TBE #063: Creating Smooth Transitions and Returning to Calm in the Classroom

In today’s post, we’re sharing about two things we often get asked about: transitions in the classroom and finding calm.

Transitions in the classroom are never easy. So here’s some concrete ideas to make them run more smoothly.

1. Write down each step students have to go through in the transition on the board. Refer to it often before and after each transition. Keep the routine the same. always.
2. Reorganize your schedule in a way where there are less of them. Can you do math for an hour instead of half an hour? Less transitions means more time for academics.
3. Stagger your students during transitions. Get the class to continue working, and ask only 4 to 5 students at a time to go through the motions of the transition. Every minute, ask another group to go through the motions until all students are done.

When it comes to finding calm, we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves.

1. Do you have a mindfulness practice in your classroom? Do you use Educalme? If so, start applying the strategies when students are either excited or being silly. One of the strategies we love is the 5-Finger Breathing. Ask your students to place one hand in front of them. Take your index finger and place it where your wrist and your thumb meet. Trace up the thumb as you inhale, trace down the other side of the thumb as you exhale, up the index finger as you inhale… you should be able to figure out the rest! And good news, we’ve got a free 5-Finger Breathing poster!

Grab your free copy of the 5-Finger Breathing poster!

2. Shut the lights in your classroom. Ask your students to put their heads down on their desk and to hide them with their eyes.

Try one of these options out for a minimum of a week before you make a decision on how you feel about it, and let us know how it goes. We love to connect with our community of mindful superstar teachers!

With calm and appreciation,

Kailey and Josianne

Dive deeper into this topic by listening to the following episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast: