Mariah
Smith
This
classroom management plan is written for a math classroom in a high school of
grades 9-12.
Psychosocial dimension of classroom management
The psychosocial dimension refers to
the psychological and social environment of the classroom. A primary focus in
this dimension is the classroom climate.
A strategy that I will use to reassure
students that they are valued in the class is give each student an opportunity
to pick a problem from the homework that he or she felt did well on and write
it on the board for the class to see. This will give the student of sense of
belonging in the classroom and be able to display the effort put into homework
to the classroom. A strategy that I will use to help the psychosocial dimension
in group work is called Q. This Q refers to the closeness of the relationships
between people in a group i.e. a high Q would have students in a group who are
very close friends and know each other very well and a low Q would have
students in a group who are strangers to each other. The ideal Q to have in a
group is medium Q. Also, it is good to have people who have different interests
in a group, which helps creativity in a group. To facilitate this in a
classroom, I will ask the students to fill out an optional information sheet at
the beginning of the year that asks about the students interests, past school
experience in math, and short/long term goals. This will give me an opportunity
to place students in a medium Q of a group.
To have effective communication between
students, parents, and myself, I will have a brief, non-formal monthly report
of each student that talks about how the student is doing in the classroom when
it comes to content and social aspects. This is when I will convey my concerns
and praises of the student in a very non-intruding way. This report will be
given to the student and the student’s parents/guardians. I will encourage the
parents to contact me with any questions or concerns with reference to the
report or anything else that may arise.
Procedural dimension of classroom management
The procedural dimension refers to the
procedures and rules that are used in the classroom’s operation. It is
important to know the school’s general procedures for students and to present
these general procedures to the students from day one of the school year. The
classroom will have more detailed and applicable procedures to the classroom
and here are a few of them.
At the beginning of class everyday,
every student will have their homework pulled out for me to check. To check
homework I will do one of the following each day: ask students to turn-in by
passing the homework to the first person in each column, walk around the class
to each individual and just check one or two problems on the homework, walk
around the class and check the homework by completion, or decide not to check
the homework that day. During this procedure I will have another procedure that
has a different student each day write up the solution to any homework problem
that they desire on the whiteboard. After the student does this, I will walk
the classroom through the problem, which helps review what was done the day
before. To finish each class period, I will ask the students to grab a personal
whiteboard and pen five minutes before class ends. Then I will write up a
fairly easy problem on the board that will reflect the concept learned that
day. Then the students will answer the question on the whiteboards and after
every student answers the question correctly, I will pose another question. We
will do this activity until the classroom time is up.
To teach the procedure of the end of
each class, I will tell the students on day one of the year that we will be doing
this activity every day. Then for the next two weeks, I will prompt the
students at the five-minute mark to go get the whiteboards and give them the
problem and have them work on it. Then after the first few weeks, ideally the
students won’t have to be reminded to go get the whiteboards and will act on
their own.
Physical dimension of classroom management
The physical dimension contains of the
physical layout of the classroom and how the teachers can manipulate it to
create good conditions for teaching.
The desk arrangement of the classroom
will look like a typical classroom. I will have my desk in the front corner of
the class with the wall whiteboards right behind my desk. Along the walls right
below the ceiling, there will be posters that show different properties and
formulas found in math that is relevant to the student’s math course. The
student’s desks will be in columns. Beside the door, there will be some shelves
that will hold the individual whiteboards and dry erase markers. Along the side
of the classroom there will be about ten to fifteen computers that have various
math programs and that will be used to have an alternative-learning
environment. In front of the room there will be a smartboard that every student
will be able to see. This technology will be used in daily in instruction and
gives an interactive sense to a lecture because the students can visually see
me working on a math problem. There will also be a projector from my teacher
computer to use different math programs such as GeoGebra to help prove various
Geometry and Algebra related problems.
Accommodations that could be used for
students with exceptionalities are different AT devices such as a computer,
recording devices, and paraprofessionals. There will be an easily accessible
computer that the student can move to for activities if needed. After creating
an IEP for students with exceptionalities, my classroom will provide what is
needed for the student.
Behavioral dimension of classroom management
The behavioral dimension refers on how
to decrease undesired behaviors and increase desired behaviors and how to
maintain this over a longer period of time.
I would like the classroom rules to be
formulated by the class in the first few days of school. This will give
ownership to the students, which will ideally make students follow the rules
that they created. With this said, I do want to remind the students in the
first few days of school of the rules that the school has for all students such
as absence and tardy policies. Two rules that will absolutely have to be on the
list of classroom rules are to not talk while someone else is talking and
encourage people daily in class.
