Consistency is the best rule of all

I was reading an article about a new teacher changing her classroom rules midway through the semester. She gave several reasons for the changes, and most of them were not as a direct result of what she had done. The main reason behind the changes included communication, the principal did not clearly share with her what classroom management support system the school had, then when she did learn what the school has the principal failed to include the fact that level of intervention was restricted to the principal or vice-principal.

This is a wonderful lesson for a new teacher, I will know to ask those questions of my first principal, I think Kunai-gurl was correct in a classroom management model must be adjusted to the students you are teaching, but I think there must also be a level of consistency. The principal could be more consistent in sharing the school’s policies with a new teacher, and the new teacher must be consistent in how she provided management rules in their classroom. I spent many years as a basketball official, and game management was always a significant issue, the players did not seem to mind a foul called on them as long as the same foul was called for the same infraction by the other team. All the problems for officials happen when a foul on one team is not a foul on the other for the same infraction. As I move from being a pre-service teacher to a full time one, I hope I can continue the consistency I have learned and bring it into my classroom.