Aubre Putnams Classroom Management Plan

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater. ~Gail Godwin

Part One Classroom Organization

A) Physical
While making my classroom design, I took a lot of ideas from the kindergarten room I have my practicum in. I like having the area rug at the front of the room for whole group instruction. It allows the kids to be free of their workplace distractions and able to focus on the directions they are receiving or listen to a story. It also is a great place for sharing student work (with one another) as it makes it easy for everyone to see and hear during share time. The white board at the front also is great for whole group sessions as well. I placed the cubbies and the coat closet close to the doorway and apart from each other forming a hallway for several reasons. One reason is when students enter and exit the room, they need to remove or put on their coat, so the coats should be right by the door. The cubbies are usually emptied at the end of the day into their backpacks, so the cubbies should be close to the coat closet (where the backpacks hang) for accessibility, and it also keeps them out of the way during class time. I put the teachers desk in the front corner because it was out of the way (I dont plan to spend very much time at my desk) but it was still in an area that the whole room could easily be viewed from this spot, should I be sitting at my desk. The smart board is in front of my desk, but while it isnt being used for whole group situations, it would be pushed back against the wall, for optimal space and to allow more to be seen from the teachers desk. I had the students sit at tables, rather than desks, to facilitate a community environment. As there are 24 seats, each table will have an empty chair, in case we get (an) extra student(s) throughout the year. I placed the tables in the center of the room but slightly farther to the back, because I want their tables to be in the center for ease of seeing posters and word walls around the room easily, but it had to be shifted slightly back to compensate for the area rug. Around the room I have placed various stations with chairs for students workshop time. While the station names are different subjects, they can of course be used for several subject groups. The names were simply an idea of how different subjects that can be broken into small group work. I placed the computer station in the back for a couple of reasons. One, as this is a kindergarten classroom, little time will be spent on a computer, and two it was out of the way of the childrens view of the room. I put a bookshelf and a readers chair in front of the area rug for read-aloud. The bookshelf up front provides accessibility for the teacher and allows children to see the books often thus maybe prompting them to read. The chair will primarily be for teacher use, but the students might be able to sit it in for show and tell or share time. I put the phone, intercom and filing cabinet with the teachers desk because those are objects the teacher needs access to, but the children dont. It was a nice way to keep it out of the way, and so the children dont have temptation to play with

it and get into trouble. And along the side of the room I have a counter with a sink and pencil sharpener so they are accessible for the students, but they are also far enough out of the way to avoid as much distraction as possible. Overall, I think the design plan turned out really well and I hope to be able to have a classroom similar to this one when I get to teach. The way it was set up was purposeful to make the most open area possible and allow almost all of the room to be seen from just about any area in the classroom. It also gives a lot of space on the walls available for posters and other instructional wall hangings, and the openness of the room allows for students to easily see all of those aides.

B) Operational
Teacher record-keeping procedures In my class, I will keep records 2 ways. I will have a paper version of grades in a standard grade book and I will also have an electronic version. I think having both is a good idea because they can work as a back up for one another, either if my computer crashes or I lose my grade book, I have a back up to retrieve those grades. New Students in the Room A new student is a challenge for both the students and the teacher. I would be very positive about the change and I would make sure the students were accepting of the new student. The first day for the new student, I would ask one of my well-behaved students (privately of course) to ask the new student to sit with them at lunch and play with them at recess. After a few days in the classroom (when the new student is feeling a bit more comfortable with the class) I would have a short share session for the student. (ex. An All About Me poster or just have the student come to the front of the classroom and talk about where they lived before, what kinds of things they are interested in, hobbies, etc.) Orderly Classroom, Clean Desks, Displaying Student Work I think a big part of an orderly classroom is the way the classroom is physically set up. If it is an open room where all students can be seen all of the time, I believe they will misbehave less, simply because they know they can be seen. I also want to make sure my students know that the classroom is a safe environment and therefore certain words will not be tolerated, nor negativity towards another student or myself. Setting ground rules for the students at the beginning before any of these things happen will make for a more orderly classroom simply because the students already know they will get in trouble for certain things and are less likely to act that way when they know the consequences. If a student does not abide by the classroom rules, I will be sure to enforce the consequences as promised, so the rest of the class doesnt see my warnings as empty threats. I prefer tables to desks for my classroom, but nonetheless, my students will be expected to keep their table spots clean and orderly. I will give them a minute or 2 at the end of each day to organize their tables. If something were to spill on a table,

