These Classroom Rules have been used since 2004, but there are far less of them now than before. This is the current version. These six rules can be said to actively and strongly support non-targeted comprehensible input based instruction and in particular the One Word Image process and the Invisibles story creation process. Classroom management is easier with non-targeted instruction because the kids are more involved:
1. Listen with the intent to understand.
2. One person speaks and the others listen.
3. Support the flow of conversation.
4. Do your 50%.
5. Actors and artists – synchronize your actions with my words.
6. Nothing on desks unless told otherwise.
Suggested use: It is the first few weeks that counts here. Each and every single time that you sense a disturbance while you are speaking, some kid with a head down or two kids talking or some kid blurting, STOP TEACHING. This is called knowing, recognizing when your boundaries are being crossed. Most teachers don’t know this, can’t recognize it, and the result is, well, we all know what the result is. So we just have to learn to STOP TEACHING and then what we do is slowly walk over to the rules poster, ceremoniously and with a genuine smile (that’s the key and the hardest part) put your hand on the rule, looking in the general direction of the offender but not directly at her. In the first few weeks it is almost always Rule #2. Then ceremoniously walk back to where you were teaching and continue where you left off when you were interrupted. (The kids don’t know it’s rude because no one ever calls them on it and the result is a broken education system.) The smile is the key. Now there is a level B to this and Tina is best at explaining it. It uses Fred Jones’ techniques and ideas and it stops rude behavior in its tracks. Tina is the one to model the Queen Elizabeth stare and all those great moves. I’ll leave that topic for another article.