the classroom now and there are certain expectations that we have to follow.’
Henri King, classroom teacher, Xavier Catholic College: If I'm there waiting for them at the door, ready to greet them on entry, bam – positive interaction, straight away, perfect start to the class.
Danny Buller: Instead of students wasting time, wondering what they need to do or looking for where equipment is, they come in straight away, settled on the floor, ready to start learning. At the start of the entrance routine, I'll stand where I can see all the students.
Dave Chettle: Once I'm in that position, I gain all students' attention.
Danny Buller: When I have all students' attention, I remind them of the expectations of entering the classroom.
Dave Chettle: When students have been instructed to enter the classroom, I continuously monitor them.
Henri King: Once all students are in the room, I move to the front of the room and gain all students' attention, ready to start the class.
Danny Buller: We started practising our entrance routine as one of the first things we did in Week 1 of Kindergarten. Myself and a teacher's aide would model to the students exactly what we wanted, so I would say what the expectation was – 'When we line up outside the door, we stand next to our partner.' And then we would show them what that looks like, get them to practise it. And we'd go through each step in as small a step as we could so they could really understand exactly what they were doing, and then we would practise it until they were confident in doing it. It took a week or 2 for them to become automatic at doing the entrance routine, and then it took around another 2 or 3 weeks for them to get to the speed that we have today.
Stop. Beautiful. Byron, I love your Lowanna Learners. Great job. Nagangbi KB.
Class: Nagangbi Ms. Buller.
Danny Buller: Can I have your eyes in 3, 2, 1? Thank you, Lani, for turning your eyes to me. Evan, thank you for having your eyes on me. Just waiting for Destiny. Thank you, lady. When you go inside, your bags are going to go on your …?
Class: Hook.
Danny Buller: Good. Your lunch boxes will go on your …?
Class: Desk.
Danny Buller: Where are they going to go? On your …?
Class: Desk.
Danny Buller: Good job. Water bottles will go in the …?
Class: Tub.
Danny Buller: Hold your hands still. Evie, where is your lunchbox going to go?
Evie: On your desk.
Danny Buller: On your desk. Leah, where's your water bottle going to go?
Leah: In the tub.
Danny Buller: In the tub. Once you've done that, you're going to get your whiteboard and your marker and sit on the …?
Class: Floor.
Danny Buller: Good job. In you guys go, straight to the hook. Oh, thank you. Well done, Byron. I love your Lowanna Learners. So sensible. Ms Smith, can you just watch them with their bags? Thank you. Oh, I like how Takoa is safely getting his lunchbox out straight away. Good job, Evie. Alina, looking for your learning lips. Thank you. I saw it, but we'll show KB another time. Okay? Oh, Evie, I love how you are sitting so sensibly on the floor. Takoa, so safe. I love how you are walking with your whiteboard and marker. Well done, Skylar. Bella's writing her name straight away. Evan, where does your banana need to go? Good remembering. Pardon? That's okay. That's okay. Yeah. Nice. Oh, very nice. I can see Leah is about to start focusing on her name. Thank you, Leah. Oh, very good, Kalani. Park and rub that out. Well done, Destiny.
When I'm positioning myself, I make sure that I'm standing where they can see me, but where I can also see all of them. When I gain all their attention, I want them all looking at me so they can hear my expectations, ready to go into the classroom. When I'm reminding them, I want verbal confirmation that they have listened to what I've said, that they understand what I want them to do and that they're ready to go ahead and do that. Evie, where is your lunchbox going to go?
Evie: On your desk.
Danny Buller: On your desk. Leah, where's your water bottle going to go?
Leah: In the tub.
Danny Buller: In the tub ...
When I'm monitoring the students as they enter, I'm looking to make sure that they're meeting the expectations, that they're being safe and that they're on task. Acknowledgement, for me, is a really powerful tool to draw students' attention to what the expectations are and to remind them of the behaviour that's expected of them. But it also gives the students who are meeting expectations a verbal acknowledgement that I can see that they're doing the right thing. When the entrance routine is finished, I'm looking to make sure that they've met all the expectations, that they've placed everything where it needs to go, that they're ready to learn, their eyes are on me. The entrance routines have had a massively positive impact on the students’ behaviour. They come in settled, ready to learn, there's no confusion about what they should or shouldn't be doing, and then it immediately reduces the need for me to remind students of expectations.
Dave Chettle: To establish the entrance routine, it requires teaching the students what's expected. That can often take time, and you've got to be, as a teacher, patient, and understand that the students need to learn. So, one of the best ways is by praise and being positive. If you positively reward the students for doing the right thing, they're more likely to do it quicker. The first thing I do to teach students the entrance routine is I explain to them why we're doing it. I give them the reasons why, and I explain that it makes it better for everyone to walk in the classroom ready to learn. I then start to slowly structure and scaffold what's required. I think it's important to take that time. It doesn't take 2 seconds before class. Quite often, at the start of the year, it can take quite a bit of practise, and once you've got that routine happening, you then positively encourage that to keep going.
