Classroom Management Plan

Anna Bianchi

University of Utah
 Preamble

I believe that a child’s educational experience begins the time they walk into a classroom.

How that student is treated or not treated will determine their attitude in school for the years to

follow. Things like grouping, having a closed mind, and feeling squashed are all things kid’s

notice and it has a negative impact on their feelings about school. My goals as an educator is to

create an open minded, creative, welcoming atmosphere for all of my students. I want students to

be able to use every part of their brain to learn in a way that is best for them. I am a firm believer

in meeting core standards— but in a way that is accessible for every student, regardless of their

differences. Children have the most amazing way of accomplishing things when they are highly

encouraged to do so.

Preparation for the First Day of School

The first days of school set a tone for the rest of the year. It is important to plan

extensively for those first days of school and the weeks to follow. If you do not plan, your

students will plan for you. There are many things to prep for the first days of school: the

classroom, curriculum, desks, name tags, bulletin boards, parent letters, and those are just a few.

Although it seems you are never fully prepared for the first day of school, it is essential to set

procedures, class rules, and expectations during the first day and follow them from then on.

Having a successful, well planned first day, first week, and first month will set the path for a

successful first year.

I believe having a colorful, comforting, and welcoming classroom sets students up for

early success. I plan to have a classroom that is organized, with enough space between desks,

tables, and other objects in the room. I would like each of my students to have their own

‘mailbox’ where I am able to send home homework and other information. I will decorate

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bulletin boards with titles and banners, leaving room for student work. Also, I will plan out the

year of curriculum and concepts that will be taught each week, starting with the first day of

school script. Obviously, my year will change and have to be modified but it is important to have

an outline. In addition, I will develop a plan to deal with difficult behaviors in a proactive, and

efficient way in order to set positive expectations for all my students. Finally, I will send out a

parent and student letter before the first day of school and learn about my students and their

families. Along with the letters, I will attach an about me page so that parents and their children

can learn about their new teacher.

Positive Relationships with Students

There has been extensive research done to show the common trend in learning when there

is a positive relationship between the teacher and his/her students. When students feel a positive

relationship with their teacher or class, they are more likely to participate and less likely to

engage in disruptive behaviors. Ongoing personal connections between teachers and students,

serve as continual invitations for students to disengage from negative behaviors and engage in

positive learning. It is important to always assume the best in every student and try to find the

underlying problem in their behavior. Breaking the ice with students can lead to a deeper, more

understanding relationship.

Positive relationships with students begin from the very first day. Taking the time to get

to know each one of your students personally will provide a positive tone in the classroom. From

my own experience, the best kind of relationship builder is simply talking to your students. Kids

are willing to tell you about their lives and experiences if they can see you are willing to listen.

Ice breakers during the first week of school provide a comfortable classroom climate where

students are able to express themselves and connect with their peers. In addition, SEP

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conferences provide a lot of insight to a child’s life at home and why certain behaviors may be

exhibiting in the classroom. This year I kept a journal during parent teachers and plan to continue

that every year from now on. I was able to learn a lot about each one of my students and develop

a conversation about topics from SEP’s. Also, take all the one-on-one time that you can get. Talk

to students anytime there is an opportunity, you can learn a lot just by walking out to recess with

them. If there is a student who I am struggling to connect with, I will make it a part of my day to

have a conversation with them to promote that positive student/ teacher relationship. I have

experienced this with a student at my site school. At the beginning of the year, he was a bully

that used violence to solve all of his problems. My site teacher and I started having personal

conversations with him, shared his drawings with our class, and showed him kindness each day.

Now, in the middle of the year, his attitude and behavior have improved immensely. It does not

take that much effort to talk to students and make connections with them, and it improves

relationships among all students and builds a strong classroom community.

Positive Classroom Climate

Along with building positive relationships with students, creating a positive classroom

climate is essential to promoting student learning. Students learn the best when they are in a

classroom where they feel comfortable and confident. A positive classroom climate consists of

creating a safe learning environment for all students to feel welcome and included. This

meaning, a classroom where students are able to share out loud without the fear of being wrong.

A classroom where students feel safe and welcomed by their school, teacher, and peers. Lastly, a

classroom which promotes success in learning for all students, regardless of differences or levels

of learning.

