M7U2A3

Thu Nguyen

Cohort 01/2016

M7U2A3

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT CHECKLIST

As a subject teacher, I work with 240 elementary students ranging from Pre-K to grade 5. With that amount of students in mind, I design a classroom that can accommodate all and each student. Below is a checklist for an effective classroom management.

A Positive Classroom Climate

1. Know student names, their interests and specials

-       Study student names beforehand. (I use the school data system to study the names of students by grade, by class.)

-       Remember student names and call their name correctly. (I spend some weeks for it.)

-       Use the first lesson to have students create their own folder/portfolio on which they are encouraged to draw themselves and families, their interests and hobbies, or something represents her/him. Inviting each student to introduce her/himself is a good way to remember student name and their interests.

2. Introduce myself, my interests, hobbies, and style of teaching

-     By doing so, I assume students get to know me better the same way I wish to know about them.

3. Greet students in front of the class door and engage brief conversations

-     By doing so, I let students know they are invited and welcome to my classroom.

     

High Expectations

1.  Communicate subject expectations using verbal and visual aids

            -   At the beginning of the school year and at each new lesson, I explain my expectations in terms of academy and behaviors verbally, upon the mutual agreement, make posters and hang posters on the wall or somewhere visible in the classroom. Some middle school and high school teachers have students signed contract, but I did not apply this procedure in the elementary level.

2.  Set up one bulletin board for artwork exemplars and one for character stars of the month

            - Incorporating with character education program, I set up these two areas of inspiration where students are encouraged to try their best in both academy and character development in order to be praised on board.

3.  Agree on the ways of communication

            - Face to face communication and feedback takes place in class with students. For parents, emails generated from the school system will be used. Calls are used only in case of emergency.

            - A mailbox like is set up on one class door where students can leave me a message in case I am not around or we can’t find time to talk in the class. This is helpful for elementary students since most of them don’t have private email addresses.

Rules, Norms and Procedures

1. Set up classroom rules and consequences with students and have a rule poster on the wall

- The first week of school is the ideal time to do this. However, reinforcing students during the year is necessary and critical to minimize cases of rule violation.

- Five rules in my classroom:

2. Set up classroom jobs, have the job poster on the wall, and agree rules to assign job holders

            - In Art, many cleaning jobs need to be done before students come and after they leave the room. Engaging and assigning jobs to students fairly help to develop their responsibility.

            - Jobs in my class:

·         Distributing folders

·         Distributing materials

·         Collecting materials

·         Cleaning materials and seat works

·         Managing the sinks

·         Rolling the matt

·         Assisting teacher and peers

3. Agree on verbal and nonverbal signs for attention, bathroom use, and excuse

            - In my classroom, we agree to use the school nonverbal sign with one hand up and one finger of the other hand on the lip when the attention is needed. For verbal sign, the teacher says the common code “1 2 3 eyes on me.” and students response “1 2 eyes on you.”

            - Bathroom use is reminded and recommended before entering my classroom. In the middle of the class, students have to ask for permission of either the teacher or the assistant.

4. Agree on material access rule and transitions

            - Students are supposed to touch materials when using or needed and put them back in order.

            - Transitions between activities require movement without noises.

Managing Behaviors

1. Star award is applied for each positive behavior. Students will write their names on the stars earned and glued stars on the class bulletin board.

Bulletin board for positive behaviors

2. Acknowledgement and recognition

- Verbal acknowledge and recognition for individuals who demonstrating positive behaviors.

- Praise students with appreciation cards at the end of each semester.

- Have students talk in front of the class about what, why, and how their efforts deserve appreciation.

- Mention these efforts in conferences with their parents.

3. For negative behaviors, depending on the levels of seriousness and repetition, each misbehavior will be reminded verbally or nonverbally, decided to proceed to principal office and counselor referral. Given the misbehaviors are within the teacher control, students will be requested to put their name tags into a blue box. At the end of the lesson, I will record the names in the behavior session of the school system.

Students will put their names in this blue tab in case of misbehavior is observed

 

At the end of the day, a record will go to the school system 

Behavior Management chart

De-escalation Strategies

1. Classroom physical set up – Refer the floor plan below.

           

2. Apply seat chart and seat re-arrangement, especially for individuals experienced behavior issues.

3. Apply Withitness strategy

            - Greet students at the door, reinforce the rules and expectations, and make students aware of my close attention to them

- Engage eye contact with those who exhibit negative behavior at the minor levels.

            - Circulate or occupy the entire room when students are at work.

            - Quietly move in the direction of suspected or misbehaving students to minimize interrupt the whole class.

            - In case of serious conflicts or misbehavior, stop the class, separate suspected individuals, and apply graduate actions like private talk, office/counselor referral.