Classroom Rules: The Golden Rule

I am one of those teachers that research and read about classroom management. What are the best strategies when it comes to rules in the classroom? How strict should I actually be with my rules? How many rules should I have? Should I make my students sign a contract? How can I stay consistent with my consequences? Should students be involved in making the rules? I am a classroom management junkie. I need order! I must have order! I firmly believe that good classroom management is what opens up space in my classroom for me to teach and students to learn.

After over 10 years of teaching, I think I've finally crafted the perfect set of rules for my classroom. There aren't very many, but they cover every kind of behavior I can think of that would be disruptive to the learning process.

1. No food.

2. Handle all personal issues before or after class.

3. Come to class prepared.

4. No profanity or inappropriate language.

5. Respect others and yourself.

However, there is one rule I use in my classroom that I'm most proud of: Be responsible for the energy you bring into this space. We call this the golden rule. (I'm certain I've heard this somewhere else and wish I could give credit to the original creator of this idea.) I feel like this is a perfect rule for a classroom.

As a high school teacher, I am managing somewhere around 150 different personalities and all of the situations and circumstances that come with those personalities every day. That alone has the potential to overwhelm the learning process. I explain to my students, I only get 50 minutes every day to teach them something. We have to work together to protect that 50 minutes. I know there are critics ready to jump all over me for being "heartless" and "uncompromising." But the truth is, I'm a teacher. My job is to teach. I am extremely focused on doing my job when I'm supposed to be teaching. I actually want to teach my students how to analyze literature and I want them to be good at it. Does that mean I don't care about the situations and circumstances that are impacting their lives? Of course not. That's silly. And I explain that to them. Come talk to me if you want to... after class, after school, before school. At any of those appropriate times, I'm always ready to help you think through a solution, offer advice, or just listen. But when we're in the classroom, our main focus is going to be on teaching and learning.

We discuss, during the first days of school, that we are going to leave our "baggage" at the door. We also talk about how we all have some kind of "baggage," but we're not going to let our "baggage" become the focus of our Language Arts class. Occasionally and naturally, students forget this and I'll have a student storm into my classroom still fuming from an argument they had with a parent during the car ride to school or overtly frustrated from the circumstances in a prior class. When this happens, I ask them to follow me back out to the hallway. Once there, I ask them to drop their "baggage" right by the door. Yes, I make them physically drop their imaginary "baggage." Then I explain, "It's not going anywhere. I promise. It will still be here after class. You don't have to worry about anybody walking by and taking it, because I promise you, they have their own baggage and they don't need any more weight to carry. I promise you it will be here waiting when you leave class, but right now, I need you to be responsible for the energy you bring into this space." It's so ridiculous that they always oblige me, and the student will set down their symbolic baggage right outside my door. Then they come back to class focused and ready to learn. It's crazy, I know, but it works. Now, I always try to catch the student when class is over to help them gather the belongings they left in the hallway and find out what's really going on. Most times, they tell me I can keep the "baggage" because they don't want it anymore. Needless to say, I have a lot of baggage! (Hehe!) I love what this teaches my students. You're circumstances don't get to disrupt a shared environment. Self-control is necessary to function in this world. You don't have to carry your frustrations with you to every other area of your life. And, it's okay to "set down our baggage" for just a moment if it starts to get too heavy.

Now, do more pressing or serious situations come up from time to time in my classroom? Of course, they do. But because we have the golden rule, it's not excessive. Because we have the golden rule, we learn that grace will always be there when we need it the most, but never ever abuse grace. Because we have the golden rule, we learn how to not be overtaken by life's inevitable frustrations. Because we have the golden rule we learn to be responsible for the energy we bring into our spaces.