Classroom Management Plan

Jenna Sorsen

Overall philosophy of classroom management

I believe that as a foundation of child learning, each child has a basis desire
to learn, to be positive, to be loved essentially, to live a good life, with good
circumstances, outcomes of choices, etc. I believe that each child comes into the
world with the base desire to be loved and valued. They realize that learning
something produces positive results, which is associated with feeling loved and
valued. (Maslow)
I also believe that there are countless external and internal factors that can
negatively, positively or neutrally affect that childs sense of being loved and
valued, and, therefore, their desire and will to learn/behave. Various external factors
include quality of external (home, school, etc) environment (Hierarchy of Needs,
Maslow) and the quality of relationships within those external environments.
(Brofenbrenner, Vygotsky). Various internal factors that affect student learning and
desire to behave are types of intelligence and how the child has grown into their
intelligence (negatively or positively, Gardner), and what stage of development the
child is in (Erikson).
Regardless of what internal and external factors have shaped a child, I
believe that there are always strategies and ways to reach a childs foundational
desire to feel loved and valued. I believe that there are ways to intervene on bad
behaviors and encourage positive behaviors. As a teacher, this can be done through
different types of reinforcements and conditioning (Skinner.) As the teacher, it is my
responsibility to try and implement practices that provide the students with a
positive learning experience.
I have come to these specific beliefs, because I have recognized the initial
longing to be valued in the classroom in my own elementary life. I recognized early
on that when I participated and attempted my best to learn in class, that I was
awarded with personal satisfaction, good grades and good communication with my
peers. However, there were many things that affected my will to learn as a childone major one being that my mother passed away when I was in elementary school.
This altered my streak of positive learning, and it affected my school work. The
teachers spent extra time with me. This is why I believe it is a teachers
responsibility to take into consideration home life and relationships, and to
intervene and go the extra mile, if those things start to affect a childs school life.

Specific classroom practices planned to create a productive and positive

classroom
A teacher must be intentional when it comes to the seen and unseen things
in the classroom. The physical things that affect the environment are desk and
furniture layout, things on the wall, temperature, etc. The intangible things that
affect classroom environment are the teachers attitude and actions towards the
students and how the children treat each other. The ultimate goal should be to
create a climate that fosters the best learning experience possible.
As stated, it is up to the teacher to implement a positive classroom culture.
I believe this can be done through primarily the following:

Exemplifying how a good student should behave

Rewarding and reinforcing positive behavior
Encouraging positive interactions between peers
Set of rules and routines that allow for those positive interactions

It is well known that a classroom will not be positive all the time. Conflicts will
arise. A summary of the following will be carried out when this takes place:

Addressing the issue

Explaining why and how it affects the classroom/peers
Referring to rules
Discussing possible solutions as a group
Deciding on best solutions as a group
Teacher will follow through on solutions, making sure they are being
practiced.

I plan to implement a Marble-in-a-Jar program. (See Incentive Program in

Dropbox.) I will gauge how well this is working in my classroom. If it is found to
be working, I will keep it. If it is not motivating my students to perform and
behave positively, then I will gauge their needs, and create a new incentive
program. This will be done until I find that suits my specific student and
classroom needs.

Use of classroom rules and routines

Well-implemented and frequently practiced and reinforced rules and routines allow
for and solely contribute to a positive learning experience. They keep the classroom

and behavior under check, so that learning and positive interactions can take place.
As stated in class, I believe that rules need to be clearly communicated, follow up
on and reinforced. I plan to accomplish those factors through the following:
-Stating that rules and routines are needed for positive classroom experience.
-Student participation in drafting and finalizing rules.
-Students sign off on rules. This creates a sense that they are solely responsible for
their behavior.
-Teacher practices withitness making sure they the rules are being following and
reinforcing good and bad behavior.

I have also attached my specific plans for classroom rules and routines.

Student involvement
Students will be their own advocates in the classroom in the following ways:
-Students will be consulted when it comes to creating classroom rules.
-Opinions and views will be respected and encouraged to be expressed when asked.
-A layered curriculum that allows for student assignment choice.

Student participation in classroom problem solving is important. They will be

encouraged to problem solve in the following ways:
-Contributing solutions for conflict resolution
-Acknowledging that they are responsible for individual behavior
-Believing that common goal should be to have a positive classroom experience
-Student choice of incentives

Discipline
Any action that inhibits the positive classroom experience from happening should
be disciplined. Individual or group discipline may look like the following:
-Acknowledgement of problem

-Teacher addresses problem head-on

-Specific reinforcement or punishment that fits the unwanted action.
-Student(s) acknowledgement of what they did wrong, and what they are going to
choose next time.

Parent Involvement
It is said that parents are childrens first teachers. Going off of this belief, parents
are a critical component in creating a positive learning experience for each student.
In my classroom, I plan to allow for parent involvement in the following ways:
-Communicating often via phone and email
-Newsletter/blog
-Notifying parents of exemplary behavior or behavior that causes issues
-Open door policy
-Parent reading time
-Parents may visit classroom.
-Parent workshops
-Face-to-face meetings

Building and District Policies

I will keep in mind and implement the building and district policies into my
classroom rules and happenings.
Discipline Plan
Please see attached Rules and Routines document that lists specific discipline plans
for certain actions and issues that may arise in the classroom.