Here is my classroom management plan, which will be utilized in my classroom.
Strategies for Creating a Caring Community
Establishing a open and respectful community in the classroom is very important, and it accomplishes a number of things such as. Foremost, it creates mutual respect for one another and this respect can mitigate discipline problems. The first strategy I will implement to create community is to allow them to collaborate in their instruction methods (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010). If the class likes more kinesthetic learning activities, then I will utilize those more to ensure they remain engaged. I will also involve the students in the planning of their curriculum. I believe it’s important to build community to involve them in what they learn, as this communicates the teacher’s respect for the students thoughts. As a class, we will create a social contract (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010), wherein we agree upon certain rules of the class and work together in a collaborative decision making process on how the class is run. Creating routines will also help develop a sense of a caring community. Routine allows students to direct themselves as they become accustomed to normalized procedures (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010). Instead of being off-task, talking, and being otherwise disruptive, creating a routine will allow students to move on to the next activity (e.g. SSR) without the need for direction from the teacher. I also will implement regular check-ins and meetings for students (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010). This again promotes a caring community by demonstrating respect for one another. It allows them to voice concerns as they arise, which I believe can obviate behavioral issues. Ideally, I would create a small group of advisors that could meet with me regularly to inform me of how the students are feeling. These strategies I believe demonstrate caring and will foster a sense of community in the classroom.
One of the first strategies I’d like to implement is to set up peer mediation. This fosters accountability among the students with their peers (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010). Some students, I’ve observed, resent authority and generally don’t like being told what to do. Peer mediation vests power to diffuse situations with peers who can offer unique perspectives and relate to students the way adults sometimes can't. “The Look,” is an additional strategy that’s easy to implement, doesn’t break the flow of the class too much, and most importantly, it’s effective (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010). “The Look” is a strategy I use because it was suggested to me by another teacher. I have found it to be a surprisingly way to non-verbally remind students of your expectations of them. The best recovery strategy I’ve encountered is the follow-up conversation (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010). In this technique, students get clear verbal reminder of how they are expected to behave in class. It also allows for the student to provide feedback and for the teacher to get an idea of the student’s perspective. If I, as the teacher, have this conversation with the student, I may see what the problem and prevent it from reoccurring. I would also curtail the inappropriate dialogue if a student becomes too personal (Brackett and Pickard Kremenitzer). I would then have private conversation with him and if necessary, with his parents as well. Lastly, I would walk throughout the classroom, using a strategy called “proximity” (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. (2010). This method keeps students on task merely by making my presence known to them.
Life Skills Strategies
Teaching long term life skills and social skills is essential not only for students to learn in my class, but for the rest of their lives. Creating Emotionally Literate Classrooms deals almost entirely with teaching life skills that will create a good learning environment and help students outside of school (Brackett and Pickard Kremenitzer). Emotional literacy is a crucial life skill. To teach this, I would first teach students vocabulary to help them better understand their emotions (Brackett and Pickard Kremenitzer). Doing this allows students to understand and more importantly, communicate their emotions. This could be as simple as having students write a paragraph every day incorporating new emotional vocabulary words that they’ve learned. Another way to build the students’ emotional literacy is to promote a school-home partnership (Brackett and Pickard Kremenitzer). For example, I could give the students an assignment that requires them to interview their parents about how they feel about their job, then have the students share in class. This helps me as a teacher know a little more about the students’ home life and the assignment also teaches students perspectives on careers. I would promote emotional literacy by having students work on assignments that evoke their thoughts and feelings (Brackett and Pickard Kremenitzer). For example, I could ask students to write about how it would feel to be a female during the 1800s and not able to vote. This teaches them to express themselves and makes a connection to historical events. I also see note-taking as a very important life skill. Beyond just my class, students will need to be able to take notes on reading and lectures for the rest of their life. All sorts of documents, even outside of academia, require students to read and be able to extract the important elements. Lastly, I want to emphasize the need to work together as a team. Teamwork and interpersonal relationships is a crucial skill to have as it is something my students will do a lot in their future workplace. In my class, students will work together as a group frequently in order to become accustomed to sharing ideas, providing feedback to their peers, and be able to collaborate to a final shared project. Finally, students will get to know themselves and their interests in my class. I want students to have some idea what they intend to do after high school. To accomplish this, I give them a multiple intelligence test to help them see what their strengths are.
