• Mr. Craig's Class Expectations and Procedures

         In my classroom, I have but 3 main rules. These rules, of course, beget smaller self-explanatory rules, but the main points are as follows:

     RESPECT - Yourself

                                        Your Classmates

                                         Your Environment

     RAISE- Your Hand

                           Your Confidence

                              Your Expectations

                 FOLLOW - Class Procedures

                            All Directions

                                                                                                                School Policy

      These rules are key to creating a positive learning environment. Only when we respect ourselves can we respect others, and when we can respect ourselves and others, we automatically respect our class environment. Only when we have the courage to raise our hand, whether it be to ask for help or offer help, can we raise our confidence, and when we raise our confidence, we automatically raise our own expectations. 

      I will be using our time in the first few weeks to express the importance of our class as a community that builds upon its strengths and weaknesses, so that we can all understand the complexity of human intelligence.

      Every student in my class, at one point or another, will not understand the topic at hand as it has been presented. I encourage every student experiencing confusion to raise their hand with this verbiage, "Mr. Craig, I do not understand the topic in the way you are presenting it. Is there another angle we can look at it from?". This creates a shared responsibility, I think. The student is not in a position where they feel they are admitting that they are incapable of doing the work, they are simply expressing the need for different information in order to understand the concept at hand.

      By building this type of mentality and culture, and focusing on class procedure, I am fully confident every student can succeed in my class. 

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       My class procedures are concise and specific. From the moment my students walk through the door, they will know exactly what to do. There will be no downtime, no time to get bored or be unsure of what is happening next, unless we wrap a lesson up early, and they have some free time at the end of the period. Class procedures are posted on the wall, we will practice them several times until they are second nature. The purpose of my class procedures is to streamline our learning process. They eliminate anxiety by creating a routine students can easily follow, they eliminate judgment from peers when questions must be asked by students, they allow me to command focus and attention promptly when needed, and they create a system for classroom volume control. Between rules and procedures, my classroom is a place where every student will work together towards the same goal. As I tell my students, by the end of the year we will all get to the same place, but we may take different paths getting there.

      I do not like to give out homework. If we are successful in creating the intended learning environment, there will be few times I do send students home with work. I believe between class time and RTI time, most students can accomplish the work with full understanding during school hours. Having said that, every student will most likely struggle with some of the content at one time or another, and may require some practice at home. Should that be the case, I will contact the student's guardians and discuss a plan for home practice.

    email: ronald.craig@dvusd.org