Carly Tofel Professor MacKenzie February 28th, 2013 Classroom Management Plan 1.

Philosophical Statement Classroom management is a critical part of teaching and learning. It sets the stage for everything that will happen in the classroom and how your students will learn and behave. Ever since I was a little girl I have always wanted to be a teacher. I want to be the teacher who students feel safe with and can trust. I want to have a mutually respectful relationship with each child that I teach. Not only do I believe it is important to have a good relationship with the children, but I believe it is important for each of them to have a good relationship with each other. It is key that students feel like they belong. Belonging to a group means being needed as well as to need, and believing that you have something vital to contribute. (Charney p.22) In my opinion, when students feel like they are important, they are more motivated to do their best. I want them to feel safe in their environment. As the teacher, I will do everything I can do promote social interactions between the students. The classroom is not about knowing everything and getting every answer right. It is about making progress and gathering new information. Just like Cambourne (1988) talked about, I want my students to encounter approximation. I want them to feel comfortable getting things wrong in order for them to realize where they went wrong and eventually get it right. Children should feel somewhat accountable for their own learning, and be proud of what they are capable of. As a teacher in a classroom, I want my role to be the guider. I want students to know that I am there for them when they get stuck and that I will guide them in their learning. I also want them to understand that I am not going to just hand out information and ask them to just memorize. I want them to actively participate in learning information. As

the teacher, it is also part of my job to create a somewhat predictable environment for the students. From experiencing classrooms in my placements, my own experience as a student, and from what we have learned in classes, I know that students are much more comfortable when they know what to expect. I will create a routine for the classroom so that they can feel confident in what they are doing. In my classroom it is my responsibility to make students feel proud of what they have accomplished. I will make it my mission as a teacher for every student to feel accomplished and honored for his or her efforts. I will do this by publically recognizing when they do something great. The last main role that I believe I will play as the teacher is the one who explains my expectations. I want the students to understand what I expect of them so that they can then be responsible for upholding those expectations. That being said, students play a key role with regards to classroom management. They are responsible for following the routine I have provided and following the rules and expectations that have been provided for them. As the guide in the classroom, when it comes to social interactions all I can do is model for them and provide opportunities for interactions. But in the end, it is up to each individual student to take advantage of the opportunities provided to them. If each student actively participates, a warm and safe classroom environment will occur.

2. Room Arrangement Creating my room took me a lot of planning. Although the drawing is still not perfect, I believe that the way I set up the classroom works perfectly and includes all of the materials I need. I decided that I wanted to have stations for many reasons. One of those includes my desire for positive social interactions. I believe that having students work together in small groups will promote students asking each other for help and trusting one another as their peers. The listening station when you first walk in will be used during the language arts stations. Students who are

assigned to that station will have a book in front of them and headphones plugged into an audio version of the book. Next to that is the guided reading table where I will call different level readers over to practice their reading. Other than using that table for that reason, I will use it to help students with whatever they are working on. For that reason, I have placed a small whiteboard and an easel behind that table. The whiteboard will come in handy in case I have to write something to show the students. That way I wont have to write on their papers. The easel comes in handy because if I am practicing words with the students, I can place them on the easel, which will have pockets to hold things such as cards. In the far left corner of the classroom I have placed the carpet area. I think this is a very important area because it brings the class together. I believe that this is the perfect place to hold morning meetings. While on the carpet I can do many activities with the students. I have placed a large whiteboard on the wall so that I can do teaching from there as well. Next to the whiteboard I have placed a calendar, a money chart, and a days of school counter. While the students are on the carpet and all together, I can have them collaboratively work together on figuring out the date, the pattern of the calendar, how many days of school there have been so far, and then add money. The money will correspond to the days of school. For example, if there were one hundred and six days of school, there would be one dollar and six pennies. I plan on doing these activities because they promote positive social interactions. These activities also help them with their math skills and skills that will be helpful for their daily lives. In the far back right corner of the classroom will be my area. Behind me against the wall will be shelves with all of my teaching materials. Also on the shelf will be a machine that is connected to the overhead projector that is on the ceiling facing the whiteboard behind the carpet. That way I can put things up there when I am at my desk to show students. The reason I have it projected to the whiteboard is so I can write on the paper that is

projected in a way that everyone can see. Because I am not a good artist, I accidentally drew my desks too close together. The point was for them to be the perfect distance away from each other, while also having every student visible to me. On the right wall will be shelves of books for students to read when they are done with their work. Lastly, next to the door on the right when you walk in will be cubbies and the word wall. The word wall will consist of every spelling word the class has covered plus all challenge words that the class comes up with together. I believe this classroom set up would work very well.

3. Classroom Rules One of the most important items in a classroom is the classroom rules. When it comes to classroom rules, we have learned that there are many very important things to remember when coming up with them. First, it is important to know that you must have them created in the beginning of the school year. These rules help set the classroom tone for the year. (Charney p.69) Secondly, it is important to include students in the rule making process. When students are including in coming up with the rules, I believe that they take them more seriously. Students like to have a say in what they can and cannot do, and hearing their peers suggest things that are appropriate is much more understandable and relatable to them than having a teacher simply tell them what they can and cannot do. By working together to create the classroom rules and expectations, students also start to form a bond with the teacher in my opinion. I also believe that the rules should not be a list of what we dont want to happen, but rather a list of what we do want, and what we hope to achieve or become. (Charney, p. 70) Not only would students participate in creating the rules, but I think it is smart to have them participate in the consequences for not following the rules. That way, they know what will happen in various

situations. They will also understand that consequences vary in severity depending on what the crime was. Since the students will actively participate in the creation of these rules and consequences, I would hope that they would be easier for them to remember and understand. Just in case, I would plan on going over the classroom rules and consequences every other day for the first week of school, or the first week after they are created. I would also send home a list of the classroom rules and consequences to all of the students parents so that they are aware of what the students and I came up with. Some of the rules might include: Treat others the way you want to be treated Be great listeners when your friends or teachers are talking Clean up after yourself Be prepared to participate in class Do your homework Raise your hand if you would like to speak Always do your best

