Hannah Smith

TWS 9
Classroom Environment
A. Classroom Management
I will strive to make my classroom a safe, happy learning environment for my
students. The students will have choices and be involved in the creation of rules.
We will participate in Morning Meeting every morning. This is a great way to
build community among the students. It will give students time to share their
thoughts and opinions. It will also give me time to create and maintain positive
student relationships. I want to spend the most time on the activity and message.
My students desks will be arranged in groups. This will promote teamwork and
cooperation. On the first day, I will share a book to the students called,
Chrysanthemum. This book addresses bullying and first day jitters. During the
first weeks of school and throughout the year, I will do activities with the students
to inform them about bullying.
The five expectations the students will follow are:
1. We will follow directions quickly
2. We will listen to one another and respect each others differences
3. We will use all materials safely
4. We will raise our hands and wait to be called on to speak during a lesson
5. We will work as a team
The consequences for my students will be logical. They will correspond to the
undesired behavior. I will hold off from contacting a parent or administrator
unless the child becomes a danger to themselves and/or others.
1. Warning
2. Revoke privilege/ apology letter
3. One-on-one conference
Students who follow the rules will be given more privileges. These privileges
could include more computer/iPad time, sitting with a friend at lunch, lunch with
me, positive phone calls home or a day they can use a pen. Every student will
have an opportunity to earn these rewards by exhibiting desired behavior.
B. Non-Instructional Routines and Procedures
At the beginning of each day, the students will come in and make a lunch choice.
They will do this by putting their Popsicle stick in the right can (choice 1, 2 or
lunchbox). There will be one student in charge of reporting the lunch count to me.
This is also how I will take attendance. The student will tell me whose Popsicle
stick is left on the table, out of a can. After the students make their lunch choices,
they will unpack and work on their morning work. I want to let the students chose
their morning work. They will have three choices: read, Compass learning, or play
a math game with a partner. Then, the students will shop for books in the
classroom library. This is to deter them from wasting time during reading time.

After school announcements, I will call the students to the carpet for Morning
Meeting.
At the end of each day, we will have a quick class discussion on what we learned.
I will ask a few students to tell me one thing they learned or one good thing that
happened to them during the day. I want my students to leave school on a positive
note.
Everyone in my class will have a job. There will be a student in charge of passing
out materials. Depending on the activity, there may be more than one student
doing this job. I will discuss the list of jobs and their descriptions during the first
week. The students will then write down their first, second and third choice and
turn it in. I will assign the jobs the next day. We will change jobs every nine
weeks.
I will have a turn in basket for students to put work throughout the day. This
will be work that I grade. Students will also have a cubby. They will put any work
that is not graded in their cubby.
Students will have time to sharpen their pencils any time before Morning
Meeting. After that, they will not be permitted to sharpen their pencils. There will
be a cup with sharpen pencils in it for students to use throughout the day. When a
pencil breaks, they will put it in the Pencil Hospital cup and get a sharpened
pencil from the other cup. There will be a student that sharpens the broken pencils
at the end of the day. Depending on the maturity of my class, I would like to have
a sign out sheet for the bathroom. I have seen this work well in a third grade class.
Without disrupting the lesson, the student will put a bathroom pass around their
neck and sign their name on the clip board before they leave the room. When they
return, they will cross out their name. This will be an easy visual of who is out of
the classroom. We will take class bathroom breaks around 9:30am and after lunch.
I will have a boys and a girls monitor that checks the bathroom before the
students enter. The students can use the bathroom and get water, then line back
up. The class I am in now has bathroom. The students raise two crossed fingers to
ask to go to the bathroom at any time. If my classroom has a bathroom in it, there
will still be designated bathroom breaks. There is also a water fountain in the
room. Students go get water at any time. In my classroom, we will have a time
when they all get water at one time. It is very distracting when students are
constantly asking to go get water.
When it is time to leave the classroom, the students will line up at the door in
order (each student will have a number). This prevents arguments about cutting.
They must be quiet before we enter the hallway and until they enter the related
arts area. The students must be calm and quiet in the hallway before entering any
area.
During emergency situations, I will be vigilant and follow the safety procedures
the school district has in place. I will move students to the safest designated area.
I will do a head count constantly to make sure everyone is present.

When we are at lunch, we will follow school rules. In my class now, they are
quiet for ten minutes then they can talk for ten minutes. I will also not allow
students to skip seats or save seats at the lunch table. I have seen this cause
arguing. At recess, I will encourage them to solve their own problems. I will tell
them if youre not broken, bleeding, barfing or being bullied, then dont come to
me. This year I have had so many problems at recess with students not solving
their own playground drama.
The grade level I am working with this year has implemented team homework.
Students are given a homework choice menu every month. Each week they put
a star beside the activity the completed. On Friday, we count up our stars and if
we met our goal, the whole class gets the privilege. Even if a student does not do
any homework all week, they get the privilege. I think there is a better way to
structure homework. I like the idea of giving them a choice and having a class
goal to meet for a privilege. But, I think if the student did not contribute at all,
then they should not get to participate in the privilege.