Personal Manifesto

By: Sarah Barnes

CEP 815, Summer 2015

Introduction
Having moved grade levels for the first four years of my teaching career and now finally
starting to get comfortable in third grade, my goal right now is to get out of the survival
stage of teaching and move to the second stage as described by Stremmel (2015), In the
second stage, teachers are concerned with developing competence, mastering the
curriculum, and learning the procedures and strategies that will make them effective. I
believe these resources incorporated in my manifesto will help me (and other teachers at
this stage) accomplish this task.
My personal manifesto summarizes the resources and practices that I currently use or will
be using in my 3rd grade classroom to create a rich and safe learning environment for my
students. This culture is created by having a classroom with organization, structure, and
management so the students feel comfortable and safe. It is a place where they know what
to expect and know what is expected of them. Along with this, I also believe that it is
important to make sure the students are learning the curriculum in a way that is engaging
and meaningful.

What it is
My personal manifesto is a way to share with others the resources that I
currently use and those that I would like to use in my profession.
(All pictures of resources are linked to websites for more information,
be sure to click on them and check it out!)

What it is not
It is not meant to demonstrate that these are the only ways to teach,
organize, or manage a classroom. Nor are these the only valuable
resources that can be used in the areas listed.

Content Areas
1.Classroom Organization
2.Classroom Structure
3.Behavior Management
4.Curriculum
5.Incorporating Technology

Classroom Organization
Rationale:
The classroom cannot run smoothly without organization. It is
important so that students are easily able to find the materials and
resources they need and so they can become independent members of
the classroom community. The teacher needs to have organization to be
able to manage the fast paced environment and paperwork that comes
with the job. Using these resources to ensure classroom organization
will make any teachers job a lot easier!

Classroom Organization
Pinterest
Pinterest is an online bookmarking
tool where you can search for topics
of interest and save ideas for future
reference. There are many
educators who post great ideas and
resources to share with others; so
why reinvent the wheel when
someone is willing to share their
ideas? I especially enjoy using
Pinterest to search for classroom
organization ideas, but you can find
pretty much any topic relating to
education.

Organized Teacher, Happy Classroom: A

Lesson Plan for Managing Your Time,
Space and Materials

By: Melanie S. Unger

I am looking forward to
reading this book by Melanie
Unger on how organization
can promote efficiency and
productivity in the
classroom. I am hoping to
gain some more ideas on
how to be more efficient
during the school day and
balance all of the work thats
required of a teacher.

Classroom Structure
Rationale:
Classroom structure is key to making students feel safe and
comfortable in the classroom. The structure can provide students with
more learning opportunities, it lowers the amount of distractions, and
makes for an overall more pleasant experience for everyone involved.
These resources not only make the learning experience better for
students, but they also make the teachers job a lot easier once the
routines have been put in place.

Classroom Structure
The Daily 5 and CAFE

Check out the Website

The Daily 5 and CAFE are excellent

resources for creating structure and
routines in the classroom. Before finding
these sources, I was having a lot of trouble
managing small groups during workshop
time. The Daily 5 and CAFE models saved
my life and I would highly recommend
them to any teacher!
Now that these sources are becoming
more popular, the authors Gail Boushey
and Joan Moser have developed The Daily
CAFE model with a website and have even
added a math addition to the program
called Math Daily 3.

Classroom Structure
The Teaching Channel has wonderful
videos to help teachers learn
techniques and gain ideas from each
other. In the video Caring and Control
Create a Safe, Positive Classroom,
teacher Lori Sinclair demonstrates a
lot of helpful management techniques
to keep the classroom running
smoothly.
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/create-a-saf
e-classroom#

Behavior Management
Rationale:
If a classroom has a lot of behavior problems and the teacher does not
know how to manage the students behaviors, it will be very hard to get
much teaching done. That is why it is very important for teachers to
have resources to learn how to manage student behaviors. Once
classroom behaviors are managed, students can spend more time being
academically engaged.

Behavior Management
The Leader in Me

Conscious Discipline

The Leader in me is a transformation program

that my school is adopting for the 2015-2016 school
year. The program empowers students to be leaders
and teaches them life skills for the 21st century. I am
currently reading this book and have learned how
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People can be used
to help adults and children grow as leaders.
I look forward to finishing the book and
starting our training at the end of August to prepare
for the programs implementation.

Conscious Discipline is
a behavior management
program developed by Dr.
Becky Bailey that focuses
around social-emotional
development, discipline, and
self-regulation in children.
Its a great program for
empowering students to be in
control of their own
behaviors. I use the language
from this program when
helping students work
through problems that arise
in the classroom.

The Leader in Me Website

Conscious Discipline Website

Curriculum
Rationale:
Curriculum is important so teachers know what they are supposed to be
teaching at each level and it gives a common end goal for the students
to reach. Without a set curriculum, students in different districts would
all be learning different things at different times. These resources are
helpful in giving teachers a common curriculum based on the Common
Core standards.

Curriculum
Units of Study by Oakland
Schools
Oakland Schools have
developed Common Core
aligned units for ELA that
are shared for anyone to
access through their website.
My district uses these units
as a resource to teach
reading and writing
workshop.

Common Core Website

The Common Core
website and app are both
great resources that
teachers can use when
developing lesson plans.
Both resources are very
user friendly and have the
standards broken down
by grade level and
subject.

https://itunes.apple.com

Incorporating Technology
Rationale:
There are many teachers who do not feel comfortable using technology
and as a result are resistant to incorporating it into their classrooms.
Incorporating technology in the classroom is important as it will help
prepare students for a world that is based on technology. For these
reasons, I decided it would be important to include resources that can
help teachers become more comfortable with using technology in the
classroom.

Incorporating Technology
Connected Educator Starter Kit
The Connected Educator Starter
Kit is a resource for teaching about
technology and how to grow your
online presence. Its a resource that I
have only started skimming over, but
cant wait to dive in deeper and
actually try the daily activities for a
month. I hope to learn some new
ways of incorporating technology in
my classroom!

Guide to Digital Games and Learnin

g

I discovered a lot of wonderful

resources by Jordan Shapiro that
focused around Game Based Learning
when completing the Thorny Issues
Memo for unit 4 of CEP 815. This one
in particular is a really great resource for
anyone interested in learning more
about digital games and how to
incorporate them in the classroom.

References
Bailey, B., (2015). Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms, Loving Guidance, Inc
Boushey, G., Moser, J., (2014). Daily 5, The (Second Edition): Fostering Literacy in the Elementary Grades, Stenhouse
Publishers
Boushey, G., Moser, J., (2009). The CAFE Book: Engaging All Students in Daily Literary Assessment and Instruction,
Stenhouse Publishers
Covey, S. (2014). The Leader in Me: How Schools Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time,
New York, NY, Simon & Schuster
Stremmel, A., J., (2015). Repositioning Teacher Education: Teacher Research as Professional Development. Voices of
Practitioners, 10, Number 2.
Unger, M., (2011). Organized Teacher, Happy Classroom: A Lesson Plan for Managing Your Time, Space and
Materials, Betterway Home