Classroom Rules and Procedures

Today in the 3rd grade classroom, I noticed a couple things that the teacher does to enforce classroom rules. She always give them praise if they are doing something right. For example, if they are listening, raising their hand before they speak, and effectively following directions she will thank them for their good behavior. Every child wants to be praised, so eventually more and more children will make good choices so they can be recognized for their good behavior as well. The teacher also mentioned another thing she does to enforce classroom rules which is to set routines. If the students understand what they need to be doing and know the next activity or assignment they are less likely to get in trouble and more likely to follow directions and not fool around. She recently started a new rewards system as well. If a student does something correctly or has good behavior they are given a "penny" which is a paper version of a penny. She has a classroom store with  many different items which costs a certain amount of pennies. If a child makes a wrong choice they owe her a penny from their stash.

The teacher has many different procedures that she does to help the class run smoothly. She has the children always raise their hands to make a comment so no child is speaking over another. When everyone is listening together at the big rug she gives instruction for a small period of time, then allows the children to repeat the instructions to their neighbor which allows them to engage with each other and recall their responsibilities. When talking time is over, she counts down from 5 to 1 allowing the children to finish their thoughts and reach silence by 1. The children are very good about being completely quiet again by 1. She mentioned that transitions can be the most difficult time to make the class run smoothly. At the beginning of the school year, she use to wear a stop watch around her neck and time the children on how long it took them to get from one thing to another. She would tell them their time and challenge them to make it even shorter. This motivated to children to see what their shortest time could be. As weeks went on she would slowly stop using the stop watch, but by that time the students were use to making speedy and productive transitions between activities.