#103: Quick Win Challenge! The power of hello.

This week’s challenge is all about warm welcomes. While it sounds simple, doing it with intention and consistency can completely transform the culture and community in your classroom.

IN THIS EPISODE, I DISCUSS:

• Why warm welcomes matter, and how greeting each student contributes to their emotional piggy bank, boosts buy-in, and improves behaviour.
• The power of routines, and why predictability helps students come to class more regulated and ready to learn.
• Breaking negative cycles, and how a consistent, personal greeting can help reach even the toughest students.
• Practical tips, including easy ways to make warm welcomes fun, personal, and consistent even on chaotic days.

QUICK WIN CHALLENGE:

This week, stand at the door and warmly welcome each student as they enter.

• Keep it simple by using a smile, eye contact, and their name.
• Add novelty by letting students choose their own greetings, such as a wave, fist bump, or handshake.
• Use visual prompts like a greetings poster on the wall, which can make the routine fun and help you stay consistent on busy days.

This is not about being fancy. It is about being intentional and consistent, showing each student that they are seen and valued as part of your classroom community.

Head here to grab my ready-made warm welcomes posters!

Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to your weekly Classroom Management
Quick Win Challenge.
True classroom management isnot how we address behavior when
it pops up.
Instead, it is a compoundingeffect of many, many micro
decisions we make in ourteaching practice before the
behavior even pops up.
In these Quick Win episodes I'mhanding over one actionable,
small but mighty tool to helpyou move the needle every single

(00:24):
week to stop crowd controllingand to start calmly classroom
managing like a pro.
Let's dive into this week'sgame changing challenge.
Hello, wonderful teachers,welcome to the first ever quick
win episode.
I am very excited for thischange.
It was originally the behaviorbites episode, but I chose to

(00:46):
change the way that I structuredthe second episode of the week
because really effectiveclassroom management really is
the compounding effect of many,many, many micro decisions that
we make in the classroom.
It isn't how we addressbehavior when it pops up,
although of course that's a partof it, but that kind of stuff
is keeping us stuck in thiscrowd control mindset.
So I wanted to use this time asa way to give you one really

(01:09):
actionable challenge that youcan go away and implement each
week, because think, one tinychallenge a week is 52 micro
changes in your practice a year.
That will compound and add upto immense change in 2025 and I
am so excited for it.
My old old mentor, cara, whowas like my first ever she was
the beginning teacher mentorwhen I was first a teacher.

(01:29):
She used to do these littlechallenges in our beginning
teacher meeting and, you know,every week we'd have to bring in
like a little post-it note or,I guess, something to share from
our, from our lessons, and thatcompounding effect of the tiny
things just added up intosomething huge for my practice
and I just wanted to find a wayto do the same thing on this
podcast and bring you along on ajourney of transformation in

(01:52):
your practice in the best waythat I knew how in this space.
So I'm really, really excitedthat I can do this and I can't
wait to see how it all goes.
And your first challenge forthis series is to welcome your
students into the classroom.
Yes, that's pretty simple,right.
However, I realized that I saidthat I did this and I did do it

(02:15):
, but it was very inconsistentbecause I was rushed.
Oftentimes, I was stressed.
I really felt quite anxiousabout what the class was
bringing in, so the way that Iwelcomed them was impacted by
that, my head was off somewhereelse.
When we truly do this withintention, when we make it
personal to each student, whenwe make it a non-negotiable

(02:37):
routine, it can absolutelytransform the culture and
community in our classrooms, andit certainly did for me when I
had this as my focus for like mylittle quick win for the week.
Here's why welcoming yourstudents into the classroom
really is a bit of classroommanagement magic.
The first thing is that it is away for us to deposit into

(02:58):
every student's emotional piggybank each and every lesson in a
way that's consistent andreliable, which boosts buy-in
and makes classroom managementso much easier.
If you listened to last week'sepisode about, you know,
pressing the reset button andhaving a better year ahead, and
I spoke about investing instudents' emotional piggy banks,
and the big thing about that issome students make it really

(03:22):
hard for us to invest in theiremotional piggy banks because
there's not a lot of positiveinteractions that we have with
them in the day-to-day.
So having this as a consistentroutine at the start of every
single lesson is such abrilliant way for us to break
that cycle and just know everyday there's going to be one
opportunity at least for us toinvest in that emotional piggy
bank.
The second reason why it is abit of classroom management

(03:43):
magic is that it's an expectedroutine, so it's something that
is predictable when every singlestudent comes to the room, and
this supports behavior byhelping them to come to class
regulated, becausepredictability is regulation's
best friend.
It's the brain's best friend.
The more we can embedpredictability and consistency
into the routines that we havein the classroom, the better

(04:05):
things are going to be for ourclassroom management, because
our students are going to bemore regulated.
It's as simple as that.
And the third thing is that ithelps us to break negative
cycles with the hardest to teachand reach kids.
We are planting seeds with themevery single lesson that are
saying in this room you are seen, you are a part of this
community.
I know your name, I'm happyyou're here, I am welcoming you

(04:28):
warmly into the room, and thatis something that we do every
single day.
Now, I'm a secondary teacher,so I definitely had to lean into
the dog factor with this and,believe it or not, this was in
itself a huge boost for therelationships I was able to
foster with my students.
You don't have to do anythingfancy either.
By the way, you can just standthere and say hello and call
them by their name.
It's a really fun andconsistent part of the lesson.

(04:54):
But if you do want to dosomething that has just a little
bit more novelty and a littlebit more fun and a little bit
more personalization, you canget students to choose their own
greeting.
That can be a bit of fun.
You might have seen greetingsposters.
You can make one of those tohave up on your wall so students
can look up there as they getto the classroom, be like oh
okay, this is the greeting thatI'm going to be doing.
I'm going to do a fist bump,I'm going to do a high five,
I'll do like a, an elbow bump oryou know, whatever.

(05:15):
It is that the choices are upon that poster.
But the benefits of having itup as like a visual on the wall
it just number one.
It reminds me to do it on thedays where it feels really
chaotic.
But it also helps students toknow that you're taking this
part of the lesson reallyseriously and these warm
welcomes really seriously.
If you want one of those posters, if you want a visual up on

(05:37):
your wall, but you don't reallywant to spend the time making
one, I have created some WickedDone For you posters that you
can use straight away, and theonly reason I made these posters
was because everything thatexisted out there with these
greetings was very young inappearance.
So I just made these with myolder students in mind Still
appropriate for the younger ones.
If you like the style, but it'sjust got older kind of clip art

(05:59):
, I'll pop the link in the shownotes for you.
If you want to just grab and gowith those ones, or you can
make your own, or you don't haveto do anything fancy at all.
Remember, it's just aboutstanding by the door and saying
hey, and making that a verypositive, consistent way to
invest in the student'semotional piggy bank.
That's it.
Don't make it over complicated.
If you don't want to, you don'thave to do a poster, you don't

(06:20):
have to do anything.
Your challenge this week, yourquick win for this week, is just
to say hey, how are?
How are you going?
So nice to see you, james, sonice to see you, claire, like
welcome.
So good to see you again, likethat is it.
So just a quick recap on thisweek's quick win challenge
Simple but effective Stand atthe door welcoming your students

(06:41):
.
Weeks down the line, maybemonths, depending on your
context, you are going to havestudents who are the toughest to
reach and teach coming on boardin a way that you likely
haven't seen before.
It does take time, but it doeshappen.
Stay consistent, keep it joyfuland keep classroom managing,
not crowd controlling.
Friends, have a good week andI'll see you next time.