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Jillian Ferguson

Classroom Management

Dr. Anne Hewson

3 November 2017

Classroom Management Plan

As a future teacher, my goal is to ensure that all my students feel a sense of

belonging while at school, to engage them through interactive lessons, to motivate them

with collaboration and to help them develop a passion for learning. While I realize that

many students arrive in the classroom with preconceived attitudes towards school, I hope

to create a classroom environment that encourages all students to appreciate learning and

enjoy their time spent experiencing a variety of subjects. I want all my students to feel

comfortable and welcomed. By allowing my students to be a part of creating the rules,

routines and expectations, it will provide a sense of autonomy in the classroom and

provide them the opportunity to reach their full potential. Tangible rewards and engaging

teaching methods are also effective classroom management strategies that I will

implement to not only enhance students’ experience at school, but also work as part of a

preventative plan in avoiding misbehaviors and distributions. Using problem-solving

interventions, mild punishments and documenting all misbehaviors will be part of

conflict resolution in my classroom. Ultimately, building meaningful student-teacher

relationships may be the most important aspect, that I feel will not only improve my

students’ school experience, but my own as well.

At the beginning of the year, it is important to establish an inviting and safe

classroom culture for students (Curwin, 2008). Part of this involves having clearly set
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rules and instituting expectations so that students have clear guidelines as to what is

required of them. Collaborating with my students to create these classroom norms will

not only enhance their personal sense of responsibility, but also foster the shared learning

experience I hope to promote in all of my classroom lessons. While they will be

designed in cooperation with my students, I will ensure that my classroom expectations

reflect my values as a teacher, and that the rules we create help to promote these values

and keep students on track in the learning process. “Rules and procedures for general

classroom behavior deal with the broad areas of respect and courtesy as well as more

specific issues, such as listening to the teacher or to classmates who are speaking, and

being in the assigned seat when class begins” (Marzano, 2005, p.9). In my classroom,

rules would need to include students’ obligation to be respectful, safe and responsible.

Expectations and rules are the basis for effective discipline, which is an essential part of

classroom management.

Routines are another valuable aspect of classroom management that aid in

classroom control and alleviate the need for the teacher to constantly be telling students

what to do. Rather, students are already of aware of procedures they need to follow.

Routines are very important, especially for younger elementary students, who are still

getting used to the school environment (Marzano, 2005). These can be established at the

beginning of the school year, and will become part of my students’ daily routine with

practice. Examples of classroom routines can include having line up leaders for

transitioning from class to class, morning procedures involving putting away agendas,

snacks, other belongings, or even having a classroom cleanup crew that is responsible for

keeping the classroom tidy for that day. In my classroom, I will be sure to utilize these
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routines to provide my students guidance throughout their day. Routines can be used at

the start and end of each day, as Marzano states that beginning and finishing each day on

a positive note further promotes and healthy classroom learning environment (Marzano,

2005). Routines can also eliminate distractions and allow for more time to really focus

on the content students need to be learning.

Tangible rewards is another tool of classroom management that I will implement

into my future classrooms to prevent undesirable behaviors. These can be used during

lessons throughout the day. Children often respond positively when you offer tangible

rewards for good behavior, because it helps them focus their effort and energy on positive

behaviors necessary to receive the reward (Marzano, 2005). However, it is important for

students see these rewards as a motivator, and not as a form of coercion or bribe.

Continually monitoring my use of these rewards and students responses will ensure that

this does not happen (Marzano, 2005). One example of a tangible strategy is the point

system, in which students are rewarded points for good behavior throughout the week,

with the top three students receiving a treat, or some type of reward, at the end of the

week. The process starts over again at the beginning of each week (Marzano, 2005). I

believe that having a few of these in place, especially in elementary classrooms,

encourages the respectful and responsible behaviors I hope to see in my students.

I will strive to teach in way that engages students in active learning that is not

boring or overwhelming. Allowing my students work collaboratively in groups can

further learning between peers. Focusing parts of lessons on the interests of my students

can make them feel more connected to the work they need to do. Having students

partake in activities that allow them to experience the learning firsthand can increase their
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desire to learn, which I something I hope to accomplish within my classroom.

Furthermore, generating real, honest and meaningful relationships with my students I

think is important in creating a positive classroom culture (Curwin, 2008). This is

something that I can establish throughout the year, through meaningful conversations and

having a caring and understanding attitude towards all my students. For some students,

creating that trusting relationship is needed before they can respect other aspects of the

classroom management plan I hope to achieve. Furthermore, I will provide all my

students with effective feedback that is goal-reference, tangible and transparent,

actionable, user-friendly, timely, ongoing and consistent (Wiggins, 2012). I will also ask

for feedback from my students to understand where they may be struggling or their needs

are not being met.

