Katie Rose Frey Classroom Management

Classroom Rules

1) Faites d’effort en classe: Put effort into everything you do!

2) Respectez

* “Respectez” means a lot of things in French: (1)“to have concern for,” (2)“to
admire,” (3)“to respect,” (4)“to have consideration for.” This is essentiel in our
classroom.

Students must (1)respectez, or have concern for others’ safety and wellbeing as well
as their own. This means not acting in a way that will hurt or discomfort others such
as throwing materials, pushing, destroying others’ property, harassing, etc.

Students must (2) respectez others- find something you admire in each of your
classmates- this will help you get along with them and learn from them. You don’t
have to be best friends, but it’s important to respectez.

Students must (3)“respectez” each other, themselves, and the authorities in the
room- this looks like:

1) no talking when others are speaking

2) raising your had to speak

3) following directions or advice

4) waiting to sharpen your pencil until an appropriate time, etc.

Students must (4) respectez, or have consideration for others and their teacher. This
means being considerate by being to class and ready on time, being considerate
when others are speaking, having consideration for others’ feelings, property,
abilities, beliefs, sexual orientation, ideas, etc.

*Physical, verbal, or sexual harassment is forbidden and skips past all 3 strikes:

On the first day, it will be addressed that I will not allow the use of negative
expressions or language such as “That’s so gay,” “That’s retarded,” “What a homo,”
or any other form of verbal harassment. Physical and sexual harassment will also
not be tolerated.

I want my classroom to be a safe haven for students and diversity. I am serious

about this and will follow through.

Classroom Procedures
*Students have journals they will write in to begin each hour (warm-up) from a
prompt on the board. Journals will be kept in students’ hanging file folders. File
folders will be where I pass back students’ work. (For example, if the students had a
quiz the day before, they’d come in the next day and grab their journals and their
quizzes – I’d have a journal prompt on projector/elmo/board maybe have the fixing
or responding to their quizzes in their journals.) Once students enter the classroom,
they will grab their journals and whatever else needs to be picked up from their file
folder for the day.

*Guided free time: Students will always work at different paces. I am committed to
helping students make the most of the short time we have together, engaging in
meaningful and enjoyable activities. Students who are finished with the activity they
have been working on will engage in Guided Free time. (For example, if a
partnership finishes exchanging a conversation regarding making weekend plans,
they have the opportunity to do a Guided Free time activity.) These activities will be
small things that students can work on whenever they have spare moments in class.
Students will be able to choose from a number of different activities such as looking
through picture books, reading news articles, reading poems, writing poems or
short stories, reading cartoons, creating cartoons, organizing culture days,
(depending on the technology in the room, if there are computers, students will be
allowed to pick from different video clips, certain websites, listen to francophone
music, look up French recipes, independent research they can share with the class,
etc.) The point is for students to have some fun with French- the reward for
completely an activity or working hard is French. Rewarding French “work” with
French “play.” With guided free time, instead of students working on other things,
running around, distracting others, or talking, I can give explicit directions to work
on a guided free time activity when they have finished what they’re working on.
Students will respond to whatever activity they are doing in their journals from time
to time. This will be for me to keep track of what the students are working on and to
see progress. Students can also use guided free time to do French homework or
projects they are working on already or any missing assignments.

*Student portfolios: students will be compiling their best work to show their
parents during student-guided parent/guardian conferences. If parents or
guardians cannot attend for any reason, or a student feels uncomfortable with the
available parent or guardian, student may choose another relative or teacher to
come to the student led conference.

*Technology: Students must have all personal technology turned off and stowed
away. If I see it, I give the students two choices: to either put it away, or place it on
my desk.

*Passes to the hallway. Even in college I’ve been guilty of going to the bathroom
when the classroom was so boring and excruciatingly so it was painful (I can think
of two history classes and a French class, I’m sorry to say). My job is to create
meaningful, engaging activities for the class to avoid having students leave because
they are bored. I am hoping to be in a district when students have to have their
planners signed to go into the hall. I will sign students planners when they need, and
I will let them know they must wait until I am done giving directions or “instruction”
to ask for a signature, unless it’s an emergency. They can quietly give me their
planners all filled out and I will sign them. I would rather trust them first. I will let
them know that if I feel people are taking advantage of the system, the rules will
change.

