By the third week of school, the novelty starts to wear off and classroom expectations can begin to slip. In this episode, we explore how to hold students accountable without becoming harsh, using three practical strategies: reteaching procedures, giving clear directions and expecting follow-through, and helping students take ownership of their behavior. The goal is to stay steady, reinforce what matters, and create a classroom where students know they can count on consistent expectations!

Prefer to read? Grab the episode transcript and resources in the show notes here: https://www.secondstorywindow.net/podcast/classroom-expectations/

Resources:

• Order our book: Structure and Spark
• Trays
• Teacher Approved: Calming Piano Spotify playlist
• Join The Teacher Approved Club
• Connect with us on Instagram @2ndstorywindow
• Shop our teacher-approved resources
• Join our Teacher Approved Facebook group
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!
• Leave a comment or rating on Spotify

Related Episodes to Enjoy:

• Episode 48. How to Make Classroom Transitions Simple With Clear Beginnings and Endings
• Episode 49. Rapid Classroom Transitions: How to Save 45 Hours a Year
• Episode 50. 3 Guidelines to Make Classroom Transitions Work Smarter Not Harder
• Episode 98. 5 Reasons Your Attention Signal Isn’t Working and How to Improve It

Mentioned in this episode:

Join the Teacher Approved Club, where members get seasonal morning work pages for grades K–5 this month to add fall and holiday fun without throwing off their routines: https://secondstorywindow.net/club

This is episode 282 of Teacher Approved.

You're listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping

educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm

Heidi.

And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story

Window, where we give research-based and

teacher-approved strategies that make teaching less stressful and

more effective. You can check out the show notes and resources

from each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to

the show.

Hey there! Thanks for joining us today. In today's

episode, we are talking about how to respond when it seems

like your class has forgotten everything you taught them in

week one. Plus, we have a teacher-approved tip to help the

little lefties in your life.

But first, let's start with a try it tomorrow, where we

share a quick win that you can try in your classroom today.

Emily, what's our suggestion for this week?

This week, why don't you try having your students work

together to write a short class affirmation, and then it can be

something that you repeat together every day. This type of

project is ideal for building community early in the year, and

it's a great way to convey to students what matters in your

classroom.

Plus, this is something that can easily grow with your

class. If you wanted to start off the year with something

simple like a sentence or two, you can add to it as the year

goes on. Doing this every day will help it become an important

part of your class's identity.

If you appreciate our teacher-approved episodes, we

would love it if you took 30 seconds to rate and review the

show on your podcast player.

So we're in the middle of August, and it's always such a

weird time. I swear, the whole month feels like one long Sunday

night.

Well, that's exactly what it feels like because it's this

sense that like something's about to change, things are

changing, but nothing has started yet.

And then it's kind of hard to really talk about

because the timing of things varies so much depending on

where you live. Some of our listeners are heading into their

second or even third week of school, and some of our

listeners will still have two weeks of summer break ahead of

them.

And if you live in the southern hemisphere or you teach

year round, we don't even know what you guys are doing, but

we're so glad you're here.

Yes, thank you for joining us anyway. But if you

are in the barely back in school or the not quite back in school

camp, you can listen to this episode and just file it away

under stuff I will be glad to have in a few weeks.

And if you're already well into your first month of

school, buckle up because this episode is for you.

So imagine you are in the middle of your third week of

school, and you walk past the backpacks. Three weeks ago,

every backpack was zipped shut and hanging from its assigned

hook. The floor was tidy. Nobody's Capri Sun had popped

and stained everything. It was so well organized it could have

been a stock photo.

But that was then, and this is now. It's a different

story now. Some backpacks are hanging. Some are on the floor,

propped against the wall. A couple are just nowhere near the

hooks. The zippers are gaping open. Papers and broken pencils

are littering the floor, and you're just standing there

thinking, "I could have sworn that we spent the entire first

week practicing this."

And you did. Don't gaslight yourself about that.

You taught a whole lesson about this. You even had slides, and

your kids knew exactly what to do. They could manage it just

fine.

Well, for a little while, I guess, but now whether they

realize it or not, they're checking to see if you meant

what you said in the beginning. Because given the option, they

would really prefer not to have to take care of their backpacks.

That would be way easier.

So let's talk about why that happens. The first few

weeks of school are full of novelty. Kids are figuring out

who you are and how your classroom works, and then after

a few weeks, they settle in.

Yeah, they finally know where things go and what you expect of

them, and that's how you know you are officially in the season

of settling in. Now, this is a special golden stretch of the

year because you can finally focus on teaching content

instead of all the effort on procedures, the routine finally

starts feeling like a routine, and you and your new class are

finding your rhythm.

