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Students need to know the procedures in your classroom. It helps if the grade level team have the same basic rules. Students want and need to know when and where they will be able to go to the bathroom, what to do if they lose a pencil or one breaks, where to put completed work, what happens if a student is absent and how to make up missed work. I spend the first two days teaching and practicing classroom procedures. I do refresher practices when a few weeks pass to reinforce the expectations.

Sydney, you are correct when you says that students don't respond well when the teacher is shouting. One method that I have found to get my students' attention is to actually talk more quietly. Students then have to stop talking to hear me. Once they have stopped talking then I resume speaking in a normal speaking voice.

You are also right about having a time for a brain break. I really liked this list of brain breaks from the Teacher Starter Blog.