Staci Cobabe

Classroom Management Plan

Preamble
I believe that every student can learn, and it is my job to figure out how to
teach them effectively. I also firmly believe in connecting knowledge from one
subject to the next. This integration will allow students to use knowledge from
various subject areas to help progress their learning in all of the other subjects. My
ultimate teaching goal is to ensure that all of my students receive a well-rounded
and accurate education that they can apply to real-world issues in their lives.
Preventative Techniques
My classroom management uses mostly Social-Emotional teaching strategies.
The students helped to decide on the rules at the beginning of the year, so they are
more invested in them. There are only four rules, and two of them are characterbased expectations while the other two are school-mandated. We frequently have
lessons on what it looks and sounds like to be a good friend, and there are frequent
reminders on what each of our rules look and sound like. This helps students to be
invested not only in the rules, but in each other as well. (Wilson, 2013)

The discipline strategies I use are much more varied, or at least are commonalities
between various schools of thought on the subject. I have rules with consequences,
those consequences can be positive or negative, the negative consequences are in
a hierarchy of unpleasantness, and it all relies on my attitude toward and respectful
treatment of students to be successful. These are elements from Assertive
Discipline, Ginott, Glasser, Kohn, Skinner, and Wong. (Charles, 2014)
I use a mix of positive and negative consequences as well as a mix of
community and individual measures of compliance. I have a behavior clip chart with
individually numbered clothespin clips. Students move up when they make good
decisions and follow the rules, and they move down when they break those rules.
Students are positively rewarded when they reach the top of the chart with a token
reward system. If students move down on the behavior chart, they have negative
consequences of losing a privilege. If behavior is severe or repetitive, I contact a
parent and have a discussion about the students behavior and steps I will take to
make sure the students behavior is improved.

I also have a system of weekly table points that rewards the table with the highest
number of points on Friday with an extra snack, usually a candy treat. There is also
a reward system for the whole class. I add and take away marbles from a jar based
on the whole class being compliant. The class gets to vote on the reward for filling
the jar.
As students grow accustomed to the rules and procedures of my classroom,
the rewards will shift from mostly tokens to more intrinsic rewards or the addition of
privileges.
I have several classroom jobs that help the students to feel as though they
are a part of a greater whole, a community or a family in our classroom. After we
start talking about community roles in our Social Studies core curriculum, the
names of the jobs change to reflect actual jobs in the community. For example, the
line leaders become bus drivers, the paper passers become teachers, and the floor
monitors become janitors.

Supportive Techniques
The supportive techniques I use are mainly proximity and circulating the
room. I find that this helps me keep an eye on which students could be needing

more scaffolding and support in content as well as keeping most students on task.
(Forlini et al, 2010)
Intervention Techniques
My interventions vary based on the student and the situation. I have kept
students in from recess as the default consequence for clipping down to lose a
privilege. I have also conferenced one on one with students who need more
personalized interventions. I have not yet put any students on behavior contracts,
but it is something I may need to do with students who are not managing their
behavior with the tier 1 and tier 2 tools I have in place. I have had to teach conflict
resolution to a few students who have difficulty in peer communication. I also have
one-on-one conversations with students as needed to teach about appropriate
behaviors and problem solving skills. Phone calls home happen when a student clips
down to red, or when I want to communicate something to the parents. I have called
to tell parents what a wonderful job their student is doing, about positive growth
and changes that are being made, and to discuss management strategies for any
problem behaviors or concerns I need to address.
Procedures
I have many procedures in my classroom, most are related to what students
are doing in various situations. I give my expectations before beginning an activity
and remind students of my expectations throughout through positive commenting
on students exemplifying my expectations. I have taught expectations from the
beginning of the year and continue to reevaluate these as the year progresses. I
change my procedures when I find that something isnt working. When students are
not following procedures correctly, we review the procedure and practice it until
students exemplify the proper procedures.
Communication with Parents/Guardians
I have several ways that parents can contact me. Theres a daily planner
page that parents can write messages on, a class website for information, an email,
and a phone number, all of which were given to the parents at the beginning of the
year in my disclosure document. I also send out paper reminders periodically for
class announcements and upcoming events. For SEPs, I thought of what I want to
hear from my own childrens teachers. I told the parents something I liked about
their child, something their child needed to work on, and how I was going to help
their child in that area. I think this fostered a great relationship from the very
beginning of the school year (we had our SEPs very early in the year). I think that
has helped parents to know that I care for their child and am trying to help them in
the areas in which they struggle. This has helped when I have needed to contact
parents regarding problem behaviors or concerns I was having about their child. For
mid-year conferences, I reviewed the things we talked about in the beginning of the
year, and talked about the students progress. I tried to keep my comments
positive, but still touch on areas we could be improving.
References
Charles, C.M., Building Classroom Discipline, 11th Ed., Pearson. 2014

Forlini, Gary, Ellen Williams, and Annette Brinkman. Class Acts. Lavender Hill Press,
2010.
Wilson, Margaret Berry. Teasing, Tattling, Defiance and more: Positive Approaches to
10 Common Classroom Behaviors. Northeast Foundation for Children, Inc. 2013.