Student Contributor: Ashley Fulmer
Greeting students at the door helps us as teachers know how our students are doing on that particular day. Students also know you are ready for a wonderful day of class.
Greeting students at the door should be used to assess how your students are doing, as well as maybe put a smile on their face at the beginning of the day. Keep in mind some students are not morning people. This tool also allows you to have a connection with everyone. You create a bond making it easier to talk to your students. Make sure you get to know your students before assuming something is wrong. If you notice some students are not wanting to talk or greet you back you can talk to them and see how you can help. An example, a teacher notices Ben is not his normal happy self in the morning. The teacher goes to his desk and asks Ben how his weekend was. He doesn’t say a lot but frowns. He then speaks up and says his project got ruined by his younger sibling. The teacher tells Ben he can take a few extra days to fix his project. Ben is now his normal happy self, ready to learn.
Greeting is a preventative phase. You are looking to see how you can prevent a bad day. When calling on students during an activity, you know a certain student is having a bad day because they are not wanting to talk or say hi at the door. Instead of calling on them you give them some space to change their mood throughout the day. This tool goes under the Student Centered theories of influence. I placed it in the student centered because greeting students allows you to constantly observe your classroom. It is for your kids. This tool can also go under collaborative. Both teacher and student give off tones when greeting each other. Just like when I was a young student I always looked at my teacher to see if they were in a good or bad mood.
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Tool Source: Gus Nollmeyer
My placement is in a fifth grade classroom, which contains 23 students. I believe my school is in an urban area. I decided to implement greeting students at the door as a preventative phase of management. It was easy to use and prepare for. It was really as simple as high fiving students as they walked through the door. Personally, I feel like it positively affects students because it makes them feel welcomed and important. It is also a simple way to get a sense of how your students are feeling that day and students enjoy giving you a high five, it gives them a sense of interaction. It is a great way to start the day on a positive note. The students understand their roles in this preventative phase of management. I would not make any adjustments to this tool because its simplicity is excellent and gets to the point just as well as other tools.
The first tool box strategy that I want to discuss is greeting each and every student at the start of the day. I am placed in a 2nd-grade classroom with wonderful students and an amazing mentor teacher. Greeting students at the door every single morning is something I have been doing for quite some time in this placement of mine. Although this tool/strategy may sound simple, it means more to these kids than anyone knows. Saying someone’s name and saying “hello” gives off a sense of kindness, remembrance, thoughtfulness, and effort. This greeting makes students feel welcome and comfortable walking into the classroom to start their academic enriched day to come. This act alone lets students know that our day is beginning and that they are seen and heard. All students need social and emotional support, and this greeting is the first step in the day to provide them with that. Teachers must be invested in their students’ learning, and this is a great first step in doing just that.
My mentor school is in an urban area, and there are 26 students in my 5th grade class. This was a great tool for my classroom, especially because I am only there twice a week right now. It definitely gives a sense of connection and community for me and for the students in my mentor class. My mentor has an amazing connection with her students, and I want to get there with them as well. Since I started greeting the students at the door, I have begun to feel more comfortable with them and vice versa. I love seeing students at the start of class and then going around to their desks and asking them how they are. I can already see them starting to trust me more and get more comfortable. I don’t always make it to the door on time to great them since I also do entry task, so my goal is to make it to the front door every single morning to greet them. Overall, I think this is a great tool and appreciate the idea!
A great strategy for checking in with students that do not require a lot of effort is greeting students at the door when they come in. I practiced this prevention strategy in my 7th-grade middle school placement every day. When working with over 70 middle schoolers it can be hard to get an idea of how each student is feeling when you only see each student for about 50 minutes in a day. But this is a great way to get a look into how students are feeling when they come into the classroom as their mood can have a big impact on how they act during class time. This tool was very handy as there were several times where my mentor and I could tell that a student was having a rough day just by how they said “hi” when they came through the door. When this happened, we could pull a student away to talk to them really quick before class started or we would keep an eye on them during class time to make sure they were doing fine. Overall, this strategy is great for building a relationship with students and maintaining that relationship by checking in with them.