How important is it to create and establish classroom expectations, routines, and rules at the beginning of the year?
The sooner teachers can establish rules and expectations the better. This allows for students have something that is consistent in the classroom. It is also important to make these rules and expectations clear so that students can understand them. When establishing rules it can be useful to get students to help pick out the rules. This gives students a chance to give their opinion on what they think is fair, thus creating a democratic environment. In picking rules sometimes it is also important to outline the consequences in breaking these rules.
It is also important to evaluate your rules and expectations at the end of each year. At the end of the year teachers should reflect on what rules worked and on which rules did not work. Each year there will be a new set of students and you can try new rules and new penalties to see which benefits student the most.
Classroom Environments 