Rules Two Through Five – setting the climate in your classroom

                The key to a well managed classroom and high student achievement is planning and consistency. You have to plan for troubles that will arise in the classroom that will keep students from learning. You have to remember that what you do in September will determine how you survive March madness. One way of doing this is to go over your classroom rules thoroughly at the very beginning of school. Through the years I noticed that students who were with me from day one usually were better behaved, on the whole, than students who came in later in the year. That opening week of school is crucial. Use it well.

                My rule two was ‘On Task.’ I asked to students to tell me what ‘on task’ would look like. Usually I got answers about doing your work, not talking, or being prepared. I explained that this rule started the moment the student entered the room and was in force until they walked out of the room. It didn’t matter if the bell had rung or not. Once they were in my room they were in my territory and my rules applied. Later in the year I would sometimes have trouble with students acting up before class, running around, horse playing (yes, even seniors!) or otherwise creating a disturbance. When I called them on it, I usually got this response: ‘The bell hasn’t rung yet.’ I was always ready to invoke rule two, reminded them as soon as they entered the room my rules applied. I seldom had troubles with this type of behavior after that first reminder. This, as I mentioned already, included not leaving the room until dismissed and being seated and quiet until dismissal.

                I taught one class with a special education co-op teacher. This was a very large class and had many problems in it. This same teacher also had these students in another co-op class that she co-taught in. She was absent for several weeks due to a family emergency. She had the same substitute teacher for the duration of her absence.  After the first day he asked me if it would be okay if he just stood back and watched me interact with the students. He commented again and again how he couldn’t believe the students stayed seated and quiet at the end of the period. That is the power of a rule well explained, practiced and then consistently enforced.

                Rule Three was ‘Respect yourself, others and things.’ As always when I introduced this rule I started by asking students what they thought it meant. As we discussed it, I asked what disrespect looked like and what respect looked like. I then asked why they thought ‘Respect yourself’ was the first thing. That always led to a variety of answers. After we talked about it for a bit, I would tell them that this included not cheating. That always got their attention. How did cheating break the rule about respecting yourself? I then explained that if you cheated you were doing two things: 1. You were denying yourself the chance to learn. 2. You were saying ‘I’m not smart enough to do this on my own.’ Both of these were disrespecting yourself. The other two parts were easier for them, since students have been hearing this since kindergarten.

                Rule Four was ‘Only One Person Talks.’ This rule is pretty much self-explanatory. The only thing I had to explain was that it included students asking questions or answering questions, as well as during presentations. Also I let the students know at this point that I had to follow my own rules. If they started talking then I couldn’t, so I would just quit wherever I was in the sentence and wait until I could be the only one talking. This was the most invoked rule in the classroom. If the class was having a ‘down time’ and needed to come back on task, I’d simply say, ‘Rule Four is now in force.’ If they started talking during class presentations I’d reminded them of Rule Four. I almost always referred to it by number and they all knew what Rule Four was.

                Rule Five was the one that even adults asked me what it meant. Rule Five: ‘No UFOs or IFOs.’ When I got to this rule I’d ask the students ‘What is a UFO?’ Invariably someone would offer that is was an unidentified flying object. I’d go on ‘Then what is an IFO?’ This would prove a little trickier but eventually I’d hear ‘Identified Flying Object.’ The last question for the class was ‘What does it mean?’ Again it didn’t take long before someone said ‘Don’t throw things.’ I explained that this referred to everything, no pencils tossed across the room, no erasers, no notebooks. Sometimes when I’d offer to lend a pencil to a student, the student would say ‘Just toss it to me.’ ‘Oh no, I can’t break my own rules’ I’d tell him as I handed him the pencil.

                These were my rules, some were easy to enforce, some harder, but they all worked for me and for my class. Find your own rules, never more than five, keep them two or three words long. If you can’t say it in two words at least keep it as brief. People remember quick slogans far longer than long dissertations. Most of all, abide by your own rules, set an example and be the model of good behavior. This will help you avoid trouble in your classroom.

               

                               

Rule Number One – covering classrooms rules the first day of school . . .

.  . . . or the second, if time runs out the first day.

                Your classroom rules needed to be posted prominently in the classroom. This is necessary for two reasons: one, the administration usually requires it; two, you will need to refer to this posting off and on during the course of the school year to prevent troubles in your classroom and smooth out your classroom management.

