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Kelli Gilbert

April 27, 2016


Classroom Management Plan Paper

Introduction

My ideal grade to teach would be kindergarten, first, or second grade. I want to teach the

lower elementary grades because I think that is when students need the most guidance in school.

Students are still very new to school, and this is when a positive teacher and classroom

experience can be beneficial for students. They are still at the point in their school careers where

they do not like or dislike school yet because they do not have enough experience yet to judge.

Making a positive impact during the first few years of school is important for students. In most

kindergarten and first grade classrooms you teach all content areas, but if I teach higher than that

I would teach language arts and social studies. Social studies is my favorite subject so I would

probably aim in that direction, and I think reading is really important for students as they move

along their school careers.

Philosophical Statement

I believe any student can learn and should be given the opportunity to learn. No matter

the circumstances, they should be capable to be as successful as everyone else. My approach to

teaching is that I think teachers should keep the classroom interesting and engaging. I want to

use a lot of interactive activities that allow students to be involved in their learning so they can

understand it better and realize the importance of what they are learning. I also think it is really

important that students feel comfortable in the classroom and trust the teacher and the other

students around them. The teacher should build a community in the classroom and make sure

that everyone feels welcome when they walk in the door.

First Day(s)
Kelli Gilbert
April 27, 2016
A teachers first impression starts before the first day of school for the child and their

parents and family members. Teachers are judged from the minute they are assigned to that

student until the last day of school. Once a parent finds out who their childs teacher is for the

new school year they start searching, gossiping, and figuring out exactly what that teacher is like.

I think it is important to keep a good impression throughout the school year and before class

even starts.
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April 27, 2016
An important day for parents is Meet the Teacher at the elementary schools especially for

younger students whose parents are nervous about entering school. Some teachers do not even

show up to meet the teacher because they may not think it is important or necessary, but it is

really important. During Meet the Teacher I want students to feel welcome when they walk in

the door. I will wait by the door for all the students and parents and introduce myself to them. I

will let students find their desk with their nametag that they get to decorate while the parents fill

out any information the school requires like bus tags, information sheets, etc. Students can also

meet and greet with other students as they walk in and out so they get to know their classmates.

They will also have a photo booth set up so students can take their picture if they want, which

will hang up with any classwork they do. I think it is also important to have a parent guide sheet

that parents can fill out with their information like phone number and email that can be handed

out to other parents. I want my class to feel like a community and I think parental involvement

and understanding is important to establish that. I will also tell parents the way that I will

communicate with them is through a monthly newsletter that contains all the important

information regarding what is going on in the class and school.

For the actual first day of school I will

welcome students into the classroom again by the

door and will reintroduce myself to any students Made by


me
that could not come to meet the teacher or forgot

my name. Students will bring in school supplies

and we will start our day by setting up desk and

getting ready for the school year. We will go over

rules and routines that will take place day by day


Kelli Gilbert
April 27, 2016
that students need to know and follow. We will also go over any rules and routines that the

school has put in place that students need to know. I want students to also participate in a get to

know you activity that ask students questions about them like favorite color, food, sport, etc. As

the teacher I want to know all my students and what they like and dislike so I can use it in the

classroom.

Classroom Environment

Whenever a student walks in my classroom I want them to feel warm, invited, and

comfortable in the classroom. I want them to be able to be themselves in the classroom and want

to be there. Building a community in the classroom is really important because it encourages

students to work harder and lets them get to know one another. Having the classroom feel like a

community also allows students to have someone there for them when
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they are having a rough day. For made some students this is their first kind

of interaction in this type of setting because they may not have gone to Pre-School. Students

want to feel wanted and want to have friends and talk to everyone so being in a different setting

could make students feel nervous, which is not what I want. My students will sit at tables in

groups of 3-4 depending on the number of students in the classroom. This will be their

communities and tablemates that they will do projects, tubs, and centers with. There will be a rug

at the front/center of the room, where we will have whole-group instruction and other class

important instruction. There will be a one-on-one desk next to my desk for students that need

one-on-one help or for visitors in the classroom. The teacher-directed small group instruction

area will be next to that and right by the door because I think I will be there majority of the class

when not walking around or giving instruction to the class.


