Classroom Management

Philosophy
Classroom management is how teachers can organize their classroom to prevent

misbehavior. Having a good classroom management plan will help cut down on the time

I spend correcting students and allow me to spend more of my time actually teaching

students. A well developed plan also helps ensure a productive classroom that is

task-oriented, proactive, and predictable.

I will ensure that my classroom stays task oriented by teaching with the Kounin

model of “with-it-ness”, this is a reference to a teachers ability to stay alert at all times

and letting their students know that they have an eye on the classroom and will be able

to see misbehaviors before they happen. This kind of teaching helps keep a task

oriented classroom. I apln to do this by keeping my desk at the back of the room so I

can see my students, I also plan to create my ‘teacher look’ so when I do spot a

misbehavior I can correct it with a simple look and not disrupt my entire class to correct

one student.

I believe that students thrive in a serene environment that appears calm and

relaxed to them, when students are relaxed and feel comfortable they are more likely to

succeed. I believe that the brain works better when it is not under stress, a distracting

and cold environment will be a blocker to students learning and they will not be as

successful.
 With my environment being friendly and open, I as well need to be. I believe that

students are more likely to come to you with issues that they have that could impact

their learning, knowing what is going on with them outside the classroom will help you

better inside the classroom.

Children are like sponges, waiting to soak up every ounce of knowledge we

provide them with. I believe that children have different ways to 'soak' up what we, as

teachers, give them. Every child is an individual with individual needs and individual

learning capabilities. We must not forget this and allow extra help when needed.

I understand that according to Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development, children think

symbolic and develop their imagination until around the ages of seven to eleven when

they start to develop logical thinking. Children are concrete learners and it is difficult for

them to think abstractly, therefore my teaching needs to be direct and molded to help

every child as an individual.

As an educator I feel it is my job to help the student overcome their obstacles to

gain an education, without feeling pressured or embarrassed for how they retain

lessons. With special education being my main focus, I feel it is my responsibility to

determine how to best help my students on a one-on-one basis, to best address their

needs, as well as making sure students can follow along and learn through whole class

teachings.

Knowing the ideas behind how a child develops helps me to understand that in

order to be a good teacher you need both; a strong, supportive classroom to welcome
students, and a learning platform that grows with them. I must ensure that no child feels

left behind, and every child is succeeding to the best of their ability.

I feel that being open to your students makes them feel more at ease with

learning and will allow them to ask for help when needed, rather than suffering in

silence. To be seen as an open and friendly face for them I need to smile at them any

chance I can, greet them every morning as they come to class. Students feel more

comfortable the more you engage with them, making sure to ask them about their day

and keep the conversations going throughout the year shows them you care. It is

important to show care for them; you may be the only person they feel does.

As a teacher, I want each class to be a family, full of love and support from one day to

another.

Synopsis

Like mentioned before classroom management is how schools and teachers

organize a plan to maintain behavior within their classroom. The better the classroom

management plan the more positive the classroom becomes, with the right plan the

teacher will spend more time helping his/her students than correcting misbehaviors.

This is the main focus of most teacher candidates throughout their education, we have

thought out every problem that could occur before it happens and have a solution. We

dream of their classroom all throughout college and develop their plan to make it come

to life, the following plan is no different. Throughout my plan I have mentioned ways that
I will keep order within my classroom both through rules and keeping in contact with

families to get a better idea of what they see at home that I can help with at school. I

also spoke about how procedures and instructional strategies can help make the

teaching process go smoother and allow for a better learning environment.

When you go to school it is important that you feel loved and supported, it is

important you feel you are a part of a safe learning environment that is built for you to

succeed. As a teacher this is exactly my job. It has been proven time and time again

that it is easier for students to learn when they feel comfortable within their environment,

the quickest way for this to happen is for students to feel comfortable with their peers.

