Classroom Management @ SSS
Classroom Management Plan (01/01/2022)
I Positive Classroom Culture
Positive Classroom culture is one of the 4 teaching processes in Singapore Teaching Practice
a) There are 5 teaching areas in Positive Classroom Culture.
1) Establishing Interaction and Rapport: Teachers build positive relationships with students, and make them feel valued as individuals. Positive teacher-student interaction and rapport are based on care and mutual respect. Teachers also foster positive student-to-student relationships through facilitating meaningful collaboration and interaction.
2) Maintaining Positive Discipline: Teachers create a supportive environment for learning by applying disciplinary strategies in a sensitive, fair, and consistent manner in the classroom. Positive discipline involves teachers acknowledging and reinforcing good behaviours and responding appropriately when students misbehave.
3) Setting Expectations and Routines: Teachers set clear expectations and routines as part of good classroom management and effective teaching. Teachers shape students’ understanding of appropriate and inappropriate behaviours, and the consequences of their actions. Routines refer to sets of procedures organised around time, concepts, or a specific learning activity.
4) Building Trust: Teachers establish trust with students to develop a conducive classroom climate for learning. Trust is fostered when students feel that their teachers care for them, value them as individuals, and know them well personally. In a safe and trusting environment, students confidently participate in the learning.
5) Empowering Learners: Teachers encourage students to take ownership of their learning. During the learning process, teachers allow students to be involved in decision- making, to take intellectual risks, and to view mistakes as learning opportunities
The focus of this document is “Setting Expectations and Routines”.
b) Setting Expectations and Routines
Teachers set clear expectations and routines as part of good classroom management and effective teaching. Teachers shape students’ understanding of appropriate and inappropriate behaviours, and the consequences of their actions.
Routines refer to sets of procedures organised around time, concepts or a specific learning activity.
c) What are Procedures?
Procedure is used to accomplish a task. It is not a rule and there are no consequences if the procedure is not done properly.
The procedure is simply rehearsed again and again until the desired task is done.
d) Difference between Discipline and Procedures
Discipline concerns how students behave. Procedures concern how things are done.
Discipline has consequences and rewards. Procedures have no consequences or rewards.
Procedures guide students in how to get things done in a classroom.
Procedures need to be explained by the teacher and understood by the students from the first day.
Procedures: What the teacher wants done
Routines: What the students do automatically
3 Steps for Teaching Procedures: Explain – Rehearse – Reinforce
II Classroom Management Plan @ SSS
A classroom management plan is the organised set of procedures in the classroom. It is the law of the educational classroom. This plan sets to make teaching and learning achievable in the teaching learning process.
An effective classroom management plan establishes and sustains an orderly environment in the classroom. It Increases meaningful academic learning, facilitates social and emotional growth and decreases negative behaviours and increases time spent academically engaged.
Good classroom management is based on the behaviour of teachers and not the behaviour of students. In a well-managed classroom, the teacher takes action.
It is the teacher who plays the main role in planning, organising procedures and resources, arranging the environment to maximise efficiency, monitoring students' progress, anticipating potential problems.
Most behaviour problems in the classroom are caused by the teacher’s failure to teach students how to follow procedures.
No Procedure
1 Attendance
2 Greeting
3 Movement Out of Classroom
4 Walking from point to point
5 Getting Ready for Lesson
6 Starting a Lesson
7 During a Lesson
8 Ending a Lesson
9 Snack Break
10 Handling a distracted student
11 Handling a challenging student
12 Change of periods
13 Recess in canteen
14 Signals
15 Collection/Distribution of work
16 Non-submission of homework
17 Absentees
18 Homework for Absentee
19 Arrangement of files and books
20 Class Duty Roster
Each of the above procedures are elaborated below:
1) Attendance
- Form teacher is to check and confirm attendance before the start of the first period.
- Form teacher is to write the attendance and names of absentees (if any) on
the whiteboard.
- All students are to be accounted for before the start of any lesson.
- Do touch base with the parents if the student is not present for the day.
- Alert the Year Head for continuous/unusual trend of absence.
- Record the daily attendance in ScMobile and Form teacher to follow up with the
reason for absence.
2) Greeting
Before lesson starts:
- Stand properly with hands at the back
- Greet “Good morning/afternoon, teacher’s name.”
- Greet with a positive intonation
If there a need to set up laptop, empower a student to do it. Teacher is to stand in the middle of the classroom for presence and position until they are ready. Teacher should not be going in and trying to start things leaving the students waiting.
After lesson ends:
- Stand properly with hands at the back
- Say “Thank you, teacher’s name. May God bless you and have a nice day”.
- Express the thanks with a positive intonation
3) Movement out of classroom
Adopt the two rows LINE-up rules
- Look forward, stand next to partner assigned
- In straight lines (with social distance)
- No noise - walk briskly and quietly
- Ears listening (Respect students in other classrooms who are in the process of learning)
4) Walking Orderly
- Make use of the line Leaders to control class movement from point to point.
- Have stop points during the movement (before turning corners, before going down/up the staircases, when the distance to the next destination is long etc) to ensure students move together as a class safely.
- The teacher should always be in a position to observe the class movement.
5) Getting ready for lesson
Ready with TABLE rules
Ready means:
- To have stationery on the table and bag on the floor (bag should rest on the table’s leg)
- Always face forward
- Both feet on the floor
- Lean forward. No slouching or resting on the table.
- Eyes looking and ears listening
State the items that should be on the table and inform the students to keep the rest. The learning space (table, floor around them etc) should be neat and clean before starting any lesson.
6) Start a lesson
- Do not start to speak if students are unsettled. Set a specific time limit for students to get ready i.e. 1-2 minutes.
- Wait silently before starting the lesson.
