If you have ever built a model airplane, you know that each part of the plane has a place and a purpose in buidling a plane that will eventually fly. By using the same premises in building an effective classroom management plan, you can provide air-time for dynamic student behaviors in your classoom
A Classroom Management Plan Model Kit
The framework you use to develop your classroom management plan provides the important components you must have in developing a plan that is effective, proactive and constructive for all students in the classroom. Read on to see how you can create your own model kit in building an effective classroom management plan.
Model Kit - Building a Plan that will Fly
- Philosophical Beliefs - What you believe in how to manage a class, your life, or a situation in the grocery store will ultimately influence and direct your decision-making in how you view classroom management. Before you can gather the other components for the model kit, you have to philosophically decide whether you have the belief and the fortitude to build a plan that sinks or soars. What is your belief in how students should behave in a classroom, now more specifically your classroom? What are the necessary components needed to direct and inform student misbehavior or off-task behavior in your classes?
- Rules and Regulations - What rules and regulations can you create that all students can find compliance in adhering to consistently? For example, if you say, "No eating or drinking in the class," and on the hottest day of the year, you allow food and drinks in the classroom, you may have just opened up your own Pandemonium Box. Will your rules be posted or verbally explained at the beginning of the school year? Be consistent in whichever way you go.
- Classroom Configuration: The classroom configuration can either invite chaos or invite a collaborative learning experience. By constructing a preliminary diagram that shows placement of yourself and your students, you can go the distance to see what works on paper and what works in the classroom. Remember, you can always rearrange the room quarterly, at semester or just once a year.
- Interventions to Misbehavior - Now that you have incorporated your beliefs into rules that govern student behavior in your class; created a classroom arrangement that is inviting for learning; it's time to think about constructive interventions to misbehavior. If you are trying to decrease off-task behavior, provide structured learning objectives in segmented class blocks (i.e. during a math class, you can begin the class with a warm-up problem, interject a timeframe of direct instruction, and then provide a post-instruction assessment to identify which students need additional support. Other interventions could be to provide teaching opportunities for students to teach math concepts or complete a problem on the board. Be as creative with the interventions as your students are with their behavior, and remember intervene positively with teaching moments to redirect off task behavior.
- Celebrate Students - Provide weekly or monthly "Student of the Month" celebrations to showcase student's academic, social and behavioral contributions in creating an effective learning environment. Ask the Principal or your Department Chair to present the award and a token of appreciation (i.e. a notebook with the school logo; a sweatshirt with the school logo or Principal for a day award). The bottom line is to have fun in constructing a plan that celebrates your students, their good behavior, and all of the learning that's taking place in your classroom.
Making a Classroom Management Plan
Here we look at the ways a teacher can create an effective classroom management plan.