Dealing with difficult student behaviors during morning meeting can make your morning meeting feel pointless at times. Morning meetings help to create a community of learners in your classroom. What should a teacher do if they are constantly dealing with a student who interrupts and challenges those efforts to create that community during the morning meeting?
[rtoc_mokuji title=”” title_display=”” heading=”” list_h2_type=”” list_h3_type=”” display=”” frame_design=”” animation=””]
Morning Meetings are One Piece of the Behavior Puzzle
I respect the idea of a morning meeting (or class meeting depending on the time of the meeting). The overall feeling of making the classroom a welcoming environment for all learners, creating a place that enhances connections among students and sets a tone for the classroom are ideas I value. I love those ideas. I respect those ideas. I see the importance of those ideas.
What I don’t like is the feeling that the morning meeting is the end all, be all for every social emotional challenge any student who ever existed will ever need.
FYI: I only endorse things that I've personally used or have come highly recommended from my teacher friends and family and think they may be helpful to you. If you buy anything mentioned using my Amazon referral links, I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe in the essence of the morning meeting ideals and strive to do my version of morning meetings the best I can. I just don’t like that the conversation and supports for some seriously dysregulated students begins and ends with the classroom teacher and if they do morning meetings.
There is a delicate balance in creating a welcoming environment and fostering connections among students while also dealing with some extremely challenging behavior problems. How do you include everyone in the classroom meeting if some students are incapable of staying quiet, being safe with their body and not making negative comments CONSTANTLY toward others?
I am happy to share what I have found works for me and what has not worked because it can certainly be challenging! I am by no means an expert, but I have had the experience of figuring out what works for me over the past few years.
Why Have Morning Meetings or Class Meetings At All?
With the advent of the iPad, YouTube, smart phones and an overall exponential increase in screen time, our students, as a whole, are struggling socially and emotionally.
The Challenge of the Self Checkout Line
The last time I was at Target, the line for self check out had a wait, while the lines with human cashiers were able to take people right away. People were willing to wait to avoid human contact at the store. Just think about the social impact self checkout will have on our future students.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the convenience of self checkout, delivery to our doorstep and contactless pick up . . . but when was the last time our students interacted with an unknown person in an unstructured setting?
Our kids are struggling.
Developing Social and Emotional Skills to Avoid Difficult Student Behaviors
Students need, more than ever, to develop social and emotional skills that help them stay well regulated throughout their days. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) helps students develop skills that are important for success as 21st century learners.
Research shows that students who receive SEL instruction had more positive feelings about school and better standardized test scores than those who did not receive SEL instruction.
Class meetings can help students develop self-control, active listening skills, recognize and manage emotions, show empathy for others, and establish positive relationships to name a few of the skills that can be practiced during this time.
What Should Be Included In A Morning/Class Meeting?
While there are tons of activities that can go into a morning meeting and there is a structured recipe of a greeting, sharing, group activity and the morning message, I don’t do all of those every day. Instead, I do what works for me and my class- and you should too!
Not Enough Time
While there are many teachers who have found tons of success doing these four components of a traditional morning meeting, I do not have the time in my day to do that every single day. I know many administrators will respond with, you don’t not have the time to do a traditional morning meeting.
While I think it is true that you will get more done taking the time to focus on developing your student’s social/emotional skills before focusing on academics, I need to have a balance with everything. I would rather go slow, taking the time to develop these relationships and skills, so that I can go fast later.
Go slow now so that you can go fast later.
What To Include
Every day at school I have a morning message on the board waiting for my students. I have a friendly greeting, a fun fact or seasonal joke, list the things I want them to do when they unpack and sign the message with a hope for a great day.
I then have a fun worksheet or coloring sheet on their desk. This is an easy, no pressure activity the students can work on to get ready for learning. I feel like it is preheating the oven. Instead of baking cookies we are getting ready for a day of learning.
Both of these activities happen before the day starts. This helps me greet my students, pass on any important messages and observe my students as we prepare for the day. I am happy to do these consistently because they don’t take any time away from the school day and are super easy to set up.
