Rules

I just survived the most stressful week of my life. And If I’m going to be honest with you (which dear readers I always am) then I will admit I had a teensy- itty-bitty- meltdown today. Okay, by “teensy-itty-bitty” I mean large, ginormous, and a fit of bawling. It wasn’t pretty. So here I find myself trying to take deep breaths watching the Muppets. I also just spent an hour looking for a good Muppets meme. All I could come up with is the one below. And for the record... Animal is my favorite.

So stress…. Not that you want to hear about it, but the college life is not all that it’s cracked up to be. It’s what they call “Dead Week” here and Oregon State. And they call it that for a reason. So many assessments… So much information I am required to retain… I’m not an online dictionary… I can’t preserve all of this information and not be expected to be overwhelmed… I have to keep telling myself this is just a step I need to take to get where I really want to be going. It’s just one stepping stone and in the grand scheme of things the issues I’m having now are minute and won’t matter in the long run. This is just one small chapter, I just need to keep reading.

I recently have been listening to this awesome song that I love. Every time I’m having a hard day I think of part of it. It goes, “We are not defined by how hard we fall, so dust yourself off and stand tall. You can make it, of this I’m sure. Spread your wings and you will soar.” I love it and plan to use it in my classroom. It’s an excellent thing to keep in mind. I’m staying positive and working through this cloudy storm of stress. That’s all I can do right?

The good news is that it’s been semi warm and sunny-ish,  which means I get to start being outside more often. Vitamin D can do so much to a negative attitude it’s amazing. Not that I’m negative, I’m just being tested.

I want to touch base a little bit this evening on rule setting. In class a couple of weeks ago we were instructed to do this really fun activity called “Think, Pair, Share.” This is where if you have a lot of reading to cover but don’t have that much time to do it you group the students up and split up the reading. Then those students read what they are individually assigned and become “experts,” and they proceed to come up with the most significant points of the section required. Then they share it with the whole group so that all of the reading is covered. It might be just that the other students get a glimpse of the information but if there is an issue of time it’s a valuable tool to take advantage of. Anyways, we were asked to read a section of a book written by Harry Wong. And I can tell you now, that when I get paid next week I will be ordering a ton of books on Amazon and his book will be one of them. It’s called The First Days of School and although it’s geared more towards elementary or middle, the issues still arise at the high school level.

So in this chapter I read about how important rules are in the classroom. Rules are used to set limits. Every classroom has different kinds of behavior that is expected or tolerated and if the students aren't aware of the limits they won’t follow them. They have to be taught what is expected. Have a day (in the first week and least) and go over the rules. Implement them so that the students know exactly how you want it done. Otherwise they will walk all over you. They will test your limits anyways. They want to see how much they can get away with and I’m told that this is expected. Believe it or not, students also need to feel that someone is in control. You can’t be a pushover. In order to feel safe the students sense that there should be someone in charge to head the classroom, someone with “all of the answers”. So having rules is so very important. For the safety of your students, yourself, the school, and the classroom. But you already knew this… It’s common sense. But more often than not, teachers forget to teach the rules… I remember classrooms in high school where there was just a list of rules. That’s better than not having rules at all but there would be students getting in trouble for not following the rules when they weren't properly shown the right way. It’s all up to the teachers, ultimately.

You need to have consequences. If you don’t have adequate examples for the infraction a student will attempt the act again. You can’t expect students to be perfect or fix the issue after one infraction but it’s important to let them know there are limits and to have them one-hundred percent aware of when they cross those limits. All rules have consequences, post your consequences and make them known.

One important thing to keep in mind is that a consequence is NOT a punishment. There is no need to stop in the middle of class to embarrass a student by singling them out. That will only either make them dislike you or they will act out more. Create a system that won’t attract attention to the individual or embarrass them but let them effectively know that they have misbehaved. Another good thing is that you as educators have the students reflect on their actions. The example Harry Wong gave was create a student reflection form that you might give after the second or third infraction. Have a section where the teacher writes the reoccurring problem and have the student reflect on why they might be doing what they are doing. If you give the student’s the opportunity to be honest with you they will probably take the opportunity. They want their educators to like them. Almost as much as we want them to like us.

As a final note, take advantage of the other faculty members in the building. You are all going through the same issues just with different individuals, it’s important to have support.

Have a great night and don’t let stress get to you.

Just keep swimming.