Somewhere Else Plan Strategies
The top two levels of the self-discipline pyramid seem like they are mostly geared toward dealing with specific students and situations. One idea offered by the classroom management website was to utilize a colleague to help you in certain situations. I would like to have a teacher neighbor who is more experienced aid me in these situations. I would like to use him/her as a mentor to guide me, but also to supervise my class if I need to pull a student aside during class to talk with him/her one-on-one outside of the classroom. An additional strategy is to focus the student on problem-solving skills and focus him/her on the goals (Illinois Criminal Justice Authority, 2014). In what would likely be a private conversation, I would ask him what his/her goals are and have him explain how he envisions himself getting there. I think that a restorative justice technique is to focus students on the long term and help them to understand what is required in the short term to get there. Another important strategy I seek to implement in these situations is not to scold them or lecture them (Illinois Criminal Justice Authority, 2014). Scolding and lecturing can seem condescending to students, and a more beneficial approach is to involve the student in a plan to get him/her back on the right track. I want to utilize this strategy because students seem more responsive when they work with the teacher to develop a plan.
Wrap-around
The top of the pyramid utilizes strategies that I hope to use the least. They are more interventionist rather than prevention. The wrap-around supports focus on changing long-term behavior. A strategy that can help students long-term is to “assist students in considering ways to make amends for misbehavior, such as replacing, repairing, cleaning, or
apologizing.”(Illinois Criminal Justice Authority, 2014) The most important part of this is the apologizing. It’s a strategy that they will use again and again after school, and apologizing shows humility, which is an admirable trait. Additionally, students that act out in class may not see or care about the purpose of the activity or understand the disciplinary measures being taken. I like the strategy presented in the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority (2014), which suggests practicing role-playing and brainstorming to solve problems. Role playing can give the student a perspective on what it’s like as a teacher. Lastly, I will create a Positive Behavior Support plan (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010). This plan, which is developed in concert with the student, tries to address the specific behavior to prevent it, and how teachers and parents can reinforce his/her good behavior. I like this because it seeks to gradually modify the students behavior over the long term, and it involves the student, which fosters the sense of accountability. The accountability and the collaboration with the student increases the chance of success for the student’s Positive Behavior Support.
As someone who believes in the progressivist educational philosophy, I think that the strategies outlined here mesh well with my beliefs. Progressivism focuses more on the child than that material. As I stated above, I will have students play an active role on nearly all aspects of their education. I will solicit their opinions on not only the curriculum but also in the class rules, in the routines we establish, and the consequences to behavioral issues. In specific incidences when a single student is misbehaving I will talk to him/her one on one and see what the problem is. I will try to role play and have him/her understand my position, as well as have the student outline a plan to get his behavior back on track. As progressivism teaches, the students' interests and personal growth are important. Progressivism also teaches one of my core personal beliefs - collectivism. In a collective community, we all work together toward a mutual goal. In my classroom management strategies, the students all work toward a goal of creating an environment conducive to learning. My personal philosophy is that students can be responsible and work together if they're given the chance. Behaviorism denies free will and I do not think students would be happy in this scenario. Students, I believe, are much more likely to want to learn and behave well when they're involved and their opinions are shown to be valued by the teacher.
Perhaps even more important than establishing well thought classroom management strategies is the teacher’s ability to communicate them to the class. I consider communication from teacher to student to be very important. I begin the school year with communicate expectations and my general classroom management plan. The website will serve a resource for students and parents who want to know me, my philosophy, or my classroom management and expectations. One of the strategies I like to utilize for the recovery portion is the follow-up conversation. I have a template that I fill out and hand to the student who was misbehaving. I’ve included a sample form for this on my website. When issues occur, I will respond to the students behavior, and a week later present him with the form. I also am a champion of group work for a number of reasons. Foremost, it develops life skills such as teamwork. I utilize group work and peer collaboration so frequently that I put students desks in clusters. On my website, you'll also find a layout of my classroom showing this. Given that I intend to include debates in my class on politics and historical interpretations, I think that respect is truly essential. Respect creates a caring community which leads to a conducive work environment. In order to establish and maintain a community of respect, I have only one rule in my classroom. My one rule, which I emphasize frequently, is respect. On my website, you'll find a copy of my class rules that I also have posted four times (on each wall) in my classroom. My hope is that the simplicity of my rules highlights the importance of it. Lastly, for another life skill, I give student career direction by showing them their strengths (and weaknesses). To do this, I give the students the multiple intelligences test. A copy of this test is found on my website under the "artifacts" tab.
