Behavior plan

Classroom Discipline Plan 4-Year-Old Preschool

Ellie Garrelts Morningside College Professor Lubbers November 7, 2013

Hypothetical Classroom Grade: 4 year old Preschool Gender: 10 girls, 9 boys Socioeconomic levels: Most are in the middle class, one or two are in the lower SES bracket Ethnicity: 17 Caucasian, 2 Hispanic Class Size: 19 students Education Breakdown: All students are in the general education classroom. 3 boys are in the Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) for part of the day. 1 boy is on the Autism spectrum.

1 boy has pervasive developmental delays. 1 boy is non-verbal. 2 students have ADHD. Reading Levels: All students are emerging readers, since none of the students actually know how to read.

Room Arrangement: My desk will be located in the back corner on the opposite side of the room as the door. This would allow me to see every student in the classroom if I were to sit at my desk. The garbage can is located next to my desk. Behind my desk are two large filing cabinets, teacher’s manuals, and a printer and the computer. All of my teaching supplies such as Command Strips, pencils, staplers, and tape are behind my desk as well. I will use two large tables and put four students on each side and one student on each end. At the front of the room is the whiteboard and a large carpet square where all of the large group instruction takes place.

There are various centers around the room such as dramatic play, science, music and movement, library, and art centers. There are two additional bulletin boards at the front of the room to display student work and student pictures. There are two bulletin boards on the side of the room to display student artwork and current learning.

Personal Philosophy of Classroom Management and Discipline Philosophy of Classroom Management Ellie Garrelts Susie Lubbers EDUC 405: Classroom Management November 7, 2013 Classroom management affects everything in one’s classroom. Effective classroom management helps create a safe and cohesive classroom community, which sets the stage for fun, interactive, and engaging learning experiences for the year.

In my future years of teaching, I shall always strive to have effective classroom management that allows for the creation of safe and fun learning environment. Effective classroom management should meet the needs of all students, not just the needs of typical students. In order to create policies, procedures, and general day-to-day functions for my classroom, I must genuinely know all of my students so that I can create a classroom that is receptive to the needs of each student.

As a student teacher and first year teacher, I must spend a lot of time establishing classroom management. I want to create a fun and interactive classroom where students learn through exploration and discovery. In order for this to occur, my students must be well behaved and manageable. If I spend all of my time correcting problem behaviors, we will never get to engage in the fun and exploratory learning experiences I had planned. As a prospective preschool teacher, I believe it is important for me to create a few important rules and corresponding consequences and rewards for my students. It is important for me to have these rules, consequences, and incentives in place before students begin school so that we can implement the rules starting the first day of school. As a prospective preschool teacher, I believe students must review the pictures each day and explain what the rules mean in their own words in order for them to be cognizant of the rules and fully hold stock in these rules. For preschool, I will use pictures to help explain what each rule looks like. It is my goal that my classroom will be a fun and interactive place where my students will want to be. If I can accomplish this, students will follow the rules because they want to be in the classroom and will avoid behaviors that will result in them being removed from the classroom.

I believe establishing routines and procedures are vital in creating an effectively managed classroom. In the same way that the rules, consequences, and incentives are established at the very beginning of the school year, so should routines and procedures be established immediately.

Students thrive on routine and structure. I believe students need that structure in order to thrive in other areas of development, which routines provide. That’s not to say I want to create a classroom based on rigid inflexibility. I want to establish routines and procedures so that students have a stable foundation to base varied and, sometimes chaotic, learning experiences on.

Students are unique individuals who each bring a unique set of skills and characteristics to the classroom. Because of this, each classroom is a diverse community where the needs of students vary as much as their personality and physical differences. Diversified instruction is a major component in creating engagement in students. Students get bored doing the same thing day after day. As a teacher, I plan on varying my instruction to prevent student boredom, which often results in misbehavior. Along with boosting student engagement, diversified instruction can help meet the needs of all students. Each student has a different learning style. By diversifying instruction, I can switch up the method of instruction to meet the learning styles of all students as well as meet the varied interests of students.

