EVALUATION OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT PLAN

My classroom management plan has been sufficient, although I have cherry picked the parts of it that I implement daily. Although my class is not functioning exactly as I would like it, the important thing is that the 97% of my students that are ready to learn and are not being hindered from learning by the other 3 percent who just come to school for social hour.

I have made several changes to my rules and consequences. I replaced my first consequence, the written reprimand, with behavior improvement plan form that the student fills out. I don't require a parent signature. The students think it is very elementary, but they usually do it rather than have to do the second consequence, which is either detention or a one page writing assignment. I had to add the one page writing assignment as an option because most students would not come to detention before or after school because they ride the bus to school and/or have after school jobs. Also, a parent has to consent to detention and agree to provide transportation in order for the student to be held responsible for attending. Therefore, I've only held detention a few times.

Just as I thought, I am not a fan of rewards, and have used them sparingly. I eliminated the weekly drawings, mainly because I don't have time to do it. I use the little rewards like verbal praise, comments on papers, and positive reports to parents. I have given rewards (like homework passes) to students who have behaved well while other students have not. I can't really say that my rewards plans didn't work, but I have just not implemented them fully. Maybe next semester???

One modification for parental involvement is that I no longer require low test grades to be signed by parents. This is because few students actually brought the tests back signed, and I ended up having to call their parents anyway.

I have changed the emergency bathroom procedure. I tell the students that in cases of emergency, I will not block the doorway to prevent them from leaving, but that they must bring a pass from an administrator to be readmitted to the class.

I retained the entering classroom procedures, but I have no way to enforce them being that I have to stand in the middle of the hallway until the bell rings. While the students do put their homework in the homework box, and then sharpen pencils, they usually don't start the bell ringer until I come in and start walking around to check.

My philosophy of classroom management has not changed at all. However, now that I have a better understanding of my school's procedures and know how I need my classroom to operate, I have modified the initial plan.