Author: cacorty

(No pictures yet….sorry)

Classroom Management Plan:

Classroom Daily Expectations: (Students will get these in their syllabus at the beginning of class, and they will be posted on the wall)

1. I will not use my personal electronics unless I’m given permission. The “Classroom mode” at the front of the class will tell me if I can have my phone out or if I have to put it away on “classroom mode.”

2. I will allow others to speak even if I disagree with them, and I will raise my hand when I have a disagreement rather than yell or argue.

3. I will start my daily assignment as soon as I sit down.

4. I will bring my binder and other class materials to each class.

5. I will ask for clearer directions if I am unclear, either from my peers or from my teacher.

6. When I am frustrated, I will express this calmly to my teacher and ask for some time to cool off. (Bad days are okay, but let me know if you’re having a bad one, we can work it out)

Classroom Rules: (Students may add rules to the list during the first week, but there will be a base of four rules to start off.)

1. Respect others’ space and feelings as well as your own.

2. Clean up after yourself whenever possible.

3. Practice safety with equipment (electronic or otherwise.)

4. Allow others to speak, raise your hand if you want to be heard.

Enforcing positive behaviors:

• Students will be able to get stamps on their homework and in class assignments upon completion. This is before they are even graded. This stamp will be a basis of “rewards” but not very large ones. Students can pick stickers or awesome pens and pencils. If students collect enough stamps in their homework journal they may petition for a pizza party with their class. They must have a total of 56 stamps to achieve the pizza party. This party can be for the entire class, and only needs 56 stamps to get one. Once they cash in those points, they start over so the same students cannot keep having a pizza party over and over.

 

• Students that are on time to class will be able to view a “bonus fact” which could appear on the test! This bonus fact will be an extra credit question on a test, and if students want to have a chance to answer it, they must not be tardy or they could miss the bonus fact. It will be on the projector for the first five minutes of each class.

 

• I will address students that answer questions well, even if the answer is not necessarily the correct one. This is important to encourage dialogue in class between peers about questions and responses.

 

• I will allow students to interact with the texts and bring questions about the readings from the night before. These will be questions that I may or may not be able to answer but I will encourage them regardless.

 

• Students will be encouraged to bring in interesting pieces of literature or news articles for extra credit. They may submit them to me, then I may use it for a class so we can discuss relevant and interesting topics students themselves are interested in. Extra credit will be around 1 to 2 points for these.

 

Addressing Negative Behaviors:

• Students can address inappropriate behavior themselves but also ask for teacher help with mediation. This will help establish bonds between peers, as well as enforce effective problem solving skills.

 

• There will be a three strike system in place. Students will be expected to follow the guidelines and rules established above. The first strike will require a warning. The second strike will require a written note or call home, and the third strike may be ISS or something akin to that.

 

• Students have the opportunity to defend their case, but in written note format. This can be used to instill weighing the consequences of their actions, but also allow students to have a format where they can be heard in a non-aggressive manner.

 

• I will be sure to allow students to know that they are breaking a rule, and refer back to the classroom expectations. This will be during the first warning.

 

• I will be sure never to single out a student in front of their peers directly, I will however address inappropriate behavior.

 

• There will be a complaint box in the front of the classroom, this can be used to anonymously voice a concern from the class or with the lessons or classroom in general.

Crisis Management:

I will follow the district protocol on crisis management and assign two “emergency leaders” these two students will help in organizing their classmates and directing them to the door with me. They will also help assure that no one is left behind, and that their peers are quiet during roll call.

I will assure that an emergency kit, as well as the “emergency exit is where” signs are visible and in reach of students.

Students will be aware that the emergency procedure is to be followed, even in the event of a drill.

 

Possible Accommodations:

Students will be able to pick from a number of options for projects and homework. I will allow students to vote on whether they would want to have a short answer test, a multiple choice test, or a mixture of the two. Students may also choose from any of THREE options for homework when it is handed out. “Short prompt” “Reading journal format” or “Summary of the reading” This will allow students to interact with the texts in a way in which they feel comfortable.

Students will have access to my notes from lectures daily from handouts and on my online site.

Students will be able to access powerpoints and presentations as well.

Students can sit closer to the board if they need to.

I will follow the IRs of all students that have one.

I will also allow students to watch videos, presentations, and have open dialogue in class.

 

 

This article hit home for me. While I was a Resident Assistant for two years I had to deal with cases of suicidal ideation and one instance where it was attempted. It was hard on me as an RA, but it was even harder trying to help students in my hall with their stress and depression. We were simply told to direct them to counseling or to tell a supervisor if the case was rather escalated. It was hard to put on a business face for these situations.

But I can only imagine how different it would be as a teacher or a professor who only gets to see the students in an academic setting. I feel that this article discussed an important topic, especially in regards to parts being overbearing to their children. Lots of my residents were sometimes avoiding their parents, and the department or the campus police would get calls from concerned parents to check on their children. Almost always, the case was that the students just didn’t feel like talking to their parents. It was hard to satisfy both the student and the parents. This article is important because it also discusses high functioning depression. Which is to say depression that isn’t as obvious to others simply because that person is doing so well. This makes it hard to identify some warning signs of depression.

