0 Learning Love and Logic

Today, I’m going to tell you about the time I accidentally attended a parenting seminar.  If you’re wondering why this is a big deal, well…  I’m 24 with no husband, no kids, and no plans to have kids until I'm married.  AKA No reason whatsoever to go to a 2 hour parenting seminar.  

So, why was I there?  It’s totally Shelli’s fault.  She tweeted me a few weeks ago to ask what I was doing on September 18^th.  TU was hosting a free Love and LogicParent-Teacher Institute with Dr. Charles Fay.  I’ve never read the Love and Logicbook, but I could definitely use some help with my classroom management skills.  Shelli ended up not being able to go with me due to Back to School Night, so I ended up going by myself.

Dr. Charles Fay was an absolutely hilarious and riveting speaker.  I don't think we ever quite quit laughing the entire evening.  He started the evening by trying to gauge what his audience was trying to get out of the evening.  Raise your hand if you are the parent of an infant.  Raise your hand if you are the parent of a toddler.  Raise your hand if you are the parent of an elementary school child.  Raise your hand if you are the parent of a middle school child.  Raise your hand if your child is in high school.  Raise your hand if your children have grown up and moved out of the house.  Raise your hand if your children have grown up, moved out of the house, and moved back in the house.  Raise your hand if you’re here tonight because your spouse acts like a child.  Raise your hand if you are both raising your children and helping to take care of your own parents. 

At this point, I’m starting to feel a tad bit awkward.  Everybody else has been raising their hands and looking around at each with understanding glances.  Not me.  I’m trying to avoid eye contact with those around me out of fear that they will ask me what I think I’m doing here.  I obviously don’t belong.  EVENTUALLY, the speaker gets around to asking if anyone is there because they are an educator.  A handful of hands go up, but you can tell that we’re definitely in the minority. 

To be honest, 97.24% of the presentation was focused on parenting and not teaching.  But, it was definitely not a wasted evening.  I walked away with lots of things to think about and apply to my classroom. 

Major Takeaways:

I let a select few students pull me into arguments.  This reduces my effectiveness.  I don’t have to explain myself and my actions to my students.  Also, I need to let my kids struggle more.  I need to let them experience the consequences of their lack of effort.  I deserve to feel respected in my classroom.  And, my students should be working harder than me. 

Here’s my notes.  I bolded the statements that I feel I can definitely apply to my classroom.  Now, I’m intrigued and want to know more about what the Love and Logic Program actually looks like in the classroom.  Now, I just need to find some time to read again!  :)  

When dealing with children, always ask yourself, “Who is the adult in the room?”

3 Pieces of Advice

1. Stop fighting with your children.
2. Take the energy you have been spending fighting with your children and pour it into building their character.  Teach them patience.  Teach them respect.  Teach them how to wait.  Teach them to say “Please” and “Thank you.” 
3. Love your children.

Ask yourself – what is at the heart of how our kids do in life?  The grades on their transcript or their character? 

Q: What can I do to help my child in school?
A: Give them chores.  No reminders.  No pay.  Just chores.

When your children ask for things:
“I will be more than happy to do XYZ as long as I feel respected and your chores are done.”

When we focus on character instead of grades, we have guaranteed success.

Allow yourself to love your kids just as they are right now.

Allow kids to experience consequences of their lack of effort.

Want to confuse a misbehaving kid? Smile at them!

If a kid can argue with you, will they ever come to respect you?

If a kid can argue with you, are you still the authority figure?

When talking to a misbehaving kid, be brain dead.  Don’t think about the words coming out of the kids’ mouth.

It’s good for kids to hear the word NO.

The more words I use with an angry, arguing kid, the less effective I become. 

You do not have a solemn obligation to make sense to your kid.

ONE THING TO FOCUS ON: Don’t get pulled into arguments.

The most powerful consequences come like a bolt of lightning wrapped in empathy. 

Resisting wind makes trees grow stronger roots.

We’ve got to love our kids enough to let them struggle.

Struggle produces growth.

It’s okay if your kids think you’re a wimp!  They’ll find out the truth later. 

Chores

• As soon as your kids can walk, they should be doing chores alongside you. 
• Do chores together with kids.  Do chores together with teenagers.
• Kids should see us doing things with great enthusiasm.
• Your motto with chores should be: “I help as long as you’re working harder than me.”
• Chores are an opportunity for children to experience being helpful and being a part of something. 
• If you nag and remind kids to do their chores, who is really doing the chore? You are!
• The more reminders we give our kids, the more reminders our kids will come to need.

