CHAPTER 5: AND THEN CAME THE RULES
Mrs. Cooper: Now, let’s talk about the classroom rules which are in connection to the question Diana had asked earlier about the “Star Chart”. So why do we have classroom rules? Can anyone answer this question?
(Cynthia raises her hand), Mrs. Cooper: Yes Cynthia
Cynthia: To avoid bad behaviors
Mrs. Cooper: Correct, anyone else?
(Jaime raises his hand), Mrs. Cooper: Yes Jaime
Jaime: For security and safety reason
(Carl raises his hand), Mrs. Cooper: Yes Carl
Carl: To maintain order so that students are able to focus on their learning
Mrs. Cooper: That is correct, great job Cynthia, Jaime and Carl, well done. As you have heard, it is important that we have classroom rules in order to maintain discipline, order and students are able to focus on their learning.
Mrs. Cooper: As you can see I have prepared some classroom rules which I will read them out to you (Mrs. Cooper begun reading the rules). We have about thirty six classroom rules.
The entire class: Wow, those are a lot of classroom rules.
Different voices speaking: Those are too many, are we expected to remember all of them? How can we remember all of them? What will happen if we forget one of them or any of the classroom rules? And here I was thinking and saying to myself that third grade was going to be so cool, now I am thinking more like a nightmare in hell. I turned around and looked at Jaime and Chris to get their reaction; eyes wide open, shrugging their shoulders, shaking their heads not sure what exactly was going on……
Mrs. Cooper: Quiet everyone, calm down, let me finish reading and explaining the classroom rules then we shall do our first activity in connection to the “Star Chart”.
After hearing what Mrs. Cooper said, thoughts started racing in mind, especially when she mentioned the “activity” but I told myself, Diana, “calm down, can’t be that bad and besides this is not your home, so rules are rules and must be followed.”
As I am listening to her read she explains the classroom rules which were quite a long list I might add:
1. Ask questions
2. Respect and listen to your classmates
3. Respect and listen to your teacher
4. Raise your hand to speak
5. Be prepared for class
6. Be quiet when the teacher is talking
7. Be quiet when classmates are talking
8. Share new ideas
9. Keep your hands to yourself
10. Respect other’s property
11. Keep your workspace tidy
12. Be kind
13. Always do your best
14. Walk, don’t run, in the hallways
15. Be a good friend
16. Be on time
17. Share with others
18. Use equipment properly
19. Help keep the classroom tidy
20. Listen to all the teachers
21. Obey all school rules
22. Finish your homework on time
23. Be respectful of classmates who are working
24. Have a good attitude
25. Use positive language
26. Line up neatly and quietly
27. Stay in your seat
28. Listen with your ears and your eyes
29. Contribute to discussions
30. Be respectful of other’s ideas
31. Follow the teacher’s directions the first time they are given
32. Cooperate with your classmates
33. Be creative
34. Be honest
35. Use technology appropriately
36. Be proud of your work.
After Mrs. Cooper finished reading the last classroom rules, the whole class went, wow, and we all started laughing, almost like it was a relief even Mrs. Cooper herself started laughing. I could see a lot of my students were already sweating including me, and were not sure what was the next move or statement to be said by Mrs. Cooper.
In my mind saying a prayer was like ‘here we go, may we all be saved’.
Mrs. Cooper: Right, now that I have read all thirty six of the classroom rules, we are now going to do two to two activities.
Activity 1: From these thirty six classroom rules, we are going to select the ten MOST IMPORTANT rules that apply to our classroom and are rules that MUST be followed every day in our class. If you have other classroom rules you wish to add to your list do write them down and shall be shared in the class.
Activity 2: Thirty six rules are way too many (everybody’s nodding their faces in agreement with Mrs. Cooper-what was so funny was watching how in sync their nodding was), so we are going to divide these classroom rules into two categories. The first category will be called “The Ten MOST IMPORTANT Classroom Rules” and the second category will be called “Weekly Star Awards” these awards will be given to students who do well or do something nice or helpful to or for other students in their classroom. For example ‘being kind, or sharing with your classmates, or being creative in your work”. I will decide which students get the “Weekly Star Awards” and the students’ will get a star and a certificate. The star will be placed next to your name under which category of the award you received on the “Star Chart” This is what the “Star Chart” will be used for in our classroom, so it is not just about following the classroom rules, but also learning how to be a loving, caring, independent, and organized student.
Mrs. Cooper: Any questions?
(Susan raises her hand), Mrs. Cooper: Yes Susan
Susan: For the first activity, are we working as a class or in our seated groups?
