Does this sound familiar?
A student interrupts your class to ask “Why do we have to learn History, anyway? It’s just a bunch of dead guys?”
Or, someone raises their hand to proclaim “Isn’t the rule against wearing hats in the building the dumbest rule ever?”
Has a parent ever put you “on the spot” by asking you questions about how you run your classroom? They ask the question like they just want to know the answer, but you can tell they are challenging your authority…have you been there?
I have been there!
I was “there” so many times…it inspired me to start writing “rationales” to deal with those types of situations. I’ve written the answers to the 100 most-asked questions, and I want you to have them!
What is a rationale?
Originally, a rationale was used by teachers to explain why a certain subject, book, or work of art was being studied.
For my purposes, a rationale is an explanation of how to behave, and why. It can also be an explanation of why I run things a certain way in my classroom.
Why use rationales?
Increased compliance with rules
For some reason, people comply with rules when someone takes the time to explain why the rule exists.
Save time
Explaining “Why” takes a lot of time…that’s why most people do not do it. Writing rationales (and saving them) saves you a ton of time!
Reduce arguments
Not only do you reduce the amount of arguments you have with your students, you can control WHEN the arguments happen. You can debate students after class, after school, or before school (after they have read your rationale)
It also discourages students who ask questions to get the class off-task.
Organize your thoughts
Writing rationales gives you the opportunity to think about your answer, and make sure you don’t give inaccurate information or say the wrong thing.
Rationales help you earn respect from students
Rationales earn respect because you are not giving hurried, incomplete answers, or using “Because I said so” as your answer.
It’s hard to give an awesome answer “on the spot”…use rationales!
And…the best reason to use rationales:
Rationales take EMOTION out of your explanation.
Emotion results in conflict (and stress) with students, parents, other teachers, and administrators. Rationales keep you out of conflict…and stress!
My book, entitled “Why Do We Have To Go To School?...And the Answers to 99 Other Questions That Students, Parents, and Teachers Ask” covers a wide variety of topics…here are a few of them:
*I fought in “self-defense”, why am I in trouble?
*Why can’t I eat food in class?
*Why can’t I bring my backpack to class?
*Why does my teacher deduct points for late work?
*Why isn’t “We were just playing around” a good excuse for horseplay?
Rationales work so well on students, that I thought I would try them on parents. What an awesome idea! Rationales work great on parents as well. In my ebook, you will have answers for parent questions like:
*Why haven’t you prevented my student from being bullied?
*Why is my student the only one being punished when others do the same thing?
*Why did you “hotline” me?
*What punishment did the “other student” get?
As an added bonus for administrators, I include a few rationales for teachers!
*Why do we have so many faculty meetings?
*Why do we have to do staff development?
*Why do teachers have to sign in and out?
*Why do we have to turn in lesson plans every week?
*Why do we have to follow the same rules students do?
So…to recap:
Rationales will change the way you look at your job, your career, and your relationships with everyone you come into contact with while at school. Before you know it, YOU will be writing rationales!
You know you’ve written a good rationale when…
Students comply with the rule
Teachers enforce the rule
The
“Angry Parent” is calmed
I know what you are saying… “I don’t have the time!”
You don’t have the time to NOT write rationales!
I have hundreds of rationales saved on my “desktop” at work.
When students, parents, or teachers ask me questions, I simply “copy” the rationale that answers the question, and “paste” it in an email. Problem solved!
People think I took a whole lot of time to answer their question, when in reality I took two minutes!
People may still disagree with my position, but they respect the fact that I gave them a lengthy explanation.
If you still think you don’t have the time…let ME write them for you!
You can even purchase the rationales in “Microsoft Word” format so that you can modify them to fit your needs.
Let me repeat that…
My ebook can be sent to you in “Word” format, so you can modify my rationales to fit your needs. No other author of any other book can say that they will let you modify their work! I want your rationales to be perfect, even if it means letting you “tweak” them so that they are “just right”.
If you have read this far, you must be asking this question: “How much?” You can have all 100 rationales for only $30. That’s right…for only 30 cents per rationale, you can answer almost any question that students and parents can think of to ask you.
Order your copy of my ebook today! It will change your attitude toward teaching, learning, and dealing with parents….forever!