But comfort brings a new challenge, and students start

testing boundaries. It's not that they're trying to be bad,

you know, at least most of them. It's just that it's easier to

ignore an expectation that they don't feel invested in yet.

And can you blame them? It's so much easier to just

leave your backpack wherever, and it doesn't affect them. At

least they don't think it affects them until they can't

find their jacket before recess.

Oh yeah, that panic jacket hunt. So when your kids

seem to push back on every single standard you taught in

the first weeks, they're not telling you that they forgot

what to do. They're telling you they need you to make sure they

remember.

And that brings us to the hardest part of this season.

It's not teaching your expectations, as tedious as that

is. It's holding students accountable for meeting them,

because just like with the kids and their sloppy backpacks, it

is easier not to deal with it. I mean, in the short term, it

feels easier.

Yet, what nobody prepares you for in college is that when

you see the mess or the kids chatting in line, your brain

starts negotiating. It's not that big of a deal. You tell

yourself we're already running behind. I don't want to cause a

distraction. I'll just deal with it next time.

And of course, sometimes letting it go is the right call,

depending on the day and what's happening. But what matters most

here is why you're letting it go. Is this a thoughtful

decision about what you want students to learn, or are you

just avoiding the discomfort of dealing with it?

And this is in no way a guilt trip. Sometimes the honest

answer is, I cannot deal with this right now. We cannot be our

best all of the time. Sometimes you just have to let the little

stuff go.

Yeah, the problem isn't making that call. Sometimes it's

making it every time without ever noticing you're making it.

Every time a student misses an expectation, you've got a

decision to make. If you address this now, it means losing time,

resetting, interrupting the flow, and spending energy that

you probably don't have.

So that's why letting it go feels easier. You're saving

time and energy in the moment, but letting it go has an

expensive cost that shows up later. Students learn that your

expectations are flexible, and next time they're going to push

a little farther.

And then you're just in a loop because you let it slide.

They push again, and then the behavior gets harder to address,

and you're more frustrated because now the problem has

grown.

And what's extra frustrating is that there's no

shortcut past this. Kids are designed to test the edges of

their environment, and until science invents a way to

uninstall that particular feature, it means our job is

making sure that the edges are solid enough to hold when the

kids are leaning against them.

And we've said this before, but the standard of

behavior in any classroom is whatever students can get away

with.

Or to put it another way, your expectations are whatever

you allow. Which means holding students accountable has to

happen more often than not.

Accountability can sound really harsh, like we're a judge

and jury, but it's important to separate the idea of

accountability from the idea of punishment. Punishment is saying

how do I make this painful enough that the student decides

it's not worth doing again.

But accountability takes a different route. It asks how

do I help the student understand why their behavior matters, so

they can make a better choice next time.

Or you can think of it like this: punishment is about

paying a price. Accountability is about learning. So let's say

a student is upset and kicks over the trash can.

Now punishment would be pick up the trash and you've

lost five minutes of recess. But accountability is what happened,

how are you going to fix it? What will you do differently

next time?

So both responses get the trash picked up, which

definitely needs to happen. But in the accountability example,

the student walks away having learned about themselves and

their choices, and I guess your expectations of their behavior.

Yes, and hopefully gained a little more skill with

noticing when there's a problem and solving it. That's the big

goal here, right? So let's take a look at three strategies you

can use to make sure that you are holding students

accountable, and each strategy fits a different kind of

situation.

So the first strategy is to reteach what you expect. Use

this when a procedure has gotten sloppy, like our backpacks.

Now, the mistake that most of us make here is giving a

reminder. Remember, we hang our backpacks neatly. A reminder

just restates what students already know, but it gives them

no reason to change anything.

Holding students accountable requires action, not

reminders. Let's look at these backpacks. What do you notice?

Let's try it again. Then have them reset their backpacks and

pick up the floor. Then end by asking students what they'll do

differently tomorrow.

And if the sloppy procedure has become a chronic

problem, you may need to reteach a full tell try tally talk

lesson. Tell them what's expected and model it. Let them

try it while you watch. Tally or discuss whether they hit the

mark, and then talk about what they will remember going

forward.

And if you made procedure slides with our tell, try, tally

talk at the beginning of the year, then you'll want to dig

those back up.

And unfortunately, there will be a fair amount of

reteaching, so make it as easy on yourself as you can.

Now, normally we are all about increased student engagement,

but a reteach lesson should feel a little boring. We want to send

the message that we don't have time for the fun stuff when we

are stuck practicing the stuff that we already learned.