Mrs. Cooper: Good question Susan. You will all work in your seated groups; each table will receive a copy of the thirty six classroom rules and two different color markers blue and green. We will first identify the top ten most important rules which are to be circled using the blue marker. You can also add other classroom rules, not mentioned. Once we have completed that task, each group will present their classroom rules, and then we shall make a final decision on the classroom rules as a class.
Mrs. Cooper: Any questions? If you have understood activity 1, raise your hands.
The entire class raised their hands. I found activity 1 as Mrs. Cooper explained to be quite straight forward….my ONLY concern was the entire class coming up with ten classroom rules we could all agree on….this was going to be interesting.
Mrs. Cooper handed to each table a copy of the thirty six classroom rules, two markers colored blue and green. We were given ten minutes to work on the task.
(Everyone begins working on Activity 1)
Jaime: These are quite a lot of rules….
Carl: For sure.
Diana: So how do we decide which ones will or are to be the top ten most important classroom rules?
Cynthia: I have an idea, let’s select the classroom rules, based on what we do or need to do daily in our classroom, or rules that we also have at home…does that make sense?
Chris: It does, but some of the rules we have at school can’t be applied at home, like ‘be creative’ or ‘cooperate with your classmates’
Cynthia: So we start by selecting the easy rules.
Jaime, Chris, and Carl, Diana: That’s a great idea. (We get to work)
We look at the rules, I take on the lead by reading each rule again and then we decide as a group if this will be a classroom rule and its importance. We used blue to circle the rules. At the end we choose the following top “Ten Most Important Classroom Rules:
1. Ask questions
2. Respect and listen to your classmates and teacher
3. Raise your hand to speak
4. Be prepared for class
5. Be quiet when the teacher and your classmates are talking
6. Respect other’s property
7. Keep your workspace and classroom tidy
8. Walk, don’t run, in the hallways
9. Be on time
10. Use equipment properly
11. Use positive language which also includes no cursing
12. Line up neatly and quietly
13. Stay in your seat
14. Listen with your ears and your eyes
15. Follow the teacher’s directions the first time they are given
Cynthia: Diana, can you present our rules to the class?
Diana: Sure!
When our group was finished, we put it in the middle of our table and sat back on our seats. Mrs. Cooper had noticed that we were finished. She came over our table and checked, noticing that we had circled fifteen rules.
Mrs. Cooper: I see you circled fifteen rules, any reason?
Chris: We felt that some of the rules, like for example number 15 ‘follow the teacher’s directions the first time they are given’ are also a classroom rule because; if you don’t follow the instructions or directions given you have disobeyed by not listening to the teacher.
Carl: Also number 13 ‘stay in your seat’, this is an important rule because if the teacher is trying to teach or is working with students on an assignment or question and students are walking around in the classroom, the class becomes disorganized and noisy, and this goes back to rule number 15 which states ‘following the teacher’s instructions when given’, so if Mrs. Cooper has asked students to work on their assignment or on a question, while she is doing something else or working with a student quietly and she sees students talking and moving around without permission they have disobeyed the classroom rules.
Mrs. Cooper: Well done, that is correct! It seems that it will be difficult to narrow the top ten most important classroom rules. We may have to add more to the list.
Cynthia, Jaime, Diana, Carl and Chris: (all smiling very pleased with their results) thank you Mrs. Cooper.
(After fifteen (15) minutes)
Mrs. Cooper: Raise your hands if you have finished activity 1? (Checking around), OK great, we have all finished. Alright, now each group will choose one person to present their rules. Which group would like to go first?
Although, I had raised my hand to present for our group, the other students were faster than me, almost like ‘a raising arm competition event’. I said no problem if we were the last.
The other groups presented their classroom rules and as I was listening to their presentations, a lot of the groups had similar classroom rules like our group, so I wasn’t feeling bad that we had more than ten classroom rules, some of the other groups had circled more than fifteen classroom rules.
Finally, came to our group, I took the paper and with the help of Jaime and Chris I presented the classroom rules our group circled, including the ones we combined giving reasons. Although, I had agreed to do the presentation for our group, to be honest, I was very nervous speaking in front of the entire class, as this was the first time I had ever done such a presentation, but with the support of my group, I spoke from start to finish with confidence and enjoyed it. When we finished, the class clapped for our group, as we also did when the other groups had also finished their presentations.
Mrs. Cooper: Well done everyone, I loved your presentations!! I also noticed that each group had circled similar classroom rules. So now let’s get to the final piece of this activity. We are going to select top 10 most important classroom rules; we can make exceptions and add three to four more on the list.
