To establish a successful school year, requires planning for success in the classroom. Teachers should think of how they want their classrooms to look, feel, and sound once scholars arrive to school. How do you want your classroom to appear to scholars? How do you want your classroom to feel? How will your students move around in the classroom? Will you have an area just for students? These are all questions I face at the beginning of each year. Management planning focuses on classroom management and how the classroom will be utilized by you and scholars; the arrangement of the classroom contributes to the management of the classroom. The more organized a classroom is, the easier it will be for the teacher to manage the space and behaviors. Below is a list of possible classroom focal points:
Management Planning Areas of Focus
- Entering and Exit the Classroom
- Retrieving a pencil, ink pen, paper, or art supplies
- Work Submission area
- Seating Arrangements
- Sanitizing Station (location)
- Storing of content-related materials
- Content-specific word wall
- Student Area
- Classroom Library
- Bulletin Board and White Board arrangements
Identify areas in the classroom that will be designated for a specific use. For example, establish a particular wall area for a content-specific word wall, or designate a space for a student area; this is where extra ink pens/pencils, paper, pencil sharpener, and any other supplies you think your scholars will need. Other areas to consider are classroom library, work submission areas, sanitizing stations, and bulletin/white board arrangements (See Image 1). Bulletin boards could house positive messaging and also be used to display student exemplar work; exemplar work samples help scholars correctly complete assignments. White boards could be used to display date, standards, learning objectives, essential questions, class agenda, homework and, or vocabulary word of the day (See Image 1).
Teachers should not wait until the first day of school to figure these things out, a plan should be devised before the first day of school; this is where classroom management starts. An organized classroom produces a well-managed classroom which is essential to ensuring the safety of everyone who enters your classroom.
“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”
Benjamin Franklin
Planning for Success in the Classroom Strategy #3 will be posted on Friday, August 27, 2021.