Loyola University Chicago School of Education
Preliminary Classroom Management Plan
Philosophy of Classroom Management
I am committed to making my classroom a safe, dynamic, thought-provoking, and challenging environment. I plan to engage my students both through the curriculum and on a one-on-one basis in hopes of achieving the essential goal of meeting individual needs in the classroom. I believe students should feel comfortable talking with me and in the group classroom environment and stress the importance of: 1) a respectful demeanor, 2) a positive attitude, 3) a willingness to participate, and 4) an open mind. This environment will lay the foundation for a higher comfort level, leading to more significant discussions.
Discussions and group work will be frequent in my classroom. Students will be strongly encouraged to participate in the classroom process, although different methods will be provided to help facilitate the participation based on the best learning and comfort level of the students. My classroom will be as equitable as possible to facilitate student trust in me. I aim to have an enthusiastic, yet patient attitude with my class. I will show an interest and talk to students about their lives outside of class. In turn, I will tell students appropriate information about myself, and encourage them to feel comfortable asking questions of me. While my management is not domineering, I will be strict in situations where the overall comfort level of the class is at stake. The students will be encouraged to take ownership of their coursework and learning. They will be provided information in a differentiated manner, and I will work with them individually, if necessary, to ensure they have the proper tools to learn. However, I will not encourage regurgitation of concepts in my classroom. Students will be encouraged to participate in the rule-making process in a democratic manner, drafting both expectations for themselves and me. I want students to feel part of the classroom community, and interested in learning more about the subjects we discuss. I want to give the students choices for projects and presentation to encourage exploring topics of interest. My purpose as a teacher is to provide the students with the best learning environment and tools to learn as possible. I want to provide lesson plans that engage the students and inspire the desire to learn.
Statement of Rules and/or Expectations
Welcome to Freshmen Global Studies!
My name is Ms. Pykosz, and I am so excited to begin this semester journey with you. We will begin our trip in ancient Greece, learning about early civilizations, city-states, wars, and Alexander the Great. Throughout the course of our trip we will visit Rome (both as a Republic and Empire), and learn about significant pre-Middle Age wars in the Western world. We will reach the Middle Ages and visit Charlemagne, the Vikings, Feudalism, the Medieval Church and experience Middle Age economy, society and government. This journey will lay the foundation for your studies of Modern Western Civilizations in your sophomore year.
Along the way, you must always bring: 1) a respectful demeanor, 2) a positive attitude, 3) a willingness to participate, and 4) an open mind. Bringing these is important to successful learning, and I will be sure to bring them to class also. The aim of this class is to be as relevant, thought-provoking and fun as possible. If you ever feel lost, please come visit me during my period 6 office hours or make an appointment to see me before or after school. Please do not hesitate to talk with me- every question or concern is important.
Tonight, please think about what rules you think are important for a smooth classroom journey. Also, think about what you need from a teacher to make the journey as successful as possible. Tomorrow, we will all be drafting and signing a class constitution that incorporates both your and my expectations.
Best wishes for a great day and semester!
Classroom Environment
If possible, the walls of my classroom will be painted with bright colors. The walls will be covered with student work and achievements. The walls will also be covered in posters featuring map, famous historical figures of diverse backgrounds, notable quotes from significant figures in a variety of cultures and backgrounds, including inspirational quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr., Elie Weisel, Confucius, Gandhi and John F. Kennedy, Jr. Hopefully this set-up will make students feel comfortable and perhaps even inspired to learn. Also, featuring student work will encourage students to take pride in their work products. If students are gazing off, I at least want them to have something for them to gaze at that promotes learning. I also want to try and incorporate a corner of reference materials, such as magazines, novels, atlases and other supplementary materials for students to periodically reference.
