In this episode of Fuel Up, we zoom in on the powerful role routines and structures play in creating safe, predictable, and engaging learning environments—especially in K–5 EL Education classrooms. As we step into 2026, Kevin and Katie reflect on how routines shift during breaks and why returning to strong classroom systems matters so much. We’re joined by Kiana Longnecker, School Climate & Culture Consultant at the Muskegon Area ISD, who helps us unpack the “why” and “how” behind effective routines. From independence to voice levels to celebrating students, this conversation is full of practical, heart-centered strategies you can use tomorrow.
Resource & Links:
Literacy Essentials – Best practices in literacy instruction
EL Education Curriculum (K–5):
https://curriculum.eleducation.org
EL "Big Purple Book" – Your Curriculum Companion:
https://eleducation.org/resources/your-curriculum-companion
Student Talk Protocols
https://eleducation.org/resources?topic=student-discourse
EL Education: Management in the Active Classroom (Book)
https://shop.eleducation.org/
Research on Classroom Routines & SEL
https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/
Universal Design for Learning Guidelines
https://udlguidelines.cast.org/
Do I know what I want? You have to know what you want before you can teach that.
Otherwise, the students cannot know what you want either.
So when you're thinking about that, consider what you actually want to see,
but we really need to acknowledge and celebrate when the kids are really doing what they should be doing. Way to go
so making sure that we are explicitly giving that feedback and celebrating when they are actually meeting that goal that we want them to.
Welcome back to fuel up a place for conversations with and for those using el education as a resource to support k5 literacy learning, we are so excited to have you with us for this week's episode. Today we zoom in on the topic of routines and structures. We hope today's talk serves as a pit stop, a chance to swing by for some fresh energy, insights, encouragement and celebration as we work together to do what's best for our learners, this is a chance to fuel up. So wherever this finds you today, we hope you were able to pull over, take a breath and crank it up, and in that spirit, here we go.
Well, Happy New Year. Katie, a big welcome to 2026
Are you ready for new year? Yes, but I don't know how it's 2026 already. I know isn't that crazy? I was thinking back like I remember when it turned 2000
that seems like yesterday to me. Yes, 26 years ago. But here we are in 2026
Welcome back. We've had a few weeks off, and we are ready to jump back into the conversations. You know, I don't know about you, but when I'm off for the holidays, my routines change. One of those routines that is different is my house is warmer when I'm working, usually that house is a little bit cooler. What about you like as you think about your routines and having some time off over the holidays, what are some of those routines that have changed for you? Yeah, so we've had a couple weeks off, which has been great, and I'm pretty positive we've had zero routines in our house, so we haven't had to rush out the door to get to preschool or work. So our mornings have been a little bit more leisurely, and I also feel like we just eat all the time. Yeah,
all the food and good food, yes. So I think we'll be ready to get back in some routines, but it's been nice to have a little break. Yep, sometimes having no routines is a good routine. There we go. Yes, I'm gonna Words To Live By right there. There you go. Well, I'm guessing routines have been on the mind of many of our listeners, personal routines and school routines. And as we jump into a new year, most of our listeners are coming back from some time off for the holidays and ready to jump back in.
We have some fresh energy to try something new. And with that attitude, we thought today would be a good time to have some dialog around routines and structures. So let's think about El education for a minute. We have skills, block and all block module lessons. And you know, in all of these, kids are encouraged to be up and moving, talking about learning, grappling and working through learning, and sometimes these practices, if we're honest, can feel a little messy, and messiness can sometimes lead to frustration. So we thought we would pause today and kick off the new year with some review of best practices around setting up routines and structures.
Someone might be wondering, what does current research have to say about routines and structures? And so let's take a minute to get grounded.
Katie, what does current research have to say about the value of routines and structures in the classroom? Yes. So since it is 2026
and AI is so prevalent and so good, I actually have an AI summary for you that pulls several bodies of research. So research highlights that school routines are vital for reducing student anxiety, boosting confidence, improving focus and fostering independence by creating predictable, structured environments where students know what to expect, allowing teachers to maximize learning time and students to develop crucial life skills like time management and self regulation.
And ultimately leading to better academic and behavior outcomes. And really what stands out to me there allowing teachers to maximize learning time? Yeah, that's huge.