Establishing a open and respectful community in the classroom is very important, and it accomplishes a number of things such as. Foremost, it creates mutual respect for one another and this respect can mitigate discipline problems. The first strategy I will implement to create community is to allow them to collaborate in their instruction methods (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010). If the class likes more kinesthetic learning activities, then I will utilize those more to ensure they remain engaged. I will also involve the students in the planning of their curriculum. I believe it’s important to build community to involve them in what they learn, as this communicates the teacher’s respect for the students thoughts. As a class, we will create a social contract (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010), wherein we agree upon certain rules of the class and work together in a collaborative decision making process on how the class is run. Creating routines will also help develop a sense of a caring community. Routine allows students to direct themselves as they become accustomed to normalized procedures (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010). Instead of being off-task, talking, and being otherwise disruptive, creating a routine will allow students to move on to the next activity (e.g. SSR) without the need for direction from the teacher. I also will implement regular check-ins and meetings for students (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010). This again promotes a caring community by demonstrating respect for one another. It allows them to voice concerns as they arise, which I believe can obviate behavioral issues. Ideally, I would create a small group of advisors that could meet with me regularly to inform me of how the students are feeling. These strategies I believe demonstrate caring and will foster a sense of community in the classroom.
One of the first strategies I’d like to implement is to set up peer mediation. This fosters accountability among the students with their peers (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010). Some students, I’ve observed, resent authority and generally don’t like being told what to do. Peer mediation vests power to diffuse situations with peers who can offer unique perspectives and relate to students the way adults sometimes can't. “The Look,” is an additional strategy that’s easy to implement, doesn’t break the flow of the class too much, and most importantly, it’s effective (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010). “The Look” is a strategy I use because it was suggested to me by another teacher. I have found it to be a surprisingly way to non-verbally remind students of your expectations of them. The best recovery strategy I’ve encountered is the follow-up conversation (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010). In this technique, students get clear verbal reminder of how they are expected to behave in class. It also allows for the student to provide feedback and for the teacher to get an idea of the student’s perspective. If I, as the teacher, have this conversation with the student, I may see what the problem and prevent it from reoccurring. I would also curtail the inappropriate dialogue if a student becomes too personal (Brackett and Pickard Kremenitzer). I would then have private conversation with him and if necessary, with his parents as well. Lastly, I would walk throughout the classroom, using a strategy called “proximity” (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. (2010). This method keeps students on task merely by making my presence known to them.
Life Skills Strategies
Teaching long term life skills and social skills is essential not only for students to learn in my class, but for the rest of their lives. Creating Emotionally Literate Classrooms deals almost entirely with teaching life skills that will create a good learning environment and help students outside of school (Brackett and Pickard Kremenitzer). Emotional literacy is a crucial life skill. To teach this, I would first teach students vocabulary to help them better understand their emotions (Brackett and Pickard Kremenitzer). Doing this allows students to understand and more importantly, communicate their emotions. This could be as simple as having students write a paragraph every day incorporating new emotional vocabulary words that they’ve learned. Another way to build the students’ emotional literacy is to promote a school-home partnership (Brackett and Pickard Kremenitzer). For example, I could give the students an assignment that requires them to interview their parents about how they feel about their job, then have the students share in class. This helps me as a teacher know a little more about the students’ home life and the assignment also teaches students perspectives on careers. I would promote emotional literacy by having students work on assignments that evoke their thoughts and feelings (Brackett and Pickard Kremenitzer). For example, I could ask students to write about how it would feel to be a female during the 1800s and not able to vote. This teaches them to express themselves and makes a connection to historical events. I also see note-taking as a very important life skill. Beyond just my class, students will need to be able to take notes on reading and lectures for the rest of their life. All sorts of documents, even outside of academia, require students to read and be able to extract the important elements. Lastly, I want to emphasize the need to work together as a team. Teamwork and interpersonal relationships is a crucial skill to have as it is something my students will do a lot in their future workplace. In my class, students will work together as a group frequently in order to become accustomed to sharing ideas, providing feedback to their peers, and be able to collaborate to a final shared project. Finally, students will get to know themselves and their interests in my class. I want students to have some idea what they intend to do after high school. To accomplish this, I give them a multiple intelligence test to help them see what their strengths are.
