Classroom Management Plan

Classroom Management Plan

Kimberly Dempsey
University of Houston CUIN 4375

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Introduction
After completing my Developing Teaching hours and Student Teaching hours in the
Cypress- Fairbanks Independent School District at Birkes Elementary and Lowery Elementary,
respectively, and completing the Classroom Mangement course, I have been able to create my
own Classroom Management Plan. Using my observations and my new knowledge, I have been
able to craft my own philosophy, create a classroom layout and decide on classroom procedures
and policies. As well, I have learned how to set expectations for my students during the first days
of school, how to handle misbehaviors and reward good behaviors, and how to motivate my
students. All of these aspects are extremely important to managing a classroom and having a
healthy and productive learning environment.
Philosophical Statement
There are many different statements that I could use to describe my teaching philosophy,
and I am still in the process of creating a philosophical statement for my classroom. The more a
teacher teaches, the less the student learns is one that really impacted me. I fully believe that
students need to construct their own learning. I want to be able to give them the tools to learn,
but I want for my students to discover the learning on their own through exploration and
discovery. As well, I believe that every student is smart, they are just smart in their own unique
way. Just as Gardner says that there are multiple intelligences, I believe that every student can
succeed if given the tools to enhance their own style of learning. Differentiating instruction and
utilizing cooperative learning are great ways to encourage learning and creating a healthy
learning environment for each student's learning style. By using cooperative learning, students
learn how to work together in a community, building rapport and promoting accountability.

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Many careers require their employees to work in groups, and introducing the idea to students at a
young age will prepare them for the future. Differentiating instruction will ensure that every
student learns at their own level, and no student will feel left behind because they do not
understand what is going on. Teacher led small groups give the students a chance to work one on
one with the teacher so that they can get help in the area they are struggling with. As well,
Ginotts Congruent Communication Theory is a theory that I would like to implement in my
class. His belief that teachers should communicate their expectations in a manner that helps

students to feel accepted even when they make a mistake or misbehave (Bucher, 2003, p. 59).
This falls in line with the book, How to Talk so Kids Can Learn at Home and In School, and their
chapter on Praise That Doesnt Demean, Criticism That Doesnt Wound (Faber, 1995, p. 165).
How a teacher speaks to a child can help or hinder the child. I fully believe that when praising a
child, the teacher praises the work done, not the students person. If a student messes up, the
teacher never demeans the child by criticizing their person, the teacher criticizes the behavior
and gives alternatives for how the child should act. I believe that classroom management begins
with the teacher and their attitude towards their students. If the teacher truly believes in their
students, the student will find the intrinsic motivation to succeed. If the teacher respects their
students, the students will respect them. If a teacher sets clear expectations the first few days of
class, the students will know what they need to do to succeed in the class. Having clear
expectations set prepares the student and does not cause them anxiety because they will know
exactly what they need to do. I truly believe that by communicating with students and letting
them know what exactly I want from them will give them the tools needed to succeed in my
classroom. I am still working on my philosophical statement because I have yet to actually teach

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in a classroom. I have statements and theories I believe in, and that I want to implement in my
classroom, but I have yet to put any of these into practice and so I feel that I have yet to have a
fully created philosophical statement.
First Day(s)
I already know that the first few days of school will be nerve wracking for me, but I will
try my best to not let my students know. On that first day, when the students are walking into
class, I will stand at the door and have my attendance sheet in my hand. When they enter, I will
ask their name and point out their seat to them. After all the students have entered the classroom
and announcements are over, I will introduce myself to the class and let them know what they
can expect to learn this year. After announcements, I will introduce myself by maybe using a
mystery bag! I might have different items in the bag that relate to me so that my students can get
to know about me as a person. Then, I will give the students the rest of the week to create their
own mystery bag to present on Friday so that their classmates can get to know them better.
After I have introduced myself, the class will play a quick get to know you game. It is
called Blobs and Lines and it is a simple way to have students talk to each other and find out
what they have in common. For example, I will say Lineup in alphabetical order by first names
or Gather with people who have the same color eyes as you do. This is a simple game, but it
will get the students talking to one another, and no one will feel that they are put on the spot or
embarrassed. As well, I will have the students take home an All About Me sheet. Items on the
sheet will include a picture of the student, their full name, fun facts about them, their birthday,
favorite color, and what they want to be when they grow up. The students will be able to take
this home and have their parents help them fill it out. I will hang these up in the classroom, and