Teaching is a demanding and strenuous career in many aspects. The main reason teachers burn out and switch careers is a lack of classroom management. I plan on being a teacher for many, many years. Therefore, I must implement effective classroom management strategies to keep my sanity while providing for the needs of all of my students. Through effective classroom management, I hope to create a fun and interactive classroom where students feel free to explore the limits of education.

Classroom Rules Respect Yourself Respect Others Respect This Place 1. Respect Yourself. This means you do what you need to do to take care of yourself, be safe, do the right thing, and always do your best. a. Consequences: If you choose to not do the right thing, you will need to take a breather to remember what the right thing is and how to do it. This means you will need to either choose a different activity or friend to play with or take a break and sit in Tucker’s Corner for a few minutes to think about how preschooler’s act. b. Incentives: Students will be praised sporadically for respecting themselves, taking care of themselves, being safe, doing the right thing, and always doing their best.

These characteristics enhance the classroom community and make the classroom a fun and enjoyable learning center, thus allowing the students to participate in fun and interactive learning experiences.

2. Respect Others. This means you need to treat other people the way you want to be treated. a. Consequences: If you do not respect others, you will lose your privilege to play with others for a period of time (4 minutes or until calmed down) while you think about what being a good friend looks like. b. Incentives: The students will be sporadically praised for respecting others through verbal praise or positive letters/phone calls home. Also, when a student respects others, other students want to play with that student. Therefore, this rule has an intrinsic incentive for treating others the way they want to be treated.

3. Respect This Place. This means that we take care of where we are. We use materials and equipment in the right way. If we use something, we put it away in the right place. We clean up our space. a. Consequences: If you do not take care of this place, you will lose your privilege to play with indoor and outdoor classroom materials and equipment. b. Incentives: Students will be rewarded for taking care of the indoor and outdoor classrooms. I will sporadically add new toys/materials to these spaces when students show me that they can pick up after themselves and treat the materials the right way.

Rationale: I only have three rules. These rules are actually the rules for Emmetsburg Community Schools. I have seen these rules in practice and I have never seen a set of rules work better or more efficiently across the grade spans. For preschool, I would put pictures beneath each rule so that students can “see” what this looks like. These rules are simple and easy to remember so the likelihood of students remembering these is fairly high. I also think these rules intrinsically motivate students to behave in the classroom because they help create a positive classroom environment that students want to be a part of. When students follow the rules, they get to fun and interactive things that further engage students in the learning experience.

Procedures to Become Routines Cleanup The classroom must be clean and tidy so that learning can take place. In the preschool classroom, students are rarely sitting down in chairs and working. Often they are up moving around the classroom. For safety reasons, the classroom must be clean and tidy so that students do not pass germs around (more so than four year olds already do) or trip over toys/materials and hurt themselves. I will label all of the shelves with pictures so students know where to put things back on the shelves when they are done using them. Students are to put their belongings in their lockers, which are located in the hallway, when they first arrive at school so their belongings do not clutter the classroom. The paraprofessional (the Iowa Preschool Grant mandates that each classroom must have a paraprofessional and a teacher unless there are ten or fewer students per classroom) or myself will make sure the tables are cleaned with bleach-water to kill bacteria that occur on surfaces within the classroom.