Well, there you go. I think our first AI summary, and I think it did a pretty good job. I think research, and now that we are grounded, we are so excited to invite our guests to the table. When I think about classroom culture, this person quickly comes to mind, Katie, and I have the pleasure of collaborating with her at times in the county. A big welcome to Kiana. Long Necker, what's up Kiana? Hey guys. How's it going? Kiana is the school climate and culture consultant at the Muskegon area. ISD. Kiana, welcome to fuel up. Thank you. Well, with any guest we have at the table, we always like to start with two fun questions. And Katie, why don't you get us launched? Perfect. Well, welcome Kiana. Very excited to have you at our table today. So the first question, what is your go to snack or drink to fuel you up and get you moving.
I really just love myself a little protein to get moving. So I am a big fan of cheese. So I like a cheese stick. I like the mozzarella string cheese, or any other shape of cheese of any type. So any cheese, for the most part, any cheese. Yep, I'm picturing like a giant cheese charcuterie board right now, when that sounds amazing, I like to just have that around. All right. So next up, what song would you crank up to the max to fuel you up and launch your day. Well, if you guys haven't heard me rolling into the parking lot blasting this, I'm shocked, but it is Mariah Carey's fantasy. Oh, oh, it's a high energy jam. That's an old I think that's an older one, right? Oh, for sure, I'm pretty confident was in the 90s. Yeah, late 90s. Maybe. Let's bring us back to the 90s, some Mariah Carey with fantasy. Oh yeah, it's great for vacuuming. Also, like, if you're vacuuming, that's an energizer. All right, that's a good tip. All right, this weekend, I'm gonna be listening to Carrie, yeah. I mean, most people don't like vacuuming. There's probably somebody out there who does. But if you don't like vacuuming, I guess, consider, you know, turning up the Mariah Carey, and that might give you some fresh energy to get some cleaning done. I can nearly guarantee it, I'll know who's making all the noise in the park. Yes, it's Kiana.
Problem solved.
We are ready to dive into our topic today around routines and structures, and we kind of set that up with that. Ai summary. Kiana, the first question to you as you think about routines and structures in school, in classrooms, why are they important? Well, routines and structures help us to know what we are doing, where and how we are doing each thing, and having these in place and making sure that they are well practiced and implemented, is actually incredibly trauma informed, and it gives our students and ourselves that sense of safety and the understanding of what is coming next and what am I expected to be doing. It makes me think back to the some of the research that was highlighted in that AI summary, some key words, like predictable and safety, anything that stood out to you? Yeah, really thinking about that boosting confidence. When kids know what they're supposed to be doing, they're gonna feel good, they're gonna feel confident. And I think that's just gonna benefit their academics, absolutely, and it drives that independence that we're really looking for in our students, and they're not just being left to their own devices to figure it out. They are being taught those things, and they're able to independently manage themselves.
So if I don't have to think about how I'm supposed to behave, I can put all of that brain power into my academics. I'm gonna coin that. I think that's a bumper sticker. There There we go. I like it. So we we've talked a little bit about why they're important as we continue, let's just talk about where we've seen them live. They're all throughout this resource, el education, we mentioned it a few minutes ago, like thinking about skills block in the amount of independence we ask of kids when the teacher is working with a small group at a table around the floor, and we're asking and putting structures in place for kids to be independent, there's a lot of routines that go into making that successful absolutely and I think about skills block, and those start with our youngest learners. Yeah, you know our five, six year old kindergarten kids that are sometimes experiencing school for the first time, and now we're asking them to spend 45 minutes independently. Those structures are so vital for them, and similar in all block, whether you are using the resource from 2017 or the updated version from 2025
you know, all.