Mistakes are the road to wisdom.

If you want an exceptional child/family, don’t have a television in your home.

Empathy THEN consequences.

When you don’t know what to do, it’s okay to delay the consequence. 

Detail: Learning Love and Logic

0 First Day of School 2014 - Introductions, Circles, Rules, a Monkey, and More

This year I decided to change up how I went about Day 1 in my classroom.  Considering the fact that I also changed up things last year for Day 1, you can safely say that I've never done Day 1 the same way twice.  :)

Year 1 Day 1 - Plans; Reflection
Year 2 Day 1 - Plans; Reflection
Year 3 Day 1 - You are here!

Totally goofed on the math problem for the countdown.  School pictures was in 10 days not 2 days!  Totally should have been a 2 in the denominator.  Luckily, none of my students noticed and showed up on Saturday for school pictures!  :)  

I greeted students in the hallway for the first day.  My first year of teaching, I did a great job of spending passing periods in the hall.  The math teacher across the hall from me was a first year teacher as well that year, so we offered each other lots of moral support.  I spent a lot of time in the hall practicing names.  When you teach in a school with less than two hundred students, there is an expectation that everybody knows everybody's name.  I'm not sure what caused it, but I was hardly out in the hall last year at all.  Most of the time I would spent the passing periods at my desk trying to get organized for my next class.  Or, I would sit at my desk and relish a moment of doing nothing.  But, I feel like I missed out on seeing the kids that weren't "my kids" that year.

This year, I'm determined to be a presence in the hall.  I want to be that friendly face that tells students "Good Morning!"  I want to keep in touch with the students who are in geometry this year.  My freshman are taking advantage of my being in the hall by asking for reminders of where various classrooms are.  Our schedules this year listed all of the room numbers as "Unknown," so they have nothing to go by except the name of the teacher.  We don't have a ton of teachers, but there are three different floors.  I can't imagine being in a new school with new teachers and not being able to look up where my next class is located.

When students entered my classroom on the first day, this message was on the SMART Board.  Algebra 2 and Trig classes got the same message.  I just changed the name of the class.

On the desk in the doorway, there was tub holding ziplock bags of tangrams and IQ circles.

I bought my tub of tangrams a while back from Amazon.  Love them!  I'm assuming that y'all know all there is to know about tangrams.

The IQ circles are a new addition to my classroom courtesy of my mom and her awesome bargain hunting skills.  I'm pretty sure she paid a dollar for the entire tub of these puzzlers.

Inside each box, there is a black, circular case.  My students claimed that these looked like they held makeup!  

And, inside each case are pieces to make a circle.  

The box claims that there are more than 10 ways to build a circle out of these pieces.  I dumped out the pieces of one of the puzzles to try.  Fifteen minutes later, I still wasn't able to put the circle together.  I knew that it had to be possible because I had just dumped out a completed circle.  I put the puzzle aside out of frustration, and my sister ended up completing it for me.  We're super competitive, so that made me feel great!  

To ensure that my students wouldn't take the easy way out and try to cheat, I dumped all of the circle puzzles into their own individual ziplock bags.  But, before I did that, I opened all of the puzzles up and took pictures of them in their solved states.  I counted twelve different solutions in my box.  Twelve different solutions and I couldn't even find one on my own...

Students who picked up bag of tangrams were instructed to make a square using all of the tangram pieces.  Students who picked up a bag of circle pieces were to make a circle.  Some of the students tried to make circles out of the tangram pieces.  That didn't quite work out for them.  Other students didn't realize that they were supposed to build the circle in the black case.  Students worked on these puzzles while I took roll and did some first day of school administrative stuff.

Our first day of school was on a Thursday, so this fit perfectly for Brain Teaser Thursday.

Students were still working on their puzzles when I began my introduction of myself.  I had a few students who were able to complete the circle or square, but the majority of students were unable to complete them in the allotted time.

I already blogged about my 30 Awesome Facts You Should Probably Know About Ms. Hagan presentation here.  Some students listened better than others.  Some were too involved with trying to solve their puzzles to pay much attention to me.  Oh well.  Sharing facts about myself led to some great conversations!  It gave my students a view of me outside the classroom.  I think they needed to be reminded that teachers are real people with real lives, too.  :)

Next, I wanted a chance to get to know my students better.  I've already taught approximately 40% of my students before.  So, some I know quite well.  Others I just met.