Traditional classrooms tend to be quite cold and remind me more of a closet than a fun

and engaging place to learn. I want my future classroom to scream Montessori and be

filled with life. According to Montessori Northwest “Montessori is a method of education

that is based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning and collaborative play. In

Montessori classrooms children make creative choices in their learning, while the

classroom and the highly trained teacher offer age-appropriate activities to guide the

process. Children work in groups and individually to discover and explore knowledge of

the world and to develop their maximum potential.” My classroom will be all about life

and helping students develop no matter what stage of life, I will have bright open

windows and learning centers in every corner to encourage collaboration. My persona

needs to be as open and inviting as my classroom, I want to be a friendly face for every

one of my students to turn to and to learn from.

Instructional Strategies

When I teach my students, I need to keep in mind my students need help

becoming efficient independent thinkers along with allowing them to create connections

with peers. How I teach will create the baseline to both of these, according to Alberta

Learning students need to be taught how to become independent and strategic thinkers,

and how to teach them to pick these strategies on their own later down the road as

needed. Instructional strategies motivate students, focus on the task at hand, and help

them organize their information. Within the classroom I will have a dress up station for

children to put on plays during station time, this way they will engage their brains in the

role-playing experience. My teaching will also greatly involve turn-talk strategies for

learning, this involves students turning to the person they sit next to and engaging in a

conversation about what I am currently teaching. Something similar to this is a method

of teaching called Jig-Saw, this strategie splits students up and allows them to become

an “expert” on an idea and then share with a “home group” for them to become

knowledgeable on that idea. This aspect engages them in cooperative learning and

group discussion. Along with these strategies I will have my students keep a journal

about their day, this allows students both an output for their thoughts and keeps them

on track. When students have something to say they can't focus until they say it, having

a student journal helps them get those ideas out, but also helps them learn to read and

write.
Relationships

Another aspect of keeping my students' learning environment calm and

supportive is to make sure my students learn to build relationships with one another.

These students will be together for an entire year, we slowly become a family, if a

student starts to feel segregated from this family their learning will surely be affected.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs outlined in the third tier that students love and belong in

order to succeed, this comes from both me as their teacher and their peers as friends.

Students need a push to interact with one another to create the positive

community they will learn in. To do this I will have my students at the start of the year

help brainstorm and design the bulletin boards within my room, each pot their own

“plant baby” that will stay on the window sill for them to water throughout the year and

take home at the year’s end, and place framed photos of my students and their families

around the room to attach them to the environment. Doing these small things alongside

planning my activities for students to engage with one another, will create the positive

environment they will thrive in.

All sounds easy enough on paper, but I struggle in ways of being both a friendly

face and a role model. I find it somewhat difficult to be friends with students but

understand I am still their “superior”. With time and practice I know this will change, as

their education comes before anything. I will always allow my students to come to me

and vent on any issues that come their way, and I want to maintain a bit of flexibility with
their learning. As a teacher I want to act more as a collaborator than a boss, each of my

students from a young age will take hold of their learning and make it what they feel

they need.

As their teacher I will still have opportunities to form teacher-student

relationships. I will do this not by becoming their best friend, but by greeting them as

they come in the door in the morning, and praising them for positive behavior. I need to

be consistent with them to build their trust, I am a new face for them and they need to

learn they can trust me. Throughout my teaching I want to maintain relationships by

greeting them every morning, connecting with them through conversations, praising

them for positive work/behaviors, post their work around my room, sit at their level, and

be consistent with them. These six ideas will help me connect with my students and

build the relationships I am wanting.