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every week I will have a classroom MVP, and their All About Me sheet will hang in a special
spot on the wall.
After the game has been played, the students will return to their seats and we will begin
going over classroom policies and procedures (there are headings in the paper for these, and so I
will review those when I get to those headings). As well, I will be going over what I expect of
the students. Some of my expectations include: having homework completed on time, reading a
book whenever they complete their work, raising hands when there is a question, and not
speaking out of turn. Over the next few days, we will practice these policies and procedures, and
hopefully by the second or third week, the students will be able to complete these procedures
without having to practice.
The results that I am hoping to achieve is for the students to have a clear understanding of
the policies in the classroom and what is expected of them. As well, I want them to feel
comfortable with their classmates and in their communities.
Classroom Environment

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This is a blueprint of what I would like for my classroom to look like. There is a whole
group carpet and a projection screen at the front of the classroom. Each student will be asked to
sit on a certain colored square, to make sure that there is no arguing and so that everyone will be
able to have a bit of their own personal space. Throughout the year I will reassign colors on the
carpet to the students, to help mix it up and bring students to the front that are in the back, and
separate students as needed. Just as I mentioned earlier that cooperative learning is important for
children, I have created small communities for students to work in their cooperative groups. As
well, there is a teacher directed small group area for students to work one on one, or in small
groups, with me to help reinforce or review what has been learned. I have included a classroom
library because I want for my students to always have the opportunity to read. When students
complete their work and they need to read, they will be able to check out a book from my
classroom library. I will have a notebook by the library, and each page will have a students
name written at the top. The student will then write the date they have checked out the book and
the title of the book. This will help me keep track of where my books have gone and when. As
well, there are classroom cabinets. One of those cabinets will have hooks for students to hang up
their backpacks, and the other two cabinets will have materials that I will need throughout the
year.
Classroom Policies
I believe in having the students participate in coming up with the classroom rules and
policies. In the book How To Talk Kids Can Learn At Home And In School, there is a chapter on

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problem solving, and some of the skills mentioned can be used to help create classroom policies
with the students. These strategies include inviting the class to brainstorm ideas, writing down all
the ideas, and deciding together what ideas we like as a class and that we can implement (Faber,
1995, p.130-131). This is a great way to get the students involved in the class, and they will want
to follow these policies because they helped create them. I would want for the policies to
include: respecting yourself, others, and your surroundings and raising your hand to speak. If the
students come up with other policies that they really want to have implemented in the classroom,
they will be listed under the classroom policies as well. I would not want more than 5 or 6
policies for the classroom, because it then gets confusing for everyone. Students will know what
the policies are because we will have created them together, and then I will transfer the policies
to a big piece of paper that I will hang up on the wall for all to see. For parents, there is a
wonderful website called smore.com, and with this website, I can send out online newsletters to
the parents. After the first day of school, I will send out a newsletter to the parents conveying to
them how excited I am to be their childs teacher, what they can expect for the child to learn in
the classroom, and the classroom policies. For administrators, I can either invite someone in to
see my room, or email them the class policies so they can see what we have come up with. If
they have any suggestions I will gladly try to incorporate them into the class policies the students
and I have come up with.
Classroom Procedures
Every morning, when my students come in, I will stand at the door to greet them. On the
projection screen will be a slide with all of the instructions for what needs to be done before the
announcements begin. Some of it will be management items, such as getting materials out of