4. Classroom Procedures Every morning I strongly believe it is important to start off by bringing the class together. After the students come in and put all of their things away, I will have them all sit on the carpet. At that point we will have our morning meeting. I, along with other people, believe that having a morning meeting contributed to a friendlier, more relaxed atmosphere. (Charney, p. 18) Morning meeting will start off with a greeting activity. I will have every students picture on a card. Students will each pick a card and one by one they will walk over to the person they selected and say good morning. After that activity is over I will have them sit back down on the

carpet. Although I will not use the same activity every morning, there will be some form of greeting before the rest of morning meeting proceeds. From there I will ask if anyone has anything they want to share. The classroom that I am currently placed in does this and it really makes the kids feel like the teacher and their friends care. By having students share things, the students also get to know one another better which promotes a healthy and safe learning environment. The last activity for the morning meeting will be the morning message. This message will serve as a greeting with errors in it. The errors will be spelling errors that the students will be able to recognize because of what we had been doing in our lessons. Students will raise their hands if they see a mistake and have the opportunity to fix it on the whiteboard where the message is being projected. Before having students go back to their seats I will then go over the schedule for the day with them so they know what to expect. When that is done I will have students return to their desks. From there, the day will start. One of the worst things a teacher can do to his or her students is lecture at them. Therefore, all of my lessons will start out guided, and slowly transition into independent work with me there to assist when needed. By that I mean I will start with a lesson, model what I mean for them, and then have them try it on their own. The lessons I do will be fun and interactive. They will involve materials that relate to the students lives because we discussed how when students can make connections to what they know, they learn better. Lessons will flow together as well. One of the things I hated most in school was when the teacher would go from one topic in a subject matter to the next. I want all of my lessons to feed off of the last so that students can see how we arrived to where we are. All lessons will start and finish with some sort of assessment. By that I dont just mean test. In the beginning I will probably start out by asking students to individually write down what they know, if anything, about the subject matter at

hand. Then after a few minutes, I would have students volunteer to share what they wrote. Based off of what was said, thats how I would start my lesson. By that I mean I would either prove they were right, or try helping fix where they went wrong. At the end of each lesson, I will want to know that the students understand what I have taught. Depending on the subject matter, it may be a short quiz or simply a discussion of the material that includes all of the students. Grading is tough at such a young age. But of course, I do have to give them a grade. Assessment is important, even for these young students. It provides the teacher with information on what his or her class understands and what they do not understand. By giving assessments, the teacher can focus on areas of weakness in the class in order to ensure the maximum amount of learning. The way I would create a grade for them would be using the worksheets/assignments they do individually, their formative assessments, and their participation in class. I dont think that grading young kids simply on correctness is fair. These are the years where we are supposed to be helping fix their errors and not just simply giving them a grade on whether or not they have mastered a concept. By adding participation into the grading, correctness gets scaled down a little bit. We discussed the importance of feedback for students. When students are able to understand where they went wrong, as opposed to just being told they are wrong, they learn better. Therefore, just because a student didnt understand a topic at first, doesnt mean their grade should suffer.

5. Description Everyone likes to be praised when they do well, especially young children. Students do better, in my opinion, when they know they are doing something right. It gives them encouragement. In class we discussed seeing all of your students. Part of that, in my opinion, is simply being aware of what each student is doing in the classroom. When you see a student do

something well, tell them that. Use comments such as, that was excellent or you did a really good job when. Those simple statements can make a child feel amazing about what they had done. In my developmental psychology class, we learned that if you reinforce positive behavior, it is more likely to happen again. By pointing out the things students do well, and having the students like the feeling of being praised, we subtly teach them to continue doing whatever they did to be honored for in the first place. For class we read about how pointing out the positive things that other students do makes other students want to do those things too, and I have seen that work first hand. For example, if some students are misbehaving and others are behaving, call out the ones that are behaving so that the other students here. Say things such as I love how quiet you are being at your desk [name], or thank you for pushing in your chair [name]. All students want to feel like they are doing something right, so by hearing that those students that you called out were doing something right, they will follow those examples. Of course, handling misbehaving students is not always that easy. If a student is misbehaving during class, the first thing I would do is give them a look signaling them to stop doing what they are doing. If that doesnt work, then I would go over and tap that student on the shoulder. I want to try everything I can without disrupting the class. If the misbehaving got too extreme, I would send the student to a time out. Time outs would be given at the listening station so that they are not next to their peers. The purpose of the time out would be to one, stop the student from distracting the entire class, and two, model to the student that the behavior he or she is exercising will not be tolerated. After I am done with the class and they have moved on to something where I am not needed completely, I will take that student aside and talk to them. I dont believe that reprimanding a child ever works. I would talk through what happened with that child by reminding them of the rules and asking them if they thought they did anything wrong. I

would talk to them about how he or she participated in the creation of those rules and how it wasnt fair to his or her classmates or me that he or she broke a rule. I think that if you want a student to learn from his or her mistake, it is important, as the teacher, to make sure that the student really understands what he or she did wrong. Classroom management is a very important component to creating a warm, inviting, safe environment where students can learn. It takes a lot of planning in order to effectively manage a classroom because there are many components involved in classroom management. Still, it is time definitely well spent.

Charney, Ruth. Teaching Children to Care: Classroom Management for Ethical and Academic Growth, K-8. Greenfield, MA: Northeast Foundation for Children, 2002. Print.