At #TMC14, I was part of Elizabeth's Group Work Working Group.  It was truly one of the highlights of my TMC experience.  One of the activities we participated in was a classroom circle.  Classroom circles are based on restorative practices.  I'm not entirely sure what that means, but maybe it is enlightening to somebody? LOL.  What I do know is that there is power in meeting in the circle format.    

First, I had to teach my students how to make a circle.  For classroom circles, this just means that everybody needs to be able to see everybody else in the circle.  During this time, I allow students to stay in their seats, stand, or even sit on the furniture.  If they make a square, that's completely fine as long as everybody can see everybody.

Next, the rules of the circle: no talking unless you are holding the talking piece.  At TMC, Elizabeth had a dodecahedron that she had knitted that we used as a talking piece.  I can knit, but I haven't found the time to sit down and knit my own dodecahedron yet.  [Fun fact of the day:  Before I was a math teacher blogger, I was a knitting blogger.  Because it's totally normal for a 15 year old to start writing a blog about knitting, right?]  I knew that I wanted to do a classroom circle on the first day of school to let students introduce themselves.  But, I didn't really think it through and plan my talking piece.  Scanning my room on the morning of the first day, I saw my stuffed monkey.  He was a Valentine's gift from a couple of students last year.

This will do.  This monkey will become a sort of mascot for my class.  I let my first hour name the monkey.  They voted on Henry.  So, if you're in the circle, you can't talk unless you're holding Henry.  Another rule follows from this: No Commenting.  This is SO hard for me.  When a student says something, I'm used to making some sort of comment.  Students do have the option of raising their hand to indicate that they wish to have the talking piece.  Once Henry is in their hands, they can speak.

Having just introduced myself, I told students that I now wanted to know more about them.  We were going to go around the circle.  Each person would say their name and a fact about themselves that they wanted to share with the class.  Students also found the no commenting rule hard.

I love the circle structure for several reasons.  Number one.  I suck at classroom management.  Keeping the room quiet and the students focused is hard for me.  Number two.  I love to have students share with the class.  But, side conversations have a tendency to start, and I always feel bad that the later sharers receive less attention from the class as a result.  The circle structure keeps everyone focused.  One person has the talking piece.  One person is the focus.  That person is the focus as long as they feel they need to be.  Some students shared something a quick fact.  Others told a more involved anecdote.  Every student listened to every other student.  And, every student knew that they were being listened to.  Every student got a chance to speak.

I'm modifying my Good Things routine this year based on classroom circles.  We will create a circle before sharing.  And, students will have to hold the monkey in order to share their good thing.  I think this is going to be a positive change this year!  I just need to work on the no commenting rule!

Now, my 4th hour Trig class had to be difficult.  They decided that they didn't like the monkey's name.  Instead of Henry, they decided that the monkey was a she and should be called Cinnamon.  Do you realize how crazy you sound when you say things like, "You are not allowed to speak unless you are holding Cinnamon."  One student said he was going to go to the store and buy a container of cinnamon so he would always have the right to speak.

Since we're over a week in school, here's an update to the monkey situation.  Downside to having a monkey as your talking piece: students tell other teachers in the building things like "Ms. Hagan has this monkey in her classroom, and it's a stripper monkey.  It hangs out on a pole.  And, it even has a stripper name: Cinnamon."  NOT what I intended.  :)

Next, I announced to my students that they needed to take out their cell phones.  Some were hesitant to do this because they assumed that I was trying to trick them and was going to take them away if they got them out.  Nope.  I just wanted them to sign up for text message alerts from Remind.

I wrote the instructions for signing up on the board during meet the teacher night, but I think I had a grand total of one sign up as a result.

Next up: discussion of supplies for INBs.  This year, I gave students a list of optional supplies for the first time.  I provide glue, colored pencils, markers, highlighters, and dry erase markers for my students.  But, over the past two years, I have found that some students wish to have their own.  After all, markers that have been used by 100 students quickly become less than perfect.  I've had several students in the past buy their own sets of markers or colored pencils, and they have seemed to be happy with that.

