Can You Pass The Test

It’s the first week of school. You are anxious to meet new students and spend the first days explaining rules, procedures and expectations. You devote time to reinforce, model, practice, and discuss your class rules and behaviors to establish a positive classroom culture. If you’re like me, you will give a test on Friday to ensure students understand all the expectations, consequences, and procedures.

However, if you want to sustain your established culture there’s one important test you will have to pass! Students will be prepared to test your boundaries. The question is…can you pass the test?

To prepare for your test, reframe how you approach teaching students your expectations. Think about your classroom culture from the vantage point of how you will ensure accountability. Are you prepared to hold students accountable for your expectations? What behaviors will you confront and which ones will you ignore?

Here are 4 tips to ensure you pass the test every time!

#1 Be consistent: When the test comes, reinforce and establish your behavior expectations regularly. Do this with consistency and students will realize they cannot push the limits because the consequences are always the same. If you have rules, but are inconsistent in enforcing them, students will learn they can test the boundaries with no consequences. You may have heard the adage, “People will consistently do exactly what you allow them to do.” When you permit students to break the class rules with no consequences, this behavior will be repetitive.

#2 Reflect: Monitor your own behavior and how you are modeling what you expect from students. I can remember very precise times when I allowed frustrations to impact my level of respect for students. I wasn’t modeling the behavior I expected from students. Will you let irritations and prior adverse situations with students’ impact future experiences? Will you be ready to admit mistakes, hold yourself accountable, and apologize when you’re wrong?

#3 Hold ALL students accountable: Make sure you have the same expectations regardless of a students’ social status, academic or athletic abilities, gender, race, religion or time of day you teach them. If you don’t hold everyone accountable, students will pick up on this. I’ve made the mistakes of failing to hold students in different class periods to the same level of accountability. This comes back to cost you instructional time and frustration in the end.

#4 Differentiate: Learn what works for individual students through building relationships. Make your expectations clear and set them high, but understand that every consequence will not suffice for every student. An effective consequence for some students may be a phone call home. For other students, there may be no working number to call. Eliminating an activity or a privilege for one child might be useful; however, it may not impact another student at all. It will take creativity to understand what works to hold all students accountable.

If you pass the test, students will learn how to respect you and each other. Your classroom culture will be a safe space for students to learn and grow. Students like structured environments and knowing exactly what to expect in your classroom. This year your students will make mistakes and test the boundaries. However, if you pass the test and hold them accountable through consistent expectations and consequences students will feel more secure, confident, and engaged in learning.