Okay, let's go, line up. Awesome job, you 2 at the front. Really good. Okay, hope you had a good lunchtime. Remember, no food in the classroom, so if you've got any food, make sure you dispose of it. We're going to walk inside, stand behind our desk, put up stuff, ready. Make sure you have your pouches. Make sure you have your books, laptops, pencil cases. Let's go. Nice and quiet. Good job, Nick. Keanu, awesome. Okay, I love the way you're walking in. Awesome job. Margaret, great stuff. Well done, Jackson. I love how everyone is standing and doing the instructions properly. Look at the people ready for work. This is fantastic. Okay. You guys are becoming unbelievable. I look forward to coming in every morning now and I mean it. You guys are doing a great job. That's good. Now, let's sit down and get ready for work.
The first consideration is about where I position myself. When I talk to the students, I want to be able to make sure that I can see them and make sure they're all safe. So, I make sure I put myself in a position where they can see me, I can watch all students. By using a countdown or a clap, it gives them a chance to stop what they're doing and to start to focus. If you expect the focus too quickly, it's never going to happen. They learn then to process the information they're receiving to concentrate on you. By reminding the students to enter the classroom, what I'm considering the most is what is going to make the classroom experience pleasurable. When you're monitoring students into the classroom, you want to make sure that each day as a teacher, you start afresh. So, one of the things I want to look at is if you've had experiences previously with a student, you want to make sure that everything's right on track, that they trust you again and there's no leftover from what happened previously. So, you have a quick conversation with a couple of people just to make sure they're on track. And while you're doing that, you're monitoring the rest of the classroom. The best thing you can do at the end of the entrance routine is praise the students who are doing it properly. So, I want to thank the people and really thank them that they're doing the right thing. And the more you thank them, the more people will do the right thing. By having an effective entrance routine, you're actually gaining minutes of your class time because the students come in ready to work, and by setting that up, you can get more work done.
Henri King: As an inexperienced teacher, I developed my entrance routine through getting more experienced colleagues to give me observations and feedback. And that enabled me, based on what they had said that worked for them, to design my own entrance routine and then to explicitly teach it to the students. That was really important because I couldn't just enact it at the drop of a hat. It had to be explicitly taught as the expectation and the routine for the class.
Let's do it. Let's go. Straight in. Good morning, Robert. Good morning, Timothy. Good morning, Orlando. Good morning, Outlaw. Good morning, AJ. Good work. Take a seat, grab a whiteboard. Grab your Texta. Good morning. Let's go, Iggy. Scooby, shirt on. Good work. Good morning. Come on in. Excellent, Paddy. Good morning.
Welcome. Jolena, Michaela, Jeremina. Come and sit down. Grab your folio. Maria, Martina, Janae, excellent work.
My expectation is that I'll be able to effectively do 2 things at the same time. The first thing is see students as they're coming towards the classroom and be ready to greet them positively and to also be able to pivot, just to monitor what's going on inside the classroom in case I need to supervise any behaviours going on there. Or work with my Tiwi assistant teachers to set up the classroom and get everything ready.
Jolena, Michaela, Jeremina, go and sit down. Grab your folio.
My considerations for reminding students of the expectations as they enter the room is that I want to have a simple phrase that can give them a short, easy to understand direction for what is expected of them when they enter. When I'm monitoring students as they enter the classroom, I need to be able to consider as I'm standing at the door greeting students, do I also need to give some quick verbal or even non-verbal corrections to students inside the room? I just need to be aware of not only the role of the entrance routine as a greeting but also give me that chance to pivot and address any kind of behaviours inside the room to make sure that's a calm, consistent space that all students are walking into. Interacting positively with students at the start of the lesson, that can help cut through any kind of comments that they're making to friends or distractions that they might see outside of the room. It just refocuses them and that really helps them settle. My entrance routine has had a really positive impact on the behaviour of my students. I noticed straight away, as soon as I started doing it, not long after I got that feedback from observations at the school, it just reduced the chaos of the start of the class drastically. It meant that students were calmer walking into the room. It meant that they'd had a positive interaction with me, which could help distract them from any other stuff going on around them. And it really reduced that sense of restlessness that a lot of students used to walk into my classroom with.
[On-screen text] Entering the classroom: Recap of steps
Steps for effectively entering the classroom:
- Position yourself to see all students.
- Gain all students’ attention.
- Remind all students of the expectations for entering the classroom.
- Monitor and reinforce behaviour expectations as students enter.
Acknowledgements
- Briar Road Public School, New South Wales
- Renmark Primary School, South Australia
- Woodcrest State College, Queensland
- Xavier Catholic College, Northern Territory
Keywords: student engagement, disruption, disruptive behaviour