And the lesson we teach by reteaching expectations is

what my teacher says goes, and it's more enjoyable to do it

right the first time than have to practice it later.

Our second accountability strategy is for when kids aren't

following directions. Imagine you tell your class, "Get out

your math workbook, turn to page 48, solve problems one through

five, and then bring your book back to the table so I can check

it."

Before you've even said turn to page. Half the class

starts moving, and 30 seconds later they're all asking, "Wait,

what are we supposed to be doing?"

I hate that question so much.

I know.

So when confusion strikes, start by making sure

that you didn't accidentally create the problem. Consider if

you had everyone's attention before you started talking.

Students can't follow directions they didn't hear.

And oh, it feels awkward. But don't be afraid to pause

after your attention signal and wait until all eyes are on you

before you say a word. We talked all about troubleshooting your

attention signal in episode 98, so you can check that out if you

need some support there.

I can't believe that episode was so long ago. I

thought it was last year.

That feels very recent.

But if you know you had everyone's attention before you

started talking, the next question is: Did you use an

action cue? Kids start moving the second they think they know

what you want, which means that they might miss the rest of your

directions.

An action cue heads that off. It's a word or phrase

students listen for as their signal to start moving. I always

used the when I say go, I'd give the full set of directions, make

sure everyone was with me, and then I'd say go.

Yeah, that was my standard action cue too, but

this is also an easy place to sprinkle in a little spark. So

sometimes instead of when I say go, it was when I say banana

pajamas or, you know, the kids' favorite when I bawk like a

chicken.

Are you going to showcase your chicken bawking?

No, I don't think, that's that's a paid subscriber thing.

Okay, if we make a VIP tier, she will show her chicken

bawking.

Okay, but if you do want some more details about this

strategy, we talked all about action cues and everything else

that goes into efficient transitions back in episodes,

yes, episodes multiple, 48, 49, and 50 because we needed three

episodes to talk about transitions, and you know what?

I stand by it. Those are three of our best episodes. So go back

and check out those episodes for some extra tips.

Yeah, you really cannot say too much about transitions because

that is the wild west every day.

Okay, assuming you used your attention signal and an action

cue, the next question is: Did you give students a way to

reference the steps on their own?

Now, the easiest fix for this is writing the list on the

board. Adding icons or photos helps too, especially for

younger kids or English learners or anyone still building their

reading skills.

If this is a transition you do all the time, make it a

poster or a slide so that you're not having to rewrite it every

single day.

Okay, then, and this is the accountability part. You

have to expect them to do it. If a student asks, what page are we

on, don't answer. Just point to the list.

And obviously, if they are still stuck after that, help

them. But don't train them that you are the only source of

answers in the room.

Yeah, because kids are so happy to use your brain rather

than their own, but we really don't want to encourage that.

Then it becomes one of the hardest parts of teaching if

you're constantly having to answer questions all day long

that you already answered. So the lesson we want them walking

away with is that they are capable of figuring out the next

step themselves because you give them all this information in a

way that they can easily reference.

So, so far, our first strategy for holding students

accountable is reteaching expectations. The second

strategy is to give directions clearly and expect follow

through. And now, our third strategy is to help students

take ownership.

This is how you use accountability to help manage

behavior problems. When a student is openly pushing back

against your expectations, it's tempting to think your job is to

take back control.

But that is not what accountability looks like. If

you want the behavior to change next time, the question has to

shift from, how do I stop this, to, how do I help the student

learn from it?

For example, imagine you have a shoe kicker. Your class

is walking to lunch, and one kid is lightly kicking the shoes of

the kid in front of him, and of course, an argument breaks out.

So, what's your next move?

Now, it is okay to wait until the student is calm before

engaging, because after an argument, there's probably some

heated feelings. So you can say something like, "We don't kick

people's shoes. Go eat your lunch, and after recess, we'll

talk about how you can fix this."

And I think teachers often worry that if they don't

address the issue right then, that they're letting the student

get away with something. But if the student is keyed up, there's

nothing you can say that will get through to them. You're

probably just going to make things worse.

Plus, I think maybe this is an experienced teacher tip. I

always think that the waiting adds a little more meaning to

the discussion because it's giving kids that extra time to

really consider what went wrong.

Yes. So when the moment's right, you can ask what

happened. Do you understand why your classmate is frustrated?

How can you fix it? What will you do better next time? And

what do you need from me?

Try to keep your own opinions out of this as much as

you can, and let the student do most of the talking. That's what

turned this type of situation from a mumbled "I'm sorry" into

actual ownership.

