I really do not have much experience doing formal education at this point, so the thought of actually developing classroom rules and procedures had not actually crossed my mind interestingly enough. As I sat down to write the section one paper I took about half an hour (or so) to visualize what my first day would be like as a secondary biology teacher and what rules I would want to put in place for the kids. Honestly, this concept of establishing rules makes me a little uneasy because; A. I realize it is necessary to establish structure to the class especially when there are those little (lovingly said) misfits….B. Establishing the “right” rules seems like such an undertaking because I would want my class to be just on the line of what would be considered structured enough to function as that healthy classroom environment but not overly….(maybe this is where my never been a real teacher rears it’s head). So I came up with this scenario: teaching a high school science class I would tell my students that  I have four “invisible expectations (rules)” for them, invisible because I know that they should be able to follow them no problem at their age and maturity level. If over the course of the year I found that they could not follow these rules I would slowly begin to write them on the blackboard (or piece of large paper visible for all to see) so that they would actually become the established rules and procedures of the classroom (with consequences to boot if they continued to NOT follow them). They are:

1. Respect yourself

2. Respect those around you

3. Arrive to class on time

4. Do your readings and hand in your assignments on time

I’m trying to get involved with The Watershed School in Fairbanks this semester (i.e. get some of those classroom hours in!). Still waiting on a response, hopefully they will say, “yes Sarah, c’mon down!” It is a pretty unique school, that centers around place-based environmental education and more specifically on these four studies: culture, watershed, the public process and decision making. I could go on, but for now their website directed me to another website by the NEFC (Northeast Foundation for Children) where they derived the school’s philosophy of school management (say that five times fast) from the guide, Teaching Children to Care (2002). You can’t read it without actually buying but the rest of the site looks interesting so I wanted to share it with you:

https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/category/category/classroom-organization

   https://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/7077943/Web_of_Life