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 From the very beginning, I will strive for a lot of team building activities to connect my

class to each other and create that positive environment. The best type of team building activities

can go hand-in-hand with STEM activities, which are known to extend students critical thinking

and problem-solving skills. I also love the idea of a morning meeting and will add it into my

schedule for next year. I believe having students engage in positive conversation and group

activities promotes their mind for learning, and enables positive attributes of community

members in and outside of the classroom. In addition, I feel class jobs are very important. They

give students a responsibility in the classroom and pride in fulfilling that job. I want to have at

least ten jobs in my classroom next year, I feel there are definitely at least ten important duties I

would be able to give to my students. In addition, I think it is important to provide as many

opportunities as possible for students to be more involved in the classroom. I will rotate student

names through jobs based on their feedback I receive in their mailboxes. I think it is important to

not force students to do a job and let them decide if they want to take on that responsibility. This

is another system that is put in place to uphold life-long learning skills.

Teaching Procedures and Establishing Routines – Preventive

Teaching explicit procedures is the key to an organized, well-functioning classroom.

Going back to the first days of school, if you do not plan, the students will plan for you.

Therefore, teaching a simple procedure like asking to get a drink of water, is something that

needs to be established, taught, rehearsed, and reinforced. With every classroom procedure, the

students must be able to understand why they are doing the procedure and how to correctly act

upon that procedure. Most teachers spend the first few weeks of school teaching and rehearsing

procedures and the rest of the year reinforcing them. The classroom will function well if the

procedure has been explicitly taught and consistent.

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 The beginning of the day procedure will begin with walking students in from outside,

putting their backpacks in lockers and greeting them at the door with a high five or fist bump. As

one of my student jobs, I want to have a door greeter so that once a week someone greets all the

students at the door when school starts. After that. students will come in get their breakfast and

sit at their desks to eat while I introduced the “word of the day.” After breakfast is over, students

will clean off their desks and sit quietly until they are called to the carpet for morning meeting.

Students will have a mailbox where I put anything that needs to go back home with them.

Students will be responsible for checking their mailbox once their table is called to go get

backpacks. When students turn in homework, they will each have a close-pin with their number

on it, and attach that close-pin to their homework before turning it in to the basket. This will help

me easily grade papers by numbers and seeing left over from those who did not turn it in the

assignment. In my site school now my students use a silent signal to use the bathroom or get a

drink of water and I really like how non-disruptive it is. My students will hold up a w (3 fingers)

to ask for water and use T in sign language to ask to use the restroom. In addition, students will

be called by table to line up and expected to be quite while they line up. In line students should

walk in a single file line, eyes facing forward, and mouths off. All procedures will need to be

taught, understood, rehearsed, and reinforced all year long.

Managing Instruction—Supportive Techniques

Although procedures are put in place, practiced, re-taught, and explained several times,

they can still come to fail us especially when dealing with difficult behaviors. Therefore,

managing instruction techniques are put in place to help deal with difficult behaviors in a way

that doesn’t lead to constant nagging, criticizing, and resenting. Managing instruction creates

ways to deal with difficult behaviors without engaging in Glasser’s 7 deadly habits.

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 One way to make sure students are staying engaged and not exhibiting distracting

behavior is to not bore your students. Instruction should be engaging; students should want to

learn. It should not be something where students pull out a book to read from with a coordinating

worksheet every day. Get students out of their seats and do some hands-on learning. They will be

more engaged and focused, and it will stay in their brain for a lot longer if you are able to make it

relatable. In addition, set expectations early for students. Tell them how they should be acting

while you are instructing, during group work, center rotations, and more. You must set

expectations for students so they know what is expected of them. Another technique is engaging

attention prompts such as a series of claps or a motivating phrase like, “I believe in you, I believe

in me to!” With attention prompts it is important to not overuse the same one, students like

change every now and again. Furthermore, the use of proximity is something to maintain

behavior and promote engagement from the class. For example, if a student is acting out they are

more likely to slow down or stop that behavior the closer the teacher gets to them. Also, when

doing independent work, students are more likely to raise their hands and ask questions the

closer the teacher appears to be. Cueing is something to be reinforced all the time. The more

cueing you do; students are more clear of the expectation. For example, “Thank you for having

your eyes on me Mo.” and “I love how Wendy put her pencil in the air when she was ready.”

