Classroom Management Plan:

Throughout the semester, we have discussed the qualities that contribute to creating a truly effective teacher.  One of the biggest factors in becoming an effective teacher is the procedures that I will implement and uphold. To create a learning environment that has a focus on learning, is welcoming, and safe I will need to have procedures put into place for multiple areas of the classroom.  The areas that I will plan and implement procedures in include the first day of school, for the students, for the classroom, for instruction, and for myself as the teacher.

    The first day of school has so much going on for both the students and the teachers, so it will be extremely beneficial to have procedures put into place for how I would like the first day of school to go.  On the first day, I would like to spend the bulk of my time getting the students adjusted to my classroom and so that they feel comfortable. So, I will spend the first day introducing myself, addressing a few procedures, and allowing the students the opportunity to introduce themselves to me.  The procedures that my students will need to know for the very next day and every day after that will be the ones I make sure to highlight on the first day. It is important to me that everyday students will enter the classroom quietly and quickly find their seats. To start implementing this procedure, on the first day I will greet my students at the door and direct them to quietly and quickly find the desk that has their name tent on it. Once they find their seat they can doodle on their name tents with the materials that are spread out on the desks.  The name tent doodling will serve as their bell work for the first day and it will give me an opportunity to explain bell work procedures, along with getting the opportunity to get a peek of their drawing style, as well as some of their interests. Another procedure I will go through on the first day is taking attendance. During the first month or so, I will take attendance every day after the bell rings with a question for each student. This will give me an opportunity to learn their names better, to create personal connections with my students, and to ensure that I have at least one direct conversation with each student every day.  During attendance taking time, I expect the students to be quietly listening and talking only when it is their turn to share an answer to my question. Not only do I get to know the students, but it will help the students practice good conversational skills, as well as form connections with their peers. After going over the procedures for coming into the classroom, bell work, and attendance I will give an introduction of myself. I will introduce myself and explain that the students will also have the opportunity to introduce themselves. Before they introduce themselves I will first give the students a tour of the art room. During this tour, I will show my students where materials that they will be using frequently are at and explain that every day I will have a material list on the board.  This material list will let the students know what they need to collect and have ready at their seat before they begin bellwork. On the first day, I won’t go over cleaning procedures for the materials. I will simply show them where everything is and address cleaning procedures as we come upon them. At this point, the class period will be close to complete and I will have students complete a survey where they will be able to list their interests, art experience, things they would like to create, what types of art tools they like to use, as well as school activities they are in. This will help me tailor lessons to their interests and incorporate them throughout the year. To end the class period we will address my expectations for how the students will leave the classroom. It will be my expectation that the students remain in their seats until the bell rings.  After the bell rings, they are to exit the classroom in a quiet/orderly fashion. Over the next few days, we will cover all of the procedures necessary to begin creating artwork in our classroom. When introducing the procedures I will model how I would like the procedures to be carried out, I will have students show me the opposite way, and finally, I will have them demonstrate the correct way to follow the procedure.

