Agreements & Procedures

Agreements

In my class, the students and I collaborate to come up with the classroom agreements together. Some agreements we will have are to be respectful, be responsible, embrace our mistakes, make smart choices, and always do our best work.

After the students and I come up with our agreements we will then come up with the consequences for when the agreements are not met. We will also discuss the agreements and practice modeling the behaviors, so everyone understands what is expected of them. We will then create a code of conduct and share it with parents so they can contribute with comments or suggestions. We will then sign the code of conduct and hang it in the classroom. We will review them often.

Transitions

For classroom transitions I will use a five-step process. 1. Get the students’ attention using a chime and saying “Focus on me please” 2. Explain what is going to happen starting with “In a moment…” 3. Prepare kids for the signal to start, “when I say ‘easy’ you will quietly proceed” 4. Initiate the transition “and…Easy.” (I don’t say go, because that makes students think they are in a race. 5. I watch to make sure all students are doing what they need to do.

When is comes to lining up, I will have a line order for the students established and then I will call students up by their group, the color they are wearing, their birthday month, or hair color, etc. to avoid a rush to the line. There will be a weekly line leader and a caboose as well as a door holder.

For distribution and collection of materials I will have someone assigned to that “job” to help.

The agreements and expectations will be agreed upon together as well as the consequences. I will give students a warning when they are breaking an agreement and if it becomes a habit, we can have a class discussion or a discussion one on one with the student to see what is preventing the student being able to follow the agreement.

It is important to have good classroom management to maximize student learning time and minimize disruptions and wasted time on lining up, transitioning, and passing out or collection materials. By involving the class in making the agreements they are more likely to follow them. Giving students responsibility in the classroom makes they feel needed and important and that help curb behavior challenges as well.