Management Plan

Miranda Federici

Rationale:

My sponsor teacher has some great routines and strategies that work really well for this

group of learners. I expect to continue to use most if not all of these strategies and also to

implement my own. Having a safe classroom community is so important in my eyes. I plan to

continue to make the classroom a safe community by building personal connections with each

individual student, helping students continue to treat each other with respect and to allow space

for each student to have a voice and express themselves. To do this I have to continue to learn

what interests these students and implement it in examples, lessons and conversations. I will

also continue to use routines that give students space to breathe, move or have space when

they need it and to bring in some new ones when needed. Finally in order for me to give each

student the space to have a voice and express themselves I will take on routines of sharing that

could be about topics like interests, written work, Creative art, Performing arts and more as

shown by my sponsor teacher which allows students that space to share what they are

passionate about.

Classroom Setup:

Seating in the classroom are desks in clusters of 4-5 and the seats are randomly drawn

every week. The students meet at the carpet, front door, desks or the field. The teacher's desk
is beside the carpet near the front board, facing their back to the door leading into the hallway.

Students keep their individual materials like pencil boxes and some pieces of paper in their

desks. Workbooks for math, Spelling, Science, etc. are along the wall in baskets that students

can easily access. Math manipulatives are below that. Center activities are all in one corner of

the room. The room has a diffuser for calming scents and some alternative lighting. There is a

balance board at the back of the room near the reading corner which students can use for 3

minutes during times they need some movement. The classroom has its own sink for students

to wash their hands. The walls have lots of student work on them that is rotated often. There is a

display with the alphabet with the sign hand representation for each letter above. Big posters for

daily 5 are at the back of the room. There is a cafe board with reading strategies that is added to

often. There are two white boards and a smart board at the front of the room. There is also a

document camera that connects to the smart board and a desktop computer plugged into the

smart board that is exceptionally slow. The teacher has a laptop and one tablet. The tablet is

used for a specific student and also for uploading eportfolio work.

Classroom Routines:

When students come in in the morning they line up outside the door legging from the

classroom to the school yard. When the teacher opens the door she greets the students in

general. As they come in she says good morning to each one individually and they respond with

a good morning back. Students are careful not to step on the meeting carpet with outside shoes

to keep it from getting muddy. Students settle in once they have changed their shoes to writing

their planner message and get a sticker for reading if tracked in their planner. Once students

finish planners they work on printing books or holiday themed books until all students finish

planners. Students then meet on the carpet for a morning meeting (see below). At the end of the

day students pack up backpacks with planners and anything else and change shoes. They line
up at the door but sometimes they have a brain break. If the weather is good the students who

are fast to get ready are permitted to go outside to the field right outside the window and play

until their parents arrive or the bell rings.

Morning meeting is a circle time for students guided by the teacher. Students do some

calming breathing exercises, talk about their zones of regulation, share a short story if they

want, students look over the shape of the day and then students have a brain break before

moving into the morning job.

Student helpers are drawn at random every week with the honor system of not doing

some jobs if you have done them before. Each student has a job, some jobs have multiple

students. Jobs include draw helper (helps teacher draw names at random), Book sorter

(organizes book wall to look nice at the end of the day), Star of the week (leads lines, gets to

bring one thing to share with class), Chair stackers (Remind peers to stack their chairs), Paper

passers (help hand out papers), Floor sweepers (Sweep at end of day).

At lunch and recess if it is pouring rain students are kept inside to play. No matter if

students are outside or inside the expectation is to treat others with kindness and be inclusive.

The teacher has some toys in a big at the door students can take outside but the student who

takes it is expected to bring it back. Students have a large area to play in but the intermediate

students are not allowed to go to the primary students areas to play.

When moving through the halls students are expected to respect all other classrooms

and learners. They are to stay to one side of the hall when walking and for voices to be off with

calm bodies. They move in a line, not a cluster. Students are expected not to touch other

people's bodies when moving through the halls and to keep their hands to themselves (not

touching pictures or bins etc. in the hallways).

Students place one of two coloured dice on their desk to symbolize they are going to the

bathroom and are allowed to leave. The girls’ bathroom is right across the hall from the

classroom and the boys’ bathroom is a little further down the hall. Students are allowed to go to
the bathrooms to wash hands before snack/lunch as well. Only two students are allowed to go

to the bathroom at a time and only two students from all classrooms in the building can be in the

bathroom at a time (this is a covid protocol).

I plan on distributing materials with the help of my paper passers for the week

(sometimes if time permits I could put materials out ahead of time). I could also put materials on

the carpet at the front of the room when students have a choice of what materials they might

want to use for a project and students can come up and grab what they need when they need it.

Collection of materials also depends on the content. If it goes in a duotang paper, passers can

pass out the duotangs and students put their work in and put their duotang back in the basket. If

it's something that doesn't go in the duotang, usually just making a pile on the carpet at the front

of the room will suffice. If it's something that needs to dry it might go by the window or stay on

desks.

The process for daily routines is stated above in the section on morning meetings.

Expectations:

Students are expected to raise hands when they have a question or comment when the

teacher is talking. When students need to use the bathroom they quietly get up and grab one of

two coloured dice and place it on their desk and leave. Students are expected not to be playing

with objects in their desks when someone is speaking and are expected to listen quietly when

anyone in the classroom is speaking to them. All students are expected to speak during circle

time about the zones of regulation and to participate in breathing and movement breaks. When

students are working at their desks the expectation is low-no voices but are allowed to ask

peers for help if they get stuck. During gym students are expected to participate to the best of

their ability. Stopping sitting and listening when the whistle is blown twice. At the end of gym all

students are expected to help clean up and then line up near the front door.
Management Strategies:

Some strategies I use for gaining students attention are call and respond, Hand

movements, clapping patterns, pencils up, papers on heads, thanking students who look ready/

paying attention, calling out a students name who is not (this is a late in the game trick). In the

gym its two whistle blows, stopping music or calling out with a loud voice.

For managing students' unexpected behavior I will remind students of the expected

behaviors, giving some examples and asking students if it is expected or not. Sometimes some

issues need to be acknowledged and some are left not acknowledged. Having conversations

one on one after the behavior with a student might sometimes be necessary. Having calming

and movement breaks can help eliminate some issues students may be having with regulation.

Stopping and waiting for all students to be quiet when I am speaking is also a strategy I plan to

use regularly. There are no students in the classroom with violent behaviors that could

endanger the other students at this time.