parker - managment plan

8/9/2019 Parker - Managment Plan

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Running head: CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION PLAN 1

Classroom Management and Communication Plan:

Planning for a Positive and Productive Environment

Gabe Parker

Drake University


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CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION PLAN 3

I think this is an important idea because it allows for the pain which students experience

to be very real and sometimes severe, which is often how we learn. However, the pain is not

inflicted upon them externally by an authority figure, rather the pain which students experienceas a result of their misbehavior is a natural and internal consequence. Along with this approach

to discipline I believe that consequences must be applied with empathy (Fay & Funk, 1995).

Genuine empathy, communicated as students are experiencing the consequences of their actions,not only increases the power of the consequence but also works to maintain, and even build, therelationship between student and teacher. Discipline, as the alternative, allows students to blame

their hurt on something or someone else and necessarily pits the student against the teacher,

damaging the relationship. At the basis of any application of discipline lies a relationship,

between student and teacher, which is of utmost importance.

Establishing a Positive Classroom Culture:

I believe the key to creating a positive classroom culture is to communicate in multiple ways,

that everyone who walks through the door is valuable for who they are and also for what theyknow. This starts at the door, when students walk into my room, I greet them. I tell them hello

and ask how their days is going. Students need to know that I am genuinely glad to see them and

excited to work with them, which is entirely true. The key is to communicate that I care. I canalso communicate this through environmental print. Alongside the posters about order of

operations and geometric shapes, I hang posters and signs which remind them that their culture

and background are great starting points for learning; that respect is expected and will be given

in return; and that my premier goal is to develop a positive a productive environment. These arethe more explicit messages which I send to communicate to students that I care about them and

that I value their personality and their knowledge.

There are many other things which I do on a more implicit level, covertly, if you may. As

I talked about already, I don’t discipline, I apply consequences with empathy. Even through hurt,

students will feel that I still care. In addition, I will respect their time and their energy by

implementing intentional and engaging curriculum and activities. In my opinion, a person’s timeis their greatest resource. For me to force students to do boring work, meaningless activities, or

to not engage them, is a waste of their time. While they are in my class, we will have work to do,

and though they may not always enjoy it, the importance will be communicated. This will bedone through feedback, direct life application, and direct connection to test material, for

example.

Finally, I plan to offer my students a good deal of control. As teachers, “We either give

control on our terms, or the kids will take it on theirs.” (Fay & Funk, 1995, p. 139). In tangible

ways this looks like options as to how they will be assessed; choices about the order of eventsduring class; interest surveys to focus my instruction; and relative freedom about taking care of

their personal needs. For example, as a high school teacher, I do not feel that I need to havecontrol over their bodily functions, like going to the bathroom. Of course, with privilege comes

responsibility, but if students choose to abuse the choices they are given, then they simply suffer

the consequences of their actions (i.e. as an 18-year-old, having to ask permission to go to the

restroom).


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Policies & Procedures

Classroom policies and procedures are developed in three ways. There are some things which Isimply must dictate. I describe to students that I have found that certain things are effective to

creating a positive and productive climate and I need them to happen in order for me to be

successful as an educator. Other things are negotiated and established as a class. Finally, there

are policies which develop as need arises.

Those things which I dictate are also included in my course syllabus, so they are always

accessible to students and there is never argument as to whether or not they were communicated.

Policies which land in this category include: appropriate language, use of electronics, test procedures, respect, academic honesty, and expectations with substitutes. Policies which are

developed as a class tend to include: signing out, late work, tardiness and truancy, speaking

procedures, and participation.

As you may notice, I offer a great deal of flexibility. This is intentional and important, in

my opinion. However, in all of these things, students are subject to the consequences of their

decisions and their actions, so even these things which we decide upon as a class can change ifthe privileges are abused.

Daily procedure in my classroom typically goes something like this:

As students walk in the door, they are greeted and there are occasional conversations about extra-

curricular activities and/or home life. When the second bell rings, students immediately find their

seats and begin the introductory problems on the board or wait for other instructions from me.After the introductory problems or recap of the previous lesson, the day’s goals and objectives

are introduced and they are related to past and future lessons. Students are always included in the

process of their learning. At the beginning of the semester, students chose that when they havedown time, they will work on work for other classes or read something (this tends to be books,

magazines, and online articles). My addition to this procedure is that if they have missing work

for me it is first priority. Also, if I know they are missing work for another class that is second

priority. Again, failure to abide by their own policies has consequences. I have an open door policy. I am in my room a half hour early and a half hour late every day of the week (except

during baseball season, then I am not available after school). In addition, students are encouraged

to come see me during my prep period, when it is appropriate to be gone from another class. Iwill use these times to monitor student progress and also to inform my instruction. For the large

majority of the class which does not utilize these times, we individually work problems at the

white board nearly every day and I observe as students work out the problems and write down

who seems to be struggling on which problems. This gives me a good idea of what concepts needto be re-taught or which problems students need more practice at.