Looks a little different depending on what version you're using. There are still some expectations on those learners to be independent, as the teacher is working with a small group,
absolutely. So really skills black and all black, those kids have to be independent, and sometimes there's partner work, yeah, and they need to know, how do we what are those expectations when we're working together? And you said something about time, like the expectation for these learners to be independent, sometimes be for 30 to 45 minutes. And it makes me think about the module work. I mean that lesson kindergarten through fifth grade is around 60 minutes. Sometimes it's shorter, sometimes it goes longer. And with those lessons, there are student protocols embedded where they're getting up and talking and planning together and running ideas by each other, and that requires getting up and moving and talking and partnerships. And I mean, I've heard the themes of that feels uncomfortable sometimes, and I'm not quite sure how to do that. And if we don't have that in place, often it becomes like a sit and get for 60 minutes. And who wants to do that, right? That also sounds quite terrible, right? To try to teach for 60 minutes and not get kids up and moving. But then on the flip of that, getting them up and moving can feel messy without those clear expectations. And with all of that, there is hope, because Katie and I could both share and do a full episode. We've done some of this already. We've seen it successful. Like, yes, you can have a successful skills block, and yes, you can have a successful all block, and yes, you can have a successful module lesson, and so that's why we're talking about this today, the routines and structures, because hopefully this conversation, you walk away with one or two small steps that you can implement to make that more successful for you and for your learners. So that's our hope for the next few minutes, and we're going to toss it back to Kiana. Yeah. Yeah. So Kiana, when setting up routines, what are some of those key questions that you can ask yourself to best develop student independence? I think first you need to know what activities you'll be engaging in with your class. So you have to know what are we doing, what transitions do I have to plan for? What activities do I have to plan for? And then when I'm thinking about that, I have to say, Do I know what I want? You have to know what you want before you can teach that. Otherwise, the students cannot know what they want, what you want, either. So as you go to plan, consider anything that you've seen that's an issue, anticipate that that's going to occur, and plan to avoid that, and visualize what you want to see during that time. What should our volume level, level be in each area that we are in, each activity or routine we are engaging in like, Are the students allowed to talk right now, if so, about what and with whom and how loud
if they are, if they need help with something, how do they get that? Do they raise their hand? Get your attention.
How much movement are they allowed during that time? Can they go get their own resources, turn in assignments, go to the bathroom, use other resources within the classroom, and how will you be able to see that they're participating in the actual activity? So when you're thinking about that, for each one of your transitions or routines, consider what you actually want to see. So really, just stepping back, absolutely stepping back, what is the activity and how best our kids going to be successful completing the activity Absolutely. And I want to know exactly what it should look like and sound like in the ideal and plan for that. And as you talked, there was a lot of details in there, from voice level to movement to conversation expectations. Sometimes we might plan for one of those pieces, but to think through all of those pieces
makes sense that it would set kids up for success. Kitty, it makes me think about our episode, previous episode on classroom environment. I think it was our second episode, and we encouraged
our classroom leaders to
stop at the door
and visualize what kids could see when they enter or sit at a desk and walk just look around without kids there, and notice what they could see on the wall. And I wonder if that's the same, like it's stopping even before kids come in to take a minute to visualize, to imagine, what do I want this to look like if this is successful? What I want this to sound like if it's successful, and maybe jot it down, or sketch it out, all of those things Kiana talked about, from the movement to the you know, how are kids going to get supplies to what.
Is the voice limit going to be? Because if we as teachers have that mapped out, that's going to help us to better communicate that to our kids, right, right? I agree. And sitting in their seats and thinking about what do my 5678,
year olds need to be successful is huge. Put yourself in that learning spot, yeah, and it does take time to do that, like, Man, I don't want to take the time to map this whole thing out, but it will save you some headaches later. It'll save you a lot of headaches later. And once you begin to map some of them out, it actually you become much more fluent in determining and recognizing what you want to see in that area. And it doesn't take as long as it might feel like it would at first, yeah, and, you know, sometimes we've worked with educators, and I'm going to put myself in this bucket where, if somebody were to ask me, What do you want this to look like? I might say, I don't know, like maybe I haven't lived it yet. And so having the courage to, you know, connect with a coach or connect with a colleague or visit a classroom, or if you're uncomfortable with that, I used to do this. What I'm going to say,
Make do like a sneaky spy, walk where you're walking down the hallway and you're spying into your colleagues. Well, you once had this new teacher come into my building when I was teaching, and she just brought in so many great ideas. And sometimes I would just like, slow roll by her classroom when the door is open and I'm like, there are some great ideas in there. I'm totally stealing that. And because you just started to visualize what it could be that I wasn't doing. And so if you happen to be in a spot where you're like, I'm not quite sure what I want this to look like, to have the courage to ask or to find a brainstorming partner, or to just do that sneaky stroll down the hallway and just notice, because that will give you some ideas, too, of what it could sound like or look like.