Kelli Gilbert
April 27, 2016
One thing I really want in my classroom is to have a theme throughout the classroom because

I think it encourages and inspires students in the classroom. Students want to feel more involved

during class and activities and are excited about the theme. Some students even try and

implement the themes into their class work and projects.


Kelli Gilbert
April 27, 2016
I want to put a big importance on reading for students because I think it is an important part

of a students academic career. The biggest part of my classroom is going to be my

library/reading area, where I want to implement my reading program called Reading with

Dexter that encourages students to read. Students will have reading buddies which will be

stuffed frogs that students can read to. In kindergarten-second grade, most students cannot read

silently because they do not know how to or cannot read as well so the buddy will be someone

they can always read with or to. When students have free time they can always go over to the

library/reading area and pick out a book from the collection. Students can check out books to

take home as well. Made by me

Classroom Policies

I will have basic classroom rules that students will follow. These would be looking eyes,

listening ears, quiet mouths, helping hands, walking feet, and staying seated on their bottoms.

These would just be the basic policies students will follow for the other rules, the class will come

up with a social contract that then students will sign. To keep students from coming up with
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April 27, 2016
crazy answers that may not go with the class I will have some prewritten out as a model for them

to go by. The contract will be a pinky promise students

have to make to me, themselves, and to the other students

in the room. Some of the promises might be to listen,

follow directions, share, make wise choices, raise hands,

try, etc. After we finish our contract students will pinky

promise with partner sitting next to them and me. I think

this will encourage students to follow the promises

because they not only have me counting on them but their

other classmates as well. The contract will be


http://teachwithme.com/blogs/gett
communicated to the parents through a paper that will be ing-to-the-core/item/4821-school-
rules-ideas-social-contracts
sent home with students and the student will be

encouraged to tell their parent about the promise they have made to the class. Administration will

see the rules/promises when they walk by the classroom and see the contract hanging on the

wall.

Classroom Procedures

In my kindergarten class I am in now, all the students walk in with breakfast and get

organized in the morning. All the students that do not have breakfast or finish before she starts

teaching play with tubs. These tubs promote hand-eye coordination and motor skills in general. I

really like this concept because students really enjoy getting to play with these tubs while they

wait for school to start and it gives the teacher time to get settled and collect notes from parents

and other classroom duties. My students would walk in and play with tubs that would be filled

with play dough, blocks, building sticks, etc. This would allow an easy transition into the day. I
Kelli Gilbert
April 27, 2016
would end my class with exit tickets, but since they are younger and may not be able to read as

well, they would be emoji exit tickets that ask how they thought the day went. Once they have

completed the ticket they can grab their backpack and lined up for busses on the floor ready to

go.

I will have pre-set transitions in the classroom that I will teach the first few weeks of

school. One of my favorite transitions I have seen is using music to go from one activity to

another or from table to floor or to line up to leave. I

think students really enjoy the music and want to

listen to it and move. To gain students focus I will use

an attention getter phrase that I say part of and then

the students say the other half. My half will be shark

bait and the students will answer whoo ha ha from

the movie Finding Nemo. I think students will really


http://ukedchat.com/resources/wsr00
enjoy this because it is fun to say and will get their
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attention when needed. For interruptions in the classroom we will take care of the interruption

and then use our attention getter to get students back to focus and move on.

I will address the distribution and collection of work and materials through classroom

managers. I think students really like having jobs in the classroom and that it promotes students

responsibility and independence. I will have table managers that take care of picking up stuff for

their table, from their table, and bringing and putting away tubs for their table. There will be

lunch bucket managers that will be in charge of taking the lunch kits to and from the cafeteria. I

will also have a student materials distributor that is in charge of people getting materials when I

need something to be passed out. These managers will change every nine weeks to a new person
Kelli Gilbert
April 27, 2016
or if the student that has the position does not do what they are suppose to multiple times they

will be changed.