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their backpacks and putting their lunches away. Then, it will include a sponge activity. These
activities could include reading and decorating a poem, writing in the journal, putting their
cardboard walls up and taking a vocabulary quiz, and it will tell them that if they have finished
everything to read their books. We will have been practicing this since the first day of school, so
they will know that reading books is expected. At the end of the class period, I will ask the table
monitor to begin cleaning up the materials at their community, and one student, based on the
color of their dot, will be asked to turn in all work from their community to the input box on my
desk. Each desk will have a colored dot, and I will have the kids line up based on the color dot I
call out.
For transitions from one activity to another, I will either ask students to go back to their
communities by number. For example I will tell community one to go sit down, two to go sit
down, etc. Or, I will transition them by the dots on their table. For fire drills, I will plan my
schedule around it, maybe moving some activities around so that the fire drill does not interrupt
me during a whole group lesson. For unplanned interruptions, I will continue teaching as normal
as soon as the interruption has passed, expecting my students to keep following the lesson even
though we were interrupted, and to not remain distracted by the interruption.
One of the instructional strategies that I will implement that will have different
procedures is cooperative learning in their communities. Beginning the first week of school, we
will have activities for the students to beginning working in small groups. The procedures for
working in small groups will go as follows: every morning, I will put the instructions for the
small group activity in the basket at the center of the community table. When it is small group
time, the students pull out the instructions and read them as a community. The materials manager

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at the community will then gather all the materials for the community. Each member of the
community will have specific part of the assignment to complete, and the materials manager will
be responsible for turning it into the input box on my desk at the end of small group time.
During small group time, I will be pulling out students to work with them for teacher
directed small group. These may be the students that are below or on level and need reviewing of
the material or need to have retaught in a new method. Or, it might be the above level students
that need a bit more challenge in the instruction. The small group manager will be responsible
for informing the student of the assignment for the small group and what part the student needs
to complete once the teacher directed small group lesson is complete. I will inform the students
of this procedure during the first week of school, and we will practice this procedure every day
or every other day depending on when a lesson has first been introduced and when I need to pull
for small groups, but it will be procedure that takes place on the same day every week so that the
students will know when to expect to work in their communities to complete an assignment.
Every week there will be a classroom MVP, and their responsibilities will include taking
the attendance sheet with them to large group activities, taking library books to the library before
our class goes to the library, and making sure that my attendance sheet is correct. Every student
at a community will have a colored dot on their table. The color dots stand for what their
responsibility is in the classroom. For example, the orange dot is the materials manager for the
community. They will ensure that all the materials are in the basket at the community at the
beginning of each class. The green dot will be Cleaning manager, and they will make sure that
the community is cleaned up when it is time for the classes to switch period. Pink dots will be the
table manager, and they will be responsible for collecting all the assignments for their

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community members and turning them into the input box on my desk. The yellow dot will be the
small group manager, and their responsibility is informing all the students of what needs to be
completed during the small group activities.
We will also hold class meetings every morning. The students will come down the carpet
and we will sit in a circle, and I will be sitting in the circle as well. Depending on the day and
what is needed, the meeting will be different. It might be a check in meeting. These meetings
will be to check in about different events that might be going on (field day, days off, etc). We
might have more management meetings in which I need to tell them about schedule changes,
events coming up, etc. And, we might have problem solving meetings. These will be student led
and the topics will vary depending on what the students feel need to be talked about. It may be
about how to handle hearing the word no, creating a social contract, or how to handle it when
your friends say they arent your friend anymore. It will be student led, I will be facilitating and
making sure that we are all respectful of each other and what we have to say. After I have
modeled how to lead a problem solving meeting, I might start asking different students to lead
the meetings. We will start having the students lead Friday meetings, and I will meet with that
student all week to help them structure and build their confidence to lead these meetings. These
meetings will help our class feel like a community, we will learn more about each other and see
how we all have our own realities.
For the bathroom, I will have a sign out sheet and a boys and girls pass. As well, there
will be a small item, such as a bottle of hand sanitizer that the child going to the bathroom will
place on their desk so that the class will know that someone is out and to not ask me to go to the
bathroom until that child has returned. The students will raise their hand and cross their index

