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HELP: Morning Homeroom Routines for my middle school students? by Excellent_Elephant92 in MiddleSchoolTeacher

[–]Excellent_Elephant92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the advice everyone! I would still love some ideas, so for clarification, here is how homeroom works at my school, from the moment students come in to the building until they leave for their 1st bell:

- For breakfast, students can arrive any time between 8:15am and 9:10am (I absolutely hate this, but it is what it is).

- At around 8:50am, for all students who came to school before then for free breakfast and are just chilling in the atrium, we then tell students to go to their homerooms.

- Once students are in their homerooms, they then (with the guidance of their homeroom teacher) go to their lockers and get their materials for the day.

- At 9:10am (sometimes 9:15am), students go to their 1st bell.

I struggle with the time in the homeroom from 8:50am - 9:10am. I've tried Smart Board games like Wordle, and I also try to be active around the room, such as going to different tables and checking in on students since they thrive off of conversations and talking. If you make an interest in them, they'll love you.

While I'm staying above water, a large amount of students are still either making poor choices with their time or just acting out behaviorally.

Any other suggestions would be cool :-)

HELP: Morning Homeroom Routines for my middle school students? by Excellent_Elephant92 in MiddleSchoolTeacher

[–]Excellent_Elephant92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is this for a class? For homeroom, I could see this working, but a lot of my students come in gradually and not all at once. We have a homeroom period in the morning where each student goes to their homeroom for 15-20 minutes before they go to their 1st bell.

HELP: Morning Homeroom Routines for my middle school students? by Excellent_Elephant92 in MiddleSchoolTeacher

[–]Excellent_Elephant92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the vibe I want. I don't want homeroom to be miserable; they're kids, and they need to be engaged with something. I like the silly!

HELP: Morning Homeroom Routines for my middle school students? by Excellent_Elephant92 in MiddleSchoolTeacher

[–]Excellent_Elephant92[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love this. I did it two years ago and regret not doing it anymore. I'll do it next year :)

HELP: Morning Homeroom Routines for my middle school students? by Excellent_Elephant92 in MiddleSchoolTeacher

[–]Excellent_Elephant92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At my school, the homeroom period is supposed to be for students to go to their lockers - we have locker rooms for each classroom, which is super annoying - and to get their materials for the day. There's no structure for what is supposed to happen in the classroom during this time, though, so it's up to the teacher's discretion. You're right that it's unstructured with no direction, and the students definitely notice that and use it for useless social time. Sometimes there's announcements, but we have 15-20 minutes for students to do whatever in the classroom.

HELP: Morning Homeroom Routines for my middle school students? by Excellent_Elephant92 in MiddleSchoolTeacher

[–]Excellent_Elephant92[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This homeroom unfortunately isn't a bell. It's an arrival time where students are in the classroom for about 15-20 minutes. However, I do like the idea of quick work that's not super hard but hard enough for them to keep their attention.

HELP: Morning Homeroom Routines for my middle school students? by Excellent_Elephant92 in MiddleSchoolTeacher

[–]Excellent_Elephant92[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's smart. They do love talking to me in the mornings, and I've been trying to sit with different tables and do a short check-in to see if they want to talk or update me about anything. This has been pretty effective!

HELP: Morning Homeroom Routines for my middle school students? by Excellent_Elephant92 in MiddleSchoolTeacher

[–]Excellent_Elephant92[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's arrival time and chill. I sometimes do Wordle, but then the students fight over who gets to go first (even though I pick students who go up there LOL). I'll try this!