Applying Classroom Rules and Procedures

The first step to applying classroom rules and procedures is to be clear about your expectations and establish and practice routines from the first day of school. Spending time in the beginning of the year setting the tone in your classroom will pay off later in the year, allowing more time for learning. When there are disruptions throughout the day when students are not following procedures it can be detrimental to learning. The important thing to remember is your students can't be expected to follow classroom procedures and rules if they don't understand them. Be clear, consistent and when in doubt,  do what you say and mean what you do. Follow through and follow up. Remember that sometimes a situation is not what it seems, give the benefit of the doubt to the student, and be sure to listen. 

Once rules and procedures are established there are strategies that can be used for helping students and reinforcing behaviors in a positive way. When you have a student that does not follow a rule the first thing to think about is why. In my experience working with primary grades the most common reason is to seek attention. As a teacher you have a choice, will you respond to this behavior with negative attention or positive? Take for example a minor behavior such as talking out of turn or getting distracted. More often than not a simple redirection can do the trick. The key is to phrase it in a positive way. "Josh, what do you think?" or "Will you please join our circle, we want you to be part of it." A reminder such as this is far more effective than telling the student what not to do. As long as it is done in a calm, cool tone, you can point out the behavior of the student. "Josh I can see you forgot to raise your hand, will you please try again so we can hear what you have to say." Sometimes a student doesn't even realize what they are doing. Maybe they got really excited or finally knew the answer to something, when you stop to take a closer look you will find that most students who do not follow a classroom rule or procedure are not doing it out of blatant defiance. A teacher should never address intention with a student for a behavior. 

An important aspect to classroom management is reinforcing positive behaviors. It is easy to get caught up in giving reminders and redirecting, but one of the most effective strategies in my experience is reinforcing positive behaviors. There are a variety of ways to do this. Teachers can give praise, establish token economies and provide parents with positive feedback about their child. It is important to remember that students should be motivated by positive reinforcement. Teachers should be careful to reinforce desired behaviors, but not get caught up in giving rewards, tangible or otherwise for general behaviors that are already expected, such as "doing a good job" or "that's great."  Too much of this has the effect of teaching students that they will get rewards for everything in life, rather than reinforcing hard work and the feeling that it brings when you succeed. Success for one child might look very different than for another, and as a classroom teacher you must be aware of this. It is my own personal philosophy to reward with experiences. For example, in my class each class period students have an opportunity to earn one extra minute of their "Friday Fun" for the entire class. I use Too Noisy Pro for this, and set the sensitivity of the app accordingly. If it's art class it might be less sensitive than during writing time. If they earn ten stars in the class period. If they continuously lose stars and don't earn all ten in a class period, they lose a minute of their Friday Fun. Friday fun is a time each week where we have free time at the end of the day. For the last period of class we either watch a movie, use iPad apps, play board games, do arts and crafts, really anything that is fun and school appropriate. Some teachers choose to reward in this way with food or items, however I feel strongly about giving an experience. I find that students are more invested when it's something they spend time for. They also do a wonderful job of holding each other accountable which can sometimes be more valuable than reminders or consequences from adults. At the end of the week I also recognize a student for their achievements. There is no tangible reward, but rather a note home and a short explanation to the class of why this student was chosen. This is actually something that was the idea of my students. They asked me to do this, so I do. Another example of buy in, when students feel they are part of something they are more invested. 

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