Running head: CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT 1

Classroom Management Plan

Stephanie Simmens

EDTP 600 9040

Professor Rosario Fazio

University of Maryland Global Campus

March 15, 2020

Philosophical Statement
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I believe that all students have the right to learn in an environment that they feel safe and

welcomed in. I am committed to providing my students with a challenging and enriching

curriculum while also teaching respect and responsibility. I believe for students to succeed, not

only in my classroom but in the world, they must believe in themselves. I can help my students

gain confidence in their ability to handle classroom situations by showing them I care about

them, not only about their knowledge on ESS subjects, but about their wellbeing. I will strive to

create a good rapport with each one of my students to facilitate a healthy and open environment

for learning.

I will practice effective classroom management through implementing strategies such as

modeling ideal behavior, addressing bad behavior promptly, and implementing positive

consequences for good behavior. My style of teaching reflects mostly of the warm demander. I

very much care about the wellbeing of my students and will show them through positive

reinforcement, structure, praise, and qualitative feedback. I will have my students understand I

have high expectations for them, and that I believe they can achieve them. I want my students to

feel comfortable reaching out to me for help with an assignment, homework problem, or even to

talk about struggles they face that may be impacting their ability to focus in school. I believe that

together, my students and I can work through any problem and find a solution to fix it. I want my

students to feel comfortable and trust me, yet I want them also to understand that I will

administer consequences to poor behavior and low academic achievement. Likewise, I will

always look for good behavior and administer positive consequences. For my students to excel in

my classroom, I will maintain a high level of transparency with them, so they know what to

expect.

Room Arrangement
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Classroom arrangement is a very important part in students’ comfort in the classroom.

The way a classroom is arranged can either help students or hinder their ability to concentrate. I

will create an open space where I may be able to move about freely and have access to all

students and their work when needed. In the corresponding guide, I have included a blueprint

that I created of my ideal classroom arrangement. The layout includes student tables, or desks,

arranged as group pods for four to five students, placed so that each student can easily have

viewing access to the front of the room. The classroom arranged in this manner should

comfortably hold 20 students. This classroom blueprint also accounts for areas within the

classroom that will hold materials for science lessons, displays, and a computer area for personal

study and research.

My goal of this classroom layout is to acknowledge the three motivators within

McLelland’s Learned Needs Theory: achievement, affiliation, and power. The teacher’s station

and desk are off to the side of the front of the room where I can have my own personal work area

while still allowing for full visual and spatial access to my students and whiteboard area for

instructing. I do not want the teacher’s desk to be the centerpiece of the classroom. For my

classroom, I will facilitate a student-centered approach for learning which engages students in

taking a more active role in their learning (Keiler, L., 2018). This allows for McLelland’s

achievement and power needs to be fulfilled because students are given the responsibility to

demonstrate their own understanding and mastery on the subjects being presented in ways that

establish confidence (Motivation Theories, n.d.). The group pods seating arrangement conveys

the sense of community to students, touching on McLelland’s need for affiliation. I understand

that every student will have a different level of comfort in class participation, with some students

taking on leader roles while others remain more passive. While whole-class discussions will be
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commonplace for my classroom, breaking up a large group of students into smaller groups of

four or five individuals will help facilitate a stronger dynamic between leaders and team players.

I will spend most of my time during class in front of the classroom using visual props,

writing on the whiteboard, or utilizing the smartboard if applicable. I will take advantage of my

classroom layout to move around the student tables to make myself available for questions by

students who may not want to speak up. While using my desk, I will have a computer for

planning and grading and organizers for papers and attendance taking.

Classroom Rules

1. Arrive on time- Students must be in their seats when the bell rings to start class.

Immediately begin any entrance tickets, reading, writing tasks, or assignments as

instructed. Be present mentally and physically in the classroom for learning.

2. Turn off mobile devices- Students must turn their mobile devices off before entering the

classroom. There will be a sign at the door of the classroom saying to turn off all mobile

devices and cell phones. Some students may have responsibilities that might require them

to stay contactable (e.g. medical reasons or a sick parent). These students must

communicate with me at the beginning of the school year and when issues arise in the

event they might need to disrupt their learning for any reason, including the possibility of

needing to use their mobile device, for permission to keep their device on. In this case,

the device must be on vibrate or silent mode to not disrupt the learning of other students.

3. No food or drink- Unless medically necessary along with a doctor’s note, this is a science

classroom where we may utilize materials that are not safe for ingestion from time-to-
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time. Students may also use school provided EdTech for tasks and assignments, so food

and drink will not be permitted in the classroom. Bottles of water are permitted.