Procedures & Routines

I am the one with the degree, but they are the one needing the education. I know

not every student will know what they need, but they will know what teaching methods

are/are not working for them. All of these worries fall into my classroom procedures,

after teaching I want to see where my students knowledge level is. I will have them fill

out an exit slip that makes them circle the emoji that relates to how they feel about the

lesson, and write a small sentence about where they are confused. During the lesson at

any time they don’t understand they can raise their hand to ask for help. These two

things help struggling students, but the classroom procedures of “come ready to learn”
and having the daily “to-do” list clear on the board will help students who are not

struggling in a supportive work environment to learn in. I will also create a morning

routine that will help my students know what to do as I am greeting my students at the

door. When they come in they will know to put their bookbags away, go to their desks

and start on a morning bellringer. I will also have a list of classroom jobs that helps

students take charge of certain things in the classroom, such a light monitor. When the

lights need turned off they will complete this task. This also allows students to work

alongside me. My students will also have an end of the day routine that will allow me to

pass out papers and talk with my students and make sure everything is going home on

time. This routine will allow my students to talk to me, grab their stuff and line up at the

door.

Expectations

As much as I would like to say my classroom will be rule free, students need an

outline of expected behavior to follow. Children need support to learn, having classroom

rules is this support. However, students will not follow rules if they do not understand

where they are coming from, you need to develop each rule alongside your students

and explain to them why this is a rule and what exactly you expect from them. I

understand this, if I was told to sit down and stay quiet I would want to know why, I don’t

know if it is because people like to learn in silence. Over the year I will develop

relationships with students and they will know that my rules are put in place to help

them and they will follow them without hesitation, in most cases, until this happens
explaining rules helps them understand. Expectations I would already have prepared to

explain to the class would be “Walk, don't run at all times in the classroom.” “Keep

hands, feet, and objects to yourself” to ensure safety in the classroom. A few more

would be “Sit in your seat unless you have permission to leave it”, and “Raise your

hand and wait for permission to speak” to help ensure responsibility and respect. Each

expectation is worded positively and strays from the typical “no” and “stop” that which

promotes negative meaning. These rules will also be sent home to families to let them

know what is expected of their child each day within the classroom. To ensure parents

always have these rules they will be posted on every weekly newsletter that is sent

home with students. Each expectation falls into the three categories, safety,

responsibility, and respect, outlined in the matrix below.

Safety ● Walk at all times in school.

● Keep hands, feet, and objects to yourself.

Responsibility ● Sit in your seat unless you have permission to

leave it.

Respect ● Raise your hand and wait for permission to

speak.
● Use kind words at all time.

Reinforcement

When students are unable to follow classroom expectations and rules that are

expected of them we respond to them with a reinforcement to encourage them to make

better choices before we provide them with consequences. This also goes for students

who are following the rules, a reinforcement of positive behavior. Reinforcements are

consequences on a lower scale within the classroom, these can be both positive and

negative. A reinforcement can be both tangible and intangible, a tangible reinforcer such

as giving students a sticker when they come to class and are ready to start the day or

allowing them to pick from a treasure box when they stayed on level 0 all day. T his

prevents inappropriate behavior by encouraging students to behave in a positive way.

An intangible reinforcer could be something such as giving a verbal praise to let a

student know they are doing well, you could also use an intangible reinforcer such as a

classroom job to calm a student down who may be misbehaving. Giving a student who

is misbehaving a “mailman” job to get them out of the classroom to help calm them

down as they walk. They find this as a “cool” job they wouldn't normally get to do, but

calms them down, in-turn reinforcing good behavior.

Consequences

When slight reinforcements are not able to maintain misbehaviors we move

straight into a tiered system of organized consequences. Students must “clip down”

when behavior exceeds the option for self correction without reminder, however

students do have the opportunity to “clip up” throughout the day when they show

improvement on the misbehaviors throughout the day. Students will know of this chart

as it will be thoroughly explained at the beginning of the year and will hang near the

teacher’s desk with clothespins labeled with students number to clip up and down. To
keep a student’s parents aware of what is going on throughout the school day, a daily

behavior chart will go home each day for parents to initial and talk to their child about.

