Below is a picture of my new classroom rules (screenshot from the syllabus). Basically, I just condensed my original 7 rules from before down into 4 rules. So that's partly what's new with me. I hope you find the information above helpful! If you have any feedback or questions for me let me know in the comments below. I have a whole list of things that I would like to get on here and share with you so please be patient. It's been a busy quarter 1 for me and there are only 11 days left! Thank you for reading and have a good rest of your week!
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I do not remember where I found this idea anymore, but I know that it is an awesome idea & I love it! I implemented this policy during the second half of my first year when I was fed up with answering the same simple question 10 times because students were not paying attention. I mostly use this policy for questions like... "What page are we on?" "What did we do yesterday? I was gone." "What are we doing today?" "I lost the handout from yesterday. I can get another one?" "Where are the scissors?" These types of questions drive me crazy because if a student simply took the time to look or pay attention, the answer is usually right there. For example, all of the questions above have answers that students could easily find on a calendar slip, written on the Agenda (I include page numbers on my agenda), by asking a classmate who was present or paying attention, by looking at their class's weekly document on the class website, or by using/reading the labels on the SC.
The key to using this policy is that you have the answers somewhere so that students are able to find them. How I manage this in my classroom is by having page numbers written on the Agenda, posting daily calendar slips, making sure each class's weekly online document is updated, including directions on the board or slides, and then saying it a least once out loud (often times I repeat it a few times intentionally and have my students repeat it too). At the beginning of the school year, I gave only verbal directions and it never went well for me. So after a few times of struggling through that I started to make sure that I had directions written in at least one place in my classroom for students to be able to see/find. Another reason I like this policy is that it works well with my classroom set up. The Student Center (SC), Extras Binder, Class Website, Calendar Board with calendar slips were all created so that students would be able to do things on their own. I will have a separate post on the details of all these things soon! Below is a picture of the policy from my syllabus where I explain the C3B4Me policy. As you can see at the end I wanted to emphasize that it's not that I don't want to help my students or answer their questions. To me, this policy is about teaching my students to take initiative, rather than relying on me to do or solve everything for them. I also want them to listen/pay attention the first time (because if you keep repeating things students learn tune you out because they know you will say it again so there is no need for them to pay attention the first time) and also how to use resources that they have available to them. Last year after I implemented this policy I did not have an issue with students not feeling comfortable asking questions but I wanted to make it clear that students can ask me questions. How this policy works in my classroom is that if a student asks a question that falls in the lines where students could answer it themselves by using a resource or asking a classmate such as any of the questions above, I tell the student "C3B4Me" and they usually figure out the answer on their own using one of the resources I have available for them to use. Many times students would politely say C3B4Me to another classmate if they asked a question such as what page something is on after I had said it and written it on the board. This policy worked really well with students getting makeup work. Before implementing C3B4Me, my students would ask me what they missed and never bother to use any of the resources I was spending time putting together for them. After implementation the students started to automatically do it on their own without even asking me because when they would ask me I would just say "C3B4Me" or "Did you look on the calendar board, online or talked to a classmate?" and if they said no I would tell them to start there and then if they still had questions they could come talk to me. Its beautiful!
This year I decided I wanted to create my own classroom rules or code of conduct to fit the type of classroom environment I want to create for my students. I tried having my class create rule or jobs last year, but it didn't really work all that well. There were things that my students did or didn't do that drove me crazy last year so I created these rules to help fix some of those behaviors. When looking for inspiration on Pinterest I found this "Classroom Rules- The 5 P's" idea and I really liked it. I adjusted it a little to fit my needs and I added the Big I because helping my students learn to take initiative is a huge goal of mine. So below is the poster size version of my classroom rules! Let me know what you think.
So now that I had created new rules from my classroom, I wanted to reformat and adjust my classroom syllabi. Most middle and high school syllabi are 2-4 pages (one sided) if there even is one. Mine last year was 5-6 pages long (one-sided). I think my students (and other teachers probably) thought I went a little overboard. Even so, to me a syllabus is a place where all of the classroom policies and information about a class are located. I wanted my students to know up front what my expectations and policies were so that there were no surprises later. I didn't want my students to be able to say...
"Oh I didn't know about that" or "That's not fair, you let him do ______."
I still believe this about my syllabus for this coming school year. It still contains all of the information I think they need to know to be prepared for my class. However, I've condensed my explanations and made it more visually interesting. I also took out some policies that I didn't use or had changed my mind about during my first year of teaching.
I got this idea about making my syllabus more visually interesting from Jackie at Room 213. She had a post about making a digital syllabus and it included a FREE template. So I used her fantastic template and made it my own by changing colors, fonts, and adding my own information. I am so grateful to her for sharing such a wonderful free resource!
So without further ado, here is my Health 9 Syllabus for this year.
If you would like to learn how to embed PDFs from Google Drive like I have done above, click the "Read More" below!
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AuthorI teach 7-9 Health Education & Computer 7 in rural southwestern Minnesota. I love using technology in my classroom and teaching students about how to live healthy and informed lives.
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