In my classroom, there will also be procedures specifically for the students, as well as for the classroom.  I see these procedures working hand in hand to keep the students focused and the classroom running efficiently.  The art room will be full of ongoing projects, so a very important procedure that my students will need to follow is how we are going to handle unfinished projects.  During the first week, my students will create a portfolio that will be used throughout the year. Upon the completion of these portfolios, I will introduce the procedure for unfinished projects.  Each student will have their own flat file drawer, labeled with their name, this is where their portfolios will be kept. When students have a 2-D project in progress, this is where it will be stored at the end of each class period.  If students have 3-D projects that are in progress they will be stored on the shelves at the back of the classroom. Students are to put their projects in these respective spaces at the end of each class period. This will help keep their projects safe until they are finished, as well as keep the classroom clean and working space.  Another important procedure for the art room will be getting the student’s attention. Art making can become noisy, which is ok, students just need to be aware of my signals for their attention. In my classroom, I will have a class doorbell that has three different rings. Each ring signals something different to my students. When students hear doorbell #1 it signals that I need the students’ attention for instructions.  When they hear this bell they should stop what they’re doing, put down all materials, and quietly turn to face me to listen for instructions. If they hear doorbell #2 it signals the students that there are only 5 more minutes of work time. When they hear doorbell #3 it will signal my students to follow the cleanup procedures and get ready for the end of class. We will practice identifying the doorbells and following the procedures for each one during the first week of class.  Throughout the year we will use several different types of art materials and it will be important that we take care of those materials. Proper clean up needs to take place at the end of each art class to ensure that we can keep our materials clean and in good functioning order. For example, when painting students will need to follow the paint brush cleaning procedure. Students will put a dime size drop of soap in the palm of their hand and massage the bristles of the bush in the soap under warm water until all of the paint is removed from the brush.  Then, they will dry the brush with a paper towel and store the paintbrush bristle end up in the paintbrush jar. Each different art material will have its own procedure for taking care of it and at the beginning of the lesson, I will review how the materials are to be taken care of. Continued mistreatment of art tools could lead to sitting out of a project for a 10-minute break to review clean up procedures or using alternative materials for completion of the project.

Another important area to have procedures is in instruction.  Having procedures in this area will aid me in delivering instruction, as well as make it easier for the students to receive the instruction.  Even when content is new, the students will have familiar expectations and procedures to lead them through it. For example, when students are expected to work in groups there will be a procedure for them to follow.  They will know that I will have groups predetermined and posted in the classroom. Along with the group posting, students will be given a list of tasks that need to be completed. This list will be divided up into equal chunks so each student will have an equal amount of tasks to complete.  Students will be able to communicate with each other to choose which chunk of tasks they would like to complete. At the end of the project, each group member will complete a peer review that will be handed in to me. I will approach this procedure with my class when we are ready to begin a group project.  

When projects are completed the students will need to follow the procedure for finishing and displaying the artwork.  Students must take the appropriate measures to finish their artwork for display. For 2-D work, this includes backing and matting their artwork so it can be hung.  For all artwork, students will fill out a student tag to accompany their artwork. The student tag information includes student name, the title of the artwork, the medium used, class period, and date turned in.  A student tag will need to be filled out for every completed project. This procedure gives students the opportunity to see projects through from start to finish and learning valuable skills for finishing artwork.  If a student finishes a project and goes through the entire finishing/displaying procedure and there is still time left in the class period, they may participate in early finisher activities. So many students complete art at different paces, so it is important to have procedures put in place for when they finish and have extra time.  The procedure for early finishers in the art room is as follows, the students will show me their finished work and upon my approval place their work in the finished work location, follow clean-up procedures for the materials they were using, and then wipe their desk down. Once they have followed those procedures they may go to the clay center, free-draw center, work on other unfinished projects, or sketch in their sketchbook until clean up for the end of the period.  Sketchbooks are also a great tool for instruction that has procedures to keep them effective. Students will need their sketchbooks every day in class. Sketchbooks will be used for project proposals, note taking, early finishers, and for weekly sketchbook exercises. Each use of the sketchbook has its’ own set of expectations. When students start brainstorming for a new project they will complete a project proposal in their sketchbook. They will sketch out their top 3 ideas and present them to me to determine the direction for their project.  There will be weekly sketchbook exercises that students will be asked to complete outside of class or during early finisher times. These exercises serve as a way to give students more practice with specific techniques that they will need to use for upcoming projects. Like previously mentioned, sketchbooks are also used as part of the early finisher procedure.

