Sami Richmond

EDUC 232
Classroom Management & Communication Plan
Management Style and Philosophical Beliefs

Effective classroom management is crucial to successful teaching

and learning. Without the ability of teachers to physically manage their
classroom, including monitoring and controlling students behaviors,
classrooms would essentially be a waste of space where no learning
would occur. Imagine students are consistently displaying disruptive
behaviors and teachers have poor classroom management. The entire
class would be spent in a complete whirlwind, with negative
interactions between teachers and students.
As someone with a psychology/mental health background, I
sincerely believe positive reinforcement is the key to effective
classroom management. In my future teaching practices, I intend to
USE positive reinforcement significantly more than any type of
punishment. Due to this, I tend lay between the authoritative and
democratic classroom management styles. With students, I tend to be
fair. I tend to find areas to compliment and reward students. I think this
is especially important working in special education.
While I tend to be fair with students, I recognize that fair is not
always equal. I believe this statement is especially true when working
with students with behavioral disorders. Disciplinary consequences
(which I already stated I aspire to use sparingly, because I prefer
reinforcement) for students with behavioral disorders may be different
than typically developing peers. For example, a student with a
behavior intervention plan who frequently lashes out verbally in class
may receive simply a nonverbal prompt for his/her action, while a
student who is not on a plan may acquire a more severe consequence.
This is a concept that I struggled with early on, but after several
teachers and administrators have modeled how effective this concept
can be, I have grown to establish it as part of my philosophical
classroom management beliefs.
In conclusion, I intend to have effective classroom management
by using traits of an authoritative leader and democratic leader. In
addition, I will use positive reinforcement often and punishment
sparingly. When I do need to use punishment techniques, I will use a
fair-fair isnt always equal mindset.

Establishing a Positive Classroom Culture

I plan to develop student-teacher relationships and establish a

positive classroom culture immediately upon meeting my students. I
believe it is extremely important to create a safe place within my
classroom, which means I must establish a comfortable classroom
community off the bat. I believe students need to feel safe and
comfortable around their teachers AND their peers.

The ABCs of Me activity truly appeals to me, because it allows

students to share personal details about themselves. In addition, it
allows students to see and learn details about EACH OTHER, as the
final products will be placed around the classroom. To encourage
students to be comfortable with their teacher, I will plan to model the
activity using my own name and details prior to the students
completing the assignment.
Developing Classroom Rules and Procedures

Prior to coming up with my complete set of classroom rules and

procedures, I intend to use the above checklist to help give me ideas of
how to do so. Once again, I have to think about this from the angle of
working with special education students. Generally speaking, students
with special education needs prefer structure over flexibility. Due to
this, I will have a sketched out idea of all rules and procedures prior to
the first day of school. In addition to structure, however, students with
special education needs also enjoy the freedom of choice. This is why I

decided to have a sketched out idea not a set-in-stone idea.

Students will be told the rules and procedures that I have come up
with, and they will be allowed to edit them to allow themselves to be
held accountable for their actions.
The rules in class will be relatively flexible, as students will be
given a 3 strike policy before having any repercussion or
consequence. Expectations will be VERY clear for students ahead of
time, and students will also be reminded of expectations throughout
the year. I believe that it is important to have the expectations posted
around the classroom, as it will provide a visual for my students.
I will be incredibly organized and in-tune to what is going on with
my students. Again, I believe from a special education standpoint, it is
ESPECIALLY important to develop relationships with students. In
addition, my roster will be smaller than general education teachers,
which will give me an opportunity to REALLY know what is going on
with my students. In addition, I will be required to progress monitor
students with academic goals, which will allow me to keep track of
student learning throughout the year.

Classroom Layout

Some things to note on my classroom layout include that the

teachers desk faces the door. This will allow me to help monitor
students behaviors, as I will be aware of who is coming in and leaving
the classroom. I will also be facing students and walking around while
teaching. In addition, students will be asked often to work together, so
they will be organized as four students to one table. Since often times
students with special education needs have difficulty with sustaining
attention AND/OR behavioral difficulties, I have also provided individual
desks that students can work at (and face the wall to eliminate
distraction). During my approach to classroom management section, I
spoke a lot about positive reinforcement. I have provided two
computers in my classroom to reward students who are on behavior
intervention plans by allowing them to use 5 minutes of tech time for
meeting their goals.

Monitoring the Classroom and Responding to Student

Misbehavior

Once again, the category of responding to student behavior will

be slightly different for me as a special education teacher (compared
to general education teachers). First, it is extremely important to
realize that many of my students will likely be on behavior intervention

plans. Due to this, it is ESPECIALLY important for me to monitor the

classroom constantly. I think this will be a relatively easy feat for me,
as I will have a smaller classroom, AND I have experience in this area
as an associate.
When students are off task, I will begin with a nonverbal prompt,
such as a headshake or a glance. If the nonverbal prompt doesnt
work, I may say the students name out loud. If that doesnt work, I
may have a private conversation with a student. I am a firm believer
that a private conversation with students works significantly better
than calling students out in front of the entire class. If the behaviors
continue after the private conversation, then it may be time to
consider further consequences.
For students who are on behavior plans, I will follow the plan and
have the student complete a processing sheet, such as the one above.
The processing sheet will include the student looking into what
happened and thinking of how to change the behavior for the next
time. I will generally have filling out this sheet be the main
consequence for misbehaviors. The only types of behavior that I will
have zero tolerance for in my classroom will be violent behaviors or
sexualized behaviors. In the case of these behaviors, students will be
sent directly to the principal and parents will be contacted.

Parents as Partners

I firmly believe that parent involvement in education is crucial to

student success. In special education, it will be very important for me
to update parents on how their children are performing. This is
especially important in relation to IEP goals. I will plan to communicate
with parents however they feel most comfortable email, phone call,
meetings, etc. I will frequently contact parents with good news, to
lesson the negative impact of calling with not so good news.
If a parent is overly involved in his or her childs schooling, I will
find ways to invite the parent in to volunteer. As a special education
teacher, I will often be overwhelmed with paperwork which would be
a great option for a parent to help with. If a parent is NOT involved, I
will continue to send good news home in hopes of encouraging the
parent to become involved. I will also invite the uninvolved parent into
the classroom and encourage participation in his or her childs
homework.
As the picture above (which I love!) suggests, family is truly at the
center of being a responsible student and overall human. Parent
involvement is so important, that communication with families will be
one of my main goals as a teacher. If some of my students are not
fortunate enough to have caring families, I will provide a safe place at
school and be very knowledgeable of community resources.