Classroom Expectations
1. Be respectful of your peers and teacher
2. Come to class prepared and ready to learn
3. Put forth your best effort
4. Pay attention, participate and ask questions
5. Obey all school rules
Rationale
While rules are never fun in general, they are necessary to keep order in a classroom. However, I feel like there is such a harsh connotation associated with the word "rules." As a result, in my classroom I will call my rules "expectations" instead. This will hopefully help create a positive environment. These are the expectations I created for my hypothetical classroom. In actuality, I would like to come up with the classroom expectations with the students. As was stressed during the classroom management presentation and in the textbook, "It is useful to involve students in rule setting to promote student ownership of the rules and more student responsibility for their own behavior" (Emmer and Evertson 32). I would have students get into groups and brainstorm some ideas of expectations they think are important for our class. We will then come together and share all the ideas and eventually vote on 4-6 that will become our permanent classroom expectations.
However while we are creating this theoretical classroom website, I do not have a real class to help create the rules. I therefore came up with five expectations I think are vital for an efficient classroom, although I strongly expect that the rules decided upon by the students would look pretty similar to these as well. As mentioned in the classroom management workshop, there are general and specific rules. The 5 expectations I listed are all relatively general because I feel that most specific rules I would want to list fall underneath one of these general expectations. For example, the textbook lists a lot of sample rules, such as: bring all needed material to class, be in your seat and ready to work when the bell rings, respect and be polite to all people, listen and stay seated when someone is talking, respect other people's property, and obey all school rules (Emmer and Evertson 31). Bringing all materials to class and being in your seat and ready to work when the bell rings both fall under expectation #2. Being respectful and polite to all people, listening and staying seated when others are talking, and respecting other people's property all fall under expectation #1. The last rule suggested, obey all school rules, is not directly related to any of the others, so that is why it is its own expectation.
Expectations 3 and 4 are slightly more specific than the other ones. They both have to do with student motivation and involvement in the classroom. I know that all my students are not going to like history or exceed at it. But I would like them to at least try and give their best effort. This is why I created an expectation asking them to try their hardest (#3), and then I even explained how they can do that in #4 by paying attention, participating and asking questions. Overall, I expect these to be valuable expectations that I will use in my future classroom, but with input from my students as well of course!
However while we are creating this theoretical classroom website, I do not have a real class to help create the rules. I therefore came up with five expectations I think are vital for an efficient classroom, although I strongly expect that the rules decided upon by the students would look pretty similar to these as well. As mentioned in the classroom management workshop, there are general and specific rules. The 5 expectations I listed are all relatively general because I feel that most specific rules I would want to list fall underneath one of these general expectations. For example, the textbook lists a lot of sample rules, such as: bring all needed material to class, be in your seat and ready to work when the bell rings, respect and be polite to all people, listen and stay seated when someone is talking, respect other people's property, and obey all school rules (Emmer and Evertson 31). Bringing all materials to class and being in your seat and ready to work when the bell rings both fall under expectation #2. Being respectful and polite to all people, listening and staying seated when others are talking, and respecting other people's property all fall under expectation #1. The last rule suggested, obey all school rules, is not directly related to any of the others, so that is why it is its own expectation.
Expectations 3 and 4 are slightly more specific than the other ones. They both have to do with student motivation and involvement in the classroom. I know that all my students are not going to like history or exceed at it. But I would like them to at least try and give their best effort. This is why I created an expectation asking them to try their hardest (#3), and then I even explained how they can do that in #4 by paying attention, participating and asking questions. Overall, I expect these to be valuable expectations that I will use in my future classroom, but with input from my students as well of course!