                My rules were always numbered and Number One was always “Follow Directions.” I spent the better part of the period going over rule one. I gave students the option of just listening or taking notes, however, they needed to understand that questions about the rules would be on the first quiz, test and on the semester final exam. The multiple choice questions would be about what I said about each rule, the rules would be the answers to choose from.

                My teaching style involved a great deal of asking questions prior to giving information. The discussion of the rules followed the same format. I started by telling students that rule one was ‘Follow Directions’ and then I asked why they thought that was the first rule. The answers would vary from they needed follow directions in order to be successful in class to more specific answers, such as lab safety. If no one answered ‘because it covers everything,’ I would go on to ask if there was anything that might happen in class that this rule didn’t apply to. Then I got the required response.

                Stories are a really powerful way of teaching. Often I find students remember the story long after they have forgotten the principle. Discussion of rules also involved story telling. I would tell them this story about a time this rule had meant the difference between severe problems in class and a successful outcome. I had a student many years ago who was very unstable. He was a big kid, larger than most ninth graders. I kept him in a seat separated from the rest of the class as much as possible in an attempt to avoid trouble between him and the other students. One day, just at the start of class, I saw he had not gone to his seat, but was standing over another students and he had his fists clenched. He was yelling, “What did you say about me?” His tracker (she followed extreme at-risk students)was in the room at the time. She was trying to get him to go to the library. I was saying ‘It’s time to go,’ but he absolutely refused to budge. Finally I said to the seated student, “Apologize.” That student answered, ‘But I didn’t say anything.’ My answer: “I know you didn’t, but apologize anyway.” His reply, ‘But I didn’t say anything.” Finally I looked right at him and said, “Rule number one is follow directions, I am giving you a direction; now follow it. Apologize.” With that the seated student said “I’m sorry.” The standing student relaxed and left the room with the tracker. The rest of the story: he was removed from school after that and sent to a special program for troubled students.

                I then told my students that this was my favorite rule and asked for their input on way that was the case. Answered varied, but usually centered on the fact that it covered everything. This is where I would have to explain: ‘This is my favorite rule because I have the most fun with it.” That usually resulted in puzzled looks from the entire class. The explanation required me to get a student to role play, which was always fun for the class to watch.

                The story goes like this: ‘For some reason this is a guy thing, so ladies, if you don’t want to listen you don’t have to. A guy does something that is rather annoying, like tapping his pencil.’ I turn to the role-playing student and ask him to tap his pencil. Then I turn to him and say. ‘Please don’t tap your pencil.’ At this point he is instructed to slouch back in his seat, fold his arms over is chest, look at the rules out of the corner of his eye and say, ‘And where on your rules does it say I can’t?” His body language now tells the world he thinks he’s ‘got’ me. At this point I am delighted. I tell my students that I now have him in the palm of my hand and am about to squash him like a bug..  I answer in all innocence, “Please read rule one.” He obliges: “Fol-low dir-ec-tions.” This young man deflates like a blow-up toy that just got all the air let out of it.

                I explain to the students that I tell this story so they don’t embarrass themselves, and then I go on: “One year I told this story at the beginning of the semester, as always. Later in the year we were doing an activity using pipettes. I know pipettes make excellent squirt guns, but you are not to use them at way. I tell you right in the instructions do not use these are squirt guns.  As we were doing the lab, I saw a young man squirting his partner with a pipette. I said ‘Don’t use it as a squirt gun.’ He reply: ‘And where . . .’ At that point the entire class burst out laughing. Immediately he knew he had just shot himself in the foot. He put his face in his hands and almost cried.”

                After you have taught for a few years you always have many stories that come from your classroom. Use them to illustrate the reason for your rules. Students will remember those rules for years after they leave you class. And they will help ease your classroom management problems. After all, who wants to become the story for coming years’ students to hear?

               

The First Day of School – covering class rules and procedures

                The first day of school is the most important day to gets kids attention. This is the one day of the school year when students are intimidated by coming back to school. For some, it is the first day at a new school in a new town, but even for those who are returning, this is a new year, there are new teachers to learn about and new subjects to master. This is the best day to avoid trouble with students in class by being proactive. This day, and for the next week or two of the ‘honeymoon’ period ,is the perfect time to be certain that students know and understand the rules of the classroom. This includes not just problems but procedures as well. If you as a teacher follow these tips, you will reduce the troubles in your class for the rest of the year.