Decoration The classroom will be bright and colorful. The walls will have enlarged photographs of diverse learners, many of whom have disabilities. It is important that diversity be incorporated into the classroom. In small town Iowa, the classrooms tend to be pretty homogenous, with the vast majority of students coming from middle-class, Caucasian families. Students need to become familiar with individuals with different ability levels, of different race/ethnicity, of different religious backgrounds, and of different socio-economic statuses. In some classrooms, pictures on the walls and in books may be the only sources of diversity children see. The classroom will also have the alphabet displayed a minimum of three times to familiarize students with the alphabets and things that begin with each letter to help develop early literacy skills. Similarly, a number line that goes to twenty will be displayed a minimum of two times to ensure that students familiarize themselves with these numbers and are exposed to the number sequence to develop basic counting skills to build a foundation for mathematics. The windows will have window clings on them of shapes, letters, colors, and numbers to help students internalize these concepts. There are five bulletin boards in the classroom. One bulletin board will have pictures of the students and their families on it. Students like looking at pictures of themselves and their classmates and really enjoy having their families on display. One bulletin board will contain project creations related to the unit of study. One bulletin board will have unit materials posted with things such as concept maps on it so that parents and others who enter the room will quickly be able to tell what we are currently learning about. The last bulletin board will be a place to hang student creations. In preschool, students often make pictures at home and bring them to school for the teachers. This bulletin board provides a place for me to hang student creations without them being in the way. If students are overwhelmed by the brightness and quantity of decorations in the classroom, I will take down some to calm the classroom walls.

Enrichment Activities: Students who finish with table work early can put together puzzles or read books from the classroom library while they wait for the other students to finish. I will switch out books and puzzles bi-weekly so students stay engaged in these activities.

Help Outside of Class: I will provide extension activities for parents each week in a parent newsletter. If at any time, parents would like ideas for how to help their child, I will gladly provide strategies to help further extend their child’s learning. I will provide a list of activities to do with their child over Christmas and summer vacations to help parents feel involved in their child’s education. Lastly, I will create take home bags filled with books and corresponding activities for students to take home weekly. Throughout the year, I will send home projects with the students that they may do on their own or with a parent that relate to things we are learning about in the classroom. Many of these activities require parent involvement. I understand that parents may not have the time or desire to help their child with these activities and so these activities are not required. For students whose parents do not work with them at home, I will try to visit with them one on one minimally once a week to review skills and extend their learning.

Clerical Chores Take Home Work: Students will be provided with a clear plastic folder that ties shut at the beginning of the year per school policy. Folders will be sent home at least once per week with things such as student work, parent letters, and important papers including conference forms and field trip slips. School newsletters and notices will also be sent home with students in their folders. It is up to the parents to look for and empty their students’ folder each day. Papers that require parent response should be filled out, put back in the folder, and returned to the classroom teacher. Upon coming to school, students should bring their folders into the classroom, where the paraprofessional or myself will check their folders for important documents or notes.

Beginning of Class: According to the Iowa Preschool Grant, there are two sections of preschool per day.

The first session runs from 8:00-11:00 am and the second session runs from 12:003:00 pm. (The hypothetical classroom previously described could be either section) A parent or guardian must bring students to school each day. When students arrive, they should stop in the hallway and drop off their belongings in their lockers. Students should remove their folder from their backpacks and take it to the paraprofessional or myself. Students must wash their hands with soap and water in the classroom sink to try to minimize the germs being spread from student to student. After students wash their hands, they must go find their name (each students’ name is written on a sentence strip with their picture on the back) and spell it to the paraprofessional or myself. This helps students recognize letters in general and the letters in their name more specifically. As the year goes on, the picture on the back with be replaced with the child’s last name so students learn to spell both their first and last names. Students must write a letter, number, or shape on a whiteboard each day to practice skills they are working on during lesson instruction. Finally, students engage in table work in which they practice relevant skills such as creating patterns, writing letters/numbers, fine motor skills, counting, and various other preschool skills. I will establish this

routine starting the very first day of class so that students know what is expected of them and know what to do each day when they come into class.

Attendance: Students are expected to attend class each day that school meets unless they have an excused absence such as family issues, illness, or important appointments that cannot be made at another time. Attendance in preschool programs is not mandatory, however the student will miss vital learning experiences if he/she misses class. If students must miss class, it is the parents’ responsibility to notify the school of their child’s absence. The office secretary will pass along this information to me so I know the student will be absent. When the student returns to school, the paraprofessional or myself will catch the student up on what they missed. It is important to note, however, that students may not be afforded the chance to do some of the fun activities that he/she missed while he/she was absent. Therefore, parents, if at all possible, should bring their child to school each day.