The behavior chart is simply a blank calendar of the month that the student will write

each day what level they were on at the end of the day. The levels and explanation of

each will be printed on the back of this calendar to allow parents an explanation behind

the behavior. Ex; if a child ended the day on level 2, the child would put a “2” down on

the corresponding date, the parent will return this with their intail the next day to show

their parent is aware of the past day. If the child passes level 2 a note will be sent home

with details on what happened throughout the day, and a note on what we did to fix the

behavior. For instance, if a child was being loud during rug time I will let them know this

along with I allowed the child to go on a supervised walk. The class overall will first get a

class warning as to act as a reminder for the students who are acting out, after this then

the clip up and down system will begin. When giving clip downs I will be clear what the

student did wrong as to help them self regulate later on and develop their moral

compass. The behavior levels are organized below.

Level 0: On Track.
Perfect day! There was no need for a behavior consequence.

Level 1: Reminder.
We have to remember as a teacher that students are children and sometimes just need
a reminder that they are acting out. This level is just to get students back on track
behavior wise.

Level 2: Stop and Think.

This level is for students who need more than a subtle hint to focus again. This level
makes students stop and have a conversation with the teacher regarding their behavior
and why they are acting out.

Level 3: Teachers Choice

This level is for students who continue to act up, this consequence is individualized to
each student to help ensure they are getting a consequence that means something to
students.

Level 4: Call Home.

When students need a reminder from home this level is in place to make students talk
to their parent/guardian at home. Most students take punishment from parents way
worse than a disciplinary action from a teacher, this in a way that scares them back into
good behavior.

Level 5: Office Trip.

When students just don’t seem to want to get themselves together taking a trip is the
best option. This option is also the way to go from extremely bad behavior such as a
student harming themselves or someone around them.

Record Keeping

Within the school system it is extremely important to track behavior and keep a

written document of what you observed and what lead you to your consequence. There

will be more than one occasion where a parent does not agree with what I decide to do

with their child after a misbehavior in my classroom, I must be able to explain every

decision and action that lead to their child’s consequence. To keep records while

teaching is anything but an easy feat, keeping quick notes on sticky notes or the
margins of papers as you teach and moving them later to a more permanent location

seems to be the easiest yet efficient way to keep detailed notes. After the school day

will be the appropriate time to transfer my sticky notes onto a word document for each

student with a dated heading. I want to make sure that I write exactly what is on the

sticky note, nothing more, the more I would write the greater the chance I fill in

information that was not remembered correctly. This way when I have a meeting with

either the principal and/or parents I will be able to fully say “this is what I did, and this is

why I did this.” I can also inform a parent of a pattern behavior I am noticing in class,

and develop a BIP if needed. This will also be helpful for me to see how my students

behavior is affected by their environment, this will help me be more data informed in my

practice and help lead my students to success.

An example chart I would use to keep track of misbehaviors would look like the

chart below.

Name Walk at all Use kind Raise your hand Sit in your seat Keep hands,
times in words at and wait for unless you have feet, and objects
school. all time. permission to permission to to yourself.
speak. leave it.

Billy II

Sarah

Megan I

Todd

Zach I I

Lilly Kicks Todd

during Math.
 II

Communicating Expectations

Parents will be knowledgeable of both classroom rules and their student’s

behaviors within the classroom, as I will have a very open line of communication with

each one of my student’s parents/guardians. I want to keep them involved in their child’s

learning and to gain outside knowledge on how their lives outside the classroom.

Children's lives outside of school affects their behavior inside the classroom more than

anything, keeping in close contact with parents through facebook groups, email, and

weekly phone calls will keep me updated on how to help my students. Weekly

newsletters will also be sent home to keep parents informed on students responsibilities

for the week and to keep up on what is happening. These weekly newsletters will

contain what our class will be learning, what the school has planned for family

engagement throughout the week, and a book list that students will be reading this

week.

With more experience my ideas will change, I will become more experienced and find

out what works and what doesn’t, I expect my plan to change throughout the years. As

a teacher we need to be flexible at all times and are subject to change ideas and

methods when the outcome to our teaching is anything but expected. Not every aspect

of these ideas will go exactly to plan, but having an idea of where to start when you

need step-by-step directions on how to solve an issue.