Our Promise

     We always begin our year by talking about how we all want to be talked to and treated. We also spend time giving examples and nonexamples along with acting out both. What I do is a modified form of the social contract from Capturing Kids' Hearts.

     I teach first and fourth grade. First grade (most of them) doesn't really understand what a contract is, but they understand promises and keeping your word. So I switched to calling it Our Promise a couple of years ago. Usually all I have to do is point to where our promise is on the wall and remind them we said... and they usually correct their behavior. I call it "our promise" in 4th as well for consistency purposes. 

     I teach 1st Science and 4th Math. We make one chart for each grade. I write on sticky notes with a different color marker for each class. Then I go back later, remove the stickies, and write on the chart what we agreed upon. This year I titled my charts Our Science Promise and Our Math Promise. When I was in the traditional classroom, I just titled my chart Social Contract or Our Promise because I had the same students all day for every subject. 

     We have been in school for two and a half weeks, and I have students in all four classes reminding each other about our promise. It's a beautiful thing.