*Food and drink: will depend on the school I am working in and their rules. I do
want to have food/culture days, and during guided free time days, the students can
bring in food, drink, blankets and pillows as long as they clean up afterward.

*Getting their attention: “Les yeux et les oreilles” has been working really well to get
my students attention in the past two field teaches. It helps me make sure students
can hear. Using French also helps, because they are all on the edge of their seats
trying to figure out what I’m saying so they don’t miss something. Another option I
have been thinking about was having students choose their favorite French word or
a funny French word (this may work with a French two and up class) that they
would like me to use when I want their attention.

*When I was in high school, it was such a breath of fresh air to have the one teacher
that would let us choose where we wanted to sit. Arranged seating made me feel like
a child, and I felt like I was a young adult and wanted to be treated as such. I haven’t
decided my stance on arranged seating yet. I like the idea of having French 1
students at arranged tables, I will want them in small groups of four where they can
practice speaking in a partnership or small groups that are already formed and get
to know all of their classmates. They will be moved around with each unit. I will let
my French 1 know that they get to choose their own tables for the last unit though.
For my French 2 and up levels, I would like to have desks in a round. By this time,
students are more comfortable with their classmates after having them in groups
the whole first year. I would like to have desks in a circle to facilitate discussions,
and to provide a space for activities in the middle.

Teacher Response for Positives and Negatives

Très bien! (Very good!)

Bon travail! (Good job!)

Bien dit. (Well said!)

Excellente! (Excellent!)

Extraordinaire! (Extraordinary!)

Merveilleux! (Marvelous!)

C’est ça! (That’s it!)

Intelligent, mais pas la réponse (Intelligent, but not the answer.)

Très proches, mais pas encore (Very close, but not yet.)

Rewards/Consequences of Behavior

*Three strikes and you’re out. Strike one is a warning. Strike two is the student
staying after class or during lunch. Strike three is staying during lunch with a phone
call home. Students will receive strikes for engaging in disrespectful behavior,
described in the classroom rules.

*Passing 3 strikes is a trip to the office with a Vice Principal-teacher-student

meeting to be scheduled. (Here’s hoping I have administration support and time,
and never need to use this).

*Rewards: overall class participation and enthusiasm will be rewarded with culture
and food days that are scheduled.

*Consequences: overall class inability to be on task will cause the

culture/food/guided free time days to be used to catch up on wasted time.

*I would like to establish a habit of e-mailing parents and communicating positives

about their children. I will make time to contact them all before the beginning of the
school year, and personally invite them to parent night to meet face to face. Parents
are the most important teachers of their children, and I really see the parent-
teacher-student relationship as all being on the same team. We’re all on “Team
[insert your child’s name here]!” It is my goal to have every child speaking French
and sharing things they’ve learned with their parents. I would love to get parents
involved, especially on food/culture days.

Late Homework, Absent Work

*Students will be able to see what they missed in a binder. They must consult the
binder, then ask one to two other students before asking me if they have any
questions. This should foster a community of helping each other out, plus it will free
up my time so it’s not spent on trying to catch all the kids up who missed and having
to repeat myself. The time I have before class is very valuable because this is when I
can greet all of my students and get a feel for how they’re doing. It is easier to touch
base with more students if I’m not focused on one or two. If students have questions
about what they missed, they are welcome to ask me during guided free time, before
or after class.

*Most activities will be done in class, and therefore students will be hindered if not
in the classroom. To make up for this, I would love to establish something like a
make-up lunch hour, where the student who missed the class and a friend come in,
and they do the group activities the student missed. If it is an individual activity, the
individual student can come in over lunch and do the activity. I would have this
make-up lunch hour once a week (because I don’t want to hold students after school
especially if they cannot get a ride home). I also do not want to lose all my lunch
periods. I think devoting one lunch period a week would give students a fair
opportunity for make-up. If this is a problem, or if I decide this idea does not work
well, I could do a make-up after school day once a week instead. Students in high
school have an easier time getting rides, and many drive themselves. I just don’t
want to discourage students from making up the work who have transportation
restrictions. (This may be a wait and see kind of situation). However, this way,
students could get the experience they need, and it will help them build
relationships as language learners and helping each other out. They would be able
to come in with a language partner and do activities to make up participation credit.