And on that same note, if people have done this work, you don't have to recreate everything, if that also works for you. So there are opportunities for that collaboration, and it doesn't have to be such a heavy lift on your own.
So we talked about the first question that we might ask ourselves is like, what do I want this thing to look like and sound like? Have a plan in place
once a person has a plan. Kiana, what might be that second question that they might reflect on when setting up routines and structures,
you want to be sure that you have taught that expectation explicitly. You have taught it, you've modeled it, you've practiced it, and you've provided feedback, both that specific behavior feedback, whether they're engaging in the activity appropriately or the opposite, is important for them to continue to learn what they are supposed to do. You also need to be sure that you have a visual having the third point of reference for what your expectations are. Give us just that extra layer of support. It helps us as adults, remember what we want to see, and it helps our students. We can just refer back to that and encourage them to follow those expectations as needed. I really like that visual part because it saves your teaching voice, right? I don't have to repeat level one conversation's a level one 100 times, right, right. Think about, you know, being in a kindergarten room or first grade room, you can simply point to your visual on the board right, and that creates independence. They don't have to come to you as if they're looking for a reminder. Sometimes they're not looking, but if they are looking for a reminder, then they can just look up there to see what the expectation is. And if they're not as we give reminders, it doesn't have to be our voice. It can be a using your hand or your finger, to kind of guide them and remind them as we build independence, this is what the expectation is in this classroom. This is how we do things in this space. And Kiana, as you said, to teach things explicitly, like, I like that second word there. Yes, we're going to teach it, but we need to teach down to the nitty gritty detail. Let's not leave any room for confusion or wondering about what the expectation is. Teach it explicitly, and part of that is actually role modeling it absolutely. And not only will you want to role model it as you teach the students that you should have some student models as well show us as we're reteaching. Have somebody, have one of your students, your classmates, be the demonstrator. In fact, they can actually also, once they know the expectations pretty well, they can run that portion. We don't always have to tell them what the expectation is right now. We don't always have to remind them. We can have a student leader do that for each activity as well. And I've seen really great examples of that across the county, I feel like sometimes they listen to their peers a little bit more than the teacher. So I love that idea empowering students, and it really goes back to that independence piece, like five year olds can be independent, and they can teach and support each other. And.
When you're redirecting a cue of just pointing at your visual is actually pretty simple, and it is less obvious, and it's quieter, and it is not so intrusive to just redirect with one of those with a point to the expectations well, because then you're not interrupting everyone else is learning, you know, if it's independent time, and all of a sudden my voice is breaking in with, oh, it's a level one. Now I just distracted 24 kids versus just that one with that, that pointing makes me think back to our episode with Ivana on coaching partnerships, and she had shared, when she was doing some work with small groups, that she took those expectations and put it up as an anchor chart, and that thing became a living part of her learning, like it was there and it was part of the conversation when she taught it explicitly, but it just didn't live there as pretty wallpaper, like she used these gold stars and just honoring some of the work. And it was used to support conversations with her learners, and she could just point to it with her finger, and they knew exactly what that was, because they had used it multiple times over and over that it just was a part of what they did
well, and I think about as adults too, we need visuals. Yes, we were just talking with Kiana before we started recording, and she shared a story about
signs when you're driving speed limit signs, right? If there's non speed limit sign, you don't know how fast to go. And that really connected with me. Why these visuals are important for students. We use them as adults, so our youngest learners should definitely have those in the classroom. I don't think the policemen are out there saying, I'm just gonna assume that people know how to fast, that they should go right, and I'm not gonna assume that they know which direction to go on the road, like we are going to be clear. So we are all on the same page what speed we're going, which direction you need to go, where you can turn, where you can't turn, because we are living in this space together, like you are not the only one driving on the road, and you are not the only student in this classroom. So when we have 20 some people, we have to say, this is how we all are going to work together, and we're going to be clear about it. Otherwise, no wonder. I mean, could you imagine what the roads would be like if everybody was just left to do their own thing? It would be crazy, chaos. And who wants that on the roads? And nobody, I can tell you, our learners do not want a kid I classroom, and so it is a gift to everybody if we do that.
