Christine Kent Classroom Management February 18, 2013 Classroom Management Plan: A big key part to creating a safe

learning environment is creating and implementing a classroom management plan. When students are given routines that are easy to remember then it leaves more room for content instruction. Also by giving expectations, rules, and consequences you help in creating an environment that is safe for all students; which in turn opens doors to learning. A classroom management plan that has a structured routine, rules, and expectations eliminates behavior problems and allows for teaching. This is what I expect to do with this plan. This plan is focused specifically for the fourth grade classroom I am in now, but many parts of it can be alter to fit any grade level in any school setting. Philosophy Statement: I am committed to creating a classroom that is safe, welcoming, and challenging by building a curriculum that is engaging and structured. Getting to know each of my students as the individuals that they are will help in forming lessons to benefit them all by focusing on their individual strengths, as well as, knowing their limits. The classroom setting will encourage collaboration and the use of critical thinking skills through creativity and in-depth, open-ended questions for discussions. I want talking and group work to be a common occurrence in the classroom. I believe that the students are teachers as well and they can increase their learning by using this skill. There will be opportunities for all of my students to contribute to their own learning and the learning of their peers. A quality that every teacher needs is patients and a calm attitude. This helps in creating a place where students feel free to learn and are not afraid to ask for help. With that being said, I have high expectations of all my students and I believe that they all have the ability to accomplish any task I put in front of them if given the right tools. The level of creation and learning for each student will be set to keep them learning and moving forward as they grow. The safety of all students is important. There will be a set of classroom rules that students will be expected to follow at all times. These rules will be simple and easy to interpret. They will be posted in the classroom, where all students can see them. On the first day these rules will be gone over in full detail with examples for complete understanding. With this there will be a set of consequences that will be appropriate for the age group and the rule not being followed. The consequences will also be discussed on this first day of class and post with the rules. I do not expect student to remember from day one the rules without our attention being brought to them from time to time. Even adults need reminders of expectations. Room Arrangement: The classroom will have bulletin boards for Math, Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. These boards will continuously change with the topics we are learning in each content area. There will be a posted alphabet and sound cards that are in view for the students. The daily routine schedule will be posted every day in the front of the classroom where students can visually see what they will be learning. There will be a few educational posters that are welcoming learning. The classroom rules will be posted in at least two places in the classroom, where the students can refer to them. The books

shelves will be arranged in a way that welcomes reading and encourages students to view concepts and topics they may not have thought of before. There will be books of the week stand and a chart where students can list a book they liked and thinks others might want to read. There will be a sign that shows the students what I am reading at the time. The desk will be arranged in a manner that leaves openness to the room and allows for the students to collaborate when it is necessary. Tools and supplies will be labeled and put in an area that is accessible to the students. The students will have a place to keep their personal items, such as backpacks, coats, and lunch bags; this way these items will be safe and not in the way of learning. If I have computers in the room they will be assessable to the students for projects and in an area where I can see them from wherever I am in the room, so I can monitor what is happening on them. There will be turn-in boxes for assignments and for homework. My desk will be in the front or back of the room and only used for administration tasks. Classroom Rules: There are six rules that I would use in my classroom that I believe cover all expectations and behaviors in the classroom. The first is Respect everyone and everything around you. The second is Speak kindly. The third is Be helpful and responsible. The fourth is to Take care of classroom and school property. The fifth is Try your hardest each and every day. The sixth is there because the school I am at requires it and it is No gum chewing. I believe that these rules cover the expectations of how students should act in the classroom. When these rules are followed it produces an environment that is safe for every individual in the classroom. When the rules are not followed there are consequences to fit the misconduct in our classroom. These consequences can include loss of recess, time in another classroom, separation from peers, writing an apology, writing a what happened and how to change it paper, loss of time for fun activity, loss of collaboration in group, meeting with parents, meeting with administration, and these consequences will fit the violation of the class rule and the occurrence by the student. The implement of classroom meeting in our classroom will help to insure that we find what is working and what is not. We will discuss why and how we can change things as a class. The use of discussion and choice gives the students a sense of involvement and inclusion. This helps in creating an environment where the students feel that their opinions count. Although there will be a set of rules and consequences I hope to stop most occurrences prior to them occurring by building positive interventions for prevention. This will include checking in with students individually and frequently, staying in close proximity to students will movement throughout the classroom when presenting information and when students work in groups or on individual work (no one said I had to teach in front of the room), provide written and verbal procedures, give students responsibility, assign leader to groups, for students who are not actively participating call on them when they have to answer to increase confidence, call home or email for good behavior, specific praise when desired behavior is shown, use modeling of desired behaviors, and verbally thank students who are on task instead of pointing out misbehavior. By using these positive enforcers I hope to elimination many behavioral disturbances prior to them happening to increase the engagement of the students on learning instead of on the disorder. Classroom Procedures: As I have said earlier in the classroom arrangement area, there will be a place designated for the daily agenda. This area will list everything that is expected and the times for learning different content. There will also be a place where students will be told what they will be able to do after a lesson and why

it is important to them to learn it. The students will also have a planner where they will write down the homework that is assigned for the day and when it is due. There is a binder that will go with this that has four pockets in it; one for homework due the next day, one for work in progress, one for assignment and work that will go home and stay at home, and one for information for parents. The planners and binders will be checked at the end of the day as an exit ticket out of the classroom. The students who have uncompleted assignments will lose their recess until work is completed. The students who have permission will be able to meet with me before or after school for extra help in any content area we have covered. This information will be given to parents multiple times throughout the year so that they are aware that there is help being offered to their children. Here is a list of a few more procedures I will be using in the classroom. The first is self-starters for morning and after recess times. The students will be expected to come into class, put their things away and start on the topic. For instance, in the morning after first bell students will write a paragraph on a prompt they are given. The rest of the week we will work every morning on this prompt. They will write a draft, have it peer edited, turn it in of my edit, and then rewrite in their journal in pen and color picture that is on the page. The students will have access to the prompt in their journal so there is no need to ask me what it is and they can start it every morning. Also when students are done with a part of this and waiting for the next step they are expected to silently read. Another is that students will be expected to raise their hand if they need my attention, to answer, or to ask a question. I will not respond to blurting out questions or having my name repeatedly called out. It is annoying and distracting. There will be times where raised hands for answers will not be necessary, but these times will be prompted with a signal that the students will have learned from demonstration in the beginning. The use of attention getters in the classroom is another procedure that will be expected to be followed. The students will learn what these cues look and sound like. Then they will be taught what it looks like to follow these cues. Then it will be demonstrated and practiced. These cues will be readdressed discuss classroom meetings as reminders of what they should look like and sound like. If a student needs to get out of their seat they need to ask permission, unless it is part of an activity. During instruction students are to remain seated and contributing. The students can use the restroom or get a drink during group or individual work times, but they should not be up doing these things more than once in a twenty minute block. Those getting up also should not be disturbing to others around them. If there is an emergency (sick stomach, nose bleed, severe coughing, boogers) the students are to take care of it and explain quietly to me when they come back. There is a point to emphasize with the word emergency, this word means it happens not every often and occurrences are few and far between and there was no helping it. This will be pointed out to the students. There will be tasks that the students will be required to do and when these tasks are done what the students should will do after they are done will either be listed or learned and expected; such as in the morning starter.