Teachers so often spend the first days of school reading over their classroom rules, but how well do the students really hear them? Try an interactive approach and see if you can enlist the students.

Ask: Why are there rules in sports?
What would it be like if a basketball player tried to follow basketball rules on a baseball field?
What rules do you think would be helpful to insure the best and most effective year for all of us in class?

Record these on a flipchart. Ask open-ended questions to elicit from the students some of the responses you believe are critical elements.

At the end, you may add some of your own ideas, if they have not emerged. Refer to these, posted in the classroom, throughout the year, and feel free to revisit them, if and when the need arises.

Source: Adapted from materials by Jane Nelson

Recommended to calendar by: Barbara Sugarman Grochal

CRE Calendar Usage: 2nd Edition