CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT PLAN First Grade
Morning Time Every morning, students begin their day with a meeting time. Behavior objectives for the day are covered during morning meeting, as well as greetings, sharing time, and activities that allow classmates to build bonds that will strengthen the community. Students should be reminded in the morning about classroom expectations (Rules), teacher and students could go over them together.
Consistent Discipline One main aspect of classroom management is keeping consistent with enforcing class rules, which needs to be implemented in the routines and procedures of the classroom daily. Class rules are a necessity, it's a good idea to have them collaboratively formed by the students and the teacher. Student input is very important in establishing classroom rules. By allowing students to participate in creating their classroom expectations, students take ownership in their behavior. Teacher and students can together first brainstorm all of the little rules and ideas they think should be followed in the classroom. Teacher can then compose a list based on what her/him and students came up with. Rules should be simple, and preferably less than 6. The rules should be obviously displayed in the classroom. For example, having a large poster displayed in the classroom stating the basic rules in the front of the room.
Classroom Rules/Expectations Many of the rules that student s establish, fall into one of the five expectations below. These five guiding principles are as follows: 1. Always do your best work. 2. Follow directions immediately. 3. Keep hands and feet to yourself. 4. Be respectful of others, a good listener. 5. Use a quiet voice in the classroom and hallways.
Procedures and Rules need to be Taught Start by explaining the procedure or rule and it s purpose. You can include a handout with the written procedures. Then, have the students practice the procedure, walking them through each step with different scenarios. As students perform the procedure correctly, teacher needs to continually & positively reinforce the behavior.
Transitions In order to move safely around the classroom, it will be important for students to quickly stop what they are doing and listen for directions when transitioning from one activity to another. Several cues can be used in the classroom to quickly gain student attention, including: a repetitive hand clap, an eyes on me chant, class, class, class chant, and a freeze game where students freeze for instructions and melt when returning to movement. Then teacher will give instructions to follow. Students will have 30 seconds to transition themselves. Lining Up- Students will line up next to the door in alphabetical order for specials. The person with the line leader responsibility will always come to the front of the line. The door holder will always line up second. Packing Up/End of the Day Routine- At the end of the day, the students will get out their agendas and the teacher will record the student s color for the day. The teacher will walk around to initial agendas.
Using Attention-Getting Signals Sometimes, first-graders get out of hand, and they don t even realize it is happening. Attention-getting signals can be verbal cues, body cues and even sounds, like a bell, to get the children s attention when needed. These signals make the children stop what they are doing and think long enough to realize what they need to do or change. For example, a teacher may sing a little song that indicates it is time to put materials away and line up at the door. That simple action is far more effective than yelling out an order. Teachers can use attention getting signals most effectively by changing them routinely so students do not get bored with them.
To Get Students' Attention: Hand Signals Students will learn the sign language signal for restroom, drinking water, sharpening, etc. This allows students to quietly show me a sign that does not overtly disrupt the learning of others when they have to meet individual needs.
Voice Levels Group Work- Students will already be in a designated group because of tables or desks. The groups will be assigned to be sure the students work well together. The students may work at their desks or on the floor around the room. The groups should compromise and talk using inside voices. We will read many community building books in the beginning of the year to emphasize the word
Student Jobs There will be a chart on the wall with jobs such as: line leader, light helper, paper assistant, door holder, and fire drill assistant etc. Each week the students will rotate and get a new job.
Creating Positive Relationships we need to create relationships with our students that motivate them to achieve. It is necessary to establish consequences, to handle misbehaviors in a way that builds relationships. The three R s include ensuring that consequences are related, reasonable, respectful, and reliable. Behaving with respect should be a main focus in the class, and consequences should follow this theme as well. The consequences need to be reliable and consistent, ensuring that discipline is behavior based and not student based, and positive relationships are still withheld following misbehavior.
Consequence Strategies: Once class rules have been established, follow 3 R s," which are: Reinforcement Reinforcement is used to provide positive feedback and recognize students efforts. Reminding Reminding is used when students are beginning to get off task and need a gentle and respectful reminder of our classroom expectations. Redirecting Redirecting is used when a child needs to be stopped from continuing their current behavior and pointed in the right direction, as to follow classroom rules and ensure a safe learning environment for all students.
Consequences If the classroom rules are not followed, the following consequences should take place: 1. First time: Verbal reminder/warning. At the first sign of a misbehavior the child will be given a verbal warning from teacher. Teacher can record the warning on an assigned sheet to keep track of warnings during class time. 2. Second time: Reflection/refocus station. If student continues to break classroom rules, he/she will be sent to the refocus station (a designated corner in the classroom) to think about their behavior. Student should be left there an adequate amount of time, enough time to think about his/her mistakes. Often times teachers do not wait long enough and bring students back to their seats too early. Also, teacher could have the child lose the privilege of using the materials or participating in the class activity until he/she can demonstrate appropriate behavior. 3. Third time: Teacher Choice: Office referral /counselor referral/loose minutes from recess. If a student continues to disrupt the class, teacher chooses consequence here. Teacher could send him to counselor, have him fill out a behavior reflection form during recess, or even send him to the office. At this point, student has wasted enough class time and shouldn't be allowed to waste anymore time of other students. 4. Fourth time: Parent Contact If the child returns to class and continues to disrupt the learning environment, a call home will be made to parents at the end of the day to discuss the student s behavior. ***If necessary, teachers, parents and child will set up an individual discipline plan to address any challenges your child is dealing with in the classroom.
Visually displaying students positive and negative behaviors Children in first grade need a visual, even tactile way to show how they are behaving. A classroom management technique that works quite well is a color-coded chart with clothespins. Each child has a clothespin clipped to the chart. All children start the day on green, which means a good day. If the teacher sees a student do something particularly good, that student can move the clip up to blue, which means excellent. If student breaks a classroom rule, he/she will get a different color card with each consequence. These could be counted at the end of week and note sent home to parents, positive or negative.
Rewards for Positive Behavior: Each day is a new beginning. When children are caught being good, there will be various individual and group rewards. In the classroom, you can talk about filling someone s bucket. You can pretend that every person has a bucket inside of them that gets filled when they are kind and treat each other with respect. When students follow classroom rules, it fills the bucket of the teacher. Rewarding students positive behavior is just as important as having consequences for negative behavior. Students need to be encouraged continuously. Rewards could be verbal praise or could be small gifts, coupons, etc weekly or biweekly.
Individual Rewards Verbal praise. The student could also receive a happy note that goes home to parents so they can celebrate in their child s accomplishment. Sticker rewards could be given to the child. Pioneer tickets for weekly prize drawings. Child may choose a special activity or game during a designated center time. Group Rewards A group game outside. A special treat during snack time. Free choice time (computers, puzzles, games, etc.) during designated center time. A class party