I would assist them in cleaning it (especially if its sticky!) but for the most part, the cleaning of the tables will be primarily the students responsibility. Displaying student work is not only great for students self-esteem, but it also makes the classroom a friendlier environment. I would display certain projects my students worked on throughout the year in 2 different ways. First, I would always have a special project they worked on out in the hallway by our classroom door so everyone could admire their hard work. These types of projects would be based in a subject, probably literacy, but would also incorporate art, like a drawing or painting they made. The entire class work would be displayed. The second way I would display work is on a bulletin board in my room. This board would be to show an individuals exceptional work. I would keep track to make sure that every student got to have his or her work displayed at some point. This would hopefully encourage students to take their time with their work in hopes of making it up on the bulletin board. Work would only stay on the board for a week, then it would go home with the student and new work would go up.

Part Two- Disciplinary Policies and Professional Ethics

Establishing Initial Group Rules/Expectations I believe that students are more apt to follow rules when they are involved in the process of making the rules. Therefore, at the beginning of the school year we will make a list of classroom rules as a class. There will be both teacher and student input, but ultimately, the rules I want enforced will be on the rule sheet we make and hang on the wall. Rather than just tell them what the rules are I will prompt them to say the rules I want by asking leading questions. (ex. What about going to the bathroom? Do you think you should just be able to go to the bathroom whenever you want or do you think we should have to ask the teacher first so that I know where you are if something should happen?) What are consequences for breaking class rules/school rules? Different rules merit different consequences, as some rules are more important than others. (ex. Getting out of your seat when you arent supposed should have a smaller consequence than hitting another student) I intend on having a system set up where you pull a card if you do something wrong. You start on green at the beginning of everyday, but misbehaviors cause you to pull a card. The card behind green is yellow, which would just be a warning, then red, which is a time out, and finally white, which would mean either a trip to the principal or a call home depending on the misbehavior. More severe rule breaking, such as hitting another student, would result directly to a call home and a trip to the principals. At the end of each week, all students who went the entire week without going past yellow apple will get to pick a prize from the treasure chest (filled with things like McDonalds toys, colorful pencils, etc.) This way, the students have a positive reinforcement for good behavior, not just a punishment for bad behavior.

Student Disrespect to myself and other teachers Disrespect will, of course, not be tolerated. The students (and other teachers) will know that if a student is out of line, the teacher has the authority to make them pull a card. If it becomes a frequent problem they will be punished more severely. (ex. Skip the yellow warning and go straight to red.) If it still doesnt stop, I will call their parents and discuss the problem with them. Hopefully that will resolve the problem. If that STILL doesnt fix it, we will do a seminar type thing in the classroom on respect. It wont be directed explicitly at the child who is having difficulties with respect, but I would pull him/her aside later in the day and discuss what (s)he learned during this seminar.

Conflict on the playground The same rules apply on the playground as in the classroom, and students will know that and that they still are accountable for their actions. If there are other adults other than myself monitoring them on the playground, they too will have the ability to make the students pull a card. Fighting will still result in a call home/trip to the principals. These children however are only 5-6 so I dont foresee too many fighting issues rather than a verbal spat and tattletales (which wont result in a call home/trip to principals they will be dealt with by the card system unless it becomes a frequent problem, then it will result in a call home.) Tardiness

