Caroline Butters

EDU 5310
Classroom Management Plan

Preamble:
As a teacher, I believe that the heart of a classroom is in its community. I believe that in
order for a classroom to learn, succeed, and explore new ideas, a safe and trusting community
needs to be established. Communities are built through the power of student-student
relationships and teacher-student relationships. My goal with any classroom I enter is
throughout the school year to develop compassionate individuals with a passion to learn and
unafraid to explore new ideas and try hard things. Along with building a strong classroom
community, my goal as a teacher is to get students in a growth mindset. With a growth
mindset, students can be unafraid of hard things and know the power of saying “I don’t know
yet,” and being ok with that, knowing that with hard work, they can get to a place where they
can say “I do know.” Developing a growth mindset and shifting away from a fixed mindset,
students can be intrinsically motivated to take control of their learning. These goals and beliefs
are the reasons that I teach and feel that this is the best career path for me.

Preventive Techniques:
 Building a classroom community:
o Team building games- Once or twice a week spend 10 minutes doing a
community building game.
o Peer buddies- Assigning random buddies within the class and switch every
couple weeks.
o Greeting at the Door- Teacher greeting at the door, students choose between a
hug, high five, fist bump, or handshake when entering the room. Later in the
year, students could be assigned the greeter.
 Classroom Rules: Classroom rules posted on wall and reviewed with students. Possible
rules… Respect others and the classroom, be a friend to all, show gratitude, raise your
hand, etc.
 Teacher Rules: I will also have rules that I have given myself that I need to follow on the
wall. For example: I listen to students who raise their hand and wait to be called on, etc.
 Class Points: Either with Class Dojo or putting marbles in a jar, when they get to a
certain amount of points or fill a jar
 Classroom arrangement: In my classroom I would like to have a rug that students can sit
for read-alouds and gather together for town hall meetings. Whether it’s the rug as the
area or somewhere else, I want to have a class library and designated area that students
can read in their free time. I want to rearrange students’ desks throughout the year
whether it’s in tables, rows, or horseshoe to fit the classes needs or mix things up.
 Teaching procedures: Done at beginning of year
o Showing where things are in the room: tissues, hand sanitizer, pencil sharpener,
extra paper, glue sticks, scissors, etc.
 o Glue sticks: showing what happens to a glue stick when it’s not closed properly
(dries out)
o Cutting: Cutting around the border of something first- reduces paper scraps.
o Lining up: line leader goes to the door and calls tables/rows that are ready.
 Engaging curriculum: touching smartboard
o Math: calling students mathematises
o Science: calling students scientists
o Theater: doing ‘reader’s theater’ and tableaus. Integrating theater into my
classroom and lessons, such as asking the students to move to the rug as if they
were a giraffe.
 Lunch with Teacher: Students can earn lunch with teacher.

Supportive Techniques:
 Attention signal: Attention signal of “class, class” and students respond “yes, yes” and
“dun dun dun dun dun” and students respond “dun dun”
 Reminder/warning signal: When students are off task, I would like to have a silent signal
where I tap 2 fingers on their desk twice and that is the student’s signal to get back on
task/stop talking to neighbor, etc. This would be a first warning for students that I could
do without talking and still be teaching while I’m walking around the room.
 Proximity: Standing near students that need help focusing and also giving positive
reinforcement to students around a certain student.
 Transitions: Everyday transitions like moving to the carpet and coming in for the day will
be taught explicitly through practice and example, but for fast transitions (getting out
math book, etc.) I will use a countdown.
 Circulate the room: While teaching, I will look for times I can walk around the room and
not just stay in the front of the classroom.

Intervention Techniques:
 Refusal to do work in class: starters and free writes will be taken home for homework, if
necessary, student may be left out of activity while they work on classwork.
 Contracts: If needed and with parent’s support, a student may need a contract with a
few objectives that need to be fulfilled every day and get reinforcement at home or in
class set by teacher, student, and parent.
 Delayed consequences: Teaching with Love and Logic states that you don’t need
immediate consequences for a student, it’s ok to say “We’ll talk about this later” or “I’ll
have to do something about that.” By the end of the day, the teacher and student can
conference with each other.
 Logical consequences: (Teaching with Love and Logic) I believe in logical consequences
that make sense for whatever action a student did. I do not think the same
consequences should be applied for different behaviors/actions. No two students are
alike, so I don’t think every consequence should be the same. What can a student do to
pay me/the class/a student/another teacher back for the time they wasted? With
 delayed consequences mentioned above, I can think of a consequence that makes sense
for the student/action/behavior.
 Buddy Room: Set up buddy classroom in school where student could go.
 Contact Parents: phone call or email