And conversely, if you were driving and there were no no speed limit signs, and you were then pulled over by the police officer and given a ticket, a sanction for breaking that law, but you didn't know what the law was that also doesn't teach you what you are supposed to do. Yes, it is a constant reminder of what you are not supposed to do. But if we are never taught what we should be doing, we when we're not given that reminder, we lose by that system. So let's, let's get, let's get practical. Katie, one of the things that all
of our listeners, kindergarten through fifth grade, as you think about the module work that we will have to model every year is student talk protocols. We talked about these with Jamie, I think Episode Three in order to do student talk protocols. The first thing is, Kiana shared with us is we need to stop and say, what do we want this to look like Where Can kids move? How do they find a partner? How are they get what sentence stems might be up the how are they going to talk with each other? All of that stuff has to be planned out. We could just say, get up and talk to somebody, and then we're wonder why. We're frustrated that nobody's following the expectation all of that stuff when we teach from kindergarten up through fifth grade to do the student talk protocols, there's intention behind how we roll that out, right? And I think from that episode, you can roll it out in a fun way, and Kiana kind of spoken to that too, make it fun, and then apply it to your curriculum. And then once you have it rolled out, Kiana reminder just Do you have a visual like, if you're doing student talk protocols, do you have that protocol on an anchor chart and listen? Let's be honest, there might be a few of us out there who just love to do anchor charts, but I don't think that's the majority. But you know what? You're not doing it for you, you're doing it for your learners, and you're doing it for your sanity, like have it up there so that they know what to do. So you plan out this, how you want these student talk protocols to go. You model it, you teach it explicitly, and then, yeah, put the protocol up there, have the sentence stems up there. Take the time to do that, have it visual. And then, after all of that, Kiana,
what might be the next thing we want to consider and think about? One of the most important parts is to remember to give that feedback and celebrate with our students when they are doing what they've been taught to do. It's pretty easy for us to correct. It's sometimes our first instinct, because sometimes.
We get in the mindset that kids just know what to do and should do that, but we really need to acknowledge and celebrate when the kids are really doing what they should be doing, like, hey, not just re teaching and practicing, but hey, your voice levels were at a one for this whole period of time. Way to go. And we want to make sure the students are being that the behavior feedback is specific. So not just a good job, but good job for whatever it is that we saw that is what we wanted to see. So making sure that we are explicitly giving that feedback and celebrating when they are actually meeting that goal that we want them to.
So if we use the example of student talk protocols, we teach it. We put that visual up there. We're practicing, practicing modeling, and then it's like, Man, you guys rocked it. Or, nice job, the way you use your sentence stems, nice job, the way that you took turns when you're doing you know, nice job, the way you took turns and shared that airtime. All of those things like, let's not assume kids know they did the right job. Let's celebrate that absolutely and talk about motivating like, if we're celebrating them and they're working hard at it, they're going to be motivated to continue doing that level one or using that sentence stem whatever that focus of that celebration is. And that also builds the relationship with the student and the teacher. When you're having those positive interactions, that makes that student, like you, said, motivated to want to do what is expected of them, absolutely. It builds that confidence.
So we talked a little bit about knowing what you want, modeling it and making it visual.
What's something else we might consider as we're setting up routines and structures, you
want to be sure that you are observing and monitoring your plan. You've put these things in place, you've taught them, you've practiced them, but you want to be sure that you are still paying attention to how is it going? Are my Am I seeing and hearing what I want to see? And if we are paying attention to those things, like you said earlier, step back. Look at it like you're the student. When I walk in, it's a little too loud. I might need to change my plan. And if I have to change my plan in order to meet the structural needs of my students or myself,
then I will once again, have to reteach those and practice them until we meet that goal. And sometimes it isn't about changing what we have in place. It's about re teaching and practicing again and getting better feedback going for those students again.
So if I taught something today and tomorrow I don't like it, I shouldn't just change it, you should absolutely not just change it. It takes time for us all to learn new behaviors. It takes that it obviously again, being taught that practicing it, and then that feedback. We aren't going to always know it immediately. We have to learn it and practice it. And you should definitely not just toss it out. You want to be sure that you've given time for those behaviors to be learned. We're remembering a lot of episodes today. We are and I'm remembering this episode about you being coached by your husband with golfing. Yeah, I guess the question is, did you give up, or did you stick with it? No, I stuck with it because I had to keep practicing and practicing and perhaps getting some more feedback and speaking. So yeah, as adults, right? That's a great connection. You have to keep getting that practice in.