So when students fall short on an expectation, but

you're behind schedule, or you don't want to stop the lesson,

or you're just tired, pause and ask yourself, what do I want

students to learn from this situation?

Sometimes the answer is to reinforce the expectation. If

kids are chatting in line because they're excited for

recess, the lesson we want them to learn is we save our talking

for outside. So you send them back to try lining up quietly.

Sometimes the answer is to support the value underneath

the behavior. Kids are chatting in line because one student had

a rough morning and the others are checking on her. The

timing's not ideal, of course, but the bigger lesson there is

we take care of each other.

So that's probably a moment where the relationship

matters more than the rule. So as the year shifts from back to

school season to the season of settling in, be prepared for the

pushback.

And remember that holding firm isn't about being strict.

It's about being trustworthy. Every time you calmly reinforce

an expectation you're telling a kid, you can count on me to mean

what I say.

So the next time a student misses the mark. Don't

ask, is this worth dealing with? Ask, what do I want the student

to learn from this moment? And let that answer be your guide.

If you found this season-specific discussion

helpful, you are in luck because our brand new book, Structure

and Spark, provides the same level of support for each season

of the school year.

And for those of you who were kind enough to pre-order,

thank you so much, so so much. We are sending you a million

high fives.

And if you left us a kind review on Amazon, we will send

you a million more high fives.

But if you don't have your copy of the book yet, this

is your moment to grab it. You don't want to miss out on even

more of our tips for the season of settling in, plus the other

six seasons of the school year.

There is a link to Structure and Spark in the show

notes, or you can find it at your favorite online bookstore.

Now for our teacher-approved tip of the week, where we share an

actionable tip to help you elevate what matters and

simplify the rest. This week's teacher-approved tip is make

your class lefty friendly. This has been on our list to talk

about since basically the beginning of the show. So you

know, four and a half years later, we're finally getting to

it.

That's about the speed we work around here, but it's fine.

It's fine. We lefties are used to being overlooked, but please

don't overlook the lefties in your class when it comes to

assigning seats. If you're a righty, have you ever sat next

to a lefty at crowded dinner table and then you just end up

bumping elbows the whole meal?

Ah, yeah, I do have experience with that with my

sister.

Thank you for your patience with my infirmity. But

the same thing happens when a lefty is crammed in next to a

right-handed student. If your desks are wide enough or your

students are small enough, this might not be an issue. But just

double check that everyone can write without elbowing their

neighbor. And if it is an issue, try seating your lefties at the

end of a row or to the left of their neighbors.

Now, the second suggestion for making your classroom lefty

friendly is for anyone who teaches younger grades, and this

is important. Watch how your lefties are writing. Watch for

that hooked grip, where the kid positions their arm above the

line and then kind of curls their wrist into write. This is

a really common pattern for left-handed writers. When I was

in fourth grade, my mom got me like a button that said "Hire

the left-handed. It's fun to watch them write," and it had

someone with that pencil grip. But over time, that grip can

cause pain and fatigue, especially as handwriting

demands increase. So please help your lefties straighten out

their wrists.

And if you teach older students, it might be too late

to fully correct without real intervention. But you can still

talk with the student about it and explain why that hand

position could cause problems down the road, and ask if they

would want reminders from you to adjust their form. And now I'm

wondering if my lefty child writes like this, I've never, I

don't think I've ever looked to see. I don't think he does, but

maybe he does.

I think he would notice. It's pretty dramatic.

You know, how often am I sitting there watching him write

at this age?

It's true. Well, I guess you'll have to test it out now.

I guess I'll have to pay attention.

Okay, and then our third suggestion is to let them be

adaptable. Don't force a fix onto something that isn't

broken. This is speaking from my experience, but I had teachers

who insisted that I use left-handed scissors, which

drove me crazy because I could never make them work. I still

can't cut with left-handed scissors, and so I used to wait

till the teacher wasn't paying attention and then sneak

right-handed scissors out of the caddy because I had already

learned to use right-handed scissors with my left hand. And

it's the same story with tilting my paper to the right, the

direction you're supposed to tilt it when you're writing. I,

I can't do that, or using a left-handed mouse, which I can

do, but I don't.

Once I had already figured out my own workaround, being forced

to use left-handed tools just caused frustration over

something that wasn't hurting me. It's not like the pencil

grip, this wasn't a big deal.