Morning Work Resources I like to Use With My Students
Extreme Dot to Dots- US Landmarks
Inspirational Quote Coloring Book
I have a mix of these pages that have previously been copied. All I have to do each morning is grab a page from my morning work shelf and put it on the student’s desks before school.
I have tried having the students grab a page from a central location, saving me from passing the papers out in the morning, but I have found that the additional step of grabbing the paper is just too much for students and they don’t grab it. Sadly, this limits the amount of students who would work on the morning worksheet if I didn’t place it on their desk.
Apparently the extra step of walking a few feet to grab a worksheet is just too much effort for my fifth grade students in the morning!
Class Meeting Plan
During the day, I include my meeting time with my read aloud time. This way we keep a nice, pleasant structure at the same time every day. Depending on how busy we are, I might just do a read aloud. Other days we will expand into a Social/Emotional discussion. Some days we will watch the student news video of the day at CNN 10.
This is a structure I am comfortable with and it seems to work for most of the students. I like to add the student news video every few days as I feel it gives the students a good perspective of the world and helps to build and awareness of the world while also developing empathy, depending on the information being highlighted.
I have purchased a few resources from Teachers Pay Teachers that I have like. When we have an SEL discussion, I like having some type of worksheet or notes page for the students to write on. Some of these can be a story with a specific theme highlighting a character trait while others can be a fun holiday to discuss.
Basically, I like to have some type of pre-made resource to start off a more formal SEL lesson.
My district does not currently have a canned SEL curriculum that we are required to teach. The only thing highly encouraged is the ‘morning meeting’ on a consistent basis, however no actual resources or plans have been purchased for teachers.
I have had success asking for money from my principal after sharing some resources I found on Teacher’s Pay Teacher. I sent her an email with the link of resources and she purchased them for me. It is such a blessing to have a building administrator who is willing to help provide additional financial resources if you ask!
Social Emotional Learning Resources That Have Helped Me With Class Meetings
These are resources I have purchased from a variety of sellers on TPT that I use in my classroom. Some are great for morning work while other resources are a great starting point for a class discussion. Check them out if you are looking for extra materials.
SEL Reading and Writing Passages
Responsive Classroom YouTube Channel
How Should You Handle Difficult Student Behaviors During A Morning Meeting?
This is a tricky question to answer, because it really depends on what the student behavior consists of. For many students, a class meeting with a focus on the challenging behavior in a non-threatening way, can help bring an awareness to the student, helping the student develop skills in an area in which they have a skill deficit.
For example if the students are struggling with acknowledging a winner of a game of kickball at recess, this could (hopefully) be problem solved by teaching conflict resolution strategies over a period of time. My suggestion would be a friendly game of rock, paper, scissors if there is a debate over the winner of a game.
If anyone struggles with anything in an SEL capacity, I will typically have a quiet conversation with them , not in front of the entire class, trying to get an understanding of the situation. Depending on the information shared, it will help me get a better idea on how to help them solve the problem.
I have had years, though, where there have been extremely dysregulated students where I didn’t feel confident having a true ‘class meeting.’ I felt like opening things up for a class discussion would set the student up for a complete melt down or create a scenario where other students would be verbally attacked by this student.
In those situations, I still tried to develop relationships with the students and I tried to do a lot of modeling and sharing examples from my own life. Basically I would do more of a personal think aloud of SEL skills.
It is so frustrating to have students who struggle with emotional regulation as they are the ones who would truly benefit from an intense SEL focus, but just can’t find themselves in a place where they are ready for a whole class SEL lesson. What a catch 22!
Interested in reading more about difficult student behaviors?
Check out these posts-
Teaching Students With Difficult Behaviors in the Classroom
Supporting Families to Diagnose and Treat Students with ADHD in the Classroom
Dealing With Difficult Student Behaviors During Morning Meetings
Teaching Students with OCD in the Classroom
Teacher Tips for Successful Parent Teacher Conferences
Report Card Comments for Struggling Students
What About You?
Do you find morning meetings helpful? Do you feel like you have had tons of PD on them the past few years? I would love to hear about your experiences and feelings.
