I teach 40 minute classes of 1st grade computer skills. I feel I'd like to create my own rules to replace some of the standard ones, i.e.:

1. Stay in your seat; 2. Follow directions quickly 3. Raise your hand for help 4. Voices are quiet 5. Keep your dear teacher happy

Is this a bad idea? Since I only have the kids for a short time I wanted to be more specific in what I expect.

It looks like your rules are fairly similar to the ones that WBT uses. Use quiet voices is tough because in WBT sometimes you want to have them do a mighty cheer. What I find works for quiet voices is I say "Work!" and they respond with "Work, Work, Work!" and then they are quiet or I remind them that this is working time with no voices. Taking away "Make smart choices" is OK but it also takes away the safety aspect of the computer lab and the social responsibility for one another. So many things can fit under "Make smart choices." For example, pushing in the line up going in and out of the computer lab, name calling, looking after computer equipment, etc. On the other hand it is your classroom and WBT always encourages teachers to do what works for them! Happy teaching!!

After watching most of the WBT videos, I decided to use your standard set of rules. However, I do think "stay in your seat" got right to the point and may have been more effective than "raise your hand for permission to leave your seat."

The beauty of WBT is it's flexibility. If something doesn't work or you don't need it, don't use it, or modify it, and share how you modified it with us! The official stuff has been shown to reliably work, but, for example, I'm in middle school, and a lot of things I need to tweak slightly to match my students.

WBT Intern 2011-2012