Right. My son's kindergarten teacher reached out

to me really early in the year and was like, I'm ordering some

left-handed scissors, which I thought was funny. I'm like,

surely you've had a lefty before now. But also, I was like, he

doesn't need left-handed scissors. He knows how to use

the right ones. But I think she got them anyway. But I know he

uses the regular scissors because he's just, and honestly,

because of you, I think I encouraged him often to just

adapt. It would make his life easier. Like with the mouse, it

was like, well, we can get you a left-handed mouse, but it'd

probably be easier if you just learned to use the right one.

Yeah, we're just used to adapting to a world built for

other the other side of the body. If you want to try this

out for yourself, try using a can opener, one of those turny

kind, with your left hand sometime, if you want to know,

because it's it's not built for that. It's probably part of why

lefties tend to be such creative problem solvers because we've

just had to adapt our whole lives.

Well, that's why you're all geniuses.

Maybe I shouldn't bring this up, but also there's a

higher rate of murderers of left handed people too, so we're just

frustrated by the can openers.

It's a lifetime of repressed anger that just comes

spilling out. Maybe if we gave our lefties some consideration

in elementary school, we could be preventing all these murders.

Please, someone, please study that.

Yeah, so please take a minute to watch your lefties

work and make sure they have what they need to be able to

work efficiently, and don't force a tool on them that they

don't want or need.

To wrap up the show, we are sharing what we're giving

extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra

credit?

I'm giving extra credit to some trays.

Giving extra credit to trays.

Yes, I love a tray. So I got these trays from Amazon, and

they're just kind of like school lunch trays, but a little bit,

well, they're cuter colors for starters, and they're not as

heavy. Well, maybe I'm remembering our childhood lunch

trays. I bet these days, if they even have real trays, they're

No, I think they use styrofoam trays. But I have a

not heavy.

set of like school lunch trays that are metal, and they're

heavy duty.

The metal ones are heavy. And then you have the plastic

ones that we used to use in preschool. This is in the

middle, it's wheat straw, so it's sturdy, and you know you

can wash it and all of that. But it's not very heavy, so that's

nice. But I got this at the start of summer, so that when my

daughter was doing diamond painting here and slime there

and rock painting here, I could put a tray for each of the

projects she's working on, and it has been a game changer.

It's so nice every time somebody's working on something

to be like, "Oh, here's a tray to contain all of the pieces to

that Lego set you're working on." So I'll link them in the

show notes. They were, I had seen a much more expensive

version of these somewhere. I don't even remember what website

that was like the most amazing color scheme, and I was like, I

have to have those. And then I was like, oh no, those are very

expensive. So I'm like, what's available on Amazon? And you

know what? These are pretty decent and very well priced. So

I will link them in the show notes.

And they're just going to get covered in paint and glue,

so it's not worth the investment.

So true. All right, what are you giving extra credit to,

Heidi?

Well, I'm giving extra credit to instrumental piano

music. It's a new thing in my life. I started listening to it,

specifically piano music, when we were writing our book because

I needed something in the background, and now I find that

I'm listening to it all the time when I work. My Spotify day list

is all instrumental piano, and it's really going to mess up my

wrap for the year.

It is, although I think you can go in and exclude it

from your taste profile. So maybe that would help your wrap.

I'll try that. Okay, but some of my favorite artists so

far are Ophelia Wilde, Lysander, and then I'm not sure how to say

this name. Is it Moronus, Morunis? I'm not sure. But if

you want some instrumental piano for yourself or for your

classroom, I have been building a Spotify playlist. It's called

Calming Piano, and you can search for that

title. The image is a piano with flowers coming out of it. Or you

could just use the link in the show notes, and I add new songs

to this playlist every time I come across one that has the

right kind of just mellow, chill vibe. So so far, there's more

than four hours of music, and I'm sure it will get longer.

Okay, I'll have to check that out because I did the same

thing when we were writing. Like I couldn't handle silence, but

anything with words was too distracting, and now I'm finding

anytime I'm working, I'm like, oh, this music is distracting

me. So I had been listening to a lot of the Bridgerton

soundtracks.

Oh, that'd be good too.

But the problem was those are all covers of like pop

songs, so then the songs would get stuck in my head. So I

stopped doing that. But I have needed something, so I'll have

to check this out.

I've got four hours for you. And after you listen a

little bit, Spotify will just start suggesting it.

Lucky me.

Well, that is it for episode 282. If today gave you

something to try tomorrow, we would love to hear about it. You

can find us in the Teacher Approved Facebook group or on

Instagram @2ndstorywindow, and that's spelled with a two.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm Heidi.

And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow

or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an

episode.

You can connect with us and other teachers in the

Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.

Bye for now.

Bye.