And, then comes the time to get serious.  My 5 new classroom rules for this year.  These are inspired by Harry Wong's The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher.  For students who have had me before, these are drastically different rules/consequences than I have ever had in my classroom.

Here are my consequences:

Students weren't too thrilled with the consequences.  They did seem to be more okay with them after I mentioned that names on the board would be erased at the end of each week.  So, they can break one rule each week without punishment.

Next, I asked my students to write a tweet about what they thought intelligence was.  I created the hash tag #IntelligenceIs for this.  This confused my students SO much.  Maybe it was the font I used???  They thought the I in "Is" was an L.  "Ms. Hagan, what is Intelligencels?"

I'm also pretty sure that my students are not major tweeters because they had a ton of trouble understanding the meaning of 140 characters.  In fact, one of my students even told me that twitter was not cool.  Ummm...I beg to differ.  :)

Here's the strips I made for my students to write their #IntelligenceIs tweets on.

My first year of teaching, I had my students write #MathIs tweets.  I feel like these were much more fun and enlightening to read.  But, you never know until you try something new.

Download the #IntelligenceIs Tweet Strips here.

The idea behind #IntelligenceIs was to see what my students thought about intelligence in regards to growth mindset/fixed mindset.  I was hoping to have time the first day to give my students a growth mindset quiz that I adapted from online, but we ran out of time.  So, they didn't get to see this terrifying slide until Day 2.  :)

Oh, and I can't forget to mention one of the most important things we did on the first day of school.  I taught the students how to use my new pencil sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies!

I posted a full review of this awesome pencil sharpener complete with an enthusiastic how-to video of myself using this pencil sharpener on youtube.  If you've ever wondered what it would be like to be a student in my class, this video should give you a good idea of that.  If you decide to order one of these for your own classroom (and you totally should!) there's a coupon code for 5% off your purchase at the bottom of my review.  

After I sharpened a pencil in front of the class, I invited volunteers to come up and try the pencil sharpener.  I was notified by one student that "This isn't the 19th century any more.  People use mechanical pencils nowadays, Ms. Hagan!"

Day 1 ended with a reminder of what happens when the bell rings.

This is a big change for me.  I've overlooked it in the past when students got out of their seats and started lining up at the door.  Not this year!  I won't dismiss students until they are all seated, all supplies are put away, and all the trash is picked up off the floor.

Day 1 was fun.  I have an especially large, especially fun bunch of kiddos this year.  I think it's going to be a GREAT year!

Detail: First Day of School 2014 - Introductions, Circles, Rules, a Monkey, and More

0 New Posters In Action

Remember all those posters I made this summer?  Well, I finally got them put up in my classroom!  After almost a week of work, my room is finally taking shape.  Today, my principal walked in my classroom and just smiled instead of remarking about the mess I had made as in days past.  So, that's progress!  

I'm not quite ready to post pics of my classroom decor yet because I want to make sure everything is PERFECT before taking a set of "final" pictures, but I do want to share pics of the posters.  I'll also be updating the original posts for each set of posters so people can see what they look like in action!

Consider this your sneak peek into my classroom.  Don't worry.  I'll be sure to give you the comprehensive tour soon!

I've still got 2 bulletin boards to decorate, a dry erase board to grid, and calculator holders (shoe holders) to buy and hang.  I also want to frame my diploma.  I graduated in 2012.  It's now 2014.  Yeah...  Plus, my sister made me a pi sign to hang on the wall.  And, my family is helping me make a mailbox to keep in my classroom for Friday letters.  I'm super excited about this upcoming school year!

Below each picture, I linked to the blog post where I uploaded the files for you to download each set of posters.  Enjoy the posters!  And, if you use any of them in your classroom, I'd LOVE to see them!

Starting and Ending Class Posters - Download Here!

Please / Thank You / YET Posters - Download Here! 

These are words I want to hear more of in my classroom. 

Sentence Starter Posters - Download Here! 

Class Norms (Group Work Norms) Posters - First Half

Download Here!

 Class Norms (Group Work Norms) Posters - Second Half

PEMDAS Posters - Download Here!

(Still need to add some left to right arrows and a few notes...)

Weekly Schedule Posters - Download Here!

#Eduread Growth Mindset Reminder Posters - Download Here!

 

Group Work Roles Posters - Download Here!

Classroom Rules Posters - Download Here! 

The Greek Alphabet Posters - Download Here! 

