Transitions

Always a hot topic, transitions!  I think that many times, teachers look to "effective transition" strategies as how to quickly get from one thing to another with ease.  But some kids are not geared towards quick transitions.  It would be wonderful if children were given toto fulfill themselves of one learning experience and then naturally move on to another.  The schedule of my classroom is more demanding that the children follow the group as a whole.  So children are given a five minute warning and then it is time for them to finish whatever it is that they are doing and line up or clean up or whatever the next instruction is.  Often, the more meticulous workers are either unable to finish or get hurried up to keep up with the group.  When the teacher assigns morning work, the children are allowed to get out the literacy tubs after they have finished all their work.  This makes it so the slower workers (either because of their attention to detail or their lack of understanding) don't get a lot of choice time with the literacy tubs.  It also makes it so that the students rush through their "work" so that they can "play".  (Don't get me started on this one.) 
My general thought on transitions and requiring that all kids have "hugs and bubbles" in the hallway is that teachers spent a lot of time and behavior management time trying to get all the kids to fulfill the expectation and it becomes a huge chore.  If transitional activities are fun, children are going to want to join in.  Also, I think there has to be sufficient time given up to the transition and children must know the routine, what to expect, etc so that the transition itself is not stressful or rushed.  We played a "game" coming from music to the room (the longest hallway "trek" of our week) to see if we could be so quiet as mice that Mrs. G (my mentor) wouldn't hear us even coming and we would surprise her.  It was fun and the children were so excited and engaged in the being "quiet" so I didn't have a struggle in the hallway fulfilling the school's hallway expectations.  I think that making transitions into a game that engaging students and interests them can turn it from a struggle to a fun learning opportunity.