And even professional athletes, what do they do every day of their lives they are practicing. They're the best at what they do, and yet they must practice. We talk about like the need to practice again, the possible need to practice again, speak into practice like when we say to practice again. Like, practically. What does that look like? Well, it doesn't look like having to reteach the entire lesson again, but we may be in a situation where you notice our voice levels are a little high, and we said voice level one right now, and in my classroom, I would have taught that, and a voice level one would be partner talk, where just my partner could hear me, and if I walk, or if I'm in my classroom and I see or I hear that it is louder than that, we can just pause right then. Even if it's frustrating, we can pause and remember that our young students, they need to be reminded. And we can right then just say, Okay, I'm noticing that maybe our voice levels are not where they should be. Let's practice them together. So voice level zero, that is our lips closed. Voice level one, remember, that's partner. Talk. Turn to your partner and speak so that just the two of you can hear each other, voice, level two presentation. Voice, and just walk through those practices, and then you can go right back and say, remember. Voice, level one practice, one more time, and then allow them to just continue to independently work. It doesn't have to be an entire lesson,
if needed, though it could be.
Be or you could have role play, modeling again, or whatever your students need to be able to learn that. So practices can be quick, absolutely and responsive to what the specific need is at the time.
So we talked about rolling out routines and structures and all the steps that we might consider when doing that with all of the routines in our resource el education that we're using
now, a few last questions. Here we go. Kiana, the first one, how long should this take?
There is no hard and fast rule for that, okay, but you, like you mentioned earlier, Katie, we cannot just give up if it isn't happening immediately. It should take a couple of weeks for it to be completely fluent for the students, and that gives us that time also to observe. How is it going? Is there enough structure? Do they need more? Do they need less? What do we have to continue to provide for them? So I would say any intervention would take a solid six weeks of data collection, but don't believe that it is going to be prepared, that it is going to be learned and fluent by tomorrow. These are things that will take some time and some practice, and don't give up before you give them the opportunity to show what they know.
So I'm wondering, so we've been doing, you know, practicing and giving feedback and doing all the things for, you know, three or four weeks. And what's my next step? If I really feel like it's not working, I would say, step back and look at what part isn't working. Is it that it's not realistic? Is it actually? I told them I wanted no movement during this time, but then they're constantly asking me for materials. Step back and look at what part of it isn't working and modify that. I would not toss it all out, because I'm certain there are parts that are working. But just step back and look and see what isn't fitting what I need right now. And then you can change it from there or modify what you what your expectations are. I love the invitation just to do some data collection. If I'm being honest, I can remember times in my third grade classroom where things weren't going the way I hoped they would. And my first response was, I think I felt it like the tension in the body you're like this is really driving me crazy. And probably some responses that were maybe a little heated, as opposed to stepping back and just taking a breath and collecting data and asking myself, What am I noticing here? Because if you pay attention, our learners will tell us what they need.
Oh, man, they are not turning in papers the way we talked about. They are not turning in papers the way we agreed to. Okay, we need to revisit that, because I probably didn't give enough practice for that. And instead of like for me jumping to frustration and maybe my voice rising to stop and just pause for a minute and just let them tell me what they need, and allow that to determine what my next step is going to be with strengthening some of those behaviors. Two things with that, it can feel overwhelming, right when all of a sudden you feel like nothing's working, and now I have to switch all these things. So I really appreciate that. Take the step back. What is the one thing that we need to tweak right now? Like pick one? Yeah, I also appreciated that you you owned it as the teacher. I probably didn't teach that as explicitly as I needed to, and I think that's a big shift. It's not the kids fault if they know they're probably going to do it right. So I appreciate that. Sometimes we got to take that on and say I probably didn't do a good job at that. So I'm just going to reteach it. It's kind of just like that formative assessment piece of, what do they know, what can they show and if they need something different, then I need to adjust that or modify to that. Yeah, Katie, I love what you said about that with kids too. Yeah, kids have off days, just like we do. And yeah, you might forget, and their behaviors might get a little messy. And yes, we're going to give them reminders, but to include in some of that, like some self reflection, to say, Okay, I need to go back and reteach this and be okay with that, and I feel guilty about it, like it doesn't mean you haven't done your job. It just means we're all human, like I need to hear that again, and that's okay, absolutely all right, as we think about routines and structures, back to you across the table,
what's so good about having you here today is you speak this language every single day. You're in so many districts around a county having these conversations. So as you gather all of your experiences and all the things you've seen and all the photo albums of.