Detail: New Posters In Action

0 Foldables In The Making

I get a lot of comments and e-mails asking exactly how I model my notes for my students.  I know some teachers write the notes on an actual foldable under the document camera, but I don't have the most user friendly document camera.  And, it's a big pain to switch back and forth between the document camera and my SMART Board.

So, I make foldable templates in the SMART Notebook software to write on top of.  This isn't foolproof.  I often have students take notes in the wrong place, but I think that's a result of their not paying attention.  Because usually 95% of the class will do it right...

Here's an example of what my SMART Board notes look like and what the foldable my students end up making looks like.  I write everything every class period.  This can get a bit old, but I find myself tweaking my wording throughout the day.  I take what didn't work first hour and try to make it better third and fifth hour.  I teach 3 classes of Algebra 1 and 2 classes of Algebra 2, so I never have to write the same thing more than 3 times.  There are some things that I type out in advance for my students.  And, there are some days when I think some notes will take 3 minutes to write.  When they take 10 minutes in reality, I usually end up typing them out for the rest of my classes and simply have them glue them in.  Timing activities can be really tricky with interactive notebooks.  I've found that giving my students a specific amount of time to do a task (via a timer) can be a big help! I wrote more about using a timer in class here.  

As you can see, I try to incorporate lots of color-coding.  Doing this is pretty easy on the SMART Board.  Plus, if a student was absent, I can always pull up the previous day's notes on the SMART Board for them.

The notes look super messy once we get done, but my students don't seem to have too much trouble following along with what's new on the page.  Though, they do take every opportunity they can get to criticize my SMART Board handwriting...

Detail: Foldables In The Making

0 Posters of Group Work Roles

This will be my first year to assign roles during group work.  Maybe this is where I've gone wrong with group work over the past two years.

I decided to design a set of posters that could be hung on the wall to remind everybody (including myself) what the responsibilities are of each group member.

These roles and descriptions are stolen from Ilana Horn's Strength in Numbers: Collaborative Learning in Secondary Mathematics.  I know I've talked about this book a lot on this blog.  But, it's for a good reason.  This book has radically changed how I view group work.

At OCTM earlier this summer, one of the presenters talked about how she implemented group work in her own classroom.  She took these roles and printed them on small cards.  These cards were laminated and stored in a library pocket.  Whenever group work took place in her classroom, she would pass out a pocket of group role cards to each group.  Each member would take the card that corresponded to their job.  I'm definitely stealing this idea!  I need to put making sets of these cards on my to do list!

I also need to get busy making cards for a pocket chart.  I am going to randomly assign students to groups.  This is a scary thought.  But, I know that it will be for the better.  If I have the expectation that all students can learn, that group work benefits all students, then I must randomize my groups.
Here are the individual image files for the four group roles.  I've embedded the posters at the bottom of this post as a PDF file and an editable Open Office file.  If you have trouble downloading the files, send me an e-mail at mathequalslove(at)gmail(dot)com.  I will happily attach the files and send them to you.

Facilitator

Resource Monitor

Recorder/Reporter

Team Captain

Embedded Files:

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Detail: Posters of Group Work Roles

0 Starting and Ending Class

This is going to be the year that I master classroom management.  Okay, maybe I won't master it.  But, I hope I won't fail at it.  I really liked these quotes about who starts and ends class from Harry Wong's The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher.  So, I decided to make posters of the quotes to hang around the clock in my classroom.

The teacher does not start the class.  The bell does not start the class.  You start the class!

I want to train my students to enter my classroom quietly, look up on the SMART Board to see what supplies they will need that day, get out their needed supplies, and start the listed task as soon as they enter the classroom.  If they want to talk to a fellow student, that needs to happen before they enter my classroom.

This is most definitely not the way I have ran my classroom before.  Oh, I've always had bellwork up on the board when they enter.  And, this past year, I started posting the daily supplies.  But, my classroom tends to be a loud, distracting place.  I have a terrible time getting students to stop talking and listen to directions.  And, I'm tired of fighting that battle.  I'm tired of my 5th period class coming in and telling me that they knew my 2nd hour must not have minded well because they could hear me screaming across the hall.

This is going to be really hard for me.  It's especially going to be a hard transition for my Algebra 2 students that I had in class two years ago for Algebra 1.  I have a feeling they are not going to like the new and improved Ms. Hagan.  Oh well.  They can get over it.  I need this for my sanity.  I need this to make my classroom an environment that is conducive to learning.