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Classroom Layout

The layout of my ideal classroom is relatively simple, but intentional at the same time. As I willlikely teach math, my classes will inevitably include a lot of lecture (in the form of example

problems) and students will do a lot of individual and group practice during class. For this

reason, desks are oriented such that students can see not only the smart board, but also the

whiteboards on either side of the room. The smart board is used for lecture so that notes can besaved and uploaded to the class website for students to refer back to. White boards are used for

whole group practice where each student has space on the board and everyone works out sample

problems together.

I like the large tables because it allows each student plenty of space for independent

work, but also supports group work very well. The round tables mixed in are ideal for ability

grouping or for splitting off into pairs or small groups. Both the rectangular and circular tablesalso allow for students to easily move their seats so as to see a different board or to interact with

each other. The kidney tables right next to the teacher ’s desk are used for intensive help or one-

on-one work with the teacher or an associate.

In this diagram, you cannot see the walls of environmental print which students have

helped create throughout the year. However, there is also supportive material on the floors. The

shapes which extend along the floor in front of the door are created using tape. Students createthese as we work through geometrical units. The construction is not only an effective

instructional activity, but also supports student memory, as they see them and walk over them

every day of class.

Monitoring the Classroom and Responding to Student Misbehavior

It is my belief that the best way to monitor behavior and to respond to misbehavior, is to be proactive. Also, I think it is important to not make mountains out of mole hills; by over-reacting

to situations we merely give them more power and exacerbate the situation. My strategy formonitoring behavior goes back to the idea of “withitness” (Larson & Keiper, 2013). As an

educator, I am always engaged and this means I am continually paying attention to not only my

students’ educational needs, but also their behaviors. Tangibly, this looks like walking aroundthe room, asking students how they are doing, engaging students who are struggling or complete

things early, and offering input and asking questions during group work, for example.

In substitute teaching, something I struggle with is getting students’ attention as a wholeclass. This typically is not an issue at the start of class, except for select groups, however,

bringing them back together from an activity or to add a direction, can be very difficult. I am

vehemently opposed to yelling, not only because I cannot yell very loud, but it feels undignified

in a sense. Not only am I self-conscious about yelling to get their attention, but I also cannotimagine that they appreciate being yelled at. To remedy this, at the 6

th and 7

th grade levels I have

tried turning out the lights, raising my hand, getting the attention of select individuals, and just

waiting. I have been less than satisfied with any of these strategies. What I hope to implement inmy own classroom is one, or both of the following strategies.


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The first, and preferred, is to beginning writing on the board my reason for needing their

attention. For example, the class is getting too loud and I want to ask them to quite down so I

write, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re getting too loud, I need you to stop and listen for a moment,

please,” Ideally, this could become normative, so that when students see me writing they getquite and I likely won’t even finish writing before they are quite for me. This seems like an

idealistic approach, but I think it is worth a try. The other strategy is to ask the closest student to pass on the message that I need everyone’s attention. Another option I have considered is amusic clip which is used specifically when I need their attention.

There are really very few behaviors which are absolutely unacceptable to me, which will

be communicated to students verbally and in their syllabus at the onset of the term. They areinappropriate (disrespectful) language, bullying or harassment, wasting time (i.e.: playing games,

texting, sleeping, etc.), and cheating or plagiarism. Consequences for these misbehaviors will

follow directly f rom the hierarchy which is included as the artifact for this section. For “lesser”

misbehaviors or those for which I do not have a specified consequence, I will work from thesame hierarchy, but the entrance point will be dependent upon the infraction and the unique

situation.

Parents as Partners

The idea of parents as partners makes a lot of sense to me. It is quite often that I hear teachers

complain about lack of parental support or overly-involved parents, but quite rarely do I hear

teachers talk about parents as valuable resources. Students’ lives are comprised almost entirely by time at school and time at home. The power in an effective teacher-parent nexus is

tremendous.

