plans for school year

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plans for school year
By Maggie

Dear Erica,

My first year I hung rules on the wall, and told the kids that they had to follow them. I then told them what the consequences would be if they didn't follow them. If they didn't follow them, I took away recess
and/or called parents. I had the steps of the consequences at the front--very traditional. I had a total of five rules on the wall, which included raising hand, asking for permission to get out of seat, etc. I had a very tough group of fourth graders that year, and having rules basically meant nothing to them. I am not sure if even "good" kids will respond to rules which are dictated

to them.

My second year--last year--I said to myself, "Okay, having rules is good. Now, maybe I should have the kids decide what rules are important in the classroom." So we set out of the first day or two of school and brainstormed what they considered to be important rules for them to follow. They did a wonderful job of doing this. I wrote them on the board as they told them to me. When they were finished with all of them, I told them that their rules all boiled down to two major issues of respect and responsibility. I wrote on a piece of poster board and posted to the front of the room: Do unto others as you want them to do to you. That one rule covers a great deal: raise your hand (so that you don't deprive another student of his right to answer), respect others' things, keep your hands and feet to yourself, treat others kindly, etc. So, basically, our golden rule covered it all.

This year, I am going to continue to do this, except I plan to incorporate class meetings on a regular basis, because kids do forget the golden rule now and then and have issues they need to discuss.