A Snippet and Article for Teachers

Some ideas about getting started for all of those who will be doing so very soon. Keep two important things in mind when reading this article and writing rules you must live with for an academic year.

1. Have an official means of amending the rules. If the Constitution has that clause, so should a classroom.

2. The best idea (and quote) from this article is "You're shooting for influence, not control." This is akin to NBA Commissioner David Stern, who once fired a referee for over-reacting to an argument with Tim Howard. In an interview about it, Stern said the purpose of the referees was "game management."

3. Remember when setting rules that the operative activity in the classroom is not teaching; rather, that key activity is learning. The purpose of the rules? Helping students learn.

Otherwise, it's just a power game. Usually, a teacher will lose those.

Who Makes the Rules in a Classroom? Seven Ideas about Rule-making. - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher.

 Something less emotional, maybe a little helpful to teachers (and anyone in charge of anybody else).

Today, I came across two separate articles/posts that made a connection for me. Connection is what I'm about, so I'm going to pass this along to anyone getting ready for a new academic year.
--
On LinkedIn, I subscribe to a group called "Higher Education Teaching and Learning." One of the group's leaders, Dr. Olga Kovbasyuk, wrote a piece entitled "Dialogue as a Means of Change." In a rather high-level article, this interesting gem appeared:

Regrettably, much of higher education today is still more directed towards the training of a professional who is capable of performing certain functions and responsibilities, rather than nurturing a personality who makes the maximum effort to become a full human being. I hold that education should support developing the personality rather than to just help her/him acquire professional attributes; striving to become involves striving for intelligence, self/world-improvement, and professional competency.

Big words, but still on-point.

Consider this when setting rules for your 2nd grade class this coming week. How much of those rules should come from the students, and what should come from the teacher?