4. No cheating or plagiarizing- Cheating and/or plagiarizing on assignments and

assessments is unacceptable and will result in a grade of 0, or fail, of the assignment or

assessment without the possibility of a re-take. The parents of the guilty student, teachers,

and administration will also be informed.

5. Stay seated until the bell rings for class dismissal- Students must not leave their seat or

line up at the door until the bell rings for dismissal.

6. Practice formal language- Use polite language. Swearing and aggressive language

(verbal or bodily), as well as offensive and derogatory terms will not be accepted in the

classroom, resulting in communication with the student’s parents or guardians and a

warning.

7. Return all class supplies the way you found them- Students must return class supplies

such as pencils, staplers, hole punchers, and EdTech devices to their designated areas and

in the condition they found them at the end of class before exiting the classroom. This

rule will be posted around the classroom to remind students that the classroom supplies

belong to the classroom and that if they are removed from the classroom, they will not be

available for future use. Another reminder will be posted at the door for students to see

before exiting the room asking if they remembered to return their supplies.

Classroom Procedures

1. Greeting students- I will commit to standing at the door of the classroom every day

before class begins to greet students as they enter. I will always greet my students with a

warm welcome at the door which will include a smile, using their name, asking them a
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question such as “How are you doing today?” and will express my expectations for the

day, like “We are going to have fun today learning about the carbon cycle!” It is shown

that greeting students at the entry of the classroom can increase on-task focus and good

classroom behavior (Allday, A. & Pakurar, K., 2007).

2. Come to class prepared- Students will need to come into class prepared and ready to

learn. They must have already visited their lockers and retrieved their notebooks and

designated classroom materials before entering the classroom. Classroom materials that

they will need to have upon arriving into the classroom will consist of their subject

notebooks, folders, textbook, pencils, pens, highlighters, and any other necessary item for

class.

3. Turn-in trays- There will be designated turn-in trays for homework on my desk labeled

with each class. Upon arriving to class, students must have their homework from the

previous day out and ready to file them in the correct homework turn-in tray before

taking to their assigned seat. This process is intended to avoid classroom congestion with

students walking into the classroom past my desk, thus reducing classroom traffic.

4. Date stamping assignments and homework to avoid late work- Before setting their

homework down in their designated turn-in trays on the teacher’s desk, students will be

required to time stamp their work. There will be a timestamp available with the correct

date next to the turn-in trays and students must automatically timestamp their work

before handing it in to avoid any later homework ending up into the pile from a previous

day.

5. Entry ticket or warm-up- After students have respectfully entered the classroom, date

stamped and turned in their homework, they must head to their assigned seat and get their
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notebooks, pencils, and subject materials ready and begin working on their entry tickets

that they received from me during their class greeting, or start on the warm-up written on

the whiteboard. These entry tickets or warm-ups serve two main purposes: refresh

students’ memory and recall of the prior lesson as to get them in the right “mindset” for

class and thinking scientifically, and as the entry tickets or warm-up will typically be

designed to take students about 10 minutes, to give me enough time in the beginning of

class to take care of any required administration tasks.

6. Class supplies- Students must be respectful with classroom supplies including scissors,

highlighters, pencils, rulers, hole punchers, pencil sharpeners and EdTech devices. When

finished using classroom supplies, students must leave them in the condition that they

found them in and return to where they retrieved them. Ideally, I would like to keep a

small, non-intrusive caddy in the middle of student tables with supplies including pencils,

markers and mini-staplers to encourage note-taking and personal organization during

lessons. If students’ personal supplies fail, such as their pen loses ink or pencil needs to

be sharpened, having the supplies available to them immediately may help reduce chit-

chat between students during an important part of the lesson and minimize distractions of

students leaving their tables to sharpen pencils.

7. Keep your table/desk clean and clean up after yourself- Each student table will have a

small waste bin for paper waste so students can easily keep their workstations clean and

neat. Mistakes happen, and if waste is generated during a lesson whether it is while

taking notes or working on a group project, keeping student desks clean and free of

clutter will be helpful in keeping students focused on their work. Students must also clean

up after themselves before leaving class. This includes returning classroom supplies,
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throwing away scrapped paper, paper from the hole punch if used, and pencil shavings.

This will ensure the classroom is tidy and ready for the next class and shows

responsibility.

I will be using a proficiency-based grading system. I want the focus of a student’s work

not only on a percentage or letter. The proficiency-based system of grading communicates a

student’s strengths and weaknesses more clearly to the student, parents or guardians, and school

system (New England SSC, n.d.). This will make grading simpler and easier for students to focus

on areas where they may need to improve to reach a proficient level of mastery.

