Classroom with THREE Values

Body-safe

Brain-safe

Feelings-safe

Those are our 3 classroom values. Not rules, but values. At the beginning of the year we brainstorm all the ways we believe classmates can be “good classmates”. All of the things students come up with can fall under one of these 3 values. Keeping your and everyone else’s body safe, keeping your and everyone else’s brain safe, keeping your and everyone else’s feeling safe. The beauty is that this is MY job too. To keep everyone safe in all the ways possible. So here are some things that fall under each.

Walking - body safe
Listening during a lesson - brain safe
Calling names - not feelings safe
Staying focused during centers - brain safe
Play wrestling - not body safe
Punching - not body and feelings safe

See how it works? Students know that these are the values of our classroom. It all starts with us talking about what school is for. School is for learning and growing. People cannot learn and grow if they’re worried about getting hurt, being unwanted, or distracted. That’s why these 3 values make sense and work for us.

I do not reward my students for not following a value. I also don’t punish them. They are expected to follow the values as part of the class family to uphold the reason for school. But I do not have personal expectations of them. If I did, I would be disappointed, upset, or angry when they break them (because they do, they are kids). My kids don’t get to make me angry; they don’t control me. Do I get disappointed in my kids? OF course! I’m also disappointed when they don’t make gains in academics. But I don’t show that. Usually, I’m more disappointed with myself, that I didn’t get them where they could be (which isn’t fair to me either but I’m working on it). With behavior, we tend to do the opposite. We don’t think “man, I didn’t get them to where they could do this behavior skill…” We just get mad that they don’t have it yet and we show that to them. Imagine if we yelled and stuck a kid in the hall for not reading 100 words per minute. So, yes my kids make me disappointed with behaviors at times but I don’t show them that. I show them how I’m going to help them. There are logical consequences for each time someone breaks a value - because they are logical values. The consequence is you hurt someone, in some way, and you must do what you can to fix that. What I want from my students is to identify that they feel bad when they break a value. They feel good when they demonstrate a value. If it is a persistent problem, we do something to help the student get better at fixing the problem. That might be sitting closer to me or away from a friend, spending time with the teacher practicing the skill, etc.

If your goal is to build well-behaved kids. You know, the kids that stick a bubble in their mouth when you meet their eyes and get to work when you walk toward the board, you can use a punitive system.
If your goal is to build well-behaved kids. You know, the kids that pick up trash when they see you passing out skittles and finish work to pull from a treasure box, you can use a reward system.

If your goal is to build GOOD people. You know, the people that help others because it feels good, and feel bad when they distract their friends from learning, you need to build kids that are aware of their feelings and effect.

Your students are not at school to make you happy or make you mad. That is just not their job. They are not there to appease our pet peeves. I know, that is hard. It is annoying when pencils are on the floor. But does it make them bad people? Then who really cares…ask a kid to pick them up. I’m sure a kid in the room will do it right away and then it is done. We don’t practice “raising hands”, we practice waiting until someone is done speaking to start. THIS is a life skill. Yes, it makes it easier on us for kids to raise their hand but they aren’t going to do that a lot in adult life. In our class, students are free to speak in a way that follows the 3 values. If someone interrupts someone, they didn’t keep their feelings safe. No one in our room is more important than anyone else (this works for running towards the door too). Students are free to leave their seat, pick spots in the room, etc. as long as they follow the 3 values.

You see, raising your hand and staying in your seat are not values. They are behaviors and we made them to make our lives easier. To appease us.

I hate when my kids coats are everywhere. I told my students it bother me to see our classroom disorderly and it would be easier if we all either wore our coats or put them in our backpacks. But every time I see a coat out I have to ask “are they being a bad person?” Truly never has kid left a coat out because they wanted to stick it to me. I usually let it go or I remind them to put it up. No clip to move, no punishment.

At the end of the day, compliance and obidience are not the same thing. For example, you obey laws like “don’t murder” and “don’t steal” even when no one is looking. Why? Because you know inside that there is a logical reason for those rules and they either make things unsafe or impact someone negatively.

But how many people (including you) speed when they don’t see a cop?
What happens the minute you see a cop? You are now complying. You are complying with the law because you know there will be a punishment if you don’t. You are not complying with the law because in your mind, it doesn’t seem a big deal if you drive a little faster. It doesn’t seem unsafe and it doesn’t seem to impact anyone (although deep down we know there is a reason for this law and it can impact others).

This example helps us see the difference between complying and obeying. We trick kids into complying all day and night. And I get it, at times we need some level of sanity and order - compliance.

But most of the time…we just don’t have a better way. We don’t have a way to help kids want to be better.

But values can help. Values are a start.

Happy teaching!