Today I decided to introduce the rules. Initially I intended to teach 2 rules and then the rest next week but the chn protested and begged me to teach them the rest of the rules.

There is an overarching rule “Respect Everyone” that fits right in with our class treaty that we wrote at the beginning of the year.

Then there are 5 rules:

Rule One: Follow directions quickly! (the gesture- make your hand shoot forward like a fish)

Rule Two: Raise your hand for permission to speak (the gesture- raise your hand and make a talking motion.)

Rule Three: Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat. (the gesture- raise your and, and then make a little walking figure with your index and middle finger.)

Rule Four: Make smart choices! (the gesture- tap one finger to your temple as you say each word.

Rule Five: Keep your dear teacher happy! (the gesture- hand over heart then make a smiley face (my adaptation))

I have them on laminated sheets as well. Rule 5 is kind of corny so what I did was tell them that it would make them laugh – and they could laugh for 15 seconds then they had to practice it. And that is exactly what they did! I explained that it’s an important rule because when I’m happy things go better in the classroom. When I’m not happy they don’t.

We practiced the rules for about 10 minutes when I first taught them; then we went through them again after lunch (we had a show after morning tea).

I also introduced Class-Yes. Although I already have a good verbal attention cue I wanted a shorter one – and this was perfect. All I told them was if I said Class they had to reply Yes. I didn’t need to talk about tone or pitch or anything like that – they’re fantastic at imitating.

What I noticed – very importantly for me – was that the two special needs children who spend 20-50 mins in my class in the morning (and who weren’t here yesterday) were joining in with the rest of the class (one is Downs and the other Autistic). The autistic boy who is in my class full time is slowly joining in – BUT – he understands what I’m doing – I just explain quietly to him if there is anything new or different.

Today, being Friday, we also had our sharing circle time. There are 3 boys who are always off task -fiddling with other kids treasures or squirming around on the mat. Today I told the kids that they could earn a smilie if they followed the circle rules. Those 3 kids did not do anything off task the whole time!

Posted by dragonsinger at November 7th, 2008 & Filed under power teaching | 2 Comments »