Our Class Website
Agreements & Procedures
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Agreements
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We will respect others.
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We will respect ourselves.
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We will be dedicated to hard work.
Above are 3 examples of classroom agreements. Classroom agreements are a list of "rules" that the class has agreed to abide by. The term "classroom agreements" sounds more community based and community built than the term "classroom rules". Rather, classroom agreements are designed by the class and the teacher together, as the teacher facilitates and directs. Hence, the classroom "agrees" on the listed "rules" and expectations together. The above three are three I could see being created in my future classroom. I believe, respect for others, ourselves, and working hard are important qualities to have as a human and as a student/teacher.
Sharing &
Implementing
Agreements
Classroom agreements will be implemented within the first to second week of school. The class and myself will together create agreements. We will write them down and hang them on the classroom wall. As soon as we get them up, we will practice demonstrating these agreements and I will refer to them regularly to remind students of what we have "agreed" upon.
I will print out a copy of the agreements and distribute them to parents so parents will be informed of the work we have done. This will allow parents to see student involvement and classroom expectations.
I would share the idea with my colleagues and give them a copy of our class agreements if they would like them. I would invite them to see the agreements posted on the wall and to come and watch how they function in our classroom.
Procedures & Routines
I plan to establish classroom agreements and all expectations at the beginning of the school year. However, if necessary, I will reestablish and remind students of the classroom agreements and all expectations throughout the school year.
Transitions within the classroom:
I will transition my students by calling different table groups or by selecting groups of students. This way, not all students will rush to get up at once.
Transitions from the classroom to other parts of the school:
I will transition my students to line up by calling different table groups or by selecting groups of students. I will remind students of hallway expectations every time we leave the classroom. I plan to assign classroom jobs and some of those jobs will be jobs for our classroom lines. For example, I plan to have an assigned line leader, caboose, and line monitor(s).
Bathroom and water breaks:
I will teach students to ask me to go to the bathroom and get water by using non-verbal hand signals. This way, the students won’t interrupt instruction by raising their hand to ask. They will just simply show the hand signal and I will either nod yes or address it verbally if it is not a good time. If the water fountain and the bathroom are outside of the classroom, the students will still use a hand signal to ask, but I will have them sign out and use a bathroom pass.
Distribution and collection of materials, student work, etc.:
At the beginning of the year, I will introduce the idea of classroom jobs. 2 students will be given the job of a teacher assistant. 1 student will be given the job of sharpening pencils. The teacher assistants will pass out and collect papers and materials. The pencil sharpener helper will sharpen pencils at the beginning and/or the end of the day. Finally, I will have binder bins for students to place their binders in the morning. The binders will be a fine place for the students to store their homework, agenda, and announcement handouts.
Agreements (rules) and expectations:
Agreements and expectations will be gone over every day within the first 2-3 weeks of school. After that, agreements and expectations will be re-addressed at least once a week and addressed more frequently or sporadically if there are whole-class problem areas. When the class or students misbehave, students will be reminded of the classroom agreements and expectations.
Purpose of Procedures & Routines
Structured expectations and procedures for the class schedule, transitions, and routines are extremely important. So much instruction time can be lost to long-drawn-out transitions, unestablished expectations, etc. For example, if my students give me a simple signal that they need to go to the bathroom, instead of raising their hand to ask, it prevents from distracting me from teaching and the students from learning. Another example is classroom transitions. If students are taking way too long to transition in rotations, or to the carpet, I am missing out on precious instructional time and my students are missing out on learning time.