The start of a new year brings excitement and some anxiety. The week before the students return, which is considered our teacher’s professional development, I jot down new ideas for my classroom. The Marzano strategies I used were: “using a small set of rules and procedures” and “explaining rules and procedures to students.” Typically, I develop lessons or new rules for the school year. Last school year, I began adding to my course syllabus for my tenth grade class. I wrote statements such as, “Bookbags and purses are to be along the wall during class time, and no purses are to be placed on your laps during testing.” By the end of the school year, my syllabus had extended to a list of twenty statements.
Rules and procedures are needed within a class to maintain order, respect, and safety. Without fundamental rules, your classes will quickly become a free-for-all for misbehavior. Within my classroom, I place a list of five classroom rules on a poster in the front of the class. According to Marzano, “…consider the strategy of using a small set of rules and procedures” (81). I have five rules: Be on time, Be prepared, Be Respectful, Be Accountable, and Be Consistent. These rules were developed at my former school and placed in every classroom, hallway, and cafeteria. Along with the rules, I have posters that state what each rule looks like and consequences for the breaking the rules. The key to maintaining good classroom management is to be consistent with the consequences. Some years, my classroom management was better than others. You have to adjust your rules and consequences to fit your classroom needs.
Last year, one of my procedures was to sign a sheet when you arrived late with the date and time. After being tardy three times, you were given a thirty-minute after school detention. I had a split class during the lunch hour. A split class means I had students report to class, break for lunch, and return after lunch. Three young men consistently returned ten minutes late or did not return to class. I had to modify my consequences. Instead of giving a detention after being late three times, I called parents and wrote an office referral. The students were upset because they had to serve Saturday school, but providing after school detention for the infraction was not changing their behavior.
This school year, I distributed the new syllabus with twenty procedures. Some of the procedures explained that hats and headphones were not appropriate for the class. My most anticipated procedure was the rule about a cell phone. Last year, cell phones were nuisance. I had a policy that students had to put their cell phone on my desk if they were caught with it out. Unfortunately, I stood by many of my students’ desks with my hand out, trying to retrieve the cell phone. Sometimes, they would question why they had to hand me the phone or would defend why they had the phone out. This took away valuable class time, and I quickly became frustrated with the behavior, but I was consistent. One co-worker stated that she called the parent the first time she saw the phone out, and for the rest of the year, she never a problem with a cell phone from that student. I tested her cell phone policy during summer school, and it worked. The first day, I made my statement of no cell phones. Someone had their phone out, so I stopped what I was doing and called a parent. The issue was resolved, and the phone was never an issue from the student.
As a teacher, you have to be firm. I only called parents during class time if the behavior was excessive. However, I learned that I was stunting my growth and my student’s growth by accepting negative behaviors within the class. Take charge of your class. Set respectful rules, post the rules so that everyone can see them, and be consistent. Diffuse negative behavior quickly. As a veteran teacher, I can see being firm as a teacher can really make a successful year where students feel respectful and safe. Tell me in the comments below how you manage your class with rules and procedures.
Read about more tips that helped me become a stronger classroom mananger here.
Work Cited
Marzano, Robert. The New Art and Science of Teaching. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press, 2017.
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