Procedures:
 Beginning of Day Routine: There will be a bin for homework folders that students will
place their homework folder in everyday as they come in. For my classroom, I would
like to greet each student at the door by name as they come in. Students coming into
the room will have a self starter on the board to do or at their desk. The self starter will
typically be math work, correcting sentences, silent reading, or word searches on
holidays. Students will have the first 5-7 minutes of school to do their self starter. To
help build a classroom community I think a town hall meeting at the beginning of the
day is a great way to foster a community and check in with students. I would like to
have a town hall meeting on Monday’s and Thursday’s of the week for 15-20 minutes.
From the town hall meeting the class can move on with it’s day.
 End of Day Routine: The last 10-15 mins of class will be spent wrapping up the day,
students gathering their mail and homework folders, cleaning trash off the floor. The
line leader will go to the door and line students up. If time the students can share their
favorite part of the day today.
 Schedule: Schedule will be posted on the board everyday with the times it starts.
Friday’s will dedicate 15 minutes of it’s day to sanitize the classroom (includes cleaning
out desk, cleaning out work folder, and cleaning desk surfaces).
 Student Work: Students will all be given a work folder and homework folder. The work
folder is where students will place work throughout the day such as self starters. The
work folder is intended to stay at school and is never taken home. Every Friday, the
students will clean out their work folder and take anything home that is finished. The
homework folder will be taken home everyday and returned to school everyday and
placed in a bin at the beginning of the day. I will go through the homework folders and
grade the homework from the previous night that is sitting in the students’ folders. The
folders will be returned in each students’ mailbox where they will take it home at the
end of the day.
 Mailbox: The classroom will have a mailbox for each student. There, all the handouts
and homework will be placed for students to take home everyday. Absent students will
also receive the work they missed in their mailbox.
 Student Jobs: Students will have jobs that rotate every 2 weeks. The jobs in my
classroom will be: Line Leader, Caboose, Pledge Leader, Mail Carrier, Paper Passer,
Buddy, and Snack Helper. The Line Leader is the leader of the line and will be in charge
of lining up the class. The Caboose is stationed at the end of line and in charage of
turning off the lights and closing the door when we leave. The Pledge Leader will lead
the class in the pledge of allegiance. The Mail Carrier will be in charage of placing
handouts into the mailboxes. The Paper Passer will be my go-to when I need to pass out
anything in class. The Buddy job has various responsibilities and is very important. The
 buddy looks out for their classmates and sees if anyone is by themselves at lunch,
recess, etc. and invites them to join them. They will also be in charge of chaperoning
sick students to the office. If I work at a district that gives their classes snacks, I will
have a student in charge of passing them out.
 Bathroom: The students will raise their hand with a number three if they have to go to
the bathroom and I will nod yes or no.
 Drinks: If my classroom has a sink with a built in drinking fountain, the students will not
have to ask permission to get a drink but will have to make sure that they only get a
drink when no one else is getting a drink. If the drinking fountain is outside the
classroom, the students will also hold up a number three and I will nod yes or no.
 Sharpening Pencils: During the class hours, I don’t want the loud electric pencil
sharperner used. The students are free to use the electric pencil sharperner during
appropriate times but while teaching, next to the pencil sharperner, their will be a tin of
sharpened pencils and a tin for students to place their unsharperned pencil and swap.
 Student Spotlights: At the beginning of the school year, during the town hall meeting I
want to have a student of the week and on Monday I will give facts about the student
(answered beforehand) and the class will guess the student. On Thursday, the student
spotlight will bring in 3 objects to tell about themselves and share with the class.
 Birthdays: Birthdays will be celebrated the last 15 minutes of school. Sometime in the
week, the class will each sign a blank white rectangular paper wishing the student happy
birthday. I will laminate it and present the bookmark to the birthday student and we
will sing happy birthday and have treats if student has brought any.
 Fast Finishers: Whenever the students are given a task/assignment in class, I will write
‘fast finishers’ on the board. Fast finishers are what students do when they are done
doing what is assigned to them. This way, students always have something to do and
don’t need to say ‘I’m done!’ A fast finisher could be a word search, silently reading,
helping the teacher with something, etc.

Communication with Parents/Guardians:

 Contact: Starting at the beginning of the year, I want to get all the parents’ emails. With
my disclosure handed out at the beginning of the school year, it will include instructions
on contacting me. I will be able to be contacted through email and will check my email
periodically till 6pm. If an emergency during school hours, call the school and they will
contact me. If needed, I will hand out my personal cell number to stay in contact with a
parent.
 Weekly Email and Website: Every Friday, I plan to send out a group email to the parents
with reminders and send a link to my classroom website where it will detail classroom
events, units, and the common core.

References:
 Books:
o Class Acts by Gary Forlini, Ellen Williams, and Annette Brinkman
o Teaching with Love and Logic by Jim Fay and Charles Fay
 o Teasing, Tattling, Defiance and More… by Margaret Berry Wilson
 Teachers:
o Sarah Anderson (Kindergarten)
o Jordan Middleton (4th Grade)
o Brooke Williams (2nd grade- site teacher)