Greeting At The Door

Morning Greeting of Students At The Door

Greetings Matter

The daily greeting between a student and teacher is a special moment. It is a key transition of the day and must be carried out with respect, care and consistency. The initial greeting can often set the tone for the day ahead. Therefore, it is important to make the initial greeting a joyful one so that the child feels welcomed and respected. This is the time that you may also notice indications of stress and/or hyper vigilance in your students and can be proactive immediately. Upon the daily practice of this routine, that will occur again and again; each Holiday Park student should feel genuinely cared for and know that you will be looking forward to seeing him/her again.

Children with social inability may not say hello to people they know. They may walk right past them and not even look at them. If they do speak, they may not make eye contact and may simply look down at the floor. If they do say hello, it might not be in a very friendly tone of voice or with a smile. The nonverbal parts of greeting someone are just as important as the words. It’s not so much what you say but how you say it that lets people know you are glad to see them. Modeling greetings throughout the day for our students will benefit them over the span of their lives. Greetings Matter.

In developing positive teacher-child relationships, it is important to remember to:

• Engage in one-to-one interactions with children
• Get on the child’s level for face-to-face interactions
• Use a pleasant, calm voice and simple language
• Provide warm, responsive physical contact – handshake, elbow shake, toe touch, there are many examples to choose from.

Do Greetings Matter To You Throughout Your Day?

Do you greet your family when you come home with hugs, kisses and kind words instead of walking through the door with your phone attached to your ear?  The way we greet people we care about communicates love, warmth and the fact that “they matter.”

Despite communicating the importance of this practice last year we, unfortunately, did not sustain this practice campus-wide over time. Positioning myself to monitor this each morning became difficult and stressful. This practice is not task oriented. It is heart oriented. If we believe that children matter and that the way we greet each other informs us, both socially and non-verbally, that we matter, then this practice would grow wings and fly. We are fortunate to be heading in the direction of balance this year. Balance between our academic goals and our new social and emotional goals. With enough support and PD on our students and our social impact on them, it is highly likely this will become your favorite part of the day.

The Daily Greeting: A Respectful Routine for Your Classroom

Initial greeting:

• Lower yourself to the student’s height and attain eye contact
• Extend your hand with a warm smile, and be sure to maintain eye contact
• As you shake hands, verbally welcome the student and exchange some sort of dialogue. For example, “Good morning, Johnny. It is so nice to see you this morning. How are you today?”
• The child should be encouraged, but never forced to respond positively. For example, “I’m fine, Teacher Bree. How are you, today?”
• Be sure to respond to the child and thank him for asking. For example, “I’m very well, today Johnny. Thank-you for asking.”

You may be the first stable adult your students will have at this point in their journey.
You may be their beacon for a brighter tomorrow.

The Research Behind Greeting

R. Allan Allday, University of Kentucky, did two studies (reported in Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2007 and 2011) based on the door greeter technique he read about in The First Days of School:

1.      Effects of teacher greeting on student on-task behavior

2.    Effects of teacher greeting to increase speed to on-task engagement

In both studies, observers clocked a select group of students over a period of time in a class period to see if they were on task or off task.

In the classroom where the teacher greeted the students at the door, there was an increase in student engagement from 45 percent to 72 percent.  This was recorded when the students worked on the assignment and presented no discipline problems.

In the second study, students got on task faster when they were greeted at the door, in comparison to the control class that was not greeted.

Allan says that in the classroom management class he teaches at the university, his primary focus is on changing teacher behavior, because teacher behavior (the hardest behavior to change in a classroom) impacts student behavior.

Links:

Greeting kids at the door

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w30n50uJuuw

Sample greeting at the door

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RGuXdeLs6g

What Is the Scientific Basis for This Practice?

For those wishing to explore this topic further, the following researchers have studied teacher-child relationships in educational  settings:

Birch, S. H., & Ladd, G. W. (1998). Children’s interpersonal behaviors and the teacher-child relationship. Developmental Psychology, 34(5), 934-946.

Howes, C., & Hamilton, C. E. (1993). The changing experience of child care: Changes in teachers and in teacher-child relationships and children’s social competence with peers. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 8(1), 15-32.

Howes, C., Philips, D. A., & Whitebook, M. (1992). Thresholds of quality: Implications for the social development of children in center-based child care. Child Development, 63(2), 449-460.

Kontos, S. (1999). Preschool teachers’ talk, roles, and activity settings during free play. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 14(3), 363-383.

Pianta, R. C., Steinberg, M. S., & Rollins, K. B. (1995). The first two years of school: Teacher-child relationships and deflections in children’s classroom adjustment. Development and Psychopathology, 7(2), 295-312.

Webster-Stratton, D., Reid, M. J., & Hammond, M. (2001). Preventing conduct problems, promoting social competence: A parent and teacher training partnership in Head Start. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 30(3), 238-302.

Zanolli, K. M., Saudargas, R. A., & Twardosz, S. (1997). The development of toddlers’ responses to affectionate teacher behavior. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 12(1), 99-116.

This What Works Brief was developed by the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning. Contributors to this Brief were M. M. Ostrosky and E. Y. Jung.