Mrs. Cooper: As you can see I have the thirty six classroom rules on the smart board. Each group member will choose three of their top most important classroom rules and share them with the class. If the classroom rule has been mentioned, do not repeat it, give three others. Does anyone have any questions?
Group 1-Group 4: Each member from each group presented their top three most important classroom rules. I was a bit worried that the other groups will present all the classroom rules, and we shall have nothing to present. Luckily, there was still some classroom rules not presented yet.
(Jaime motions to Carl) Jaime: Carl, can you present for our group? Diana has already put a check on the classroom rules the other groups have presented, you just have to present the top three which have not been presented.
Carl: Sure, no problem.
Mrs. Cooper: Last but not least Diana’ group, who is presenting?
Jaime: Carl will be presenting for our group.
Mrs. Cooper: Alright Carl, you are up…..
Carl: The top three most important rules we have put together are:
1. Keep your workspace and classroom tidy
2. Use positive language which also includes no cursing
3. Follow the teacher’s directions the first time they are given
Mrs. Cooper: Alright, well done, so we now have a total of fifteen classroom rules, which can we all agree should be our classroom rules? Can we all agree on these classroom rules?
All students: Yes, Mrs. Cooper
Mrs. Cooper: Excellent, now let me read the final fifteen classroom rules for our grade 3 class for the school year. She reads the list to the class, and the classroom rules are confirmed. She continues to mention that these rules will be posted on the classroom board so that everyone can see them, read and remember them. Every student is expected to understand and follow the classroom rules, every day, there will be no exceptions.
Mrs. Cooper: Does anyone have any questions? If not, now let’s move on to the next activity.
As today was the first day of school, we spent the entire class day in our homeroom class, but as of tomorrow, we shall begin the new schedule and the learning of the new subjects.
Mrs. Cooper: Now the second activity is about the “Weekly Star Awards”. You will continue working in your groups for this activity. Go back to the thirty six classroom rules that we talked about earlier. You are to select ten (10) different rules that will be used as categories to award students the Weekly Star Awards”. These awards will be given to students who do well or do something nice or helpful to or for other students in their classroom. For example ‘being kind, or sharing with your classmates, or being creative in your work”. I will decide which students get the “Weekly Star Awards” and the students’ will get a star and a certificate.
Mrs. Cooper: You are to use a different marker pen, on your table you will see there is a white large piece of paper which you will use to write these categories. The title is “Weekly Star Awards”. Remember you are choosing ONLY ten from the list. You will have ten minutes for this activity.
The first activity took the entire morning, and it was time for snack time and morning recess. We had snack our snacks and then went to the playground.
Jaime, Chris and I went to the playground where we started chatting about the morning class.
Jaime: What do you guys think of our classroom teacher Mrs. Cooper?
Diana: I think she is nice, kind and friendly teacher. I like that she smiles a lot.
Chris: I also think she is a nice person. What do you think Jaime?
Jaime: She cool and friendly. I think we are going to have a great time this year.
Chris and Diana: We think so too.
Diana: I liked out morning class, relaxing, no pressure, good way to start the semester I thought.
Jaime: I think the same too.
(They started walking back to their classroom after the morning recess) We entered into our classroom, put our snack box back into our backpack and got back to our seats.
Diana: Cynthia and Carl, where were you guys for the morning recess?
Cynthia: I was playing on the other side of the playground with Jennifer and Sophia.
Carl: I was hanging out with Ryan.
Diana: Cool.
(All students back from recess, getting settled in their seats).
Mrs. Cooper: Alright, welcome back everyone, hope you enjoyed your morning recess and got to go to the playground for a bit. So we are now going to continue working on our second activity. I will repeat the activity in case we may have forgotten:
(Repeating) Mrs. Cooper: Now the second activity is about the “Weekly Star Awards”. You will continue working in your groups for this activity. Go back to the thirty six classroom rules that we talked about earlier. You are to select ten (10) different rules that will be used as categories to award students the Weekly Star Awards”. These awards will be given to students who do well or do something nice or helpful to or for other students in their classroom. For example ‘being kind, or sharing with your classmates, or being creative in your work”. I will decide which students get the “Weekly Star Awards” and the students’ will get a star and a certificate.
(Repeating) Mrs. Cooper: You are to use a different marker pen, on your table you will see there is a white large piece of paper which you will use to write these rules. The title is “Weekly Star Awards”. Remember you are choosing ONLY ten from the list. You will have ten minutes for this activity.
Mrs. Cooper: Alright you may begin everyone (walking around to see how each group is doing in their activity).