I’ll say this; I hope that counseling services become more aware and prepared for this phenomena of stressed out, overachieving, depressed students. I also hope that teachers and professors become more aware as well. Depression is hard to face alone. It’s even harder to face when you think no one is going to help you and that you  are alone.

 

Reflect on your classroom observation
1.) Describe effective management strategies you observed for opening a lesson, applied during a lesson, and for lesson closure.
2.) Name 3 common transitions you observed and how did the teacher handle those.
3.) Describe a strategy that you observed and may apply to your classroom.

 

1.) I observed at Tanana Middle School. My teacher I am observing is Laverene Haakanson for middle school English. She applied numerous classroom management strategies when I observed her classroom. The students were asked to review poems and then discuss them in groups/units. The students were also asked to review the poems from an abstract and literal sense. Haakanson was good about addressing students that were becoming distracting, and the classroom was a bit rowdy since they all had candy from Halloween in their pockets. She established her rules about no candy or phones during the activity right away. She also addressed specific individuals on and off who were becoming distractions to the class “___ please stop tapping your pencil” and “__let’s stay on task” She was also very good about encouraging answers from students and allowing all students to contribute to the discussion. The closing part of the lesson was a bit of a review of what the students discovered in the poems they read in general or what their peers found that they did not. Students also had assigned seats and were reminded of this.

2.) Entering the classroom: Haakanson stands at the door and greets her students with a classroom contract, this is a task for students to do as soon as they sit down in their assigned seats. Bathroom pass: The students had to ask her before using the restroom, and then take a hallpass to do so. Tardy student: Haakanson would ask for a tardy slip, if there wasn’t one she explained that they would be marked as tardy but wouldn’t focus on it for too long, as to not distract from the lesson.

3.) I enjoyed how Haakanson walks around the room and makes her presence known. She is active and lets the students know that she is in charge. This was nice. I want to achieve this when I have my own classroom.

What I learned from these articles for my own practice would be that of patience. The first article; ‘What I wish my professors had told me’ discusses patience and being patient with frustrations you may experience teaching, because you will experience frustrations with many aspects of teaching. However, I do enjoy that the main takeaway is being patient and giving yourself time to adjust and adapt. I want to apply this philosophy to my own teaching in the future.

I also took into account the aspect of not giving up. I’ve switched my Education major into a minor simply because I couldn’t handle the pressure of the program packed into one semester, and I was even told I shouldn’t have kept it as a minor if I was dropping the major. However, I kept the minor, I still want to teach my path is just changing, and this article makes me a little more confident with my choices.

I will create a safe environment by allowing students to grow as well as know they are respected and cared for. I will strive to allow students to express themselves appropriately and safely, and I will also try to strive to be better at keeping my goals set before me so that I may better help my future students achieve everything they wish to achieve because I can help them and not feel stressed while doing so.

The following link is one I found interesting to an article about classroom management tips:

https://www.naesp.org/communicator-february-2014/ten-tips-effective-classroom-management

 

https://neatoday.org/2017/06/09/personalized-learning/

My opinion on personalized learning is that it looks fantastic on paper. However, in practice it seems difficult to implement. Catering to hundreds of students appears to be very difficult, and many teachers seem to be having difficulties with the concept entirely. I think that in the future, when and if schools switch to personalized learning, it will be easier, but for now it is awfully complicated to do. I’ve seen some steps towards personalized learning though. When I was in high school teachers would sometimes give more than one option for an essay prompt, project, or assignment that would allow for students to pick the prompt they most feel confident with.

The article I’ve shared talks about charter schools and public schools and how charter schools have more quickly picked up the personalized learning system.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-daca-decision_us_59a04060e4b05710aa5bda7b

I read the Huffington Post article on this topic, linked above. I feel that this act should stay in affect. It only sticks onto a dreamer for two years anyway. But I also feel that it is wrong to threaten deportation of children. Especially when a child had no way of knowing they were entering a country illegally, and had no choice in the matter because their parents brought them to the United States. The argument that “immigrants are taking our jobs” is a weak one in my opinion. Especially when most immigrants that menial jobs that other Americans don’t want. Without people to take these “lesser” jobs we will have a bit of an influx in open job positions. I believe that someone who has lived in the U.S. since they were a child is in fact a citizen. This country was built by, and for, immigrants, to turn them away now and claim that they are less American than the citizens born here is unfair. A child raised in America is, in my honest opinion, American. This also sends the wrong message to anyone wishing to LEGALLY immigrate to America, turning away children isn’t something we should practice as a country. I know that Congress may think this is the most logical solution, but it will hurt is in the long run. Jobs that were filled will be empty, and there’s no guarantee that those jobs are going to be immediately filled. This will hurt the job market, not boost it. Again, this is all my opinion.