Mrs. Marsh’s Classroom Management Plan

 

       My classroom management consists of encouraging students to make good choices throughout the day in order to ensure a classroom environment conducive to optimal learning.  I strongly believe in rewarding positive behavior and seeing each instance of a poor behavior choice as an opportunity to teach good decision making skills.  As a class, the students will work together to earn some type of reward for making the right choices.   Later in the year, the students will also be able to earn “Flamingo Bucks” for making good choices.  They will be able to spend their bucks at our classroom store that will be open every two weeks.

     On the other hand, I do implement a system that holds individual students accountable for their behavior throughout the school day.  We have a chart in our room to keep track of behavior, and each child has a clip with their name on it.  Each student starts the day on “Ready to Learn” which indicates they are prepared to begin their day on a positive note.  I typically give one opportunity for students to make a better choice, but after the first warning, a student will be asked to move their clip to yellow, and they are encouraged to make better choices.  If they continue making poor choices, they must move their clip to orange, and I will choose a logical consequence for their behavior.  If they still have difficulty following our classroom rules, they will move their clip to red, and I will contact you regarding the matter.  I make every attempt to talk to students about their choices and discuss with them how to turn any negative behaviors into positive ones.  If a student really puts in a great effort to turn their day around, they will be able to move their clip back one space at the end of the day.  A student may also move their clip to purple which means they set a great example throughout the day for others to follow. The students will have a monthly behavior chart located in their red folder to show you what color they were on for the day.  Please review this chart daily with your child and initial it so that I know you have seen it.

        During our first few days of school, we worked together to decide on our classroom rules.  The students did an excellent job of telling me what choices they needed to make to allow us to have a great day of learning.  I took the list of rules we discussed and compiled them into a few rules that encompassed all of their ideas.  Below is a list of our classroom rules that are posted in our room.

 

                                          Our Class Rules

           1. Be respectful toward others and yourself.

           2.  Be a kind, helpful, and positive classmate.

           3.  Do your best work at all times.

          4.  Come to school ready to learn.

 

 

     This year, I want to encourage students to give of themselves and be a positive influence on others.  I will start a classroom program based on the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?  by Carol McCloud.  This book encourages children to foster positive actions toward others.  They can either be a “bucket filler” who does positive things to support others therefore filling their inner buckets, or they can be a “bucket dipper” who does negative things and dumps the inner bucket of another.  My hope is that every student will do their best to fill someone’s bucket each day. 

     Overall, my goal is to provide students with several avenues to make good decisions that impact their own lives as well as the lives of others.  I hope to instill a sense of altruism and self pride in making the right decisions not only in our first grade class but outside of the classroom too.  If you have any questions about our classroom plan, please feel free to contact me.

 

Thank you,

Mrs. Marsh