I have been putting off creating “class rules” for my classroom. I wasn’t sure if it was too young for middle school or if by sixth and seventh grade the students already knew what was expected of them…
BUT I finally found some examples that I liked and used those as a starting point in creating my own. I knew that I wanted my rules to be simple and to the point…and not too baby. I also didn’t want to create too many rules for fear that students would just forget them…nor did I want the rules to be super wordy and end up confusing my students. So here is what I came up with:
I feel as though these rules cover pretty much everything and clearly state what I expect of my students. I will post these rules in my classroom for all to see, as well as go over them with my students at the beginning of the year. I will refer back to them as needed.
I am happy that I decided to create my own rules, especially since this is my first year of teaching. No matter what age students are, they need to know what is expected of them and know that they are held to a high standard.
Only 22 more days until the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! =)
Click here to download this poster –> Class Rules
Welcome to my crazy, beautiful life! 
Love the poster! Since you are teaching middle school, this might be a little more difficult, but social contracts work really well for rules. You can check out my blog post titled, “Your Rules or My Rules” for information on how it works. I actually got the idea from a middle school teacher. It’s just a way for the students to take ownership of the rules and create them as a class. I have incorporated social contracts EVERY year, and they WORK! I have very little behavior problems, and when a situation arises, all I have to do is point back to the rules that the students created and remind them that they were the ones who made the rules…and that usually takes care of everything. And the best part…students are usually much harder on themselves and create more rules than you would–and it’s the same things you would post, but just put into different words. It might take you a couple of days with them to get it completed, but it’s totally worth it! Plus, you can always categorize the rules with the older students so that you don’t have so many, or clump them into the rules that you want them to follow. Just a thought. 🙂
Perfect! Thanks so much 🙂