The following are two potential
examples of specific student inappropriate behaviors that can occur in the
classroom and how the behavior will be dealt with. Anne is a student who is
very enthusiastic towards math and loves to answers my questions. She has
difficulty on waiting patiently for me to call on her to answer a question and
jumps up and down in her seat until I call on her. To manage this inappropriate
behavior I will use the extinction method by ignoring her and calling on
students who are patiently sitting in their seat. When she does wait patiently
for me to call on her, I will call on her and give her positive reinforcement
by thanking her for sitting still. Greg is a student who has never really liked
math in the past and gave up on doing anything extra outside of the classroom.
Even though Greg never does his homework or studies, he seems to understand the
concepts while going over them in class. To manage this behavior, I will sit
down with Greg outside of class and make a contingency contract with him that
will say that he will do his homework and if he doesn’t he will spend lunch
time in the classroom to finish his homework. This gives him an incentive to do
his homework.
Instructional dimension of classroom management
The instructional dimension refers to
how to schedule, transition, group, create lesson plans, and use technology.
My teaching philosophy is to bring as
much real world application into the math class and to use technology to help
this real world application. The reason why I have this philosophy is because
math is not seen as necessary for all students. This is not true because in all
parts of life one can use math to help them succeed and gains very important
problem solving skills from math classes. To help with this philosophy, the use
of open-ended questions versus closed questions is very important.
Learned material will be represented in
multiple ways in my classroom. I will use an overhead to write up lecture notes
while verbally explaining the material for students to see and hear what they
are learning. Some days I will ask the students to prepare for the next lecture
and for them to do that they can read from their math book, watch a video on Khan
Academy, or discuss the topic with parents and/or friends. This gives the
students options to participate in the preparation for a lesson. Quite often in
the classroom students will be given worksheets to engage the learned
information. I will give the option for students to work in groups of two or to
work alone on these worksheets. Instead of doing a worksheet, a student can
decide to go to the in-classroom computers and by following given instructions,
discover the recently learned information through a math program. For students
to express knowledge in multiple ways they can do a homework assignment given
to them or they can come in to class during lunch or after school to make a
video of working out two homework problems that I have chosen using the
smartboard recording abilities. This gives the students to express their
knowledge in a more traditional way or by using technology.
Organizational dimension of classroom management
The organizational dimensions refers to
that having success is linked to time management in personnel interactions, the
work environment, administrative duties, instructional applications, and
personnel applications.
A strategy that I will use to create an
appropriate work environment and good-working relationships with other teachers
and faculty is I will sit in on another class once a week and ask for another
teacher to sit in on one of my classes. The intentions of this strategy is to
be able to see how each other are teaching and by doing this, we will be able
to support and encourage each other in our teaching in a more tangible way. I
hope that this will lead to some instructional feedback and being able to help
each other with some solutions to problems in a classroom. Another strategy to
help create an appropriate work environment is that if I ever have a student
that goes to the Principal’s or counselor's office, I will follow up with the
Principal or counselor to see if I can help in any way. This will show that I’m
not interested on dumping a student on them but that I know it’s a group effort
to help a student.
I hope to have good relations with the
other math teachers that are in the school. I would like to create a system
with them with regards to grading papers. I know that grading papers can take a
lot of time (I have graded papers for a professor) and that it can take away
from our personal lives. I want to have an open relationship with the other
math teachers that if one of us are going through a particularly busy week,
that another one of us can take over their grading for the week. This will show
that we are a team at the school even though we may be teaching different
levels of math or different aged students.
Addressing behaviors that are challenging
I plan to use Response to Intervention
(RTI) in my classroom by having a pyramid type of learning. The thought is to
start with a base overall teaching to students in the classroom setting. Then
after this there may be about 20% of students that will need extra help that I
will give to them in the classroom by helping during out the group work
activity time. This will help the students but then there might be 5% of
students who are still struggling and that is when I will individually work
with the students. To help me see if all students are on somewhat same page on
the material I will use Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM). I will give small
tests that have basic topics that we are learning and then the data given to me
by the CBM will let me know if we can move on to the next topic or if we need
to go back. The Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) is helpful in putting a
undesired behavior and the actions to monitor this behavior into words. I will
use this with students who are having more of habitual undesired behaviors and
then the goal is to come up with some strategies. This is where Positive
Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) come to play. I will come up with
some desired behavior for the student and then find ways for the behavior to be
achieved, which can be done by using a checklist for the student, contingency
contract, or other ways.
I hope I am able to use most of these
strategies in the classroom but I know that they may change as I figure out
what works best for me as a teacher and what works best for my students.
Click Here to view this classroom management plan in an accessible word document.
Article
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