Getting Things Started in the Secondary Classroom

One of the greatest challenges for secondary teachers is Getting Class Started on time. When working with teens, their attention is often on anything but your classroom objectives, so getting them started is key to keeping them on track!

Suggestions for getting started with bellringers in the secondary classroom

I‘ve written many posts on Bellringers and Previews over the years. These other posts offer suggestions for engaging starters that can enhance your class lessons. But before you can find success with these ideas, you must have your students trained to look for and complete the class starter without hesitation.

Here’s my advice for making bellringers a priority in your classroom:

Start off your school year by defining and describing bellringers for your students. Explain the significance to your students, and detail how these class starters will work in your individual class.
Be consistent. Have the bellringer up and ready EVERY DAY. Always post the bellringer (or the basic assignment prompt) in the same place each day.
Set a specific period of time at the beginning of class for the bellringer to be completed each day. Do not disturb your students during this time and do not allow them to disturb each other. I always allowed 5 minutes for standard bellringers each day, which gave me time to complete attendance.
Hold students accountable for bellringer completion. My students kept a class notebook. You can see time-saving grading guidelines here.
Use the bellringer to transition to your day’s lesson. Bellringers should not be isolated topics, but should engage students on your topic at hand.

And most importantly… Make your bellringers relevant. Utilize current events. Address controversial topics. Encourage personal connections. Keep it real!

Now hop along to visit other posts sponsored by Secondary Smorgasbord for great ideas on starting your classes effectively!