Whether you are a veteran teacher or a beginning teacher; whether it is the beginning of the year or middle of the year: we all need good classroom management. We all need to have a classroom routine and rules…or maybe one rule. To keep things simple I utilize one rule: Keep your hands, feet and mouth to yourself. This one rule is all encompassing and inclusive. Let me explain. If a student keeps their hands to themselves, you are asking them to not touch another student, not touch equipment without teacher permission, not touch another person’s belongings. This goes for keeping your feet to yourself as well. By keeping your mouth to yourself, you are asking students to keep unkind comments, bullying words to themselves. With this one simple rule, you don’t bog down yourself or the students with a long list of classroom rules. Do you think this one rule would cover all of your situations? What are some of your classroom rules? Please feel free to share your thoughts with me at gymrat2@comcast.net or on twitter @coachfoe.
