Teacher’s Corner

Four ways to stay on track with classroom discipline:

1. Make classroom rules that are right for your grade level(s).

2. Make classroom rules that are right for your students’ self-control and ability to make good decisions.

3. Stick to your classroom rules.

4. Use natural or logical consequences to help you and your students stick to the classroom rules.

(See Sticking to the Rules for more information about consequences.)

Writing Prompts and Discussion Topics 

The following are based on the blog, “Sticking to the Rules.”

1. Imagine you are the principal of your school and must tell teachers what kinds of classroom rules they should have. Use adjectives or descriptive phrases to identify what makes for a good classroom rule. For example, “clear” or “fair.” Give reasons for your choices.

2. Think about one of your current classes.  Imagine you are the teacher. Make a list of classroom rules that you think will help students learn. Pick two rules and explain why you think these are good rules for this group of students.

3. Imagine you are a teacher and a colleague talks to you about having trouble sticking to his classroom rules. What advice would you give him?

Teachers, you can use this blog in classrooms. Here are two ideas about how.

1. For middle or high school parenting or child development courses:

• Use the blog for discussion topics

• Require students to research the topics and agree or disagree with what the blog is suggesting.

2.  For all courses, especially English Language Arts:

• Use the blog for writing prompts for paragraphs, theme papers, journal entries, class starters, etc. Have students read the blog and respond to:

  • Do you agree with what is being said about kids? Do kids really act, think or feel that way?

  • Do you agree with what is being said about parents, grandparents, teachers and child caregivers? Do or should they act, think or feel that way?

  • What would be your advice on this topic?

  • What was left out of this article?

  • If you were a parent, would you use any of this information? How?

Why can this blog be a useful teaching tool?

• Students that see connections between their coursework and their lives do better in school.

• Most students will either be parents one day or have children in their lives that they care about, so the topical information can help them build their knowledge about children and parenting and develop a positive image of the type of parenting they want to do.

• The new core literacy standards adopted by most states call for frequent writing in all courses.

• Newly developed end-of-course assessments to be used by many states will require that students demonstrate that they can think critically. These prompts help students practice critical thinking.

• Newly developed end-of-course assessments to be used by many states will require that students demonstrate that they can analyze what they read. These prompts help students practice analysis.