Great classrooms can grow from four general rules

1. We will show respect for people, their ideas, and their property.
2. We will work hard to ensure our own growth and to assist the growth of others.
3. We will persist, even when things are difficult and uncertain.
4. We will accept responsibility for the quality of our work and for our behaviors and actions.

Additional strategies that work well in the classroom are: letting students know that time is valuable, crafting a classroom where people work toward making sure each person gets what he or she needs to grow and develop, and teaching with intellectual challenge. It is also equally important that there are classroom routines.

Routines "take us out of the business of pulling puppet strings on a moment-by-moment basis in the classroom. Routines ensure that students understand how the class will begin and end, how to get and put away materials, how to keep records of their work, how to move around the classroom in acceptable ways, how to use time wisely, how to figure out where they should be and what they should be doing at a given time, where to put work when they finish, how to get help when their teacher is working directly with others, and so on."

Additional classroom routines include using visual cues, pre-establishing groups, using goal cards regularly, smooth transitions, support systems, and shared responsibility in the classroom.

"Learners watch to see if we try to build ties with them, if we are able to affirm them. They want to know if we'll help them build a place where their contributions are significant, acheive a sense of power in a very large world, realize a purpose in their school lives, and stretch them to they move toward their dreams."