Behavior Plan (Week Two)

A rule is a statement that tells you what is or is not allowed. Rules are important for structure and organization in the classroom, because they create boundaries on what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. It is important for teachers to include their students in the decision-making process on what rules they and their classmates should follow for the year in your classroom. Instead of creating the rules yourself, students then have the opportunity to voice their ideas on what they think is important to them. This step in the rule-creating process is crucial. 

Typically when a rule is broken, the standard procedure for teachers is solving the actual problem. The "rubric" teachers follow when trying to solve problems looks something like the following listed below:

Problem: Who, What, Why, and How the problem occurred.

What was the result?

Two better ways to solve the problem.

How I could of prevented the problem.

In the future ...

• Blue slips
• Call home
• Warning
• Principal
• Let it go to an extent
• Suspension

I discussed what I knew about rules and behavior with my host teacher, Ms. Thompkins, to see whether or not the same ideas applied to her classroom. Ms. Thompkins is a special education teacher, so some of the things I mentioned were not quite the same how on they worked in her classroom, however, I was not wrong either.

The behavior plan Ms. Thompkins designs is a poster with written rules on it. Some of the rules she came up with were be respectful to yourself and to others, raise your hand and wait to be called on, no gum or candy allowed during class, be honest (REALLY IMPORTANT), and to keep your hands to yourself. She shared with me that these rules she created are designed to test her student's social skills and help them in society. 

She included her students in the plan of action of the rules by initially creating them herself at the beginning of the year to give her students an idea of what she wanted out of them and by Christmas, she informally assessed them by testing her students of the rules and asking for an example on how the rule applied. It allowed her to tell whether or not her students were grasping what expectations she wanted out of them. 

The results thus far have been positive. She told me that since she and her students had to transfer to Starbuck from Mitchell because of the fire that occurred,  her students have been testing her rules, because they think that since they are in a new setting and it is not "their" school, different rules apply. She has done a remarkable job by easing her students into a new environment. Because Ms. Thompkins has special education students, change for them is a lot harder for students that have no special needs. 

Ms. Thompkins also shared that students can remind other students of actions, as long as they respect one another in the process. Students also must take ownership of their apologies, and tell who they are apologizing to that they are sorry and what for. The apology must be sincere and told directly to the face of the person they are apologizing to. Lastly, Ms. Thompkins says the key to making things work in her classroom is allowing yourself to be flexible. Special education students can be unpredictable and she says that sometimes you just have to go with it. Sometimes spontaneity is a good thing.