- If the lesson cannot start because students are still unsettled/talking, get them to stand or stretch.
- Reiterate to them that you are ready to teach so they should be ready to learn.
- Do not start the lesson in order to avoid rushing for SOW. Ensure the class is ready before proceeding with the lesson.
- Show them how to be active learners.
7) During a lesson
- Every student should be ready to answer questions.
- When eliciting responses, avoid getting students to raise their hands.
- Teachers can consider using the Class Dojo tool (Random) to help pick a student.
- Allow short breaks during lessons (shut-eyes, stretching, brain breaks, etc)
- Stop lesson and monitor students for compliance during prayers.
8) End a lesson
- After the summary/lesson closure, tell students to put away their materials and
get ready for the next class.
- Teach them to clean up their area and pack up promptly (if necessary) before next
lesson/ going home.
- Do wipe down before going to another class or home.
- Ensure order before ending the class
9) Conduct snack break
- Explain why sharing of food is not allowed.
- Give students time to wash / sanitise their hands.
- Do not allow them to walk around in the classroom.
- Keep snack break to 10 minutes.
- Observe the type of food students are having. Remind students the type of food they should consider having for snack breaks.
10) Handling a student who is distracted
- Have a distraction basket/box in class
- When a student is not paying attention as he is playing with his stationery or reading a book during lesson, approach him and point to the Distraction Box.
- The student will leave the stationery/book in the box and he will collect it only at the end of the lesson.
Record their disruptive behaviour (e.g singing songs, making comments, talking incessantly)
- Inform their parents if the disruptive behavior continues.
Teacher can consider using a personalized progress log or use Class Dojo system to reward for good/improved behavior for these students.
11) Handling a challenging (behavioural) student (can refer to CMT docs too)
- Stay calm and remain in control. Be professional
- Remind the student of the procedure or expectation he is not following.
- Ask the student to go to the reflection corner or put his head down on the table and rest for a while.
- Talk to student about his behaviour away from class. Explain objective of the procedure.
- Do not ask the pupils to stand outside class/out-of sight
- Seek help from AED/School Counsellor/YH/DM if the student is extremely disruptive/posing a danger to the rest.
12) Transition to another class/Change of periods (e.g. MT, Ethics and Catechism, etc)
Teacher:
- Teacher in class is to end lesson 5 minutes earlier.
- While packing, signal for “Guest Students” to enter through the front door.
- “Home Students” are to leave through the back door.
Students:
- Quickly pack up.
- “Guest Students” are to sit outside in twos silently and
- Wait for teacher’s signal to enter through the front door.
- “Home Students” are to quickly leave from the back door and walk quietly to the next class.
13) Recess in the Canteen
- No running in the canteen.
- Wait in line when queuing to buy food. Do not cut queue. Observe safety distance.
- Say “Please” and “Thank you” when ordering and receiving food.
- Masks are to be put on at all times except when eating and drinking.
- Masks are to be put on when students are talking.
- Students should remain seated at their assigned seats except when buying food, going to the toilet/bookshop.
- No changing of seats.
- Do wipe down and wait at the assigned seat for cue to return to class.
Teachers are to join classes at the canteen where possible or scheduled by Level (e.g. each level 3 teachers to maintain order and discipline)
14) Signals
- For Attention (Hands at One/Two/Three)
At One- Student raises his hand and look at the teacher.
At Two- Student puts a finger on his lip.
At Three- Student folds his arm.
- Going to the toilet
Signal intent with a ‘T-sign’.
A maximum of two students at a time. (Primary 1 and 2)
Only one student at a time. (Primary 3 to Primary 6)
Student is to write his name on the whiteboard and put on the movement pass before leaving the classroom.
Walk quietly to/from the toilet.
- Fill up water bottle
Signal intent by raising water bottle.
As far as possible, no student should be filling up water bottles during lesson time.
If needed, students are only allowed to fill only their personal water bottle at appropriate time during the lesson.
Students should fill up their water bottles before/afterschool starts and during recess/snack time.
Remind students to label their water bottle and discourage metal water bottle.
- Ask for help / a question
Raise a hand and wait patiently to be called upon.
15) Procedure for Collection/Distribution of Work
- Assign a row/group leader for every row/group
- Row/group leader will collect and distribute work
- Leader has to check the following:
Name, class and date has been written (remind his classmate if they are not written)
Queue up and hand in to the teacher (inform the teacher / indicate who has not submitted)
16) Non-submission of Homework
- 1st time : Reminder (write in student diary)
- 2nd time : Inform parents in Class Dojo about the non-submission and inform them that his actions will be recorded in the discipline record form.
- 3rd time/more: Record in the Discipline Record form
Inappropriate behavior eg disruptions and non-submission of work – refer to Student Management record on offences
17) Procedure for Absentees
- Submit MC to the form / co-form teacher before assembly starts the next morning (e-copies through email or photos can be accepted)
- Check the homework board for any missed work (submit to the teacher by the stipulated date)
18) Homework for Absentees
- Have a box or basket for absentees. Leave it on the student’s table. Or a general Absentee box placed near the teacher’s table
- All subject teachers are to leave his worksheets/books in it. When the student returns, he collects all the papers in it and returns the file/basket to the designated place on the shelf. (if you decide to have individual box/basket)
19) Arrangement of files and books
- Arrange them neatly on the shelves (by subject).
- For files, consider to arrange them upright and not stacking them.
- Books are to be placed neatly in the cupboards or on the shelves.
20) Class Duty Roster
- Plan class duty roster involving all students
- Class duties include arranging tables/chairs, arranging files/books neatly, sweeping the floor, emptying the dustbin, sink area, whiteboard
- Observe the effectiveness of the roster from time to time. Address the problem (if any) with the students. Highlight the importance of ownership and keeping the classroom clean.