The desks will be set up in a circular pattern or divided in half and facing each other (depending on space constraints). My desk will be part of this circle. Thus, the students can see each other and more of the room. This set up will promote an environment for discussions. Students will be better able to see their peers when speaking and student will be less able to hide in the back of the classroom. The promotion of discussion should help generate student-based learning. I will inform my students on the first day of class that active participation is expected and provide ways to participate for both extroverted and introverted students (e.g. discussion and exit slips).
My desk will be in the corner for administrative tasks, but I will frequently sit in the circle during class or walk around. There will be a computer for PowerPoint and other presentations. The students will have access to computer labs at the school also. I plan to incorporate multi-media presentations in the classroom to avoid monotony. The classroom should be safe and also exciting. I plan to initially assign students to seats and adjust accordingly based upon “talkers” or behavioral issues throughout the semester. The circle set-up will be conducive to shifting the desks for group work (discussed in more detail in management of movement section). My social studies classroom will incorporate multi-disciplinary aspects to enhance the learning of history, and the artwork, presentation and discussion in the classroom will reflect this. I will want to walk around the class, especially during group work, to further engage the students.
The class constitution will be distributed after the class participates in its drafting. Each student will be expected to read abide by their constitution, and I will keep copies in my desk. Also, the founding foundations of the class constitution reading:
In this classroom, you must have:
1) a Respectful Demeanor,
2) a Positive Attitude,
3) a Willingness to Participate, and
4) an Open Mind
will be prominently displayed on the wall on bright poster board. Thus, these principles will be constantly reinforced in the classroom.
Student Behavior
The students will be given the letter on the first day of the semester laying out the foundations of the class constitution reading: 1) a respectful demeanor, 2) a positive attitude, 3) a willingness to participate, and 4) an open mind. These foundations will also be hung prominently on the classroom wall. The students are then asked to think of ideas to bring to class the next day for drafting additional rules for both me and them based on these principles. We will write the rules on the board, and I will type the rules into a class “constitution” that will be signed by me and each of the students. Students will each receive a copy of their own constitution for reference purposes.
Students will be verbally informed that consequences for breaking the rules can range from verbal warnings to detention/referring the student to the main office. Physical attacks have “zero tolerance” at the school, and violators are immediately suspended. Students will be reminded of this consequence and other school-wide rules will be discussed briefly as students are usually informed in assemblies.
I do not want to create an environment initially that is too rules driven and want to have some flexibility to determine consequences in an equitable and productive manner. Most major violations are covered under the school-wide policy, and I am required to send students to the office. If a student appears to be a constant problem, I will ask them to conference with me at the end of the day about the behavior issues. I want to send the students to the office as infrequently as possible, unless required by school rules, and hope to settle most problems directly with the student. I will call parents for accomplishments as well as behavior issues to build positive lines of communication. Essays regarding respect will also be used as consequences, with more significant consequences resulting if the essay is not completed.
The following behavior will be dealt with in the following manners:
Aggression: physical and verbal attacks by students on the teacher or other students.
School-wide zero tolerance for physical aggression- students will be sent to the office and suspended. Verbal attacks will depend on the situation. Attacks insulting race, religion, derogatory terms etc. will result in an essay the first offense and a written apology to the class. The student is eligible for detention on the second offensive. Credible threats of violence will immediately be referred to the office.
Immorality: acts such as cheating, lying and stealing.
Cheating on tests or assignments that do not involve collaboration will result in a zero on the assignment. Partial credit can be retained based if an essay on why cheating is bad is written. Lying and stealing will result in an after-school conversation with me and an assigned essay. Depending on the severity of the lie/stealing, school-wide policies may become involved, and the student will be referred to the office.
Defiance of Authority: refusal, sometimes hostile, to do as the teacher requests.
Verbal warning the first time. If the student refuses to participate in a classroom activity, they may receive a zero for the corresponding homework assignment. If constant, conference with students after class. If behavior does not improve, contact parents.
Class Disruptions: talking loudly, calling out, walking around the room, clowning, tossing objects and the like.
Verbal warning the first time. If constant, conference with students after class. If behavior does not improve, contact parents.
