This week, we had a lovely presenter come in named Brittany Johnson. Brittany is a K-12 educator in Victoria, BC. She came into our class today to share some of her valuable insight on classroom management.

Firstly, she talked about social-emotional learning check-ins (or SEL). These check-ins can be super beneficial in the classroom to understand how our students are feeling that day. Brittany uses this Inside Out sheet, to keep students engaged and interested in the check in.

Picture by Brittany Johnson

Brittany also mentioned the importance of soft starts. Soft starts are a great way to help ease students into the day invitingly. For a lot of students, school can be intimidating – so this is a great way to get students comfortable in the classroom, and ready to learn. Another important concept Brittany brought up was the importance of routines in the classroom. Routines are something we use in our lives, in and outside of the classroom, and building healthy ones are super crucial for students to learn. Having routines and expectations at school helps create proper boundaries for students and the teacher, which can overall give more time for learning.