The Best Mid-Year Classroom Routines to Re-Teach (and How to Do It Effectively)
| by Amanda Gaughan
If you’re a teacher, maybe this sounds familiar: You worked hard at the start of the school year to teach students your classroom norms and routines. It was a lot of work, but you got to the point where students raised their hands before speaking and you had smooth, quick transitions and a perfectly quiet line in the hallway.
Then, somewhere between the first progress report and winter break, things started to slip. By the time you returned to school in January, the morning unpacking routine had turned into a 20-minute social bash, and “quiet” work time was decidedly less quiet.
The start of the spring semester is the perfect time to address any slipping routines and re-teach certain policies and procedures to your students. Think of it as a fresh start, kind of like the first day of school but with one big distinction: This time, you have an entire semester of wisdom, relationships, and experience to guide you. You know your students’ strengths, weaknesses, and where the friction points are. That can all be used to your advantage.
Re-Teaching Routines: Where to Start
You likely don’t have time to re-teach or overhaul every routine and procedure (at least, not if you want to make it through your curriculum). And without an intentional plan, you might end up wasting valuable time fixing things that aren’t broken or missing an area that really needs your attention.
A few tips on how to start your process:
Start with Reflection
Before you jump in, take a moment to reflect on the first semester. What went well? What made you want to pull your hair out? Be honest about where you or the class tended to struggle, and try to pinpoint the “why” behind those struggles. Was the routine too complicated? Did you stop enforcing it consistently?
If you want, you can bring your students into this conversation. Ask them what they’d like to change or improve going forward. You might be surprised by their insight. Students often know exactly why the dismissal routine is chaotic or why the pencil sharpener is a source of drama. At the end of this process, you should have a clear picture of where to focus your efforts.
Work Backward
It can also be helpful to think about your end goal. What are you actually trying to accomplish? Maybe you want to reclaim five minutes of instructional time currently being lost to slow transitions. Maybe you want students to be able to focus during independent writing, which means cutting down on crosstalk. Whatever you’re trying to achieve, keep that purpose front and center as you work to re-teach or adjust your routines. When you know the “why,” it becomes much easier to explain the “how” to your students.
Common Routine Adjustments
Not every routine needs a total overhaul. However, there are a few “usual suspects” in almost every classroom that tend to degrade over time. These are the areas where a mid-year re-teach usually pays the biggest dividends:
Morning Routines
Sometimes students have trouble settling in, especially if the expectation is for them to do it quickly and quietly. They’re excited to see their friends, and it’s easy for them to get off task while they’re catching up with each other. Especially as the year goes on and they get to know each other better, the morning routine might need to be tightened.
Independent Work Time
“Quiet” can be a relative term for teachers, and the definition tends to loosen as the semester progresses. If your independent work blocks have turned into chatter sessions, it’s time to re-teach.
Group Work
Collaborative learning is wonderful, but it can easily descend into chaos without strict boundaries. By mid-year, students might be forgetting their assigned roles or how to disagree respectfully.
Transitions
Transitions can sneakily suck up large amounts of instructional time. Two minutes here and three minutes there — it can add up to hours of lost learning over the course of a year. If moving from the rug to desks takes five minutes, you may need a re-teach.
5 Tips to Successfully Re-Teach Routines
Once you’ve identified where your class needs a reset, how do you make it stick? Here are 5 practical tips to ensure your mid-year re-teach is successful:
#1. Be Clear
Tell students exactly what you expect. Don’t assume they’ll know or that everyone will draw the same conclusions. Instead of saying “put your things away neatly,” say “place your book in the bin with the spine facing out.” Specificity helps students succeed because they know what the target is.
#2. Be Consistent
This is one of the most difficult parts of teaching, but it is equally crucial. If you enforce a rule on Tuesday but let it slide on Wednesday because you’re tired, the routine will crumble. Students need to know that the expectation is the expectation, every single time. This creates a sense of safety and predictability that helps the classroom run more smoothly.
#3. Keep it Simple
If your routine requires a 10-step flow chart to understand, it’s too complicated. The best routines are efficient and easy to remember. If you find yourself explaining the same procedure over and over, look for ways to simplify it. Can you remove a step? Can you organize materials differently? Streamlining the process makes compliance much easier for everyone.
#4. Use Visual Reminders
Don’t rely solely on verbal instructions. Use posters or flash cards, anything to give your students a visual reminder of what’s expected. Point to these visuals when students forget what to do or are slipping off-task. Often, a simple point is enough to get students to self-correct, and it saves you from having to interrupt your teaching to verbally correct the situation.
#5. Stay Positive
Focus on positive reinforcement rather than nagging. When you see a student (or the whole class) executing a routine perfectly, let them know! “I love how Table 4 cleared their desks in under 30 seconds!” You can even turn it into a challenge: Time your students (positively!) and see if they can beat their transition record. Now, instead of your class simply trying to avoid “getting in trouble” or being scolded, they’re working together toward a positive goal.
Your Fresh Start Begins Now
The middle of the school year is a great time to reflect, refresh, and set meaningful goals for your personal and professional growth. In The K-12 Teacher’s Workbook for New Year Resolutions, you’ll find:
- Thoughtful prompts to help you reflect on your successes and challenges as a teacher
- Guided templates for setting goals and creating action plans
- Strategies for prioritization, accountability, and follow-through
- Encouragement, advice, and support
Teachers spend so much time and energy investing in others. This workbook is a chance for you to be intentional about investing in yourself.
