I ditched the word "rules" a few years ago and have used a Social Contract instead. How should we treat one another? There are still rules, on my Course Overview it states we must follow the student code of conduct, that is a non-negotiable. We discussed how we all may not agree with what is in it, but there are laws we all must abide by that we don't agree with, it is just a fact of life. Dress Code is the one they all balk at. Knives, they all think they can bring a knife if the blade is a certain length. No!!!! My car is my car why can't I store my gun in it? No!!!! So I guess there are rules, but in 1.206 we have a Social Contract.
I have found that by using a social contract that the students are active participants in building it helps foster classroom rapport and teamwork to create a safe, trusting learning environment. I have also found that it helps build motivation and helps the students take responsibility for their actions and performance. Ultimately The Social Contract is designed to let all participants in a classroom know what behavior is acceptable and what is not. It is an agreement of behavior to promote a self managing class. The primary questions I consider when developing our social contract are:
The kids come up with the same words for the first 3 questions for the most part, respect, kindness, listen, tolerate, kind words.....you get the idea. This year my Freshman struggled with the violations. "Send them out" was the big one. I had to pry and pry to get something that we could do in the class, like apologize, say nice things....They are a sweet group and maybe they are so nice all the time there will be no violations. I learned about Social Contracts 10 or so years ago at Capturing Kids Hearts, and have used it ever since. In conjunction with the contract there are the four question for misbehavior, they work like a charm.
I have found if you get buy in treat them as mature young adults that they will start to act like mature young adults. This is their class and they should feel safe and want to come here everyday!!
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