Somewhere Else Plan Strategies
The top two levels of the self-discipline pyramid seem like they are mostly geared toward dealing with specific students and situations. One idea offered by the classroom management website was to utilize a colleague to help you in certain situations. I would like to have a teacher neighbor who is more experienced aid me in these situations. I would like to use him/her as a mentor to guide me, but also to supervise my class if I need to pull a student aside during class to talk with him/her one-on-one outside of the classroom. An additional strategy is to focus the student on problem-solving skills and focus him/her on the goals (Illinois Criminal Justice Authority, 2014). In what would likely be a private conversation, I would ask him what his/her goals are and have him explain how he envisions himself getting there. I think that a restorative justice technique is to focus students on the long term and help them to understand what is required in the short term to get there. Another important strategy I seek to implement in these situations is not to scold them or lecture them (Illinois Criminal Justice Authority, 2014). Scolding and lecturing can seem condescending to students, and a more beneficial approach is to involve the student in a plan to get him/her back on the right track. I want to utilize this strategy because students seem more responsive when they work with the teacher to develop a plan.
Wrap-around
The top of the pyramid utilizes strategies that I hope to use the least. They are more interventionist rather than prevention. The wrap-around supports focus on changing long-term behavior. A strategy that can help students long-term is to “assist students in considering ways to make amends for misbehavior, such as replacing, repairing, cleaning, or
apologizing.”(Illinois Criminal Justice Authority, 2014) The most important part of this is the apologizing. It’s a strategy that they will use again and again after school, and apologizing shows humility, which is an admirable trait. Additionally, students that act out in class may not see or care about the purpose of the activity or understand the disciplinary measures being taken. I like the strategy presented in the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority (2014), which suggests practicing role-playing and brainstorming to solve problems. Role playing can give the student a perspective on what it’s like as a teacher. Lastly, I will create a Positive Behavior Support plan (Villa, R.A. Thousand, J.S. & Nevin, A.I. 2010). This plan, which is developed in concert with the student, tries to address the specific behavior to prevent it, and how teachers and parents can reinforce his/her good behavior. I like this because it seeks to gradually modify the students behavior over the long term, and it involves the student, which fosters the sense of accountability. The accountability and the collaboration with the student increases the chance of success for the student’s Positive Behavior Support.
As someone who believes in the progressivist educational philosophy, I think that the strategies outlined here mesh well with my beliefs. Progressivism focuses more on the child than that material. As I stated above, I will have students play an active role on nearly all aspects of their education. I will solicit their opinions on not only the curriculum but also in the class rules, in the routines we establish, and the consequences to behavioral issues. In specific incidences when a single student is misbehaving I will talk to him/her one on one and see what the problem is. I will try to role play and have him/her understand my position, as well as have the student outline a plan to get his behavior back on track. As progressivism teaches, the students' interests and personal growth are important. Progressivism also teaches one of my core personal beliefs - collectivism. In a collective community, we all work together toward a mutual goal. In my classroom management strategies, the students all work toward a goal of creating an environment conducive to learning. My personal philosophy is that students can be responsible and work together if they're given the chance. Behaviorism denies free will and I do not think students would be happy in this scenario. Students, I believe, are much more likely to want to learn and behave well when they're involved and their opinions are shown to be valued by the teacher.
Perhaps even more important than establishing well thought classroom management strategies is the teacher’s ability to communicate them to the class. I consider communication from teacher to student to be very important. I begin the school year with communicate expectations and my general classroom management plan. The website will serve a resource for students and parents who want to know me, my philosophy, or my classroom management and expectations. One of the strategies I like to utilize for the recovery portion is the follow-up conversation. I have a template that I fill out and hand to the student who was misbehaving. I’ve included a sample form for this on my website. When issues occur, I will respond to the students behavior, and a week later present him with the form. I also am a champion of group work for a number of reasons. Foremost, it develops life skills such as teamwork. I utilize group work and peer collaboration so frequently that I put students desks in clusters. On my website, you'll also find a layout of my classroom showing this. Given that I intend to include debates in my class on politics and historical interpretations, I think that respect is truly essential. Respect creates a caring community which leads to a conducive work environment. In order to establish and maintain a community of respect, I have only one rule in my classroom. My one rule, which I emphasize frequently, is respect. On my website, you'll find a copy of my class rules that I also have posted four times (on each wall) in my classroom. My hope is that the simplicity of my rules highlights the importance of it. Lastly, for another life skill, I give student career direction by showing them their strengths (and weaknesses). To do this, I give the students the multiple intelligences test. A copy of this test is found on my website under the "artifacts" tab.