A reader comments on the discussion about parents, teachers, and students:
| It is amazing to me how fast the conversation gets hijacked by those with an agenda to trash public education. I have stated before and will repeat it. Parents and educators must work together in partnership. It is the most productive way for our students to benefit from an education. It bothers me to hear disrespect directed toward either teachers, parents, or students. As an educator I feel it should always be our position to be positive role models. Others may disagree, but I hope that those students and adults who I have worked with over the years have felt respected by me. No matter what behavior I am faced with, I always try to react in a positive way. Believe me, I am faced with these situations daily. I have had to learn this, over the years, because it isn’t always easy when you are faced with negative or disrespectful behavior. But I can say that a positive, respectful reaction almost always turns the situation around. A negative reaction almost always results in an escalation of the problem. Thanks Diane, for being such a positive role model for us. I hope that we, as educators, are able to keep the fight for public education going in a positive direction, with positive results. It’s not easy when we are faced with such negative and false media reports, and especially negative parent reactions. We need to turn the tide back to a respect for educators. |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wow, no responses so far. Kind of sad in one sense. I’m posting my class rules (modified with permission from Eric West, a great social studies teacher at my old school).
Class Rules-RESPECT
Respect for self, fellow students, teachers, the classroom education environment and the facilities of WHS forms the basis for your behavior in learning Spanish. Every student has a right to an education, i.e., learning Spanish.
· Having respect for yourself means coming prepared to class with books, notebook, workbook, and writing instruments. It also means being on time, having your assignments complete before walking into class, and focusing and paying attention during class.
· Having respect for your fellow students means paying attention while another student is talking. It means not making fun of other students or making rude comments when they make a mistake in trying to speak, listen, write or read Spanish. It also means not messing with their property.
· Having respect for the teacher means paying attention in class and not talking while the teacher is talking and/or presenting the lesson. It means returning any borrowed items to the teacher.
· Having respect for the classroom education environment means doing all you can to help yourself and others learn Spanish. It means trying your best realizing that in making mistakes you learn all the more if you correct your mistake.
· Having respect for the facilities of WHS means helping to keep the campus clean and neat by throwing away trash in the appropriate waste receptacle and recycling when possible. It means to take care of any and all equipment that is used during the course of the day whether in class or in after school activities.
Any behavior that takes away your and your fellow students’ ability to learn Spanish is, in essence, taking away your and your fellow students’ right to an education and will not be tolerated. You are responsible for knowing and abiding by the rules in the Student/Parent Handbook. Therefore, any conduct that detracts from the learning environment will not be tolerated.
Both replies really speak to the issue…respectful communication ..even when the other party steps outside the kind-and-compassionate-approach, one must make a choice about whether or not to “nose-dive along the path of negativism” in respone.
In reality, folks who are so negative about whatever the issue is, demonstrate the increased need for education to re-learn or learn skills…not decrease it.
Can I “borrow” these? We are only allowed 5 and they prefer them to be positive bullet statements but I really like the way you have written these and so. since I pretty much stay in trouble, I would like to post these for as long as I can(then I will just move them around but still read them to the students. My 5 short ones are: Come to class prepared to learn, Respect others, Respect Yourself, Keep yourself and others safe, and Expect the best from yourself and from me.
Definitely use them. There will only be a minor fee-ha ha! Even I can become an edupreneur!!!
I adapted them from another teacher about 18 years ago. Maybe it’s time to “modernize/update” them. Heaven forbid that we might use ideas that are so “old.”
I’ll post my class rules below.They are in several spots around my room, on 8.5×11 paper mounted onto construction paper and laminated. The vary first in class assignment every year in my room is a scavenger hunt-“discovering” the rules being the first find. There’s no outright indication that they are the rules…but it’s pretty east to figure out by their posting in multiple locations, and…well you’ll see.
First I have to say that it is very frightening. We need rules to make a cooperative learning environment work, but cooperation seems pretty far down the list of values expected in United States policies overall-especially our domestic policies when it comes to anyone middle class or below. More so the children that come from that class and follow a path to adulthood that takes them through public schools. “Obedience” is a better word for the expectation of the policy-making class and their troops of legislators, lobbyists and uprising of little gremlins that insinuate themselves into all areas of policy meant to strengthen society-and work instead to weaken it. Within those upper classes, cooperation (or collusion) is the standard, but they fear the coordination, cooperation and freedom in the masses that could threaten a systemic change in how power is divided and aligned. So they aren’t looking for cooperation from non-club members, just obedience. When my students leave school, they are besieged by a world that prizes greed, self-absorption, consumerism, competition…the “free market” is what it’s called, but you have to have a dreamy far-away look in you eye when you say it. It has not served our students well, and it is what education reformers are pushing. Why are they even given the time of day? The values we are being sold are so opposite of what are right. Imagine if my classroom rules were the rules of reform….(imagine misty cutaway and dream-sequence harp music)
1) Choose only the facts that help you, ignore the rest.
2) Get rid of people who don’t agree with you if you can. If not, avoid them or find someone who can get rid of them for you.
3) Don’t stay in one place for too long (people do eventually catch on), stay only long enough to build your reputation make a connection for your next move up the ladder.
4) Keep your eyes on the money. You are awesome and should get paid more than all those people you screwed in rules 1, 2 and 3.
Here are my rules. I think they are better, but what chance do my kids stand if I impart pro-social values and send them out into the world our leaders are creating?
1) Listen (not just “hear”…LISTEN)
2) Follow Directions
3) Be Polite
4) Do Your Best
I’ve always had a little trouble with “posted” class rules. -Having taught high school for many years most of the kids had heard it all. They didn’t like, or really need to be reminded to read a bunch of rules.
I just talked a few moments in the intro to the class and told them there was only one rule: don’t be rude. I know, I know, couched in the negative, but the ‘don’t’ seemed to catch their initial attention and the lack of a list made it stick. (Most of the time.) A discussion which usually followed covered everything and anything that came up. Let them make the decisions. Everyone could remember one simple rule.
I don’t remember ever having posted the “rules”. I hand them out and we discuss them and that’s that!
I sing this song with improvised lyrics throughout the year for all my classes, but obviously CNN can use a refresher.
RULES BLUES by Dan Leopold
The first day of school I wasn’t feeling so good
Didn’t get up the way that I should
Didn’t comb my hair, didn’t brush my teech (bleh!)
I wasn’t having any fun because I forgot rule number 1.
RULE 1- You gotta respect yourself.
Cause’ if you don’t, no one is gonna respect you too
You know its true.
Your gonna have fun, if you remember rule number 1.
The second day of school I still wasn’t feeling so good.
Didn’t get up the way that I should.
So I hit my friend, because he bothered me
I didn’t know what to do because I forgot rule number 2.
RULE 2 – You have to respect each other.
This is your class you don’t have another all year.
You know its true.
Respecting each other (and the teachers, and any adult in the school)
Shows you know rule number 2
The next day at school, still wasn’t feeling so good
Didn’t get up the way that I should
So I ran into Mr. Leopold’s room and banged on the drum and it broke.
Instruments are not free and I had to pay because I forgot rule number 3.
RULE 3 – You have to respect property
If it’s not yours you have to ask first you see.
Because you know, it’s the right thing to do.
You show that responsibility and you know rule number 3.