Developing Your Classroom Rules


A classroom discipline plan (aka rules and consequences) is a primary hallmark of any effective teacher's classroom management system. You can't teach, and they can't learn if your classroom is chaotic. The classroom is not a home; it is a structured environment where children and students each have a role to play. Students want to know what to expect from you if their behavior does not meet your expectatations.

So how do you know what rules are good rules and what rules aren't. First of all, rules need to be observable. "Keep your hands and feet to yourself" is observable. "Be kind to one another" is not observable. Secondly, your rules need to be ones that you really are going to enforce. For example, when I first began teaching I had a rule that said, "You must bring all materials to class everyday." What I didn't know was that was a rule that I just wasn't going to enforce. I supplied pencils and paper for those who didn't have any, and I'd let students go back out to their locker to get their belongings with no penalty. It was just words on the wall, and the kids knew it.

A veteran teacher once told me to make a list of my pet peeves...those things that really irritated me as a teacher. So I did. Kids getting up in the middle of my lesson to throw trash away or sharpen a pencil really sent me over the edge as did the kid who dominated the entire class by blurting out. I then created my rules based on those things:

1. Be in your seat and ready to learn when I begin class.
2. Stay in your seat.
3. Raise your hand to speak; wait to be called upon.
4. Pay attention to the lesson.
5. Stay on task.

Not every teacher is going to have the same rules. It's your classroom, and you get to decide what your rules are for your classroom. So begin by writing down those things that you know are going to drive you crazy and develop your rules from there. Make them observable and make sure that you will enforce them.

One last thing, don't confuse "rules" with "procedures." I'll cover those in another blog.

Melissa



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