Negative Behavior Management

Negative behavior in students will be dealt with proactively in my classroom. I do not

believe in doing anything to make a student feel embarrassed or incompetent because of their

negative behavior. For minor disruptions I plan to implement surface management strategies.

From the beginning of the school year, I will establish appropriate signaling, such as nodding or

shaking my head or clearing my throat to communicate non-verbally with a student. Proximity

control is another method I will use in my classroom (IRIS, n.d.). During the class period, I will

be frequently scanning the room for behavior that might be disruptive or require my attention. In

order not to call attention to the student to avoid embarrassment or resentment, I will use

proximity control to pull the student’s attention away from the disruptive behavior and onto the

lesson while closing the distance between myself and the student.

For students who demonstrate chronically disruptive behavior, or who are struggling with

academic or behavioral difficulties, I will periodically administer self-monitoring interventions.

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Once the target behavior is identified, I will determine a medium for the student to conduct self-

monitoring. This will likely include checklists of tasks to stay on track of, or a chart to record

every few minutes that they are able to stay focused on a task (Loftin, R., Gibb, A., and Skiba,

R., 2005). The criteria that must be met for students to receive reinforcers for completed self-

monitoring will be determined on an individual basis. Reinforcers may include extra reading,

computer-based research time, or a special task in the classroom they enjoy. Consequences for

recurrent unacceptable behavior may result in a call home to the student’s parents or guardians

and a write-up with the school’s administration.

Positive Reinforcement

Positive behavior in the classroom will be recognized. I will develop criteria in my

classroom that allows students to experience positive consequences for ideal behavior, including,

but not limited to:

● A willingness to participate in class discussions

● Being inquisitive

● Demonstrating responsibility, honesty, and compassion

● Overcoming obstacles

● Demonstrating progress and improvement in a subject

● Reaching mastery of a topic

● Being respectful to teachers and peers

● Helping others in need

● Demonstrating good sportsmanship

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● Accepting and demonstrating leadership

These criteria were inspired by the Student of the Week program by Medford Public

Schools in Massachusetts (n.d.). Instead of doing a classroom “student of the week,” I would like

to open the opportunity for all my students to demonstrate these qualities, thus earning positive

consequences in a noncompetitive way. I will use the term “positive consequences” rather than

“rewards” because I believe these positive traits should be intrinsically motivated instead of

treated as a job (Linsin, M., 2011). Some ways I can show students their behavior is recognized

as being good is to send them nicely written postcards expressing appreciation for the good

behavior, conducting a call to the student’s parent or guardian, dispersing coupons to fast food

restaurants, earning a lunch period in the classroom, or extra computer or research time. This is

not an exhaustive list, but these are just some of the outcomes a student in my classroom can

experience when demonstrating exemplary behavior.

Just as negative behavior has consequences, as does positive behavior. I want my

students to take what they have learned in my classroom, not only about science, but on how to

be a good human being, and take it with them as they grow in their educational and work careers.

Conclusion

Practicing effective classroom management techniques is pertinent to the development of

student academic achievement and personal growth. I will do my very best to always meet the

expectations of my students as a teacher who cares, and I will always hold my students to high

standards. In my classroom, I want to share my passion about the earth and how science can help
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us understand the world better. But I also want to teach them the importance of being attentive,

respectful, and at the end of the day, to have fun learning.

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References

Allday, R. A., & Pakurar, K. (2007). Effects of teacher greetings on student on-task behavior.

Journal of applied behavior analysis, 40(2), 317–320.

https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2007.86-06

IRIS, (n.d.). Learning the components of a comprehensive behavior management plan.

Classroom Management (Part 1) Retrieved from:

https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/beh1/cresource/q1/p03/#content

Keiler, L., (2018). Teachers’ roles and identities in student-centered classrooms. IJ STEM Ed

(5)34. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-018-0131-6

Linsin, M., (2011). Why you shouldn’t reward students for good behavior. Smart Classroom

Management. Retrieved from:

https://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2011/03/05/rewarding-students-for-good-

behavior/

Medford Public Schools, (n.d). Student of the week. Retrieved from:

http://www.medfordpublicschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Student-of-the-Week-

Criteria.pdf

Motivation Theories, (n.d.). Retrieved from:

https://regi.tankonyvtar.hu/hu/tartalom/tamop412A/2011-

0023_Psychology/030300.scorml
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New England SSC, (n.d.). Leadership in action. New England Secondary School Consortium.

Retrieved from: https://www.newenglandssc.org/wp-

content/uploads/2015/12/NESSC_I_Want_to_Know_More_No12.pdf