Supplies: I will provide all the necessary school supplies for students. I will have the basic school supplies such as crayons, pencils, markers, glue, tape, stables, scissors, etc. that students need to complete projects within the classroom. I will also provide things such as Kleenexes and paper towels that are often used in lower elementary classrooms. The school provides the only folder students will need. However, parents must provide all appropriate outdoor apparel (hats, mittens, gloves, coats, boots, snow pants, sweatshirts, jackets) for their child. Parents are encouraged to include an extra outfit for their child in the child’s backpack as accidents still occur from time to time in preschool.

Leaving Class: A parent or guardian must pick up their child from preschool each day. Most days students will be given 10-20 minutes of outdoor play time at the end of the day.

Students will dress in the necessary apparel for going outside, gather their belongings, and take them outside so they can leave straight from outdoor playtime. At the beginning of the year, parents must note a list of individuals who are cleared to pick their child up from school. One of the individuals listed on the sheet, unless otherwise specified in a written document, must pick up the child from school.

Letter to Parents November 7, 2013 Dear Parent or Guardian, I hope you and your child have had a wonderful summer and are getting excited for the upcoming school year! My name is Ellie Garrelts and I am your child’s preschool teacher for the upcoming school year. I am excited to work with you and your student as we explore the world of education together. I look forward to laying a strong academic foundation for your child to build on in future years through various learning experiences and activities.

This year we will cover a variety of basic skills such as counting, letter and number recognition, rhyming, syllabication, knowledge of letter sounds, and basic reading/ mathematics skills. I will try to provide fun and engaging learning activities to stretch your children’s academic capabilities. Most of our learning will be through daily activities such as large group and small group meetings. Your child will engage social learning experiences frequently as the class as a whole investigates various contexts and projects.

I have three rules in my classroom. These are also the rules for the entire school district. The rules are simple, but encompass a wide variety of things. The rules are as follows: respect yourself, respect others, and respect this place. These three simple rules must be followed if we are to have a fun, safe, and enjoyable classroom community. We will review these three rules every day during group meeting. It is my hope that students will not only follow these rules inside the classroom, but outside the classroom as well.

Studies show parental involvement in a child’s education is one of the most important factors in raising student self-esteem and academic achievement. Most experts agree that parental involvement should go beyond attendance at teacher conferences and open house. I realize that each of your families is unique, with its own priorities, needs, talents and time issues, so we try to provide as many different kinds of opportunities for parental involvement as possible. I encourage you to volunteer in the classroom, help with special events such as classroom parties, family night, or field trips, car pool with other parents to bring children to and from school, share hobbies or work-related skills with students in an informal presentation, read stories to the class, read to your child at home, practice academic skills at home, work on school-related projects at home, share in open communication with myself and school personnel regularly, be a member of a parent-involvement group such as P.I.E (Partners in Education) and actively read parent letters.

I also encourage you to share academic activities that you do with your child with me so that we can utilize many different resources for learning experiences. Also, please make sure to check your child’s folder each day, as that is how I will communicate with you most frequently.

As we grow and learn in preschool, we will explore various units of study. We use a projectoriented approach meaning that we focus on one large topic at a time and explore various components each day. I will send home activities and projects with your child to complete as extended learning activities. I love seeing what everyone comes up with! I will display these family projects in the hallway so others know what we are learning in preschool.

We will meet face to face for four conferences throughout the year. I would like to include the student in each conference. We will have a before school conference in the classroom, a home visit conference at the end of the first quarter, and classroom conferences at the end of the third and fourth quarters. If there is ever a time that you would like to meet with met to discuss something, we can arrange a meeting time. Communication between families and myself is an important part of helping your child get the most out of his or her preschool experience.

