CHILDREN NEED TRAINING … CONTINUED

EXAMPLES OF EXCELLENCE IN SHAPING CLASS PROCESSES

In developing this article, I have drawn on some excellent examples of teaching practitionership. I want to highlight some educators who have the skills to set up procedures and routines that excellently underpin classroom organisation.

Louise Wright and the Golden Rule

Louise Wright was a teacher at Leanyer School for a period during my principalship. As an ex-Milingimbi educator, she gained insights into classroom management that portrayed her class as one within which democracy reigned. That was truly obvious.

Ms Wright’s class had the following as its mission statement :

” Remember the Golden Rule and choose to help each other.

1. Choose to help each other.

2. Choose to respect each other.

3. Choose to be kind and caring.

4. Choose to work and learn ‘together as one’.

5. Choose to be happy.”

Curious, I asked Ms. Wright for a small text explaining the class and its operational precepts. She responded in the following terms.

” I asked the children what classroom they would like to have. They all said, “A happy one.” Then, the question ‘How do we make a happy classroom?’ was brainstormed. We talked about choices and being responsible for our choices.

I told the children The Golden Rule: “Do unto others, or treat them as you would like to be treated.” They reckoned that was pretty fair, so we decided to make the choice to be a happy bunch by developing the above attitudes. They saw that those attitudes and behaviours embraced the school motto (Together as One), and so it all just came together. It is working.”