Since these children are so young, tardiness cannot be something they are held responsible for. When kindergartners are tardy it is their parents fault and not their own so I will not make them face any consequences when they had no control of the situation. If a student is arriving late often, I would simply have a talk with the parent(s) and gently remind them that it is very important that their child(ren) arrive at school on time so they dont miss anything. Or I might send a generic note home, reminding parents of the importance of their children arriving on time to the entire class, so that the parent doesnt feel personally singled out, though they would still most likely get the message and make a better effort at making sure their child is at school on time. Disrupting/offending others The class rules will include a rule about respecting each other. We will discuss what that means when we are adding it to our list of rules. This way the students understand the meaning of it and so they can be held accountable for behaving respectfully. If they chose to be disrespectful by distracting another student or saying something offensive they will have to pull a card. If this problem persists, it will result in a phone call home, and if it still doesnt stop, being put in a desk away from other students so they no longer have the ability to be distracting. Not getting work done/not trying Since Kindergartners are new to the whole school aspect, I dont think this will be as big of an issue as it is for older grades. They also wont be given actual grades for many things, as many of their assignments are more for formative assessment rather than formative. They will be encouraged to work on everything, and assistance will be available, as I will be walking around to assist while they work on various assignments. If needed I will sit down with a student for a short time to get them started on the assignment and then once they understand what is being asked of them and are able to work independently on it I will move on to assist another student. If they are refusing to even make an attempt at work they will have to pull a card, and they will still be expected to finish the work, whether they have to take it home and work on it there or work on it during another part of the day, they still need to complete the work they have been assigned. Cheating I dont foresee this being a big problem in kindergarten, and if a child were to look at another students work it would be quite obvious. I wouldnt have any strict punishment for this rule, simply because they are just learning what cheating even means, but if I were to catch a student cheating, I would simply pull them aside and explain to them that I need them to do their own work, rather than copy another students so I can see what they know so they can continue to learn in my classroom. If the student continues to cheat after I have pulled them aside for this talk, they would face the typical classroom punishment of having to pull a card. If this problem were still happening, they would be moved to another place in the room away from other students for a while to encourage them to do their own work.

Parent/Principal involvement I intend on dealing with most of the discipline myself in my classroom, however there is a point when parents and/or the principal needs to be involved. I stated at the point I would involve them into the discipline in the above situations. Essentially, they will need to be involved when the problems persist and the child refuses to cooperate. I am not a fan of the idea of calling home, but if it is a necessary step to get the child back on track at school, I will definitely make that step for the sake of the student and the rest of the class. My classroom needs to be a safe and good learning environment for all of the students and when a child is compromising that environment, their parents and/or the principal need to be notified. Adult Interaction Behavior Gossip is a part of everyones life, whether they admit to it or not. Therefore I cant say with a clear conscious that I wont allow gossip to effect me in the school environment. What I can say though, is I will try very hard to not let it effect the way I treat a student or the class as a whole. I will not participate in lounge gossip by talking negatively about my students or other teachers. If a teacher needs to vent to me I will be happy to listen, but only as a third party and I will not outwardly agree or disagree with what they are saying. I will treat all of my colleagues with respect, even if I dont like them. I will keep my dislike of a colleague to myself, and not

gossip about it with another colleague, as that is just asking for a difficult work environment. Even if I disagree with the views of my principal, I will follow his her rules, at least for the first year without outward question. While doing things his/her way, I will be sure to reflect on what I do and do not like about his/her views and take notes accordingly, so that my next year I could have some ideas for new strategies to share with him/her that I think will help the whole school. I would approach this conversation very cautiously and respectfully so that (s)he doesnt feel as if I am stepping on his/her toes. I would be sure to present both the negative and positives of my ideas and not be pushy with them, just simply ask that (s)he considers these ideas.