Steps to address misbehavior


Kelli Gilbert
April 27, 2016
I think minor disruptions like tapping pencils, whispering, or asking another student a

question can be ignored unless it continues on and becomes disruptive. Disruptive behaviors

would be screaming during class, talking out of turn, wandering the classroom with no purpose,

talking loudly to another student for no reason, throwing paper and other objects, or teasing other

students. To address these misbehaviors the first time students will be pulled aside and we will

problem solve as to why they were doing what they were doing, why

it was wrong, and how they can fix it the next time. If the

behavior continues and just pulling the student aside to talk to them

does not work then they will start to lose rewards or time at

recess. When the behavior is at the point that it is really bad and I have

tried several times then the parents will be contacted. I will keep a

behavior notebook so I can keep track of students

behavior so if anything gets escalated to where

administration needs to be brought in they can see when it

has been happening and what I have been trying to do to

fix it. While I am teaching I will address misbehavior by


http://savvyscaffolds.blogsp
counting down from 3 on one hand towards the student ot.com/2015/08/7-reasons-
why-i-use-behavior-
having a problem and if they do not stop I will talk to them after and address what has happened.

My observation teacher right now uses this strategy while teaching and it is very effective; it gets

students attention and they usually stop what they are doing. The students know she is watching

them even though instruction is going on.

Student Motivation
Kelli Gilbert
April 27, 2016
I want my students to be motivated, engaged, and want to learn when they walk in my

classroom. I will use interactive activities that involve students using their hands and really

getting into the activity going on. I also want to let the students have a choice, which will be

difficult for some activities because of the content, but for the majority of the activities I want

students to be able to have some say in what we do. If there is not a lot of opportunity for student

choice then I want students interest to play a key factor and for them to be able to include things

that they like to do in their everyday life. I will also have a variety of leveled activities so all

students can learn and will have the same success as the next. I want my students to feel like any

of them can succeed in what they are doing or put their mind to. One of my biggest slogans that I

hope motivates all of my students is anyone can learn. I truly believe this and I think a lot of

students get labeled before they even step into the classroom as a bad kid or the disruptive

child or the not so smart kid or even the way too smart kid. Labeling a student before they

even walk into the classroom just creates increased drama and nonsense because the teacher will

always look at that student differently than their peer. So in my classroom I want to promote

students to learn and know that they can learn no matter who they are, where they came from, or

what someone else had to say about them.

To create student motivation in my classroom there are a couple different activities or

strategies that I want to use. These ideas are the teacher mailbox, the brain breaks box, and

sharing time for students. In order for students to feel motivated to learn they have to feel some

kind of relationship and trust in the classroom. I want to have a teacher mailbox where students

can write notes to me or tell me stories about something that they might have done. I will check

the box every few days then write the students back so they can take it home and read it like

mail. Students also love an excuse to get up and move around and take a break from learning
Kelli Gilbert
April 27, 2016
because they may be frustrated or just really tired. So I want to implement brain breaks in my

classroom. There will be a box full of different quick activities that involve moving around and http://w
ww.teac
hinginpr
taking a break from what they are doing. The activities could be the cupid shuffle, Simon says, ogress.c
om/201
stretching, Macarena, jumping jacks, crab walking around the room, and more. This will help 5/11/5-
simple-
ways-to-
motivate students because they can get up take a break and then connect-
with-
refocus on the important stuff and they will not feel as stressed out. students
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m=1
Another activity that my teacher used in college to help us get to

know everyone in our class was sharing story time. At the beginning

of class two students get to share a story but they have to involve a
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topic of my choosing, so it could be a time you went swimming or pyteacher.co/2012
/08/brain-
breaks.html?m=1
a time you went to the zoo, etc. Younger students will really love

this because they already love talking about themselves and sharing their stories so now it will

just be a way to do it without disrupting the class or going off topic.

Conclusion

All students in school need care, respect, and trust from

their teacher in order to succeed in the classroom. I want to

build my students up and make them feel like they can succeed

at doing anything. Most teachers forget that it is not about

scaring a student into doing the right thing but rather guiding them and letting them make

decisions on their own. In the book Teach Like Your Hairs on Fire he talks a lot about building

trust and community in the classroom and I want that same sense of trust and community in my

classroom. The teacher should not be a potential nemesis but a trusted teacher and friend

(Esquith, 2007, P.12). If students are scared to talk to the teacher then they may never come to
Kelli Gilbert
April 27, 2016
the teacher with a problem or for help. They will always think the teacher is going to yell at them

if they bring something up or need to talk to them. It also discourages students from learning

because the teacher yelled at them for getting a bad grade or doing something wrong.

References:

Esquith, R. (2007). Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56.

New York, NY: Penguin Books.

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