The primary two ways which I involve parents is through continual posting to my school

web page and through parent-teacher conference. The web page gives information about whatwas done in class, homework, and upcoming events so that parents have all the necessary

information to reinforce students at home. For those parents that are not able to use the internet, Icopy and paste these posts into a printable document to be sent home with students. Parent-

teacher conferences are of utmost important. These conferences are used to address parents’

questions and concerns and to raise my own. At the middle-school level, I like the idea ofstudent-led conferences. At the high school level, I’m not so sure. In addition to these two

strategies, I include parents as audience members in some way each semester. This tends to be

through presentations or exhibits.

I think it is important to stay in regular contact with parents. This does not have to mean

weekly, or even monthly, but something dependable and regular. My regular communicationhappens through the web page and conferences. There are times when additional communication

is necessary. This communication is in special circumstances when student behavior or performance is extraordinary, good or bad. This communication happens through email or

phone, whichever is preferable to the parent.

As I alluded to previously, I enjoy student-led conferences. During these experiences,

students have pre-prepared a short list of things which they would like to highlight or discuss


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about themselves as a student. We prepare this in class the week of conferences. During these

conferences I often need to interject comments here and there, but generally, the students do a

very nice job of including their parents in on both their successes and struggles in the classroom.As I said previous, these work well with junior high students, but I doubt their feasibility with

high school students, for two reasons. First, high school students are incredible busy with

extracurricular activities and scheduling a time for them and their parents to get together may bevery difficult. In addition, I do not think high school students would buy in like the middleschool students do. For these conferences to work and to be valuable the students really have to

play the part and I think high schoolers may have outgrown the willingness to play along.

I have found that the conversations I have about parents, particularly those focused upon partnering with parents rather than battling them, tend to focus on two things. Most importantly

parents must know that you care for their child (which means that you actually need to care

about their child). Parents will not trust someone, or respect someone, whom they do not believe

has their child’s best interest at heart. Secondly, without communication, a partnership cannotexist. Genuine interest in the child and good communication are crucial for establishing parents

as partners.


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-Respect your students in everything y

say, do, and ask them to do.

- Expect respect.

- Relationships must be developed and

actively maintained. Always maintain

relationship.

- Empathize. Don’t rescue students fro

life, but support them through the

experience.

- Students are individuals and need to

treated as such.

- Students thrive on independence. All

them to thrive.

Our Classroom Environment: Positive and Productive

Do your part.

Every day.

tifact 1: This sign will be

sted on the top of my desk as

daily reminder for myself.


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Artifact 2: At the beginning of the term students are asked about their learning style and

academic strengths. This survey can be administered again later in the term to re-evaluate. This

survey is used to develop instructional activities and assessments, and also to implicitly

communicate a focus on students as individuals with specific learning needs.

NameDate:

1. What classroom activities do you most enjoy? Think about any class, teacher or subject.

2. How do you remember things best? When information is told to you, shown to you, read to

you, written for you to read, or when you re-write it? Why do you think that is?

3. How long are you typically able to focus on an activity? What activities tend to lose your

interest more quickly? Which things are you able to really keep after?

4. Think of a time when you have done really well on a test or think of a test which you reallyenjoyed. Explain the test?

5. What kinds of tests do you really worry about or think you struggle with?

6. What else is important for me to know about how you work and learn?


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Artifact 3: This sign will be posted in the classroom to reinforce the importance of class time.

I am committed to our time together, join me in that commitment!

20/20

Be here for the beginning and final 20minutes of every day.


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S t u d e n

t

D e s k

S t u d e n t

D e s k

S t u d e n t

D e s k

Desk

Desk

H W

Whiteboard

Whiteboard

X

Y

Or


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Artifact 5: This is the general hierarchy for discipline progression with some specific behaviors

aligned to their disciplines.

Level I: Looks, body language, proximity

Level II: Verbal redirection, non-disciplinary choices for help make better decisions

Level III: Verbal chastisement, change of environment or movement

Level IV: Loss of privilege(s), loss of participation points

Language, disrespectful talk, or time wasting (in addition to change of

environment and potentially a conversation after class).

Level V: Post class conversation, call home, apology letter/intentions to right the wrong

Bullying or harassment (in addition to verbal chastisement and loss of privilege(s)

and points.

Level VI: Office referral

Cheating or plagiarism (in addition to conversation, call home, and loss of points)

Severe (levels V & VI):After class conversation, call home, letterof apology/intentions to right the wrong,

office referral

Active (levels III & IV):

Verbal chastisement, change ofenvironment or movement, loss of

privilege(s), loss of participation points

Routine (levels I & II):

Looks, body language, proximity, verbalredirection, non-disciplinary choices to

aid in making better decisions


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Artifact 6: This is an example of how I might communicate with parents via a web page

supported by the school district.

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