Goofing off: fooling around, not doing assigned tasks, dawdling and daydreaming.
Verbal warnings the first few times. If constant, conference with students after class. If behavior does not improve, contact parents.
Management of Movement
My desk will have a bin for assignments to be turned in. If the class has an assignment due, they should put the assignment on my desk as they walk in. This will save classroom time. Also, I will hand graded assignments to students as they walk into during class.
Students will be told to stay in their seats from when the starting bell rings until the dismissal bell rings. Any infraction will result in me speaking to the student after class to ensure expectations are understood. Students will be facing each other in desks (rationale discussed in Classroom Environment section) and will be able to turn to each other easily for working in groups of two or three. Also, if larger groups are ever needed, students will be assigned numbers and each numbered group will be designated a section of the room. These numbers will stay consistent to efficiently expedite group work.
Students will be advised that they can use the restroom whenever they would like, provided the privilege is not abused, such as going on a daily basis. This behavior would be addressed after class to ensure no medical emergency. If students do not have reading materials, they will have to share with their neighbors. Students are expected to have writing utensils and paper. I will not have a pencil sharpener in my room. If they do not, they will have to borrow supplies from me. I will ask them to come more prepared next time and will discuss class preparedness with them individually if the forgetfulness persists.
Management of Paper
I will have a seating chart and take roll mentally, jotting down the students names that are absent to record between passing periods as to not waste class time. As discussed above, I will have an “in” box for assignments and pass out graded assignments as students walk into the classroom. If students are absent, I will set aside the homework/assessment to pass out to them when they are next in class. If students miss a test, I will take the test to the school test re-take area.
Homework will always be turned into me and checked, unless it is a note-taking (from the text) exercise. For note-taking exercises I will generally walk around the class and jot down names of students who have not taken notes. Other worksheets or homework will be typically graded on a 5-10 point scale. I feel it is important that students receive feedback and do not view their assignments as just busy work.
Keeping up with grading seems like one of the most challenging time-management issues! I am going to guarantee students that, expect in extraordinary circumstances, all assessed work will be returned within a week. For small assignments, I am going to try and have a 1-2 day turn-around goal. Quicker turn-around time will help make the assessment more relevant for the students. Promising the students these timelines will force me to feel obligated to uphold my end of the bargain. Reasonable turn-around time for assignments may even show up in the class constitution! Further, this strategy will keep me from getting overloaded and overwhelmed with paper.
Reflective Journal
The Patterns of Discourse recordings took place in 3rd period Freshmen Global Studies at Niles West High school. The students were allowed to pick their seats in the beginning of the year with adjustments made if students appeared too talkative or disruptive. The discussion was based upon a worksheet focusing on modern-day China. The students were asked what they knew about the topics of population, economy, agriculture, social equity and population and what information they still needed to learn. The discussion was based on I have observed that the students sitting closest to the front of class raised their hands more often, and therefore were called on more often. The teacher called on whoever had their hand raised first. The exception was a few boys clustered in the back row. Their comments were often more opinions or question versus answers. Typically the teacher did not call on these boys first if someone else had their hand raised. However, she did eventually call on them if they kept their hands raised. The checks indicate that the girls in the class were more likely to raise their hands than the boys. The teacher has told me in the past to make sure that the discussion is distributed relatively evenly throughout the classroom and that no one group (boys, girls, front, back, etc.) dominates. If several students have their hands raised, which is often the case, she tries to switch sides of the room. A few of the students seemed to be having the two person (the teacher and student) conversations described in the reading. However, the teacher was good about asking the whole group if they had comments about what the student had just said, which broadened up the discussion.
Overall, the distribution seemed relatively fair but steps could be made in the future to try and explicitly ask students in the back of the class what they thought without making them feel put on the spot. As the reading suggests, many students do not participate because fear of peers' judgment. Perhaps asking for written questions or comments at the end of class will help the fearful students participate without making them feel anxious.
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