greet each student at the door with a “secret” handshake. This connects me to each student each day. They are required to say something appropriate like, “Good morning Ms. Allred.” or “Hi, Ms. A. how are you?” I do the same. It is teaching social skills. They need to do it regardless of whether they are happy, sad, angry, etc. as it is a social norm in our society to be polite. I then have a second to address them if they appear to be upset, super happy, etc. so they know I care. Works wonders. Takes less than 3 minutes to greet a class of 30.
