First year teacher… for those of us who have been teaching a while, when we hear that simple phrase we just close our eyes and take a deep breath. In my experience, most first year teachers are very inexperienced, even if they have participated in “hundreds” of observation/student teaching hours while in college. Unfortunately, most first year teachers are not as prepared as needed when it relates to setting up effective classroom rules and procedures. In the text, Coaching Classroom Instruction, the author mentions forty-one elements that are necessary for a successful routine classroom. Element 4 is “establishing and maintaining classroom rules and procedures” (2013, p. 40) which I feel is the most important element.
Classroom structure is key to student learning. When students know what is expected of them they no longer have to guess what they should do. This will help deter misbehavior and confusion. In the section regarding classroom rules and procedures, the author mentions establishing a small amount of rules and procedures, let students have by-in when creating the rules/procedures, posting them around the room, and review the rules/procedures regularly (Marzano, Simms, Roy, Heflebower, & Warrick, 2013, p. 40). In my experience, students who have by-in to setting up class rules and procedures tend to take ownership and strive to follow these rules.
As a coach, I have the opportunity to assist new teachers in setting up class rules and procedures with regard to technology. Our school rolled out a 1:1 Chromebook initiative this school year and for the most part, all of our teachers (veteran and novice) were unsure of how to set up rules and procedures regarding all the new technology in the classroom. Through faculty trainings, I offered many of the guidelines mentioned in the text. While majority of the teachers followed the suggestions on setting up procedures the first week of school, some did not. The teachers who have rules set in place have had little to no issues with behavior ir damage to the devices thus far. Most of discipline issues related to technology are from classrooms without well defined technology rules/procedures. Helping teachers set-up their rules/procedures is not a hard task but can be challenging if they are resistant to change. The article written by Kristen Masters (2017) offers ten guidelines on how to be a successful mentor. These guidelines are similar to the ones mentioned in the text. The last guideline states "this is a living document”. I love this guideline. This leaves room for growth and change, which is always needed, especially with a first year teacher!
eMINTS professional development offers teachers a deeper way of thinking about their classroom set-up. Through the trainings, teachers create classroom norms (i.e. rules/procedures) of how they want students to use technology or classroom behavior while using technology. This allows the eMINTS trainer (such as myself) the opportunity to help guide the process. The image here is from a classroom in Baldwin County who set her norms the first week of school. She then had her students to sign stating they were committing to following the norms. If a student has a moment of weakness and does not follow the norms, all the teacher needs to do is redirect the student back to the list of norms and guide them to continue with following the norms. When norms/procedures are set in place, this process is very effective.
Classroom climate is top priority in ensuring student learning is happening. As a coach, offering guidance to new teachers regarding setting up rules and procedures is a challenging task but is rewarding and beneficial. Once the rules/procedures are set in place, allowing the students to create an infographic or video like the one below is a fun way to ensure they understand what they are agreeing to follow.
References:
Classroom Rules [Video file]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/ddvTFgzkSSM
Marzano, R. J., Simms, J. A., Roy, T., Heflebower, T., & Warrick, P. (2013). Coaching classroom
instruction. Bloomington: Marzano Research Laboratory.Marzano, R. J., Simms, J. A., Roy, T., Heflebower, T., & Warrick, P. (2013). Coaching classroom
Ten simple rules for developing a mentor–mentee expectations document. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005709