I ask families to bring snacks for your child’s class approximately once every three weeks. I will send home a snack calendar each month in your child’s folder. Your child should bring home a snack sack the day before he or she is responsible for snacks. I will provide a list of snack ideas for you to look at in the back, on the back of the snack calendar, and by our classroom door. Any student allergies will be listed on the idea sheet. The child’s name will be on the calendar for your child’s birthday (half-birthday or closest school day to your child’s birthday), so that he or she will be able to bring a birthday treat. If it is a hardship for you to provide snacks, please talk to me and we will work something out. Thank you for your help!

I am looking forward to getting to know you and your child this year. It is always exciting to watch children learn and grow. I am anxious to work with you and your student to make this a great preschool experience for everyone! You are always welcome to stop in and visit the class as we enjoy guests and the students love to tell people what we are working on and learning. If you ever have any questions or concerns, stop in or get in touch with me using the information provided below. Thank you and welcome to preschool!

Ms. Ellie Garrelts West Elementary Telephone Number: 712-852-4485 My Telephone Number: 712-363-0370 My email: eag001@morningside.edu

Please detach this portion from the above letter and return it to the teacher as our first form of parent/teacher communication. Thank you!

_________________________ Signature of Parent/Guardian

___________________________ Child’s Name

___________________ Date

Supplemental Resources Character Education: It is important to teach student the pillars of character along with academic and social skills.

We should strive to educate our students about character in a fun and interactive way that allows our students to internalize these pillars of character and utilize them in their every day lives.

I will introduce the character education program of my choice, Character Critters1, at the beginning of the school year, probably the second week of school. I will teach one character critter per day until all of the character critters have been taught. We will spend one day reviewing the Character Critters as well. I will refer to the Character Critters each day during large group instruction after we review the rules, as the six pillars of character go hand-inhand with my rules that focus on respect. When students act in ways that violate the six pillars of character, I will reference the Character Critter in question to help students redirect their own behavior.

I will use Character Critters to teach character education in my classroom. Character Critters are based on the six pillars of character but are modified so young children can understand and implement these pillars of character in their own lives. Each character critter has a story that goes along with him/her to help illustrate each pillar of character and teach young children about that particular pillar of character (The Character Critters and character critter stories may be found at http://fcs.okstate.edu/parenting/building_character/critters/#tommy).

Tommy the Trustworthy Turtle: Meet Tommy. He likes to be trustworthy. Every day he tries to tell the truth, follow the rules, not take things that don’t belong to him, and do what he says he’ll do so that he follows through on his promises.

Rusty the Respectful Raccoon: Meet Rusty. He likes to be respectful. Every day he tries to be kind to his friends and family, use good manners, not to hit or hurt, and talk about this problems.

Roy the Responsible Rabbit: Meet Roy. He likes to be responsible. Every day he tries to do what he is supposed to do, keep on trying, always do his best, and help his friends and family.

Fran the Fair Frog: Meet Fran. She likes to be fair. Every day she tries to know and follow the rules, share with her friends and family, listen to her friends and family, and not blame her friends and family when things don’t go as planned.

1 Parsons, Leslie cooper and Rabecca E. White. (2013). Children and families: Building http://fcs.okstate.edu/parenting/building_character/critters/#tommy.

character. Retrieved from

Carrie the Caring Cat: Meet Carrie. She loves to care. Every day she tries to be kind to people, show her family that she cares, say please and thank you, and help people.

Cindy the Citizen Crab: Meet Cindy. She likes to be a good citizen. Every day she tries to cooperate, follow the rules, respect people in charge, and not litter.

ELL Students in the Classroom: Classrooms today are much more diverse than they were in the past. It is my duty as a teacher to teach ALL of my students no matter the barriers that may exist such as a lack of linguistic communication. Each year, the number of English Language Learners (ELL) rises.

The most common native language is Spanish. I must ensure that all of my students are provided with the necessary supports to help them learn. Many strategies exist to support student learning for ELL students.