To be a legendary teacher, you not only need to be able to transmit knowledge to

your students, but also be able to deal with problems that may arise in your classroom

effectively. Although I will have plans in place to prevent unwanted classroom

behaviors, there will undoubtedly be problems that require attention. When these

problems do arise, I will implement problem-solving strategies for both my students and

myself. When one approach does not seem to be working, I will not blame the student,

but rather modify my approach to solve the problem. One essential aspect of effective

problem solving is helping students to develop their own skill set. I will help my students

learn to listen carefully, calm themselves, generate suggestions, imagine someone else’s

point of view, and so on so that they can try and solve problems themselves. Guidance

and practice will be necessary for them to be able to do this efficiently. (Colorosso,

2010)
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Appropriately diagnosing the situation at hand is another essential part of problem

solving. This may require us prompting the children, interpreting their answers or

‘playing detective’ to really find out what happened and why. Furthermore, we may need

to question our own practices and determine whether or not something we are doing as

teachers is causing these problems to happen. There are several other important

strategies in problem-solving, such as helping students construct authentic solutions,

making restitutions and reparations between students, checking back later, being flexible

and trying to minimize punitive impact. (Kohn, 2006)

At times, mild punishments may be required due to students’ actions. Two

strategies that I feel may be effective in these instances are isolation time-out and

overcorrecting. While isolation time-out may seem harsh, I would use this method by

having a ‘cool down chair’ in my classroom, and when necessary have students sit there

for around a minute to cool down and reflect on their actions. This could be a

consequence of 1 or more warnings to a student, who then is required to spend a minute

in the ‘cool down chair’.

A second tool that be used for punishment is overcorrection. A benefit of this

approach is that it allows students to focus on a positive behavior rather than a negative.

One example would be if a student rips out all of the pages of book, they must tape all the

pages back in so the book can still be used. Unfortunately, not all behavioral issues can

be solved this way. However, I would use this approach whenever possible as it

demonstrates to the student that actions have consequences, while also getting them to

exhibit positive behavior.

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Finally, I will keep careful documentation of all the situations and incidents that

occur in my classroom. While it may seem tedious, having documentation will allow me

to track students behavior and evaluate where their problem areas may lie, which time of

day, month, or year they seem to struggle to most. There are various forms of

documentation that I will use in my classroom that will include, for example, a ‘reflection

form’ which students will fill out when they behave inappropriately in class that explains

the incident and why it happened, a ‘problem-solving’ sheet to be filled out by students

involved in disputes, incident report documents I will fill out in serious cases, keeping

record of weekly points charts, and self and group evaluations after projects. Having

these documents will provide concrete evidence to potentially look back on later when

developing interventions or plans for individual students. They can also be used to

demonstrate problems to parents, other teachers and administrators when necessary.

Having accurate documentation will support the problems that I see occurring within my

classroom, and allow me to work on these behaviors with my students to improve the

learning environment for everyone.

Classroom management is perhaps the most important, yet most difficult aspect of

being an educator. It requires dedication, patience, flexibility and undoubtedly many

mistakes before being mastered. My techniques may need to vary from year to year, and

class to class, to find out what works best with all of my students. Establishing clear

expectations, rules and routines, utilizing tangible rewards and engaging my students are

all factors I will be incorporating into these varying classrooms to prevent misbehavior in

the classroom. When problems do arise, I will implement problem-solving strategies,

mild punishments and document these for future reference. Ultimately, ideal classroom
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management to me involves every single student having the opportunity to learn to his or

her full potential by being motivated, working collaboratively with classmates and having

a sense of belonging. A positive classroom environment through effective classroom

management will create greater learning opportunities for all my students.

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References

Colorosso, B. (2010). Kids are worth it! Raising resilient, responsible, compassionate kids.
Toronto: Penguin Canada.

Curwin, R. L., Mendler, A. N., & Mendler, B. D. (2008). Discipline with Dignity: New
Challenges, New Solutions. Alexandria, VA: Assoc. for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.

Kohn, A. (2006). Beyond discipline : from compliance to community, 10th anniversary edition.
Retrieved from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Marzano, R. J. (2005). A Handbook for Classroom Management That Works. Alexandria, Va:
Assoc. for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Wiggins, G. (2012). 7 Keys to Effective FEEDBACK. Educational Leadership, 70(1), 10-16.