What will my morning routine be?
At the beginning of each day, I am going to greet my students by the door. If the space allows, they will line up in front of the classroom. I will welcome them by smiling, asking them how they are doing and answering any possible questions they might have. Students are going to enter the classroom one at a time. When entering, they will put their homework folders in the special container called “Homework”, which will be located by the door. Lunch tickets and notes from home will be given directly to me when the students enter the classroom. As far as the backpacks go, sometimes they might be quite large and bulky. That’s why I prefer my students keeping the backpacks in the back of the room, preferably where the coats will be located.
How will I start the day?
Depending on their grade level, my students will be given a morning assignment, which will be prepared for them the day before. I will post a different assignment at the same place every day so that the students know where to find it. They are going to start working on their task immediately after they enter the room and put their stuff away. I will use this time to take roll, do the lunch count and other things to prepare for the upcoming day. This technique is recommended by Harry Wong. For the morning routine, my students will have a procedure that looks approximately like this: Quietly walk into the classroom, remove coat or jacket, empty backpack or book bag, have two sharpened pencils, books and materials read,; read the agenda for the day then begin the morning assignment on your own. (“The First Days of School” by H.Wong, 2009, p. 126)
What will I do with a student/students who finish working on an assignment faster than others?
For students who learn or finish working on the material more easily and quickly than others, I am going to provide plenty of enrichment activities on the same topic such as projects, small-group and exploratory activities. Educational games, puzzles, arts and crafts, science and outdoor activities will help such students develop their creativity, improve memory, social and problem-solving skills. As a resource, I might use the California Association for the Gifted website –http://www.cagifted.org/. They provide very useful information for educators as well as challenging activities for these students.
Research suggests that enrichment activities are beneficial not only for gifted students and fast achieves but also for the rest of the students. That’s why I am going to try to incorporate these activities into my lesson whenever I can, so all the students can enjoy and benefit from them.
What will I do if a student didn’t manage to finish working on their assignment on time?
If a student fails to complete their in-class homework, they will be expected to do it at home along with their homework assignments or sometime during the day in class. If I ask the student to finish their assignment during the day in class, I will make sure that they don’t miss important information while working on it.
How will I distribute and collect papers?
When collecting and distributing materials, I am going to establish two procedures recommended by Lee Canter in his “Classroom Management for Academic Success”: 1) When Distributing Papers: take just enough for yourself, pass the rest to the next person in the row or the table, speak in a quiet voice. 2) When Collecting Papers: Place your papers on top of the other papers, make sure your paper faces the same direction as others, speak in a quiet voice. (“Classroom Management for Academic Success” Canter, 2006, p 274-275)
What will I do about pencil sharpening?
In the back of the room I will have two cans for pencils, one will be called “Sharpened Pencils”, another will be called “Dull Pencils”. Whenever a student needs a new pencil, he/she will walk to the cans, put their dull pencil in the “Dull Pencils” can and take a new pencil from the “Sharpened Pencils” can. My teacher’s aide or myself will sharpen the pencils after school as needed. If my students keep continuously losing their pencils, I might have them take 2 new pencils as they enter the classroom every day. At the end of the day they would return their used pencils to the “Dull Pencils” can for sharpening.
How will I teach my students to walk in line?
Teaching students to walk in line can be very challenging, because children naturally have a lot of energy. It can be a little difficult for them to stay in place for longer periods of time. Lee Canter recommends to use the following procedure: walk directly behind the person or in front of you, keep your hands to yourself, do not talk. (Canter, 2006, p. 270) I am also going to use preventive management strategies related to teaching students how to walk in line. They are: “teaching students how to line up first, assign a line leader and caboose, place myself where I can easily monitor student behavior, let the students know that I am monitoring them, keeping track of students who choose to receive consequences, have students who need support walk beside me, stop the class if students become too disruptive and start all over again, chunk the walk, buddy students up, teach them to constantly have keep one foot on the ground, stop before entering the building”. (Canter, 2006, p. 172-174)
Before teaching my students to walk in line, I will explain them about my expectations for this procedure. I will tell them that it’s important to follow my directions, not to push or shove their group mates, be polite, and walk quickly, safely and quietly (Canter, 2006, p. 172).
