Relationships or Rules?
During our pre-service training last week, our principal, Mr. Zahn, challenged us to consider the value of establishing relationships with our students and the impact that could have in our classrooms. I chose to take him seriously. I scrapped my traditional "rules and procedures" lesson plan for Day 1, and went with a plan designed to focus more on getting to know the students. In fact, that's pretty much all I am doing the first week -- building relationships.
In fact, I revisited a Josh McDowell concept that I used to know well -- "rules without relationship lead to rebellion". Of course, he had in mind a very different context, but there's a lot of common sense to that idea. As I look at Day 1 in my classroom, my students were surprised to find that they were greeted with Kool and The Gang's "Celebration" and a tub of Play-Doh.
We used the Play-Doh to create images of things that were important to us and share about why those things mattered. For example, one student, "I like pancakes because when I eat them I think of when my father makes them and its fun at home."
So we will spend a few days building a foundation for the tougher days ahead. If Mr. Zahn walks into my classroom again tomorrow like he did today, I won't have to explain the value of the Play-Doh (or whatever). He gets it, and I like that.
Harrison McCoy
AVID Coordinator
During our pre-service training last week, our principal, Mr. Zahn, challenged us to consider the value of establishing relationships with our students and the impact that could have in our classrooms. I chose to take him seriously. I scrapped my traditional "rules and procedures" lesson plan for Day 1, and went with a plan designed to focus more on getting to know the students. In fact, that's pretty much all I am doing the first week -- building relationships.
In fact, I revisited a Josh McDowell concept that I used to know well -- "rules without relationship lead to rebellion". Of course, he had in mind a very different context, but there's a lot of common sense to that idea. As I look at Day 1 in my classroom, my students were surprised to find that they were greeted with Kool and The Gang's "Celebration" and a tub of Play-Doh.
We used the Play-Doh to create images of things that were important to us and share about why those things mattered. For example, one student, "I like pancakes because when I eat them I think of when my father makes them and its fun at home."
So we will spend a few days building a foundation for the tougher days ahead. If Mr. Zahn walks into my classroom again tomorrow like he did today, I won't have to explain the value of the Play-Doh (or whatever). He gets it, and I like that.
Harrison McCoy
AVID Coordinator