So I've been doing a lot of reading this summer! Namely--- the FANTASTICALLY STUPENDOUS-- Ron Clark. I read his books and feel like a LOUSY teacher-- but he ignites in me a desire to do SO MUCH BETTER than I ever thought I could before! These two are my favorites of his! He does SUCH a great job of offering encouragement and purpose! When you read his essential rules, he adds purpose, and he talks about the importance of the rules coming from a desire to see students be the best version of themselves. For my classroom I decided to go a slightly different route in terms of number-- but kept the spirit of several of his rules! Take Ten! Our Classroom Rules! 1. If someone does something well or wins, we will congratulate that person! If you win or do well at something do NOT brag. If you lose do not show anger. Instead say something like “I really enjoyed the competition and I look forward to playing you again”. To show anger or sarcasm such as “I wasn’t really trying anyway” shows weakness. (Ron Clark Rule!) 2. Do not smack your lips, tsk, roll you eyes or show disrespect with gestures. (Ron Clark Rule!) 3. Occasionally we may grade each other’s paper as a group. When we grade papers as a group you are not to comment on another person’s grade. The only marks you should make on their paper is an “X” and the number they got incorrect. (INSPIRED by a Ron Clark Rule!) 4. Homework will be turned in EVERY Thursday for this subject with NO EXCEPTIONS. You have two nights to complete your homework and online access to homework. If you do not have a copy of your homework on Thursday you will fill out a “Taking a Zero” form. If you have your homework and it is incomplete you will be required to take 1/5 of the grade. (I take ONE combined homework grade a six weeks-- each HW is worth between twenty and twenty-five points) (INSPIRED by a Ron Clark Rule!) This is the "Taking a Zero" form for my students to fill out! 5. NO matter WHAT the situation: Be Honest. Even if you have done something wrong it is best to admit it to me because I will respect that and oftentimes I will forgo any disciplinary measures because of your honesty (Ron Clark Rule!) 6. Do NOT cheat. Cheating shows weakness and will make any other true victories in the class hollow to others. NO ONE likes a cheater. It disappoints me GREATLY and will cause me to lose trust in you. (My Rule-- Cheating "irks" me a lot) 7. Not studying is NOT a virtue; therefore do not act like it is such. To say you “didn’t study” if you get a good grade is hurtful to those who did study and struggled or is cheapening to those who studied and did well. To say you “didn’t study” and you failed makes you look ignorant and lazy. People can understand if when you study you do poorly, we have ALL been there. (My Rule-- Favorite of this year) 8. Accept that you will make mistakes. Learn from them. And MOVE ON. (Ron Clark Rule!) 9. Your grade is NO ONE’S business but your own. You do not need to shout out your grades when you get it. If you do poorly do NOT just wad up your paper and throw it away. You will not be able to learn from your mistakes OR know what you did wrong if you just throw it away. (My Rule-- I hate the kids shouting out their bad scores "Haha-- I got a 35" and it is a chorus of bad grades and it makes the kids feel like getting bad grades is cool! It KILLED me to watch that happen this year!) 10. Be aware of our daily classroom expectations and live them out daily. (My Rule-- Expectations and Rules are different. Expectations are a part of routine-- rules to me outline a limit on actions) This is the sign that will go up in my room as a short reminder of the rules! This typed up version of the rules will go on the front cover of my student's Interactive Student Notebook! A lot of these rules come from things I've seen over the past two years that have irked me about kids. I love being able to love my students. Sometimes they do things though that make it harder to love them-- these rules I'm hoping will outline expectations with purpose and help them be the great kids I know they are!