Classroom

Management

Portfolio
By: Esmeralda Hernandez
 Introduction
My hope for my classroom management portfolio is to give me peace of mind for my first

day of school. This portfolio will contain ideas on how I plan to run my elementary classroom..

Being new to the field, I want to be as best prepared as possible, and I believe that this portfolio

will help me know where to start. I am terrified for the difficulties but knowing where to start is

reassuring and I know that although I won’t be perfect, I will be prepared.

Philosophical Statement
Being a teacher means more than just teaching content material. Being a teacher means

wanting to mold and change the future for the better. My goal is for my students to want to

change the world and to be well prepared to fight against obstacles. To achieve this, I want my

students to develop good communication skills.

My beliefs are based off Haim Ginott, who states the importance of communication

through healthy communication. I want my students to feel comfortable enough to be able to talk

with me about anything. I strive to have a classroom where every student feels heard and not

excluded. Diversity will play a big part, and all my lesson plans will be centered around that.
First Day of School
 Parent Letter
Dear Parent or Guardian,

Welcome back to the new school year! My name is Esmeralda Hernandez and I will be

your child’s elementary teacher. I am a California native of Mexican descent and a recent

University of Houston graduate. I am so excited to start this journey with your children!

I know that sending your child to school might seem scary, but I am here to ease that worry. I

understand that sending your children alone to school sounds scary, so please feel free to reach

out to me if you have any questions. Parent-teacher communication is very important to me, so

do not hesitate to reach out.

This past year has been very tough for us, but there is always light at the end of a tunnel. I

ensure to do everything in my power to make this school year go by smoothly.

I am looking forward to this year ahead of us!

Best,

Esmeralda Hernandez
Self Portrait

I will use this template to give out to my students on their first day of school. This will serve as
our first activity and sort of an ice breaker for the students.
School Tour!
“During our first day of class, we will be touring the school to familiarize ourselves with the

most important places. Please remember to:

-be quiet when walking down the halls

-no pushing or shoving any of your classmates

-stay on the right side of the hallway as we are walking

Our stops will include

-the bathroom

-the nurses office

-the cafeteria

-the main office

We will walk through these stops 3 times so that you will remember where they are. Please feel

free to ask questions if you are confused or would like to know where something else is!”
Classroom Environment
Classroom Layout

I decided that I want my students to sit in groups because I’d like for them to be able to
develop teamwork skills. I believe they will be able to help each other if a question
were to arise. I also decided to have the seating arrangement be a circle because I
would like all my students to have easy access to the carpet when it’s story time. The
circle arrangement also makes it easier to move around the classroom as opposed to
rows of desks.
Theme
I plan to have a theme of “Under the Sea” for my

classroom. I love this theme because the ocean is filled with

so many diverse sea animals, and diversity is the one

concept I am trying to instill into my students.

I would love to have different sea animals pinned

around the classroom and have different ocean puns around

the classroom as well. This bulletin board is something that

I had in mind. One of our first activities will be self

portraits, and the caption of the bulletin board is very fitting
for the activity. I would change the title every 2 weeks and pin up new school work. I want to

showcase all my students and

make sure that none of them feel

excluded from the board.

 Classroom Procedures
List of Procedures
1. Using the restroom

2. Preparing for lunch

3. Getting in line

4. Ancillary

5. Table managers

6. Organizing your stations

7. Daily Journals

8. Greeting teacher when arriving in the morning

9. Saying goodbye to teacher when leaving for the day

10. Asking for help

 11. Borrowing supplies such as glue or colors

12. Fire Drill

13. Read-Aloud Time

14. Assigned Seating

Attention Getter
https://www.studeri.org/news-detail/post_detail/what-does-kindergarten-ready-look-like

One of the attention getters I would like to implement in my classroom is:

Teacher: “One, two, three, eyes on me.”

Students: “One, two, eyes on you”

Cubbies
https://mytechclassroom.com/best-classroom-mailboxes/

I would like to have turn in cubbies of this style to help me organize assignments. I will

have each cubby labeled with a student’s name. I plan on placing missed assignments here. If a

student is ever sick or absent, I will have a good way of tracking what assignments they need to

do without having to look through my stacks of papers.

Table Managers

https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/jigsaw

Since my students will be sitting in groups of 4, I will have each person rotate once a week as

table manager. As table manager, they will be in charge of turning in their group’s assignments

to me and making sure that their station is clean before we proceed to the next activity. By

having them rotate, no one child feels excluded from having a management position and as the

year progresses, they gain a better understanding of what responsibility is.

 Discipline System

Classroom Expectations

Be Respectful

Be Inclusive

No Discrimination
As stated in my philosophy, my main goal is to teach inclusion in the classroom and make sure

no student feels left out. By setting these classroom expectations, I believe I can achieve my goal

of inclusion while teaching students the golden rule of treating others like you’d like to be

treated. These guidelines will help my classroom be a no hate zone.

Color Behavior Chart

Outstanding!

Great Job!

We are having a good day!

Ready to Learn

Think About it…

Teacher’s Choice

Parent Contact
I normally wouldn’t use a color behavior chart, but I feel that in lower grades it is necessary to

guide our students as to what is acceptable behavior and what is not. This is also a way to

address minor behavioral problems. What I like about this chart is that it essentially will give my

students 6 chances before we have to go to the extremes of contacting the parents. I also like that

the color association with each statement is not the traditional “red is bad” and “green is good”.

We have to deviate from associating certain colors to being bad and others being good.

Consequences
Consequences are a very

controversial topic

amongst teachers and

parents. I strongly

believe in trying the find

the root of the problem

and fixing that rather

than assigning blame and

punishing a troubled

student. Because of this

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/380272762277768814/
mentality, I plan to have a cool down corner. I will send a student that may be acting out a lot to

the corner so that they can have a few minutes to calm down. I do not want to isolate or make the

student feel excluded from class activities, and I would not want to take something away from

them, like recess. If the student shows recurring behavior, then I will schedule parent conferences

so that all three of us can come to a solution. Younger children do not tend to be as difficult as

older children, so I hope it will not come to that.

 Student Motivation
Rewards

https://www.ogokhitan.com/index.php?mai
n_page=product_info&products_id=4295
93 https://www.amazon.com/Colorful-Stickers-Adhesive-
Scrapbooking-Decoration/dp/B07W543HDN
 I will be tracking each student’s
individual behavior throughout the
week, and based on the results, they
will have the opportunity to choose
from items such as stickers or erasers.

https://www.orientaltrading.com/bulk-sea-life-eraserassortment-300-pc--a2-13787190.fltr
 Classroom Engagement

Video of Your Choice!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/arts/spongebob-squarepants-stephen-hillenburg.html
For the last part of each class, I plan to have an instructional video shown to my

students. However, if at the end of each week the class has had an overall good

behavior, I will let them choose an appropriate video or cartoon clip that does not

have to be educational so that the whole class can watch. This will motivate

students to behave throughout the week.