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Before participants engage in an independent reading, it's beneficial to refer back to the guideline of respecting the learning of others. I ask participants what it looks like to respect the learning of others while we read independently. If not said, I will state that one way we can respect the learning of others is to refrain from engaging in side conversations when we finish reading.

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At first it can be awkward to refer to the rules with adult learners, so I ease into the process by doing a “check-in” with participants at the conclusion of an ILS. For example, I’ll say something like, “The Carousel ILS was a fun way to process information together, clearly we honored the rule to have fun. Let’s talk about how we did with the other rules…”

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I remind participants of the rule "be willing to unlearn and relearn" in the Middle School Course just before I begin the section on teacher language. I let them know that I will say some things and they will read some things that might seem really different or even contradictory to what they have experienced, been taught, or even believe and in order to get the most out of this section on teacher language, which is so fundamental to the Responsive Classroom approach, it is important to keep this important rule in mind in order to be completely open to the information and discussions that will follow. I find this proactive reminder does open participants up to new learning. The questions are still there and there is an enhanced willingness to make an effort to understand it and think about how they can apply the new learning.

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Throughout the first day, I share with the group the things that I notice them doing that is supporting the learning and growth of our adult community. For example, their willingness to share during partner discussions allows others to gain additional insight and ideas. Or, their prompt response to signals for attention that honor conversations while still allowing us to move forward with the learning. Then, on day 2, during the creation of our adult group guidelines, I remind the group of the things I saw the first day that they are already doing which gives them a starting point for the discussion.

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After we create the rules together on Day 2, I tell my participants that I will spend the rest of the workshop continuing to create the “feel” of an RC classroom by referring to the rules the same way that I would with my students.  I add, “it may feel different, to hear me say things like, ‘I noticed you followed our rule of treating others with respect by coming back from lunch on time,’” I explain that my goal is to model how easy it is to consistently reinforce the rules and show our students how to live out the rules through our actions.

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International Teachers and Rule Creation

This summer I worked with international teachers, getting ready to teach in the U.S. at  Lakota Reservations. My group consisted of experienced teachers with a long history of teaching in a country where they were expected to be and taught to be authoritarian teachers. Each arrived at their new school with their teacher-made rules charts - the first thing that they posted in their classrooms. I met with one of these groups after they had already been teaching on the reservation for a couple of weeks.

In my view, one of my most important jobs was to communicate that children who create their classroom rules love their rules and are committed to following the rules in their classroom community. We RC Consulting Teachers know that the best way to communicate this is to begin by creating our adult rules with our participants. My participants created their hopes and goals for our course. At each step I mentioned that this process is exactly the way we create hopes and goals for students in RC. I’ve learned that if I’m not explicit, participants miss the point. We created our adult goals and posted them. Then we created rules that will help their goals come true.

With this done, I began to use the rules. As I began to introduce Interactive modeling. I asked, “Which rule will help you notice how to use IM with your own students?” After the segment on IM I asked my participants to score themselves, “Fist to five, how did you follow the rules that we created for our group?” They were enthusiastic - the room buzzed with new empowerment.

My participants had so many questions. “Is it ok for children to create new hopes and goals as the year goes on?” The answer is “Yes.”

“Is it ok to change the rules?” Again the answer is, “Yes, as a community activity with your students.”

As the day went on, participants self-assessed and talked with their partners about how the rules that our group had created were helping them achieve their goals for themselves. I referred to our rules frequently, sometimes every hour but always at least every few hours.

At the end of the day I said, “If you teach children in grades one or up, go back to your classroom and take down your teacher made rules. It’s time to start the process of creating your community-made rules.

I’ll be back for a Kaleidoscope Day. I eagerly anticipate using this opportunity to see how the teachers and students will embrace their community created classroom rules.

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I like to copy the guidelines slide from Day 1 and put it at the start of each day. I display it and invite the participants to reflect how these guidelines have served them as learners and to think about which of them they might need to lean into today.

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One thing that has helped me connect the adult rule making process to students hopes and dreams and rule creation is to set the stage at the beginning of the section. I might say, "We are going to move into creating hopes and dreams and rules for our adult community and our work together this week. How I will model this directly mirrors how I introduce and facilitate Hopes and Dreams and Rules with my students so I want you to be wearing two hats: The adult learner hat and the student hat." I then go on to

reiterate that the next part is for them as adult learner, AND I want them to be tracking how they are feeling and what they are thinking as we go through it. I also ask them to be thinking about how students might respond. At the end of it all, I ask them what they noticed and I then summarize the steps of the process as it relates to students. Finally, I have them reflect on how they feel or felt throughout the process. We discuss and then I end with "Well if it felt good to you and us as a group, just think about how your students will feel and how invested they will be in to living out the rules creating a positive classroom community."

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When I am sharing the Hopes and Dreams of the group members, I share that in our school, we use a gallery walk, so that the community as a whole can see the Hopes and Dreams of everyone in our learning community. This helps the discussion around the use of reminding language and referring to rules as a way to help us all reach our goals.