The bell does not dismiss the class.  You do not dismiss the class.  The teacher dismisses the class!

I also want to combat students lining up at the door.  This drives me insane.

Story time.  When I was in the 7th grade, I had a geography teacher named Mr. Garrett.  I don't remember a ton about his class.  But, I do remember his bell policy.  The bell did not dismiss our class.  Mr. Garrett dismissed our class.  When the bell rang, we would all sit patiently, waiting for his dismissal.  One time, he left the classroom a few minutes before the bell was to ring.  The bell rang, and he still wasn't there.  My entire class probably sat there for at least a minute.  We were convinced that he was probably hiding in the hall and would get on to us when we walked out of the door for breaking his rule.  Well, he wasn't hiding in the hall.  And, we didn't get in trouble.

Having these policies will communicate to my students how much I value our class time.  The transition is going to be rough as I try to fight against doing things the way I've always done them.  It's easier to overlook student misbehavior, but I know that the dividends for these policies will pay handsomely.

Advice?  I'd love to hear it!

Embedded Poster Files Below:





If you have any trouble downloading these files, please send me an e-mail at mathequalslove(at)gmail(dot)com.  I will happily attach the files and send them to you.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.  

Detail: Starting and Ending Class

0 Classroom Rules Posters 2014-2015

Rules.  Classroom rules.  These fall under the category of classroom management that I just haven't quite figured out yet.  My big things to work on for 2014-2015 are classroom management / effective group work.  These actually go hand-in-hand because the reason my group work has never been effective is that I lack classroom management skills.  I start off the year too nice, too friendly.  I overlook things, thinking they'll go away.  They don't.  They just get worse.  I make threats.  Empty threats.  And, the kids know it.  This certainly doesn't help.  I get strict.  Then, I relax my rules.  There is no consistency.  And, I know consistency is key.  So, I've been spending time this summer coming up with a classroom management plan that I can stick with Day 1 - Day 180.

My first year of teaching, I had 2 rules.  Work Hard.  Be Nice.  These were NOT specific enough.  My second year of teaching, I didn't post any rules.  This was not a good choice either.

As part of this process, I re-read Harry Wong's The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher.  In this book, Wong suggests that a teacher should have no more than five rules for their classroom.  After spending a lot of time thinking about what I want my classroom to look like, I settled on these five rules.  

1.  Be in your seat with all necessary supplies when the bell rings.  I hate wasting class time.  My students love to come waltzing into class minutes after the bell rings.  My school has no consequence for tardies, so I'm going to make my own.  I value my class time.  My rules should reflect that.

2.  Follow directions the first time they are given.  I shouldn't have to repeat my directions a million times because students are doing their own thing and not paying attention.  Once again, it comes down to valuing class time.

3. No cursing or teasing.  My school has a major bullying problem.  I need to be better at watching for these things and taking disciplinary action.

4.  No Distractions: No Grooming | No Food Or Drinks | No Electronics

This year, I had a pair of students who thought that Algebra 2 was time for applying make up.  No.  I now see why my 9th grade English teacher had the rule of no grooming in class.  For the past 2 years, I've let students have food and drinks in my classroom though it is technically against school policy.  A few teachers enforce this.  Most of the rest of us let it slide.  But, I'm getting tired of students not throwing away their trash or spilling the giant Sonic drinks on my carpet.  No more.  The kids will probably hate me, but it will make my life better.  No electronics.  This year, I will not tolerate cell phones unless I have specifically told students that they may use them for an activity.  My kids can't focus on me with an electronic device in front of them.  We are not a BYOD school.  Students are not supposed to have their cell phones out during class.  If I enforce this from Day 1, I think the year will go a lot smoother.

5.  Keep hands, feet, and objects to yourself.  I shouldn't have to make this a rule.  But, I teach freshmen.  And, freshmen boys tend to have some maturity issues.  I've had students try to cut another's hair.  I've had students draw on other students.  I had one boy put glue on another boy's head.  Yeah, I need this rule.

In case you want to edit these posters to make your own rules (or steal mine), I've uploaded the files as a PDF and an editable Open Office file.  E-mail me at mathequalslove(at)gmail(dot)com if you can't download the embedded files.  Enjoy!

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.  

Detail: Classroom Rules Posters 2014-2015