Darragh McDermott SPED 405 10/31/2013 Class Rules Assignment

College Prep 10th Grade English 2012-2013

Ms. McDermotts Classroom Expectations

Expectations
Follow directions Respect your classmates and your teacher Keep hands, feet and objects to yourself Always check your ROLE R: Raise your hand O: One person at a time L: Listen to others E: Expect to be called on You can chew gum, but when youre finished throw it away. Sticking it under the desk is nasty! If you need to get out of your seat for any reason, raise your hand and signal what you are about to do. Make sure your cell phone is off in class due to the district wide policy. If theres an emergency and you need to use it me know and we can make an arrangement for you. Be alive, alert, awake, enthusiastic every day. Nap time is for kindergarteners! Attitudes are contagious, spread a good one! This classroom is a safe space and I will take it very seriously if you use offensive language. It is okay to be uncomfortable, but it is important that everyone feels safe. There will be three different voice levels we will use in class a. Sniper mode: Snipers work alone and are sneaky and their voices cannot be heard b. Stealth mode: Stealth teams work together in small groups and speak so that only their group members can hear them. c. Sergeant mode: Sergeants project their voices and are heard by all Step outside of your comfort zone. Be open to working with new faces (you will work with different people in class that will quickly become your friends)

Class procedures

Be in the room when the bell rings. Weve got work to do! When you walk in, take your seat and take out a writing utensil and your spark journal. Take a look at the board and immediately begin working on the prompt for your spark journal. If you miss class, chat with your study buddy and take a look at the absent folder in the front of the classroom. If you need help, ask! I have an open door policy and I want to help you succeed. Please wait until the bell rings to pack up. You can eat and drink in class, but keep it to yourself and keep it clean! Homework: homework will be turned in at the start of class. All homework will have a purpose, be relevant to class and sometimes fun. Whole class discussions: all students will be active members of the discussion Group work: when working in small groups I expect you to put your desks together. Make it obvious who you are working with and stay on task (I dont want to hear about what youve got planned this weekend) When using laptops in class make sure you are always on task. If you are searching pictures of cheesecake or McDonalds I will not be a happy camper. Fill out the daily objectives sheet every class period. On Friday we will review the objectives and set goals. Each week there will be four class leaders: a. Greeter: welcome students into class b. Paper passer outer: pass out and collect papers c. Attendance: take attendance d. Complimenter: give one person a compliment each day of the week If students follow expectations and procedures they will be reinforced with candy. This will happen sporadically and the students will be told why they are being rewarded to continue that behavior. The reinforcement will not be explicit in class expectations handed out to the students. Another form of positive reinforcement will be recognizing student behavior, telling the class about their good behavior, writing home to tell parents and giving lots of high fives. Lets work it out. I will slip a notecard onto your desk to let you know you need to check your role and behavior in class. Consider this a warning. The notecard will be used to recognize that sometimes there are two sides to every story, so use this notecard to your advantage to write down what is going on. This way we can have a conversation that will not further disrupt the entire class or learning environment. Hopefully we will not have to reach this stage of the consequences because the goal of the notecard is to collect yourself. If not, I will send you to the dean and you can expect a detention and a call home.

Positive Reinforcement

Consequences

Reflection

One procedure that I am particularly excited to implement is the three different voice levels. The three different modes are sniper, stealth and sergeant mode indicating at what level students should be conversing and participating in for working alone and group work. This will be used for expectations before working in class. For example, the teacher will say, Lets switch gears and continue working on our symbolism project in sniper mode or Guys, youre in sergeant mode and I expect you to be working in your groups in stealth mode. This is a way of giving students an example of exactly how to behave and doing so without being rude or demeaning. I will teach this by modeling it with students for the whole class. Role playing myself or having a few students as examples will help others show the difference between each level. I can also play music on the computer at different levels and ask students to identify which level or mode the music is on. I will model it myself then give students time to talk in class showing me the difference between the three levels. This is easy to ensure that students have learned these expectations if they can change their voice levels when directed to. I will also have a poster at the front of the classroom that has pictures and words describing the three levels that students can reference if they forget. I found this assignment to be a lot more fun than I expected. Making my classroom expectations got me really excited to have my own classroom and implement some of my ideas. I found the class expectations and procedures to be relatively easy because I know what I value and dont value in terms of class procedures and behaviors. I modeled a lot of my expectations off of other teachers that I have observed and worked with in my placements. These procedures and expectations were inspired by things I thought worked really well in the classroom as well as by things that I wish had more structure or things that were total disasters. I value a student centered classroom. I also value treating students like people and never telling them to shut up, which is why I have check your ROLE and the three different voice levels. Using these two strategies a teacher can say hey, lets bring it down to stealth mode and students understand what is expected of them without feeling talked down to. The hardest part about this assignment was thinking about positive reinforcements. In the prompt it was suggested that it did not have to be things, but I was stuck on making reinforcements things. I originally racked my brain for ways to reward them with physical objects, free class time or even a pizza party. I finally came to the conclusion that positive reinforcement in the form of recognition is the best way to reinforce the behavior of the students. This was the most difficult part for me, but I think that becoming a teacher and practicing, observing other teachers and finding out what works in the classroom will be helpful. Because this assignment is for SPED 405 it got me thinking about how to accommodate students with special needs in classroom rules and expectations. One way I can accommodate students with special needs is to meet with them before or after class to discuss expectations for the classroom and see if we need to modify anything for them so that they can be successful and comfortable in the classroom. I cant wait to be a teacher!