Strategies: Classroom Labels- I will label everything in the classroom with pictures, the word in English, and the word in Spanish. These visual representations link the English word with the Spanish word as well as provide a picture to anchor these words with. This will also help all students put materials away where they belong since there is a picture of the object marking it’s place on the shelf. Students can take ownership of putting materials away when they have visual cues that are not dependent on language.

Total Physical Response (TPR): Providing ELL students with TPR helps students understand the concept. When students can act out a concept or associate a physical action with a concept, they are far more likely to understand and remember it. I will use songs with actions to help teach students basic concepts. Kinesthetic learning is a great way for students to get involved with their own learning.

Thematic Units: Teaching concepts in thematic units helps improve ELL students’ vocabulary through repetition of theme-related words. Students have repeated exposure to these words, thus learning these words in context.

Establish a Routine: Establishing a routine helps all students settle into life inside of a classroom. In preschool, all students initially have difficulty adjusting to the role of student. For ELL students, this is even more difficult as they do not always understand what the teacher, paraprofessional, or other students are trying to say to them. It is important to establish a routine right away so they can feel more comfortable and secure in their role as student because they know what to do and what is expected of them at each point during the day.

Small Group Work: Students often feel more comfortable collaborating with other students than engaging in teacher-led instruction. This is especially true for ELL students who may not be secure in their use of English. Students can pick up on social and academic language while learning together in small groups. Social experiences can help students become more comfortable with speaking in class and foster friendships with peers that boost their self-esteem and confidence, all factors that help students increase their second language acquisition.

Interest Inventories: I will complete informal interest inventories with the students during their first parent/teacher conference. I will use these informal interest inventories to get to know the student and his or her interests. Depending on their communication skills, I may have to rely on observation to assess students’ interests instead of linguistic communication. I will use students’ interests to plan engaging lessons that students will want to explore and learn about.

Parent Conference Worksheet Beginning of the Year Conference: Child’s Name: ___________________________________________________________ Parent/Guardian’s Name(s): _________________________________________________ Were there any special circumstances surrounding your child’s birth such as premature birth, early trauma, adoption, prolonged hospitalization, etc.? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Child’s age when he/she started walking_______________________________________ Child’s age when he/ she was completely toilet trained during the day______night______ What time does your child go to bed at night?___________________________________ Does your child go to bed easily?_____________________________________________ What time does your child get up in the morning? _______________________________ Does he/she wake up easily? ________ Does he/she nap at home/daycare?____________ Does your child currently or has he/she ever had any special issues with speech, vision, hearing, eating and/or health? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Does your child dress him/her self?___________________________________________ Do you have any concerns with toileting or self-help skills?________________________ Has your child ever been hospitalized? If so, for what? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Name all of the people living in your household. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Do you have any pets? _____________________________________________________

Does your child have any special fears or extreme dislikes? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Does your child have any special attachment such as a blanket, thumb, etc.? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ How does your child relate to other children? ___________________________________ How does your child relate to other adults? _____________________________________ What other preschool, daycare, or group experience has your child had? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What is your child’s reaction to new situations? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Does your child have any specific jobs or responsibilities at home? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What type of discipline do you use at home when your child is having a rough time? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What are some of your child’s favorite activities at home? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Does your child have any favorite songs, stories, or books? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What are some things you have noticed that your child has learned or is interested in learning? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What are some things your child is good at? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

Hand Preference. Right__________ Left ___________ How does your child act when he/she is angry? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Does your family have any special traditions you celebrate? Are there any holidays you do not want your child to participate in? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What are your expectations for this preschool year? What specific things would you like to see your child learn and do? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Is there any other information that would be helpful for us to know to make this year successful? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

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Parent/Guardian Signature

Teacher’s Signature

Mid- Year Conferences:

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2 http://www.livinglaughingandloving.com/2013/01/parent-­‐teacher-­‐conference-­‐forms-­‐free-­‐printables.html