Once you start cueing students, it is unbelievable how the rest of the class will mimic that action.

Signals show student understanding and can bring the class back from being disruptive, “I want

you to get your wonders book out, turn to page 302, and give me thumbs up once you’re there.”

In addition to signals, time limits set students to a certain expectation and makes them manage

their time wisely. For example, giving students ten minutes to complete the rest of their

homework for the week and present the timer on the smart board. Students that choose to goof

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off for five minutes, will be able to see the time they lost while they were distracted. Tasking is

something that is hard to accomplish for all lessons. Students should always know what is

expected of them, and during a lesson tasking helps with that. Although there are always the

students who finish way before everyone else and they need to know what their task is when they

are finished. Instead of saying, read silently or draw, I will have students engage in a brain buster

or help organize a part of the room that needs some help. The most important thing while

engaging in all of these management techniques is the voice you are using. The teachers voice

sets the tone for the whole room. Therefore, your voice must match what you are saying. You

cannot be yelling and reprimanding a student while you are smiling; that is very confusing to the

student and others around. In addition, when getting students attention, you cannot use a reading

voice, you must use a teacher voice so they are able to hear you. Although it seems like a lot,

most of these things are done in classrooms without even thinking about them.

Intervention Techniques

There are many times that students will surprise you. They will do things you would not

expect, act out in ways you didn’t think they could, and express themselves in disruptive ways.

Having intervention techniques are essential for all days but especially the bad days. As student

teachers we are fortunate to have another teacher in the classroom with us, to deal with behaviors

without disrupting the whole class. Unfortunately, you do not have that same luxury when you

are in your own classroom. Therefore, it is essential to have intervention techniques in place

because there will be those bad days.

Teaching students how to deal with problems on their own, is a skill that is very difficult

for some to grasp. Some students do not have the same stability at school that they do at home

and see first-hand how their parents or siblings react to difficult situations. For example, one

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student who has a lot of violence in the home is more likely to use that as a defense mechanism

when dealing with hard or frustrating situations. Something I try to do with a group of students

or two of them that are having issues, I ask them, “Is it that big of a deal to ruin your

friendship?” Normally they say no and end up apologizing to each other. One important thing

when dealing with conflict resolution is not forcing students to apologize to each other. Students

should say sorry on their own to take ownership of resolving the issue. If students have more

than five consequences in the week, they will be written up, a letter sent home to parents with

required signature returned, and owe time after class to clean up the floor. Having a stop and

think desk at the back of the classroom is important to give students a ‘calm down’ zone that

they can go to when they are engaging in disruptive behavior. In Granite, we are fortunate

enough to have a social worker in the school. When my students are getting too worked up and

cannot calm down, they head to the social worker and the schools ‘mindfulness room.’ The

mindfulness room is designed to help students calm down in a safe space and return to class

when they have leveled out. My students use this room for multiple things but mostly for anger

or disruptions in class. Fortunately, it has got to a point where my students who are engaging in

very disruptive behavior will ask if they may go to the mindfulness room.

Communication with Parents

The most important person next to the students in your classroom, are their parents and

their families. Communicating with parents is an essential part to student success and growth in

the classroom. Working with parents provides so many opportunities to help their child grow and

push themselves to be the best student and the best person they can be. It is important to never

blame or accuse the parent for behaviors their child may present in class. Instead, explain the

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behavior to the parents and ask if they have seen it in their home. Most of the time, the behavior

is present and parents and educator can work together to find a solution to the problem.

Before the first day of school, I will send out a parent letter asking them for volunteer

work throughout the year and some things they would like me to know about their child. I also

plan to have a newsletter that goes out at the end of each week explaining what we have been

working on, ways that parents can help at home, and what is coming up the next week. I will

have it translating into Spanish and other languages if needed. I hope to have a ‘back-to-school

night’ that parents are able to come and meet me. If I am unable to reach parents through letters,

or back to school night, I will call them or ask if they would prefer a one-on-one meeting. In

addition, I will send reminders home with students about opportunities to volunteer in the

classroom and field trip chaperones. Parent communication is essential to being a successful

teacher. If you and your students’ parents are on the same page, that student is more likely to be

successful in school and life.

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