Using a Morning Meeting for Classroom Management

“Well, one thing I realized is that I had dropped the ball on morning meeting.

With so many snow days and late starts, we stopped reflecting on our behavior and stopped setting new classroom goals to work towards.

Honestly, my kiddos repeat themselves every day when reflecting on morning meeting goals, we had achieved perseverance in math for the most part, and my kiddos are DARN NEAR perfect…

But hey, isn’t it better to give them the time to repeat themselves each morning — what went well yesterday, what needs to be better today— than for me to constantly have to repeat myself?”

“As I write this, I once again feel like I am doing “beginning of the year” stuff. But, I am starting to learn that kids need us to revisit “beginning of the year” lessons ALL YEAR LONG. 

When I’m frustrated with my kiddos (behavior, learning, etc) I eventually come around to “what can I change to help them change?”

Examples of Typical Classroom Issues that Pop Up:

• too many students are blurting out, making it hard for others to learn 
• students are saving seats in the cafeteria 
• during independent work time, some students are chatting off-topic, goofing off, and/or not having a high level of focused, on-task time
• students are arguing about rules for games at recess and bringing the drama back into the classroom 
• during group work, students are excluding, being rude, or taking over 

How do we use morning meetings to improve on these behavioral issues? 

I provide my student leader with question stems to help them guide the discussion. (I wrote these on an index card at first and also post them in the classroom by our meeting space.) Here’s a typical student-led dialogue:

“What can we do today to make improvements?”

It truly is that simple and the power is in having STUDENTS verbalize how things are going.

Often, the culprits speak up and admit they need to improve. Students who are frustrated get an appropriate outlet for airing their frustrations, and while this may not immediately change their classmates’ behaviors, I do think it helps them deal with the stress of a less than perfect learning environment.

I encourage you to choose no more than two goals to focus on as a class. If possible, stick with the one that is most detrimental to your classroom environment until that issue improves.

At some point, I will ask students if they feel that we are ready to move on from the goal we are working on. I remind them that we can always come back to it later in the year if needed.

I’m not a big fan of rewarding students with parties and such for good behavior (although I have, of course, resorted to setting goals for earning reward parties in my classroom). If it takes offering something that you believe students will strive for, then go for it! If they improve on a classroom goal that was challenging for the whole class to work together on, then perhaps a celebration is due!

Do you want to make goal setting a regular part of your classroom meeting routine?

Each Morning Meeting Made Easy theme set contains a header for setting a goal within each theme unit and a header for general classroom community goals. I print these on colored paper. We design a goal together and write it on the header along with the date that we set the goal. It would be great to post your goals somewhere in the room as a record and timeline of all you have strived to improve during the year and as a reminder when it seems like students have fallen back on old habits.

I hope this {easy} reflection process comes in handy for you this year! It surely helps me keep my sanity when things are not going so well in the classroom. I love to hear students’ reflections.

Realizing that students are still learning to control themselves, I am appreciative when they are able to reflect on their mishaps and focus on improvement. I can give them grace, they can verbalize their desire for improvement, and we can turn our attention back to learning!

Other Posts in the Implementing Morning Meeting Series: