Fantastic New Years Goal Setting and Re-establishing Classroom Routines Ideas

New Years Goal Setting and Re-establishing Classroom Routines:

The new year has officially begun, and we had an excellent discussion on our #2ndaryELA Twitter chat about helping students with setting realistic goals and on how to re-establish classroom expectations and routines. I have curated the best ideas below.

Q1: How do you re-establish classroom expectations after the holiday break?

• The first day back- we go right back into work mode. Routine is everything. Luckily that did the trick this year. 🙂
• I do procedure teaching again – reinforce bell ringer behavior, getting supplies, etc. Sometimes give a procedure “pop quiz”
• Play a quick Kahoot game with questions related to PBIS expectations: behavior, materials, lockers, etc.
• We wrote a reflective journal and then got right back to our regular routine. It worked!
• Sometimes we Kahoot the class rules, other times we do a team-building activity. I’m more concerned with class culture, to be honest
• Routine is definitely key. I work with small groups and we get right back into learning
• Definitely do all the normal routines. Ask students what we do next. Access prior knowledge. Rebuild engagement
• New classes, so class procedures, first-day stuff
• In 7/8 science I gave a few mins at beginning of class to share with me before jumping back into a routine. Use question of the day to kick it off

Q2: What do your students struggle with the most after being away from school? How do you support them? 

• Students seem to struggle with chattiness. (They might not have seen their friends over break.) 5 minutes of free talk
• Many of my students live in Mexico, so getting them back to English is tough. #ConsistencyIsKey Nonverbal activities help too
• My students seem to struggle with sleep!
• I just try to keep things as lively as possible!
• Morning classes are sooooo sleepy!
• They really want to be apathetic. They test my resolve. Test the boundaries. They struggle w/ caring
• Students can’t stop chatting or struggle with staying on track. We do short spurts moving activities first weeks back to re-engage
• Students often struggle with remembering materials. Today, I gave students two sharpened pencils to use for the rest of their classes
• Some of my students forgot to bring their school supplies back from home. I always have extras

Q3: What types of goals do you encourage students to set for the new year? 

• We teach them good vs weak goals & set 9 different categories of goals. Here’s the free activity -> FREE Goal Setting and Resolutions Activity
• Goal Categories = Family, School, Work, Health, Spiritual, Play, Friends, Giving, Attitude
• We do SMART goals at the beginning of the year & revisit/revise in January
• Set goals for the weekly assessments that they take with me. (RTI is a lot of progress monitoring)
• We set reading level goals with NewsELA! Though this is the start of the semester more than the new year
• Getting buy-in from students has been hard but they finally believe I’m trying to create a place where everyone wins!
• We talked about a Stop, Start, Continue goal setting. I can never keep up with official resolutions so I am trying this kind
• What are you going to STOP doing because it does not benefit you?
• What are you going to START doing because you NEED to?
• What are you doing well at? What will you CONTINUE?
• I try to get them to set goals that they can specifically achieve: “Check my grades once a week to get make-up work”
• The big goal we talked about was respecting ourselves with the type of work turned in and our overall education
• It depends on the grade level. Often what personal improvements – speaker/ writer
• Students set goals of reading a certain amount of books, turning HW in on time, & not being absent/tardy from school
• A goal for reading, writing and speaking. Ex. the reading goal would be page number for silent sustained reading, and W-ing a specific skill (intros)
• Every week my #AVID students set three goals they can complete and write a reflection on Friday – what was challenging about them 

Q4: What goal-setting activities do you do with your students? 

• For me – we are evaluating and looking at the work they turn in now. We make goals to push for even better quality next time.
• Set SMART goals in each area – Ex: how exactly will they get to 250 pages in the quarter?
• We do logs and journals. Dream flags are about dreams more than goals, but the visualizing helps and is fun!
• Good goals = specific, measurable, & time-sensitive. They should know exactly when/if they accomplished it
• We discuss how to divide big goals into believable chunks. We do more when we can see progress & believe we can do it
• I’m quirky and like puns so we “toast” the new year by putting our specific goals on pieces of paper “toast”
• I have charts hung that measure their progress and when they reach a goal, rewards like lunch w/me, dance party w/friends
• I am also trying a “Super Improvers Wall” to show progress towards our standards
• I want them to “be here, now” focus on what is in front of them and not speed to a finish
• It’s hard to follow the SMART rules but if you can get students to do it, they have better goals

Q5: Share some goal-setting or classroom management resources that you find helpful.

• Teambuilding helps students stay in their L2 (eng) & improves class culture. Here’s one activity – http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2016/01/zombies-and-teamwork.html 
• Here is my classroom management Pinterest board full of ideas
• My best class management “trick” is rewarding positive behavior with tickets – I do a weekly drawing.  Right now I also do a daily drawing with the help of the “Mystery Student” – I hang a sign with one name on the back. The mystery students gets candy from my jar and the class gets tickets drawn according to expectations met by the mystery student.
• My 8th graders love STICKERS! It’s crazy but it works!
• This is a free way I get parents involved with goal setting concerning grammar because students worry. https://languageartsclassroom.com/grammar-newsletter/

Try This Free New Year’s Goal Setting Lesson

What are you teaching after the winter break? I love having students reflect on the previous year and set goals for the new year. It is a great way to get students back into learning mode without starting right away on a challenging new lesson.

Check out this FREE new year’s goal-setting resource. 🙌 In the lesson, students get some New Year’s resolution ideas from Simon’s Cat. Then they take these ideas and brainstorm how to make the ideas work for them. 😻 Students then work with their peers to reflect on 2021. At the end of the lesson, students will create a wish for 2022 that can be displayed in class or on a bulletin board.

This resource comes in both PDF and digital format. Grab this resource via this link.

Follow up this activity with a New Year’s Digital Escape Room. In this escape room, students will use new and previous knowledge of New Year’s traditions to solve challenges.

This New Year’s Digital Escape Room allows students to work independently or with their peers to solve 10 New Year’s-themed challenges. Students must solve the required challenges to “escape” the school library they accidentally got locked in.

This is a fantastic activity to use to reinforce the importance of classroom community after the holiday break.

This New Year’s Digital Escape Room can be found on Teachers Pay Teachers USD or Shopify CAD.

Additional Resources For New Years Goal Setting and Re-establishing Classroom Routines

• I found this article Establishing Routines for Remote Learning from edutopia as a good resource for teachers that might need to teach virtually due to school closures or inclement weather.
• Middle School Goal Setting Lesson
• Lesson Plans For After Winter Break
• Classroom Management Strategies For Middle School

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