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Tranquil Transitions - Maintaining Your Sanity from Playground toClassroom

The following piece was produced collaboratively with two of my colleagues - Allison Blumanis and Sharon Rankmore.

Students late, unruly, fighting, crying, falling, hands reaching out from all sides to let you know about lunches, notes,money, toilet, lost homework, home readers, news. You repeat whatever mantra keeps you calm as you direct,negotiate, nag, prioritise and feel upset for the students that are actually ready to work, whilst you try not to escape to

your happy place.

Now picture this...

Students arrive on time, wait, enter and begin morning routine calmly, and happily. You, feeling your classroom is yourhappy place.

Handled well, the transition from playground to classroom can be virtually painless for all and will positively set the tonefor the lessons that follow. However, the movement from the busy, noisy, unstructured playground environment into thestructured and focussed environment of the classroom has the potential for disaster. This transitionary period can beespecially challenging for students with special needs, who often have difficulty with change (Adreon & Stella,2001;Dettman, Simpson, Myles & Ganz, 2000). Mismanagement of this crucial transition will inevitably result in chaos, leavingyou and your gaggle of students cranky, frazzled and not switched on for learning.

So how do we ensure that all of our playground-to-classroom transitions are tranquil? This article aims to provide youwith a few golden rules and a few smart tips to help you maintain your sanity and help your students get set forproductive learning sessions.

Tranquil transitions dont just happen by luck and they wont happen overnight theyrequire hard work, consistency and persistence. But following a simple action cyclewill ensure that youve covered all your bases and are set for success.

ASSESS

Whats currently happening at transitiontime? Use informal or formal observationsto examine whats going on at the moment.Think about whats happening before/onthe way to class (pre-entry), getting into theroom (entry) and after entering the room(post-entry). Think about what youre doing,

what the kids are doing, and whats happening in the environment. Alsoconsider why these things may be happening.

GOALSET

Now that any problem areas have been identified, its time to sit down and

daydream. What kind of transitions would you like to have? Have a look atwhere youre at now and where you want to be. Clearly and positively stateyour goal behaviours in terms of what they look like Not kill each other whenentering the room is too broad and too negative. This would be better framedas Students will walk into the room in single file, keeping their hands tothemselves.However, not everything can be achieved at once, so chooseyour first battle wiselyits usually best to tackle things chronologically thishas the advantage of setting the tone for what follows. Be sure to set small,achievable goals success will give you the confidence to keep going.

STRATEGISE

Once you know where youre going, its time to plan! Whats your transitionroutine going to look like? To begin with, you can browse the 10 Tips forTranquillity and Re-entry Rituals included in this article and see if any applyand appeal. As these lists are not exhaustive, its also advisable to discussother strategies with your colleagues who no doubt have pearls of wisdom toshare.

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IMPLEMENT

Explicit teaching, consistent expectations, practice and reinforcement -these are the keys to successful implementation of your well-plannedstrategies. For additional ideas on implementation, have a look at our 10Tips for Tranquillity.

EVALUATE

Are your strategies working? Refer back to your goals and consider if

theyve been achieved and if not, has there been any improvement?

Even if your goals have been achieved, its always useful to review yourtransition strategy on a regular basis we change, students change, theenvironment changes, and we need to always be ready to makeadjustments.

RE-ENTRY RITUALS

Re-entry rituals are familiar and predictable activities that students canengage in on their return to the classroom. This predictability is especiallyimportant for students with special needs.

The choice of tasks whether independent or teacher-led - is entirelydependent on what suits you and your context. However, its useful to useindependent tasks if you have to mediate or investigate lunchtime dramason a regular basis.

Below are some re-entry rituals that have been tried and tested and haveensured tranquil transitions.

THE FINAL WORD

Investing time and energy into streamlining your playground-to-classroom transitions will reap great rewards for both

you and your students in terms of minimising disruptions and behaviour problems and maximising learning time(Hoffman Koser, 2007). Additionally, the creation of a calm and predictable transition routine will help alleviate anxietyfor those students who find change challenging. In essence, tranquil transitions are

REFERENCES

Adreon, D., & Stella, J. (2001). Transition to middle and high school: Increasing the success of students with AspergerSyndrome. Intervention in School and Clinic, 36, 266-271.

Dettmer, S., Simpson, R. L., Myles, B.S., & Ganz, J. B. (2000). The use of visual supports to facilitate transitions ofstudents with Autism. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 15, 163-169.

Hoffman Kaser, C. (2007). Successfully managing student transitions. In Series on Highly Effective Practices. Retrievedfrom http://education.odu.edu/esse/research/series/transitions.shtml