Who Makes the Rules in a Classroom? Seven Ideas about Rule-making.
A couple of years ago, I was working as lead facilitator in an e-mentoring program for new teachers. Several recognized teachers from around the nation were contributing their very best "first days" advice for novice teachers--how to set up a classroom for success, selecting activities for the first week of school, common crises, etc. I asked the teachers about classroom rules and their thinking was unanimous: Good teachers assemble their students and, using a self-governing process, collectively write their own classroom rules.
Uh-oh.
I pressed on the concept: What made collaborative rule-creation more effective in building a smoothly functioning