Classroom Rules to School Behaviors

Every year, a large part of my back-to-school routine was establishing classroom rules.  We would list every possible rule imaginable on the board that we could come up with and narrow them down to a decent number.  I would facilitate the discussion and group work to get the rules stated as positively as possible. It took a little time, but it was worth the effort. Then, everyone in the class would sign it. We established our own little classroom democracy which I could refer back to when necessary.*

I sat in a meeting called before students returned.  (I believe it was my sixth year as a teacher.) My principal announced that a new committee had been formed, P.B.S., Positive Behavior Support.  I listened as they said they met and established three school behaviors that would be used by everyone: Be respectful, Be responsible, and Be safe.  I'm already trying to wrap my brain around how to introduce these to my class without the process I usually used.  But, I was mostly concerned that students were not a part of this process.  How would they own these behaviors if they had not been a part of the process?  I expressed this concern and others agreed.  My principal was eager to move on as she had a lot on her plate at this time.  She pulled out a new voting method, fist to five.  If you raise a fist, you'll go so far as to sabotage the behaviors.  If you give a five, you 100% approve of it.  Well, I threw up a fist and so did one other teacher.  I think I said something along the lines of, "I would not sabotage this but I feel very strongly the kids need to be a part of it."

She was clearly frustrated with me, and I was with this whole new behavior deal.  A compromise was reached, and the behaviors were put into the hands of the student council.  They were given the behaviors the adults had come up and were asked what other behaviors it took to be successful in school.  Well, they added one behavior that no adult had thought of,  Be ready to learn.  I was not present to hear how they came up with this, but I love that they did.

Just digest that for a second.  Be ready to learn.  What does it take for a student to be ready to learn?  When I think of this, I always think of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  The kids pointed out the most important, obvious thing to us that they needed to succeed.  And we almost left them out of the process.

So, the Behaviors ended up being: Be respectful. Be responsible. Be safe. Be ready to learn.  And I'm still proud of that student council for coming up with that last behavior.

*I studied under many great professors.  One of these professors was Dr. Templeton.  She coauthored the rewrite of Faber and Mazlish's famous parenting book.  She and her partner rewrote it for teachers and called it How to talk so Kids Can Learn.  It did not entirely prepare me for the challenges of managing a classroom, but it certainly helped.