                How much you will be able to cover that first day will depend on how your school schedules the first day of school. I have had anywhere from a full block period of 93 minutes to a half hour per class. No matter how much time you have or don’t have there are a few things that need to be covered. The first is the procedure of handing in papers. After I have taken care of the required paper work of the first day, I have students hand back the half sheet assignment they were given at the beginning of class. I told them exactly how these were to be handed up the rows, then I chose a student seated on the front row to collect all the papers and place them on my desk.

                Next students were told how to pass their papers for grading. This first assignment was not one with right or wrong answers. If all questioned were answered and the student’s name was entered along with the date and period, full credit was received. Students were instructed to put the grade at the top middle of the paper in this form: grade earned/total grade. Usually this first paper was worth no more than 10 points so the grade was likely to be a 10/10. Each paper was handed back to the student who did it, looked over for accuracy and then handed to the front in the same manner that the half sheet was handed. They now had their first grade for the class on the first day of school. More importantly, they also had been introduced to the procedure that would be used on a daily basis.

                I explained to the students that they could expect to be greeted at the door everyday with a short, or long, assignment. Every class started with a short quiz or worksheet that they would do when they first entered the room. There was no reason for any student to be off task in the first few minutes of class. Besides limiting the amount of trouble students would get into at the beginning of class, it gave me time to take role, using my seating chart, and do the other clerical work required of me at the beginning of each class.

                No matter how little time I had on the first day of school, there was one rule I always covered: On task. I expected students to be on task through the entire class period including after the final bell. This meant they had to be seated and quiet at the end of class before I would dismiss class. I had to remind them, ‘the bell does not dismiss class, I dismiss class. The bell merely tells me it is time, however your behavior will determine how soon I am able to dismiss. If everyone is seated and quiet I will dismiss as the bell is ringing, otherwise I will wait until such time as you are all cooperating, even it that takes awhile.’ Some times that was the only class rule I was able to cover that first day, and sometimes is was covered when I saw I only had a few minutes until the bell. Students never were given the option of getting up and running out without my permission.

                When students ask why I demand they stay seated and quiet before dismissal, I explain: When kids are allowed to mill around the room at any time, but especially when they cluster around the door waiting for the bell, is when theft and vandalism are most apt to happen. By keeping student seated until the bell I prevent that sort of trouble in my classroom.

                The next post will cover my other classroom rules and how I present them.

               

More to do before the first day of school – preventing troubles by getting kids to recognize that you are boss

                Your goal as a responsible teacher is to avoid trouble in your classroom. You keep from being a troubled teacher by following this tip: let the students know, before they ever walk into your classroom, that you are in control. Like it or not, you must be recognized as the authority in your classroom. If you don’t take on that role, you and your students will suffer and you’ll soon learn the meaning of troubled teacher. Sorry, but that is the truth of the matter. I know when you first come out of your training, you are convinced that the classroom is a democracy and everybody must have an equal say. Nonsense. Your classroom is a benevolent dictatorship. And you are the dictator.  It has to be that way in order for it to function.

                I’m sorry, but it makes no difference what a great person you are or how much the kids like you personally. It makes zero difference that you know your subject inside and out, and that you have wonderful lesson plans. If your students are out of control, no learning will take place. In my years in the classroom, both as a teacher and a substitute, I saw many teachers who failed because of this one factor. I have had many students talk to me about the problems they have trying to learn in an out-of-control class. These are indeed troubled classrooms.

                Note that your room is to be a benevolent dictatorship. I have seen, heard and had students tell me about teachers that forgot the benevolent part. They ruled with an iron hand, but engendered fear and hatred in their students. You do not have to go in that direction to keep your students under control, out of trouble and learning.

                It all starts out with a simple, subtle first step. You will make a seating chart before you ever meet your students. This is the method that I found worked the best for me, and, I assure you, I tried out many different ones through the years. I would tape a number to the desk top of each desk. If I had a room with tables instead of desks the table was given a letter and then each place at the table was numbered. I then wrote the number of the seat the student was assigned to next to his name on my roster and filled in that name on the seating chart for that class period.

                Yes, I have had to deal with years the rosters weren’t ready and I had to go back to school on Saturday or Sunday to get them. Some years there was no roster until the first day of school. Then I had cards filled in with the desk number, I handed each student one on her way in. The student put her name on the card and handed it back it so I could fill out the seating chart.

