Let’s Begin
Principal:
You are ready to start the school year, so one of the first things you will need to do is to organize your teams.
- Building Leadership Team: Representation from each grade level, specialist, and special education. (The size of your school will determine the number of those on your leadership team and how many you can pay an extra stipend to be part of this team.)
- Establish your grade-level teams of teachers. Schedules will be ready as students begin registration. Students should be assigned to groups, and teachers will know who their students are as soon as registration begins and wraps up. Allow time for the teams to work together to get to know who the children are on their teams.
- Now it is time to begin to work on the Two Rule Philosophy. What is the philosophy? What will it accomplish? Is it a solution to a specific problem? How will we implement it? Will it be different in my classroom?
As the school principal, you will welcome your staff back to school. It is important to let them know your focus is on Two Rules, making sure “everyone will feel good and feel safe when they enter the doors of (the name of your school).” On the first day with students, we will hold an all-school assembly at the beginning of the day. Students will be introduced to the Two Rules by the principal. (A model of submitting Two Rules to students will be uploaded on our YouTube channel and posted this week to help guide you through introducing this to students.)
Two Rules Philosophy will establish a foundation for the culture of the school. Everyone will be working to focus on what can be done to consistently implement the philosophy. We do this by repeating the phrases, when a problem occurs utilize the process of stopping and asking the questions.
We will be able to do this as we practice daily with consistency the following approaches:
- When a student is sent out of class for behavior, begin by saying, “Do you think you were part of the problem or the solution?” Please leave wait time for them to answer. It is so vital for them to work through this in their minds. When they have provided an answer (hopefully, they have said the problem), you can begin to work. I had a giant whiteboard in my office, paper and pencils, and additional materials so kids could utilize these materials to work through what happened.
- If the student does not talk when sent to the office, provide them with paper and pencil so when they are ready, they can write about what happened.
- As you learn about the situation, you may need other individuals to discuss what happened. You can also have them write about the situation.
- As a reminder, always keep documentation of all you do. It is essential to follow up with students and have them for future reference if issues happen again and you see patterns with the same individuals.
Two Rules has a lot more to offer, and this is the beginning. Just a few more days, and we will celebrate the completion of the website! I will be giving away free E-books when you sign-up. Once you sign up, you can always access the free materials I generate.