Part Three Classroom Routines and Procedures

Student Sharing Whether they are sharing their work they did in the classroom of bringing in something for show-and-tell, student sharing is a great way to build a community in the classroom. I intend on having both aspects in my classroom, and both of them will operate on a schedule. For show-and-tell, there will be one person who shares each day. It will be a short 5 min presentation by the student that will also double as a transition. I would likely schedule it right after the kids get back from recess when they are still loud and wound up. They would have to be quiet to listen to the presenter, but its more of a fun thing to listen to and they dont really have to engage their brains quite yet, so it would be a nice transition. Obviously, there are more days in the school year than there are children in the classroom, so each child would have the opportunity to share more than once. To make it easy on myself, the schedule would simply go alphabetically, and when we reached the end, simply loop back around and start again. If a student were to forget to bring their show-and-tell on their assigned day or was absent that day, we would simply reschedule them for the next day and just have 2 sharers that day. If they forget 2 days in a row they simply miss their turn and have to wait until their next share day. (Not being at school doesnt count that way.) I would also like students to share the work they did in class. My class will have reading groups (which will hopefully divide up into five, if not Id combine or separate to made 5 for share day) and each day of the week would indicate which reading group gets to share work. They dont necessarily have to share something they worked on in literacy that day, but I imagine many will because their groups will be broken up by their reading groups. Since this is a weekly share session, there will be no make-up for being absent the day of their presenting. Each presenter will show a piece of work and talk about it for 30 seconds to a minute. This can also be used as a transition, as it works well to do after their literacy block is over when they are already in their sharing group.

Room Helpers I got this idea from the video of the teacher we watched in class. I will have a list of the names of all the students in class laminated and hanging up in the room. I will then have clothespins with the room helper job written on them. I will place the pins on the list (spread out evenly, not all of them at the top) and each day I will move each clothespin down 1 name. This way it is easy to keep track of who is what helper and make sure that each person gets a turn being each. Room helper jobs will include: Line leader, Caboose (back of the line), paper handler (helps hand out papers), fish feeder, and pencil sharpener. Free Time Free time in my class will be used for the students to either finish up work they didnt finish earlier in the day, or they can use it to read something out of their browsing box. Reading is such and important part of the curriculum in kindergarten and there just isnt enough time in the day for students to read as much as they should, especially if they arent reading with their parents at home. Even if they arent actually reading all the words and just looking at the pictures, they are still getting literacy exposure, which is still beneficial in my opinion. Field Trips Obviously, field trips require parental permission. I would send notes home to all the parents talking about the fieldtrip planned with details a few weeks before the field trip so they have time to decide if it is something they want their child to attend. Then closer to the date of the field trip (like a week or so out) I would send home a permission slip. On the permission slip I would add a box to check if they dont want their child to attend so the parents dont feel pressured to allow their child to go. (Though I hope all of my students are able to attend every field trip!) The week before the field trip, I would start talking to my class about what we are doing and the different expectations of them while they are on this field trip (ex. how they should dress, that they need to pack a lunch etc.) Doing Homework Homework at this age is something I believe the kids should be introduced to, but I dont think I can rightfully assess them through it, nor can I punish them for not completing their homework, as it is often something parents are needed to assist with. If the parents are too busy to help their child with their homework every night then it isnt fair to penalize the child for their incompletion. I might have a talk with the parents about what they can expect for their childrens homework and how important it is that they read at home but since I am not grading the parents, I dont think the homework should be a large part of the students life. I believe they should have a small amount of homework a couple of nights a week, along with the encouragement to read every night, to get them used to the idea of having homework, but I dont find any benefit in giving 5 year olds excessive amounts of homework. Its not fair to the children who spent all day learning to come home and do more school work, and its not fair to the busy parents.