Of good practice that you've gathered from your classroom visits. Give us some hints as we support our learners with this, with literacy learning and student talk and working on some texts that might be difficult, all of these things, what are some hints or tricks Getting Started specifically around noise level. I think first, you need to know if your organization or your building has an already agreed upon guideline about what your noise levels would be. And so you want to have, if they don't choose one for your own classroom, and make sure that you are consistent with it and you teach it, but being able to display that in a way that is simple for the students to see and even be supportive, is essential to ensuring that they will be able to follow that expectation. I've seen just posters on the wall that list all of the noise levels, and then they will then teachers will point to them, or have students point to them. I've seen them where they have a poster, but they have a magnet that they move up and down to what the voice level is expected to be at that time, I've seen where teachers have little push lights that they will connect to their ex their voice level expectations. And those are fun, like, students enjoy being the person who is pushing it. So it'd be like, Katie, remember, we're at a voice level too. Can you hit the button? Kids love being able to be a part of that, and it gives them that opportunity to be a leader in their classroom as well. And when I think about noise levels, I really think about realistic noise levels, because if they're not realistic, you are going to get frustrated so often. You know, we go into classrooms and we see voice level zero, and then we see partner reading. Well, I'm not sure how we're going to partner read with a level zero, right, exactly. And I see a level one whisper a lot, but that's hard for kids. So I was in the classroom the other day, and she had a level two. And these teachers that that I brought in there, they were shocked, level two, like level two, that's crazy, but it wasn't. It was just a normal talking voice, and the teacher reflected, just since I've made it a level two, I've had zero problems when it was a level one, I was constantly redirecting that what that level one sounded like. So just that realistic. And don't be afraid if you're going to teach a level two, be explicit about it. What does that sound like? Absolutely. And that goes back to she noticed that she was re teaching that voice level over and over and over, but stepped back and said, Oh, okay, actually, I'm going to change it to what is more realistic. And I personally find a voice level zero to be impractical for any long period of time,
like across the board, sometimes learning learn not sometimes all the time learning is loud. Kids are talking and they're learning in quiet. Classrooms are not necessarily good, and talking doesn't equal chaos. It can but doesn't have to be if you have the structures in place that I think you know, sometimes we get so nervous that we're we're going to lose control of our classroom if it gets too loud. And that's the importance of the routines and structures you can talk and have conversations without it being chaos, and sometimes it takes practice to get there, but we can say because we've seen it, it can be done with practice.
Oh, man, so many good conversations and points to remember as we are setting up routines and structures from visualizing it to teaching routines, explicitly modeling it, having a visual providing feedback, and not being afraid to stick with it and offer additional practice if needed. And
that brings us to small steps, Kiana, as you think about our listeners, some who may be jumping into El education for the first time, and others who have been using this resource for years. If you can invite them to be mindful of one thing as we enter 2026
when thinking about setting up routines and structures, what small step might you invite them to consider
as you prepare to plan for these routines and structures, pause and anticipate anything that could possibly go wrong, and be sure that you are planning to teach what you would like to go right, and be sure to avoid those and address them before they become a problem. Having that plan in place and trying to think through all the details and can I add, like, give yourself some grace if you forget one, because we all forget one, and your kids will tell you if you forgot one, and then you circle back and you take care of it, right? They certainly will.
Well, they.
You go a small step to consider over the next few weeks, as you get back into the work
well, as we close up this episode, we hope you got some fuel in the tank and leave with some fresh energy for the weeks ahead. And we're going to close things off today with high fives and hitchhikers. Here's the cool thing, we have the power to re energize and refuel those around us. So find a colleague. It could be the person next door. It could be the person across the hall, maybe it's in another grade. Find that colleague and give them a high five. Tell them you got this remind them you're a rock star and pick them up as a hitchhiker, invite them to join the conversation and take a seat with us at the table. All the best to you and see you next time on fuel up.