It was Sunday night…this is the night that I have a hard time falling asleep. My mind races with lesson plans, papers, and classes for the following week. I finally fell asleep, only to have a dream about school…

I was in a 4/5 classroom. The students were working on their writer’s workshop stories. The teacher had to step out of the classroom. I was left alone with 25 students who were suddenly extremely loud, rude and disrespectful. I tried to get the kids back on track. I spoke to some of them about what they were writing, and they responded by telling me that it was “none of my business”. The teacher finally came back in the classroom. Thankfully, I woke up!

It was Monday morning… I was in the same 4/5 class from my dream and they were working on writer’s workshop. Strangely, the teacher had to step out of the classroom. “Oh no” I thought, “just like my dream”. To my pleasant surprise, it was nothing like my dream. The entire class stayed quiet and continued diligently working on their stories. Even those students who were not working were just sitting quietly, thinking. I continued working with the student who I was serving from our inclusion program. He was respectful and happy to have my help. What a relief!

I have been in many classrooms that would not continue to stay focused and quiet when the teacher turns their back. This class has obviously been well trained and taught explicitly about being respectful of each other when they are working. On Friday afternoon, before recess, I got to see first hand why this was such an exceptional class:

The students were told that they have 10 minutes until recess & that they were going to practice some of their classroom procedures. The teacher explained that this was to ensure that the class continues to run smoothly, so that transitions do not take time away from learning. If the students could quickly & quietly complete the procedures before the bell they would go to recess on time. If the students wasted time and were noisy during the procedures they would continue practicing during recess.

All of the students were asked to quietly come sit on the carpet with their notebooks… it was practically silent! and they were so quick! Next, students were asked to go back to their desks and put their notebooks away… again, silent & quick! Next, students were asked to line up in the hallway with their shoes on (this particular class is allowed to have shoes off in the classroom- they leave their shoes in front of their lockers). They had 25 seconds to complete this task. The students did complete it in time, but the teacher was not happy about the noise level. They all took their shoes off & went back into the classroom. They took their seats at their desks. They were again asked to sit on the carpet… they did it silently & quickly. The teacher told them that they again had 25 seconds to get in line with their shoes on, quietly. He stood at the front of the line with his stop watch… they were silent, they were fast, their shoes were on & it was all under 25 seconds! Amazing! The bell rang & they went out to recess, on time!