Teacher

• Take care of yourself first. If you maintain a positive attitude the children will too.
• Get to know the children in your class as individuals. Use the ‘Personal Profile Sheet’ (appendix III) to begin a discussion with each child. The information collected should be appropriately destroyed (eg. shredded) at the end of the Sunday School year.
• Establish and be consistent with rules and behavioural expectations. Discuss consequences of violating expectations. Clearly display expectations and consequences.
• Try to anticipate potential conflicts. Think through how you can prevent something from happening.
• Be a positive role model. Exhibit the behaviours you expect of the children.

          Time

• Prepare a file of extra activities for children who finish early.
• Arrive early enough to prepare and set out materials.
• Complete projects, crafts, activities etc. yourself or with another child ahead of time to appropriately determine time requirements.
• If needed, carry parts of the lesson to the following week. It’s better to allow the learning process to occur naturally than to ‘finish what I’ve planned’. If you’re in a team teaching situation where someone else will be finishing the lesson, be sure to communicate clearly what has been completed and what needs to be done.

          Environment

• Should be appealing and welcoming but not over-stimulating.
• Appropriately sized for the number and age group of the children. The younger the children, the more space is required for movement.
• Free from noise and distraction as much as possible.
• Adequate temperature and lighting.
• Space for visual aids and displaying children’s work.

          Presentation of Materials

• Provide exemplars or models of an end product.
• Provide a variety of learning experiences. (Refer to Multiple Intelligences information: appendix IV)
• Provide written and verbal directions.
• Appropriate age and interest level for the children.

          Children (and their behaviour)

• Immediately recognize and reinforce (reward) desired behaviours.
• Create classroom guidelines with students so they have a sense of ownership over the expectations in the classroom.
• Ignore attention-seeking behaviour that is not disruptive to the classroom.
• Develop a system or code using ‘Strategies for Managing Misbehaviour’ (appendix V) to let students know when behaviour is not acceptable.