Classroom Challenges and Solutions for the New Year

Do you have classroom challenges and solutions that you want to change? The New Year is in full swing! Do you set goals that you hope to accomplish? Setting goals for yourself as a teacher and for your students can lead to big impacts. Plus, making a new goal and giving it a test run will let you know if your classroom challenge has a solution that you want to carry over into the new year. Identifying your classroom challenge will help you come up with a new solution for the New Year.

Challenges and Solutions for the New Year: Student Check In and Accountability

One of the first things on my list when heading back to school after winter break is to see if there is a new solution that can help with the same old challenge. And one of my big problems is open checkout. At our school open check out occurs the very first thing in the morning. Of course this is the busiest and most hectic time of the day. Students are coming and going (breakfast, car liners, bus riders, etc…). Currently when students arrive to the classroom they quickly unpack. If they need to checkout they run to the library and grab a book. For the most part this has worked okay, but there have been several times I haven’t been able to keep up with who was where.

My solution for the new year is to have a better system in place to keep up with where students are at all times, even in the hectic morning. I am going to put a clip system in place. Students will wear a clip to open check out. There will be only four clips and this will limit how many students can be gone at any given time. If more than four students need to check out then the first four will go to the library, when they return the next person in the line will then proceed. I am hoping this alleviates some of the coming and going congestion in the mornings. Hopefully this will be a simple solution to a big problem.

Challenges and Solutions for the New Year: Decluttering Your Classroom

Maybe one of your solutions is to better organize your classroom or to declutter some of your work areas. Clutter Free Classroom wrote an excellent blog post for Upper Elementary Snapshots and has provide numerous tips and ideas on how to set that goal in motion. To read the post click HERE.

Challenges and Solutions for the New Year: Chattering During Instructional Time

If your new year goal is to limit chatter during instructional time a new solution could be to have a morning meeting or share time. What is a morning meeting you might ask? It is a small amount of time where the students come and meet, maybe in the front of the classroom or on the carpet. During this time students share their everyday random things. This helps eliminate some of the extra chatter that takes place during instruction time. Who doesn’t like to just visit and talk sometimes!?! Your morning meeting or share time doesn’t have to be a long period. If you want to move the conversations along quicker then have a timer in place to let students know when it is time to move to the next person.

Challenges and Solutions: Promoting a Positive Atmosphere

If your goal is working on a positive environment then maybe student praise is on the list of solutions. One way to make a student feel extra special is to leave them a small note on their desk. These notes always make students feel special and they love to take them home and show their parents. I love the Notes to Home from a Grace Filled Classroom and guess what? They are FREE! You can find Grace Filled Classroom notes HERE.

Classroom Challenges: Positivity in the Classroom

Another set of student notes I love to use are from Miss Nelson’s Got the Camera. She has over 28 student notes you just print and place on desk. You can find them HERE.

I hope you found some useful tips to help you get back in the swing of things and start the second half of the year off in a great way. What are some goals you hope to accomplish this year? What are some classroom challenges and solutions you have found that help your classroom run smoother? I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below. And as always, thank you for stopping by and taking a peek.