Handing in Papers I plan to have a big basket at the front of the room labeled Finished work for the kids to put their finished assignments in. With some assignments I will ask to check them first before they stick them in the basket, and others they will simply be instructed to put them in when they have completed the assignment. Not all assignments are going to need to be turned in, some will just be practice and I will instruct them to stick them in their cubbies to take home and show their parents. (I wont use the word practice or anything so that they still feel it is important for them to complete the assignment.) Passing out papers/assignments One of my classroom jobs is a paper handler who will help me hand out papers to all the students that day. This job will be fun for the kids, and it will also speed up the process so all the kids can get to work as soon as possible. Each student will also have a cubby for papers to go home, and so I can simply stick a paper in each cubby when I have something to go home to mom and dad. They will have a take home folder that will go home once a week that contains all of the papers from the cubby. It will be a set day (ex. Thursday Take Home Folder) so that the parents will know to expect it and make sure it is returned (empty) the following day. Dismissals With the exception of the end of the day, anytime the children are going anywhere they will be expected to line up (because we will be walking in the hall). I will dismiss them by table or row (depending if they are sitting at their tables or in their carpet spot) to go and line up. I will only call tables/rows when that table/row is being quiet and sitting appropriately with their table/spot cleaned of the activity they were working on before the dismissal. Once all of the rows/tables have been dismissed to line up we will sing out line song (detailing how we should act while in the hallway) and then we will walk as a class to wherever we need to go (ex. recess, lunch, music, P.E., etc.) At the end of the day, the students will be dismissed as their parents show up (for those picked up by parents) the bus riders will all be dismissed together so they can walk to the bus together. Any other situations (kids that stay after school, kids

that walk home, etc.) will be dismissed either individually or as a group if more than one of them are going to the same place. Bathroom procedures/Getting drink Since kindergartners are still quite young, it is important that they are allowed to go to the bathroom when they need to go. I plan to a couple of scheduled bathroom breaks/drink breaks for the whole class. While every student may not need to use the bathroom at the same time, they still might want at drink. I have noticed in my practicum that most of the children go to the bathroom during breaks, I dont know if they were told at the beginning of they year that they should try to use the bathroom during breaks or if they just figured it out on their own, but it seems to be beneficial to the class environment, as there are less interruptions of individual bathroom breaks throughout the day because of it. If a student needs to go to the bathroom between bathroom breaks, they will of course be allowed to, but they must ask the teacher first, simply so I know where they are at in case of an emergency. Going to Specials Going to specials will be treated just like a regular dismissal. They will walk in a line to the special and in a line on the way back. They will b e expected to be quiet while in the hallway. They are expected to behave in specials and follow the special teachers rules, and the special teacher will have the power to make them pull a card should the students fail to follow the rules of their room. The students will be aware of this power. Transitions Im a big fan of singing songs for transitions. I mentioned earlier the standing in a line song, which is a transitional song. There are songs about everything if you just look, or you can even make them up! I intend on beginning each morning with a good morning song to get kids transitioned from being at home to being at school, and a goodbye song at the end of each day. Between subjects I will use topic related songs as much as possible. (Ex. a song about the solar system before each science lesson on the solar system, head-shoulders-knees-and-toes before our unit on the body, etc.) Songs are fun for kids and make it easy for them to get involved with their next activity. Differentiation I will have a lot of group work/stations in my classroom. For literacy I will split kids up based on reading level, and also what they need to work on as readers. I want to teach CGI math, because there is so much differentiation in that but yet they are all still working on the same problem! Ive learned about it in math, but it didnt make much sense until I saw it implemented in a classroom and it works great! I really look forward to being able to use either that strategy exactly, or a modified but similar one to fit my curriculum. I will also be sure to not put a limit on how much a student does. (ex. write 3 sentences vs. write at least 3 sentences) Parents

I think it is great when parents want to be involved with their childrens education and/or in the classroom. I will definitely encourage it, as help in the classroom is always wonderful and education is so important, I definitely want the parents on my side. I would be happy to answer any of the parents questions/concerns via email, phone, or in person. Parental involvement and support is a great way to help children get the most they can out of schooling. For parent/teacher conferences, I will put together samples of the childs work from throughout the year to show them their improvement. I will also do the sandwich approach with things that their child is doing well and things we still need to work a little on. (Positive, negative, positive.) No child is perfect, so each child will have something to put in the need to work a little on but it will be delivered with tact and respect. Sally is doing great in her reading, she is comprehending really wellwe still are working a little on staying in our seat during work timeshe always has a cheerful disposition and she really is a joy to have in the classroom. I will address both their social aspects and their academic aspects.