These strategies are particularly useful for developing a classroom contract. Students develop rules for the teacher. This option invites students to formulate rules or guidelines that they want their teacher to follow. There is a paradoxical relationship between sharing power and having more. By empowering others, we tend to receive more authority and respect.
Students take pleasure and pride in being given the opportunity to identify teachers' imperfections.
When teachers respond by making some changes, students are empowered in a very positive way. Teachers who feel threatened or reluctant can limit students to two or three rules, and they can veto any rule that violates school policies, runs counter to their values, or would make teaching impossible. Students develop rules for each other. When the lists are consolidated, rules can be voted on and accepted if they are supported by at least 70 percent of the students. Students vote on negotiable rules.