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finger and middle finger to let me know that they need to use the bathroom. I will either nod at
the child to let them know they can go, or inform them that they need to wait until the lesson is
over and then they can go.
Steps to Address Misbehavior
For minor misbehaviors (off task behaviors), such as staring outside instead of paying
attention or getting up to throw something away in the middle of lesson, I will first ignore it
because such a small behavior should not detract from the lesson. If it persists for a long time, or
happens every lesson, I will give the student a nonverbal warning, such as walking by their desk
and touching their shoulder to let them know they need to pay attention, but I will continue
teaching. If the non verbal warning does not help then I will give them a verbal warning, such as
Chloe please bring your attention back to the group, and then I will continue on with the
lesson. I will have discussed the verbal and nonverbal warnings with the students during the first
week of school, so the students will have an understanding of the progression of events if they do
not correct their behavior. If the nonverbal and verbal warnings do not work, then I will write in
their conduct card for their parents to see. Conduct cards are taken home every day for parents to
see. Every Friday the parents have to sign it at the bottom, letting me know they have read their
childs card for the week. When I write in that the child has had minor misbehaviors, the parents
do not need to sign it that day I send it home, it only has be signed for the weekend. If the child
receives a strike in the conduct card, then the parents have to sign it that day that I send it home.
For disruptive misbehaviors, such as calling out an answer without being called on, talking to
other groups during small group time, or bothering other students during class, I will not ignore
this behavior. They will first receive a verbal warning, letting them know that if this persists they

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will get a strike on their conduct card, and their parents will have to sign the conduct card that
night. I will then continue on with the lesson, not letting the disruptive behavior interfere with
the lesson after I have given the warning. After I have completed the lesson and the students are
working on an activity, I will go and write in the conduct card. If it persists after the strike, the
child will have to come in during lunch for make up time, which is similar to detention and they
will have to make up the time they lost in class. I will have increments of 5 minutes for how
severe the disruption is. I will pull the child aside during an activity and inform them that they
need to come in for make up time. For aggressive misbehaviors, such as pushing a student down,
or makes crude gestures to other students, I will pull that child out into the hallway and give
them a lecture on how that is inappropriate and I will call their parents. I will ask my neighboring
teacher to watch my class while I talk to the student. As well, they will receive a strike in their
conduct card and have to come in for make up time. If it persists, I will ask administration to step
in. For dangerous behaviors, such as threatening another student or having weapons, I will go
straight to administration and ask for them to step in.
Motivating Students
One of my strategies for motivating students will be positive reinforcement for good
behavior and for participation. I will have tickets to give to the students that I see behaving well,
or going above and beyond helping their fellow classmates. They will then get to put their ticket
into a drawing that I will have every Friday. If their ticket gets drawn, they will be able to go to
the treasure box that will be filled with fun little prizes such as small Rubik's cubes, gel pens,
bubbles, etc. If I see students participating in class discussions, they will all receive a ticket.
Hopefully, this will motivate students to participate in class and to be on their best behavior.

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For my students that are not motivated at all, I will try to create deals with them, letting
them know that if they turn in all their work for the week, I will let them have a prize of their
choice. It can either be a special prize from the box, or they can come in during lunch and eat
with me or be able to go to recess first. For the students who are on the cusp, I will try to work
with them more one on one and give them more challenges in their work. I want them to see that
I do care about their work and I want for them to succeed. As well, I might try to give them
weekly challenges, letting them know if they turn in the small challenge assignment, they will
get to go to the treasure box. For my gifted students, during the teacher led group time, I will try
to give them more challenging activities to do with me. As well, similar to the on the cusp
students, I will give them small challenging activities to complete and if they bring them back to
me, they will be able to get a prize of their choice. I am hoping that through seeing how much I
care about their work, and that if I work with them one on one, they will be motivated to
succeed. As well, there is extrinsic motivation through the prizes and hopefully that will help
motivate them to succeed.
For the students that see no value in school, I will work with them more one on one,
either by having them eat lunch with me once a week and we work on their assignments together,
or by having them stay with me during dismissal time to work on their work. By working with
me one on one, with no other distractions, hopefully we will be able to build a professional
relationship and they will come to see me as a person to trust. As well, if they manage to turn in
their work or participate in class, I will reward them with the chance to go to recess first, go to
lunch first, or getting tickets to go to the treasure box.
Conclusion

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After completing the Developing Teaching semester at the University of Houston, my

eyes have been opened to the amount of hard work that goes into being a teacher. As well,
creating this classroom management plan has really opened my eyes into the amount of planning
that goes into school before the first day even starts. There are many things that go into being a
teacher, but I hope having this plan will help me be prepared for the unexpected things that will
come my way.

References
Bucher, K.T., & Manning, M.L. (2003). Classroom management: Models, applications, and cases
(3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Faber, A., Mazlish, E., Nyberg, L., & Templeton, R.A. (1995). How to talk so kids can learn: At
home and in school. New York, NY: Scribner.