There are three things I like about his new class rules:

1. They are short and succinct. It is so easy to get caught up in making your rules positive that you might lose sight of a child’s attention span. Remain in your seat at all times is cumbersome for young children to read and extraneous for older children. Short and sweet: “stay seated” works much better.
2. They are open to some interpretation. While this may seem counterproductive to some, having rules or “expectations” that are open to some interpretation can not only help students obey, but teach them about how to act in the real world as well. Be Polite can mean a variety of things on any given day –raise your hand instead of interrupting, scooting in your chair to prevent another child from tripping, helping a child pick up books or saying please and thank you.
3. There is a rule to encourage creativity. Teachers fail if students pass tests but do not enjoy learning because once the tests are finished, so is learning. The ultimate job of a teacher, despite what the government would have us believe, is to create life-long learners through making learning fun. Creativity needs be in every classroom. Having this as a rule or expectation can help encourage children to problem-solve, work out squabbles, figure out a new way to learn something or find a way to entertain themselves quietly while the teacher helps another child.

As school is getting ready to start, take a gander at your class rules. Are they too wordy? Do you teach life skills through the class rules? Are you encouraging children to love learning?

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1. Checklist for Writing Class Rules
2. 101 Classroom Management Tips
3. Q. How do I Motivate My Students?

Know your expectations.

You need to know what you expect of yourself and your students above all else. You cannot implement a behavior plan, manage discipline problems and keep students focused on learning if you do not know exactly what behavior you expect both from your students and yourself.

It is a good idea to write down your expectations for each part of your day. Consider printing out a schedule and writing in a list of expectations right on the schedule. Only then can you create an effective classroom management plan.

Key Two:

Teach students your expectations.

While knowing your expectations are vital towards creating a behavior management plan, students cannot possibly fulfill your expectations if they do not know them. Take time the first few days of school to explicitly teach, preferably through demonstration, your expectations for students. Be sure to have students practice these expectations and allow chances for them to ask clarifying questions.

Only after these two keys are completed, can you move on to teaching a well-managed classroom.

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2. 101 Classroom Management Tips
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Here are your five basic steps to handling any discipline problem effectively:

1. Take a breath – this will give you a moment to collect your thoughts and remain under control
2. Address the misbehavior – this is important to do appropriately, do not embarrass any student, but be sure that the student knows what he or she did wrong
3. Follow through with classroom consequences
4. Do not engage in excess conversation. Informing the student of the infraction and the consequence is enough, excess conversation only invites argument
5. Forgive and forget – leave the misbehavior behind as the lesson continues, giving all students the chance to learn both from the prepared lesson and from the example set

Read more tips here: Classroom Management Strategies for Teachers

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1. Classroom Discipline
2. Lesson Plans that Prevent Discipline Problems
3. Check List for Managing Misbehavior

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1. Lesson Plans that Prevent Discipline Problems
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How many Rules do you Have?

• Be sure to have at least three rules
• Class rules should be kept to five at the very most
• Combine rules to reduce the number and clarify more specifically to have more rules.

Positive Language for Class Rules

• Do the students know what to do after reading a rule?
• Each rule should state what students need to do rather than what they need to avoid doing.
• Reword rules as necessary

Class Rule Clarity

• Be sure there is no question as to what students are to do after reading the rules
• Analyze each rule – can it be stated more clearly?
• Can any rules have additional details added in order to ensure proper student behavior?

Teach and Reinforce Class Rules

• Did you teach students what each rule meant?
• Can students explain to a visitor what the class rules are?
• If faced with a hypothetical situation, could students explain which rule applies and why?
• Did you practice each procedure including lining up, preparing for lunch and recess and cleaning up at the end of the day?

It is never too late to go back and add or correct the classroom rules. In fact, starting fresh in the middle of the school year may make all the difference in the world and turn your problem class into a success story!

Related posts:

1. Rethink Your Classroom Rules
2. Q. How Many Class Rules Should I Have?
3. Rules for Classroom Rules

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Reflection of Student Behavior

This class can be taken back into control, but it will take a lot of work. First, the teacher needs to spend a week reflecting each day. Write down every misbehavior, what happened prior to the behavior and what happened after the behavior. Analyzing this information after a week will help the teacher see a bit more clearly if there is one student who is instigating the nightmare or if there is something else going on.

