Upon further reflection, I realized: that actually could
work… when used properly. I reflected on my experience as an RA. In one of our
first staff meetings, we made rules for our individual staff. Yes, our
supervisor gave us some guidelines and expectations of what she wanted us to
do. Those included actually doing our job and things along those lines. But, we
made our own rules to govern ourselves with. For example, you can’t text in the
GroupMe past midnight, and you cannot wait until the last minute to complete
your part for our group collaborations.
I want to teach middle school. Students in these grades are
beginning to want to be a part of the planning process. I know that when I was
in middle school, I would have loved to help make some of the rules for the
class. There are even classes that I am currently in that I wish had been able
to do this! In of my lectures, everyone obnoxiously packs up before class is
even over, when the professor is still speaking.
In my future class, I would probably have to give some basic
guidelines, including no bullying and no texting in class (or whatever is
popular in the future). But it is also important to guide our students in how
they make the rules. This can happen with questions such as How do we decide who is talking next? The
only way for this idea to be effective is if I tell them that I will have final
say over all rules. I can veto them if I choose, explain why, and if it is
possible they may rewrite it. I think the original goal of the first teacher
was to get her students involved, which is an idea that I completely respect
and am totally behind. It just has to be done in the right way that allows for
equal participation among all students. The primary goal has to be to
facilitate a positive learning environment, everything else will fall into
place.