Procedures are not only important for the students and classroom, but for me as a teacher as well.  Having a set of procedures for myself will help me be prepared for different types of situations that may arise throughout the school year.  An important procedure to have established for the beginning of the year is the procedure for parent-volunteers. Some projects and field trips will run more smoothly with the assitance of parent-volunteers.  So, it will be important to have procedures put into place so the volunteers know what is expected of them and feel comfortable in the situation. For my classroom, I will send out a parent-volunteer sign-up sheet at the beginning of each new term, as well as having the sign-up sheet available at open house and conferences.  This sign up list will include slots for field trips, hanging artwork for the student art show, as well as project specific volunteer opportunities. If parents choose to sign up for something, a week before they will be volunteering I will send home a letter, as well as an email containing instructions that the volunteer will need.  In this letter, I will also share my availability if the parent would like to meet in person to go over what will be needed in greater detail. Another important procedure that involves parents is my procedure for parent-teacher conferences. There are parts of this procedure that I will need to complete before a single parent walks into the classroom. I will need to have grade reports for each student printed and placed inside each student’s portfolio of work.  Outside of the classroom, in the waiting area, I will have a basket with sign in cards that parents or guardians can fill out while they’re waiting for their scheduled conference time. The parents or guardians will fill out their names, their student’s name and their contact information on these cards. This will help me keep contact information current for each family. During the conferences I will go over the assignments we have been working on, share student examples, talk about successes, areas of improvement, as well as upcoming projects.  I want conferences to be beneficial for the parents and will make it known that they should express any questions or concerns they have, freely, throughout the conference. I will make sure that I have a notepad to record thoughts and concerns the parents have and that can be put with the student’s file. To keep our conference schedule on track, I will make sure to set a timer for the allotted meeting time. If the timer goes off during a discussion, I will offer to have another meeting when convenient to continue the discussion, whether that be by phone, skype or in person.  Conferences are about keeping parents informed and having open communication, so it is my responsibility to do whatever I can to assist the families in this process.

Another important procedure to have as a teacher is a procedure for when I will be absent.  Sometimes, absences may be unexpected, however, that should never mean that there won’t be anything prepared for a substitute teacher.  There will be a substitute teacher binder that will remain on my desk and will be used at any time that I am absent. This binder will include a welcome letter with my contact information, class lists, seating charts, class schedule, emergency procedures, phone numbers for the office, lesson plans for the day, as well as extra art activities.  Often times it is hard for substitutes to continue instruction for art projects that have already been started. If I think the project would be too complicated, I will select one of the art activities from the substitute binder and prep that lesson. If the students complete this activity, they will be able to choose from early finisher centers, which will be noted in the substitute binder.     

Even with procedures in place, students have outside factors that can affect the way they feel and behave in my classroom.  If a student enters my classroom or becomes angry in my classroom, this doesn’t have to be something that blindsides me. I can have my own procedures put into place for how I will handle this situation.  First and foremost, I will remain calm throughout my interactions with a student who is expressing anger. It will do neither of us any good if I were to respond in an emotional or angry way. In my art room, there will be a quiet space where students who are feeling emotional, whether that's anger, sadness, etc.. may go to calm down for a maximum of 5 minutes.  After their 5 minutes is up, they will be expected to rejoin the classroom and I will not make a big deal of it, as long as they then resume to following classroom procedures. Upon an angry entrance or outburst in the classroom, I will give my students the option to sit with their heads down or go to the quiet space. I won’t try to talk with them right away, instead, I will give them an opportunity to cool down and collect their thoughts.  After giving the student a chance to calm down, I will ask them if they feel ready to talk about it, either in that moment or after class or school.

Creating and implementing procedures takes time and effort. However, the time and effort used to incorporate procedures into the classroom will be well worth it.  Not having plans in place will leave me stressed and jumping from putting out one fire to the next. Students thrive in environments where they know what to expect and know what is expected of them.  Over the course of the semester, I have learned the importance of having procedures for every facet of my classroom. Having procedures put in place will help me be proactive, rather than reactive. Instead of addressing situations for the first time as they arise, I will have thought about the appropriate ways to handle them.  This will help me create a stimulating learning environment, where the focus is truly on the learning at hand.