What will I do to keep my students safe during a field trip?
Before taking my students on any field trip, I am going to review school policies regarding the field trips; for example, the Field Trip Handbook, if I work for LAUSD.
For the field trips, I am going to assign each student their “Field Trip Buddy”. They will be responsible for being together at all times and keeping up with a group. I will emphasize that to be safe and not to get lost, it’s extremely important to follow the procedures below. If one of the items from the procedure list is not followed, the consequence for this will be worth 5 tickets plus a letter of apology. During a field trip, I will expect my students to follow these guidelines: 1) Follow the teacher’s or teaching Aide’s directions at all times, 2) Have your contact information with you at all times, 3) Follow the bus driver’s directions and policies at all times. 4) Always be in your teacher’s, teacher’s aide and your Field trip buddy’s view.
I am thinking about teaching a class on how to behave during field trips and bus rides. I will explain to my students about the importance of staying safe in both cases. Students will learn the procedure and I will explain to them the consequences. In addition, I will talk to the bus driver beforehand and get the students familiar with the bus rules and procedures.
For my English Language Learners I will use visual aides and videos in order to convey the importance of these procedures.
What will I do when a student needs to go to the bathroom?
I think it would be a good idea to implement my ticket policy with my students. Unfortunately, some students have a tendency to look upon using a restroom break as an opportunity to skip parts of a class. This can be particularly crucial to their ability to learn critical material. To reduce the missing material time to a minimum, I am going to explain to my students that if they choose to use the restroom, they will give me 2 tickets each time (for information about tickets, please look at the “Behavior Management” section). If a student has a medical condition, they will be exempt from having to give me back two tickets.
What will I do about student homework?
Before giving my students any homework assignment, I will make sure that they know how to do it. I will provide clear explanations and will answer their questions about it. Additionally, it is very important to emphasize the quality of the homework for students and not quantity. I personally wouldn’t ask my students to do 20 exercises in one day. Instead, I will ask them to do one or two, but in a steady pace. I will ask them to think about the processes we learned and apply their knowledge in preparing their assignments as best as they can. My goal for them is to avoid frustration and keep the work interesting and engaging. I think it is very important to, whenever possible, connect homework with a leisure activity. For example, if we studied adjectives today, I would ask students to write a few sentences with adjectives, which they would hear tonight watching their favorite TV program. I’d like to try to make their homework as interesting as I can. If a student has been diligent enough to do their homework five days a week without missing any assignment, they will receive a reward.
How will I dismiss my students in the end of the day?
At the end of the day I will give my students enough time to gather their belongings and prepare to leave. I will have an alarm set for a specific time that would indicate that I should finish my instruction and tell my students to get ready to go home. When preparing to leave the classroom, my students will follow procedures recommended by Dr. Canter. These procedures are: “gather belongings, get ready to leave, leave” (Canter, 2006, p 198). In order to make the process more comprehensible to students, each procedure will have a more detailed explanation:
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Gather Belongings: collect outdoor clothing, pack up books or backpacks, pick up empty lunch boxes;
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Get Ready to Leave: review homework assignments, put away personal materials, put away classroom materials, do your duty (if you are a classroom helper this week), put up your chair, wait for your dismissal;
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Leave: leave quickly and quietly, exit the campus according to school policies (Canter, 2010, p.199).
What will I do when a student missed school?
If a student was absent from classes, he/she will have to make up the work done in class. I am going to determine the amount of work that needs to be made up on a case-by-case basis. If a student missed a day or two, they will have to make up all the work that’s required. If it has been more than three days, I might determine the value of each assignment and choose the most appropriate ones. This way the student will not feel overloaded with the amount of work they have to do for the previous lessons as well as the future ones.
If a student was absent for a long period of time, I will set aside time for one-on-one tutoring in order to help him/her to catch up. Also, each student will be assigned a homework buddy. A homework buddy is responsible for making sure that all the papers that are supposed to get to this student are on his/her desk as well as explaining what this student needs to do in order to complete their homework.
Important! Depending on the grade level I am teaching, the classroom procedures may be reviewed and revised at all times.