Classroom Management
Nathan Tanner
During the last year I have put a lot of thought into crafting my own personal classroom
management and discipline plans. While I do not feel that they have come together in their
perfect formand they may never!I believe that I have constructed something that I can work
with and build on over time. Below I will outline my classroom management plan which
includes my personal rules, expectations, and management philosophy. I will also detail my
strategies for preventative and supportive discipline, as well as the methods I intend to use to
maintain a positive classroom culture and deal with various levels of disruption.
My Rules & Expectations
I view classroom rules as a way of establishing a positive and safe learning environment
for the students in my classroom. In addition, I believe that having clearly defined classroom
rules informs students about what I expect of them and from them. From personal experience, I
have learned that when you set high expectations for students, and they are clearly defined,
students will rise to meet them. I will discuss briefly the rules that will be written on a poster
board and will be clearly visible to everyone in my classroom. I will also provide a short
explanation of why these rules will help set the tone for both student behavior and student
learning.
1. Take Responsibility by owning your actions and your work One of the most
important life skills any individual can learn is becoming responsible for the things they
say and do. I think it is important for students to be responsible young people, and to take
ownership of their work. By establishing this as a classroom rule, I hope to help
encourage students to do their best work on their assignments, to hand things in on time,
to communicate with me about frustrations or concerns they may have, and to learn the
content to enrich their lives.
Classroom Management
Nathan Tanner
2. Respect yourself, the teacher, and one another Above all, it is important that
students respect themselves. Self-respect breeds engagement and feelings of happiness. I
want students to respect their own time in my classroom, the time they have to learn the
skills and strategies for success in academics and their future careers. If students respect
themselves, they are also more likely to respect one another which will help everyone
focus on the material that we are learning. Its also important that students respect me as
the teacher, though I know that this is something that I must earn from each individual
student.
3. Be present In contemporary classrooms it is easy for students to become distracted by
their cell phones or other digital devices they may carry with them. I want students to
understand the importance of being a part of the classroom community, and that when
they each decide to participate, the whole class benefits and is able to experience the
lessons and learn the material in unique ways. By having this as a classroom rule, I am
asking studentsand reminding myself and anyone else who enters my classroomto be
a part of the learning that is taking place and avoid outside distractions.
I intend to help my students live up to these rules and expectations by establishing caring
relationships with my students. I will get to know them through personal conversations, wholeclass discussions and activities, and through the time I put into contextualizing historical content
and striving to make it relevant to students personal lives. I also plan to help them by providing
them with opportunities for community building. Feeling like you belong is important to
everyone, and I intend to help students experience this feeling by scaffolding instruction with
find your partner activities, role play, getting-to-know-you activities, Think-Pair-Shares, and
more. Finally, I will reflect personally on the lessons that I plan, the activities I use, and the
Classroom Management
Nathan Tanner
methods I employ to teach students and handle any disruptions that occur. I believe that this will
help me to improve my practice, and also help students to live up to the expectations I set for
them in my classroom.
Preventative Discipline
My plan for preventative discipline includes the following strategies:
Allowing students to develop classroom rules so that students can be held accountable for
their own learning.
Working hard to develop an engaging curriculum that students respond to and that
facilitates their learning the course content.
Smiling. Holub and Harrington (2006) explain that maintaining a positive attitude is an
effective strategy for managing students and helping them stay engaged in learning.
Giving students a choice in the curriculum. I plan to utilize tiered instruction that focuses
on meeting students where they feel most comfortable.
Modeling. I plan to model class activities and learning strategiesCornell Notes,
working with partners, effective communication, writing, pre-reading, etc.in order to
avoid confusion which is often the catalyst for outbursts and class disruption.
Supportive Discipline
My plan for supportive discipline includes the following strategies:
Create a seating chart that maximizes student involvement in class and group discussions
and projects, and that will minimize disruptive talking when independent work is being
completed.
Making eye contact with students who may be off-task or disrupting instruction. Theyll
know when they see me that they need to refocus their attention.
Classroom Management
Nathan Tanner
Use humor (Holub & Harrington, 2006) to build relationships of trust with students, and
help them buy-in to what Im trying to teach them in class.
Redirect students attention with a task or assignment when they are disrupting class and
simultaneously provide them with a rationale for focusing on the task I give them.
Utilize proximity to limit students temptation to disrupt a lesson or activity.
Utilize brief desists if a student or a group of students are not responding to any of the
strategies above.
Methods for Handling Disruptions
Finally, for minimal disruptions in my class I plan to address them with one of the
supportive discipline methods I have described above. My personal inclination would be to use
direct eye contact or humor to reduce or eliminate the disruption. For moderate disruptions in
class I would use proximity and/or redirect their attention by giving them a specific task or
responsibility to fulfill. For a moderate disruption I might also respond by using a brief desist,
encouraging the student or students to make better use of their time, or ask them to evaluate what
they could be doing to get more out of the lesson. For significant disruptions, I would try to use
the least restrictive response first, which for me would be a brief desist. If this was ineffective, I
might do one of two things: move the student(s) to another desk in the room to avoid distractions
and to help them focus, or send the student to a cooperating teachers room to cool off until I
have a moment in the lesson to go and speak with them. In this event, I would also contact the
parents or legal guardians of the student to discuss what happened and how we might work
together to prevent this type of disruption in the future.
