Classroom Management Plan
Ideal Classroom Layout
Rules, Guidelines, and Expectations
Believe in Yourself
Treat Everyone With Kindness
Be Ready to Learn
Always Do Your Best
Raise Your Hand
Respect Others, Respect Yourself
Procedures
Beginning Routine:
Put your belongings in your locker
Sit at your desk
Take out a pencil
Complete your morning work
When finished, put in mailbox
Grab book bin and read quietly on the rug
Bathroom Procedure:
Raise your hand with the bathroom sign (thumb on your palm)
Wait for your teacher to give you a nod
Walk quietly in the hallway
Use the restroom and wash hands
Walk quietly back to class
Drinking Fountain Procedure:
Raise your hand with the fountain sign (3 fingers)
Wait for your teacher to give you a nod
Walk quietly in the hallway
Get a drink from the fountain
Walk quietly back to class
When Work is Completed:
Put your completed work in your mailbox
Tidy up your desk
Grab your book bin and read quietly on the rug or finish incomplete work in your folder
Teaching Rules & Procedures
Rule: Treat everyone with kindness
I believe that teaching classroom rules is best done through discussion and reflection. Students are not likely to follow rules if we just tell them to. We want them to understand where the rules are coming from, why they are in place, and what following them looks like. Facilitating a discussion about each rule helps the students understand why they are there and significantly increases the likelihood of them following them.
On a circle on the carpet, I will ask my students what it means to be kind. What does being kind sound like? I will have a few scenarios that we can discuss as a class. For example:
Johnny is the new kid at school. He’s been in his new class for a week and still feels like no one wants to be friends with him. No one asks him to play on the playground and the teacher always has to give him a partner because nobody picks him. Johnny misses his old school and just wants to go home to his old friends.
I will ask my students, “Based on what you know about Johnny, how do you think he is feeling?” After we discuss how he is feeling, I will ask my students, “If Johnny was in this class, what could you do to show kindness to Johnny?” I will tell my students, “This story gave us a good idea of how Johnny was feeling. But, sometimes people don’t tell us how they are feeling. If Johnny was in this class, maybe you wouldn’t even be able to tell that he is sad. Sometimes we hide our feelings. So we have to make sure that we are always thinking of others and not just of ourselves. We should be good detectives, always observing others around us and wondering what we can do to make sure they’re having a good day.”
Procedure: When work is completed
I believe that teaching procedures is best done by walking through each step, with the help of some volunteers. Demonstrating procedures allows for students to visually understand what is being asked of them and it is more likely to stick in their memory. Demonstration elevates confusion and most misconceptions. Step-by-step demonstration leaves little room for error and allows for the classroom to function smoothly.
When Work is Completed:
Put your completed work in your mailbox
Tidy up your desk
Grab your book bin and read quietly on the rug or finish incomplete work in your folder
On the first day that morning work is handed out, I will tell my students to raise their hand when they are done. Whoever finished first will become the example for the other students. Let’s say William finishes his morning work first. William raises his hand to indicate to me that he has finished. I ask William if he is okay with being my example for the class. If he says no, I wait for another student to raise their hand and ask them. If he says yes, I use an attention getter to get the classes attention. When all eyes are on me, I tell the class, “I’m going to walk you through what you do when you complete your work and William is going to be my example. William is done with his work, so he is going to walk over to his mailbox, find his name, and put his work in his mailbox.” I will walk with William to the mailboxes, show him his, and have him place his paper in. “Next, William is going to grab his book bin. Because this is our first day using book bins, you get to shop for books! You can fill your bin with 7 books from the classroom library. While you are shopping, you should be very quiet because some of your classmates are still working.” I will walk William over to the book bins and show him his bin. He will take it and start shopping for book. “When William is done shopping for books, her will take his book bin to the carpet and find a good spot to read independently. Does that make sense to everyone?
Positive & Negative Consequences
Positive
To increase positive behaviors in my classroom, I will use an individual reward system that contributes to a class reward system. When students behave positively, I will give them a token. They can save their tokens to buy big prizes or use them right away for small prizes. During snack time, they can go to the treasure chest and buy something worth the amount of tokens they have. They put their tokens in the class bucket after they make their purchase. When the class bucket is full, the whole class gets a reward.
Negative
Misbehavior will be addressed in my classroom using a 5 step system. First, the teacher observes the wrong behavior. Second, the teacher gives the student a warning. If the misbehavior continues, I will offer a choice to the student. Fourth, observe the choice the student made and acknowledge it. If the choice was to continue misbehaving, then the fifth step is to enforce a consequence.
Example: Emma is talking to Anna during independent morning work. I observe this behavior. I give Emma a warning by asking her how morning work is supposed to sound. Emma tells me it should sound quiet but after a few minutes continues to talk to Anna. I tell Emma that she may complete her work quietly and on her own or she will have to move her seat. If she stops talking, I thank her for making a good choice. If Emma continues to talk to Anna, I move her seat.
Community
The First Day
On the first day of school, I find it extremely important for my students to know one another, for me to know them, and for them to know me. The majority of my time will be spent doing ice-breakers, introductions, and collaborative activities to build a sense of community and comfort in my class. I also value the students input on developing classroom rules. I will establish and share the rules that I deem important in my classroom. I will ask them to share any rules they think needed to be added to the list in order for them to succeed.
During the School Year
I will hold classroom meetings with my class every week. These meetings will allow me to discuss with my students on what is working for them, what is not, how they are doing, what I can do to improve, and how I can better support them as learners. My hope with this activity is that my students will feel like a team. They will feel comfortable voicing their opinions and bouncing ideas off of each other. They will learn to collaborate as a whole.
During the school year, me and my students will discuss a goal we want to work toward. When we determine a goal, the class will be rewarded as a whole. Through this activity, I hope that my class will feel like they are a team and that every person matters. They will learn that they need the help of others to accomplish something or to get a reward that they desire.
I will use activities throughout the school year that help my students get to know each other. This mean pairing students with students they haven't worked with before. I will switch up seating often so that students can create relationships with various students. I will allow for collaboration and group activities so that my students are socializing and getting to know one another. A specific get-to-know-you activity I can use is having students write fun facts about them on a card, collecting the cards, reading them aloud, and having the students guess who it is.
End of the Year
My goal at the end of the year is for my students to leave my class with more friendships than they came in with. I hope that their existing relationships became stronger and more valuable. I hope that my students learned from one another, that they didn’t just gain academic knowledge but social knowledge as well. I hope that they became better people, better friends, and better learners. I will write down my academic and social observations of students at the beginning of the year, making goals for them and actively helping them grow in areas of need. At the end of the year, I can look back at this list and evaluate whether my students have grown.
Additional Management Resources
Practical Classroom Management
Vern Jones
Vern Jones' "Practical Classroom Management" is full of management tools that I can use in my classroom. Jones' includes various situations that may occur in the classroom and how to address them in multiple ways.
School Law: What Every Educator Should Know
Fischer, Schimmel, & Stillman
I will use this text in the future when I find myself in situations that need clarification, specifically in the legal realm. This text aids me in better understanding my jurisdiction as an educator.
The Power of Our Words
Paula Denton
Denton's "Power of Our Words" elaborates on the importance of how we communicate with our students. It includes best classroom practices to create a comfortable and engaging learning environment that keeps all students' success in mind.