                Along with the seating assignment I had a half sheet that had a short assignment on it ready to give each student. Students were not allowed to write on these. They had to use their own paper. This started training them for the entire year, since I only made classroom copies of assignments. On the top of the paper was the exact form that I wanted them to use to enter their names, dates, class periods on every paper.

                Here’s how all this looked at my door. The first bell rings. I am standing at my door. I have a clipboard in my hand with the student roster on it and a pen. I also have the half sheet assignment under the clip board. Yes, this is a handful but it works. As a student comes up to the door I greet him and ask his name. I check off the name on my roster and tell him his seat number. I take his official schedule sheet from him and hand him the assignment, saying “Please start on this right away.” No student is allowed into my room without first interacting with me.

                Usually students cooperate with me, even when there is still a line at the door when the tardy bell rings. There are always those students who inform me I am wrong keeping them in the hall so long. My answer:  “Too bad.” Then almost every year there would be one student who pushed his way past all the students waiting in line, pushed his way past me to enter the classroom. At that point I had identified one on my problems. I firmly informed him he had to go back to the end of the line and talk with me before he entered. When he gave me his name I entered a star next to his name, reminding me that he would need some special attention from me in order to avoid troubles later in the year.

                Class had just started and I had already accomplished several things. I had my class list and knew who my no-shows were. I didn’t need to take role. It was already done. I had all the schedules to sign and the students were busy with their assignment, so I had time to initial each schedule. If a student had come to the wrong room, I had already sent them on to their correct room without any waste of time, so didn’t need to worry about misdirected students.

                This also let the students know that I was in control, this was my classroom, not theirs, and at no time did they ‘own’ the room. The first day of school was hectic for me, but it was worth the trouble. It went smoothly and set a good beginning for the rest of the school year.

               

Starting the school year off right – what to keep from being a troubled teacher

The time to work towards a good school year is before you become a troubled teacher. Here are some tips to help keep you out trouble once you get students
Classroom management is not taught in college, yet lack of this skill is the major reason many teachers only stay in the profession three years or less. Let’s face it – the key to classroom management is to let the kids know whose boss, and it’s not them. This needs to happen before the students ever walk in your school room door. You accomplish your goal of being in charge by doing a lot of work before school ever starts.

1.       Look around your room. How are the student’s desks arranged? Will the layout give you the maximum number of front row seats? If you use the traditional square or rectangular layout you have the minimum front row seats, unless your room is really wide. I always taught in rooms that were too small for the number of students that I had, so I had to maximize my front row space. I did it using a V layout. This had several advantages for me. I was able to move into the student area to teach, all students were looking at me and the board, or screen, and no student was more than four or five desks back. I could arrange it so that students in the back of the room were still in the front row. Keeping as many kids a possible in front-row seats saved me from a lot of trouble later.

Number of desks can be expanded by reducing the teaching area. I always had to be prepared for 40 students per class.

2.       Again look around your room. Where is your desk? Today with computer network hookups, LCD hookups and printer hookups, you may not have a lot of choice of where your desk goes in the room. However you do have the ability to position your desk and book shelves in the area you are restricted to. I did not want students coming behind my desk at any time. So I angled my desk to narrow the access route to my area, then I placed book shelves against the wall to narrow it even more. This helped cut down on the problems of theft and kids getting into my drawers by being a visible reminder for students to stay away. It stopped trouble before it ever began. The book shelves also acted as a place I could organize papers that would otherwise have landed on my desk.

This was my favorite set up. I had to adapt it for different classrooms.

3.       For a third time look around your room, only this time look at what you’ve put on the walls. What you chose for posters and room decorations give the students in immediate idea of what type of teacher you are. Is your room all frilly, giving the viewer the idea you are a fluffy sort of person? Is it over decorated, indicating that you are probably not as well organized as you might be? (Also remember the fire code on this one.) Is it straight forward with posters that apply to your area of teaching or filled with you-can-do-it posters? Or is it totally plain. Be objective when looking around your room at your additions. Would you want to have this person for a teacher? A well thought out plan for decoration you keep you out of trouble with the safety inspector, too.

Remember your room reflects who you are and what you expect from your students. Put some time and thought into how you arrange it and decorate it. Leave it for the weekend, when you come in on Monday stop and really look at what you have done with it. Are you comfortable with the message is gives? Do you feel less troubled about the coming year? If so, you are ready to start working on the first day of school.