Start with a New Behavior Plan

If several weeks or months have gone by an there has been no positive change in the class behavior, it is time to scrap the behavior plan and put a new one in place. Find a way to motivate students to good behavior as opposed to threatening them to quit bad behavior. Over plan the implementation of the new behavior plan and prepare an entire day to introduce the plan and spend extra time reinforcing it.

Implement Individual Behavior Plans

If through analysis it becomes clear that there are a small number of students who instigate all the class issues, those students need to be addressed specifically. Writing an individual behavior plan is one great way to target the specific behaviors that cause the daily outbursts and behavior difficulties.

No matter how difficult the student’s behavior has become, it is important for teachers to realize that all behavior is able to be changed, even in a group setting. Keep reflecting and keep trying new things!

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According to Singapore Education Consultants, the lack of reasoning effectively helps to kill student curiosity. Part of the argument posed is that “making an effort to reason with the students and coming to a common understanding with the students helps students to take responsibility for what happens in the class.”

Every teacher would agree that having students help students, students taking responsibility and common understanding in the classroom are all huge factors that will help with any management plan. Many teachers misunderstand the focus behind reasoning with students, though.

Reasoning with students is not pleading with a student to understand the teacher’s viewpoint, or even trying to convince a student that a particular viewpoint is correct. This type of reasoning will only earn the teacher the reputation of being a push-over and create more out-of-control behavior in the classroom.

Instead, teachers need to use circumstances that come up to teach reasoning skills. When a student gets mad, it is vital that the child learns how to handle that anger in appropriate ways. Simply following the class rules to not hit or throw things is not enough. But then again, nor is following the law enough in the real world. Teachers need to be taking steps to teach students how to handle their emotions in appropriate ways while staying within the confines of the class rules or state laws.

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1. Kindergarten Behavior Plan Example
2. Rethink Your Classroom Rules
3. Obama’s Speech Opportunity for Behavior Management

While President Obama talks to students about setting and meeting goals this school year, teachers should look for ways to incorporate the class expectations into those goals.

Teachers can have class discussions about how students can meet the goals they set, using real goals as examples, and guide students into understanding how the class rules will help them meet those goals.

One possible activity is to have students pair goals with each class rule. So if the class rule is to raise your hand before speaking, a goal that can be paired with that rule is to learn to be more respectful of others in the classroom.

Some other ideas for pairing class rules with student goals:

• Stay seated in class – Do your best on all seat work/complete all assignments
• Always Walk in school – work slowly and carefully on assignments just as you walk slowly and carefully in the halls
• Be respectful of others – Respect the teacher’s time and write with neat handwriting

Have students help in pairing up goals with the class rules.

Read on for more extension ideas, or check out lesson plan ideas for President Obama’s Speech.

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2. Behavior Plans
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Class Rules:

1. Are the class rules posted at the student’s eye level?
2. Are there only 3-5 class rules posted?
3. Are the class rules stated in the positive instead of negative?
4. Is time set aside each day for the first week to review the class rules with the students?

Student Movement Around the Classroom:

1. Do you have a plan for allowing students to use the bathroom?
2. Do you have a plan for allowing students to sharpen their pencil?
3. Is the trash can located in a place that will not interrupt a line at the door or disturb students working?
4. Are student work bins located in a place that will not interrupt a line at the door or disturb students working?
5. Do you have a plan for allowing students to get a drink of water?

Handling Behavior Problems in the Classroom

1. Do you have a place to utilize for time-outs?
2. Do you have a place to speak to an individual student privately without disturbing other students?
3. Do you have a class telephone that you can use to call a student’s parent while keeping an eye on the rest of the class?
4. Do you have a hedgehog desk for students to go to and work when they feel annoyed/upset?
5. Do you have a reward/consequence plan in place?

Classroom Management

1. How will you get student’s attention?
2. How will you ensure students know what homework they have?
3. How will you arrange the student desks to optimize learning and minimize distractions?
4. How will the students be motivated to follow the rules? (rewards)
5. How will the students learn from their mistakes? (consequences)
6. Do you have administrative support for your classroom management plan?

Do serious behavior problems worry you? Find strategies for dealing with these behaviors.

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