Keeping Control During Dismissal Time

   One part of the day that can be a real challenge is dismissal time.  Every school seems to have a different dismissal procedure, but even so, we can all agree that it can be hectic. Without some planning ahead, it can be filled with last minute issues, concerns, and chaos.  Not only are you exhausted, but so are your students.  You still have to get all of your students out the door with their backpacks, coats, lunchboxes, homework, papers, and other essentials and you can’t run late.  
      In order to make this a more successful part of your day, you need to plan ahead and start early.  I think that one of the most important parts of teaching is being organized and requiring your students to be organized too.  Organization is a skill that has to be taught and you must be consistent with.


1. Start Early in Your Day
     In my classroom, I always have students who leave the room many times throughout the day for a variety of different services (speech, OT, PT, reading lab, math lab, etc).  I was finding it hard to keep track of who what present when I assigned and handed out homework.  Now I require homework to be handled first thing when my students arrive. It’s the first thing they do every day.  
    When my students come in, they unpack at their lockers and bring their things into the classroom.  After they drop off their finished homework, lunches, and their snacks, they immediately go to their desks and write down their homework in their adgenda (homework notebook).  I post the homework on the board prior to their arrival each day and teach them on the first day of school where to find it.  Once they have copied it down, they bring their agenda and their homework folder to me (I sit at the back table) and I draw a smile face in their agenda, below their writing, indicating that I saw that

they wrote their homework down.  Then I hand them any homework sheets that they will need for homework that night and I watch them put it in their folder.  Done!  After they come to me, they slip their agenda and homework folder back in their desk and get started on their morning work.  While I sit at the back table, I am able to check agendas, help other kids on their morning work (they come to me), and check in with kids who might have struggled on their previous night’s homework.
2. Pack up Early

Don’t wait until the last minute!  I am speaking from experience.  Whenever you wait until the last minute, things get derailed.  I always pick a time in our schedule to get packed up early.  I find that it is helpful if it is a time that I can send smaller groups of kids rather than the whole class.  This helps to minimize the hallway noise and disruptions to other classes that are working.  
    The past few years, my schedule allows for 15-20 minutes of silent reading right after my students come back from lunch.  Since they already want to use the bathroom during this time, I build in “pack up” time during this block as well.  I teach my students that when they come back to the classroom, they need to take out their homework folders, agendas, and any other supplies they will need to pack up and place them on their desk.  Then they are to start their reading while they wait for the rest of their group to do the same.  Once I see groups that are ready, I call one group at a time to use the restroom and get packed up.  They bring their backpacks and jackets in and put their things inside.  They they go back to reading.  I have them either keep their backpacks near their desks, or in the book corner, depending on what we are going to need for space in the afternoon.  If we need to add something or take something out of their bags, its no big deal to have they do so.  
  
3. Passing Out Papers
    I don’t pass out papers.  I know this sounds crazy, but I

don’t.  The kids don’t either.  I only send home papers once a week in a Friday Folder [get my Friday Folder Freebie here] and I have myself or a parent volunteer file all the papers in their folders.  This is not only a time saver, but it also allows parents to be expecting papers and on the lookout for one folder.  This folder will contain all corrected papers, permission slips, notices, etc.  This also saves a great deal of time during dismissal time.  If there is something that must go home that day, I try to pass it out with the homework in the morning.

4. Make Your Students Responsible for The Classroom
    I often tell my students that I am their teacher, not the maid.  This gets some laughs, but I am very serious.  So many students just assume that you or the custodians will clean up after them, but it is important for them to have a role

in taking care of their classroom and the things that they use.  At the end of the day I have each student pick up a certain number of things off the floor.  I have found that giving them a number makes them actually pick up the floor.  If I say, “please clean up the floor,” a handful of students clean up the whole floor, while the rest of the class stands around watching them.  I will say, “Once you have picked up 5 things off the floor, you may line up for dismissal.”  Poof!  The floor is clean!  
    I also have students who’s job is to sharpen pencils, wash down tables, erase the board, straighten out the classroom library, plug in ipads, turn off computers, etc.  These are all quick little things, but if I have to do them, the time adds up.  

5. Practice and Hold them Accountable
    The most important thing that you can do for success in your classroom is to hold your students accountable.  We practice, practice, practice the routines at the beginning of the year.  Once we practice, students MUST do it every day.  If these little procedures become ingrained in their routine,  you will spend much less time redirecting your students and the hectic parts of the day will run more smoothly.  Once the procedures are set, I have no problem chasing down a student who is in the bus line and having them come back to stack their chair or clean up the floor.  
     I can assure you that making some small, simple changes in your routine and being consistent will lead to a more pleasant time for both you and your students.  You probably won’t be able to sit at your desk with your feet up, but you should be able to handle most anything that comes your way without wanting to pull your hair out!
~Heather