Classroom Environment Plan

Neil Bailie

9th Grade Earth and Space Science

Classroom Mantra

“Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes are a positive, as long as nobody gets hurt and we

learn from them.”

Classroom Mission Statement

My classroom will be a place where students feel safe; physically and emotionally. Students

should feel secure enough to take risks and make mistakes. Mistakes are a good thing, as long as

nobody gets hurt and we learn from them. My classroom will be a place built on consistency,

where students know the upcoming schedule and don’t need to feel anxious about what is

coming next. My classroom will be a place where students will receive enthusiastic, quality, and

fair instruction. My classroom will be a place where students know there is an adult that cares for

them and wants to listen to them and help them through difficult times.

The First Days of School

I was fortunate the be able to sit in during the first days of school during my assistant teaching

placement. I was witness to a lot of nervous freshman, confident upper classmen, and everything

in between. I was also able to watch as experienced teachers introduced themselves, their

discipline, and laid the foundations for the rest of the trimester. My mentor teachers had prepared

their rooms, their materials, and introduced themselves in a well-rehearsed performance that has

resulted in effective learning environments, which are virtually free of student discipline
concerns. The following plans aim to establish a process that I can follow each year in order to

achieve my classroom mission statement.

Physical Space

The physical space of a classroom is an often-overlooked component of classroom management,

but can have a profound impact on student engagement, learning, and behavior (Wong & Wong,

2018). A well-organized physical space can also have profound benefits for students diagnosed

with attention disorders and students who pose high levels of stress through trauma (Nelson,

2019).

Seating arrangements

Student desks will be set up in an amphitheater style, with all students facing on central point;

the whiteboard. Rows will be setup in a fashion that allows for walkable ‘corridors’ between

desks, in which students will not be permitted to place their backpacks or other belongings. This

is to ensure the physical safety of students as well as reducing anxiety of students wishing to use

the restroom, sharpen their pencil etc. I justify this selection due to the lecture and discussion that

takes place in my science classroom. Students will spend significant time engaged in class-wide

discussions on topics such as climate change, fracking, ethics of extracting non-renewable

resources etc. This table layout facilitates focus on me as the discussion conductor, while also

having students already partially facing each other. I hope that this layout will also help reduce

neck strain as students turn to face the board during lecture times. This layout is also subject to

change, dependent on the approval of the janitorial staff. Students will also spend a significant

portion of class time in the lab, which has fixed desk locations, designed to encourage face to

face collaborative learning.

Wall Spaces

My classroom walls will have a healthy dose of white space. I aim to have a large world map

displayed, covering much of one wall, due to the usefulness of being able to use my laser pointer

to illustrate where in the world I am describing, when discussing certain geological featured.

Throughout the year, students will work on activities that result in visual displays such as the

layers of the earth. Each year, I will select the best of these to display on my ‘student produced’

wall space. A desk near to the front of the room will be setup with handouts prepared for each

day of class, as well as ‘work deposit’ trays where students will submit any required work on

their way out of class. Finally, there will be a wall-hung organizer that will hold resources for

students who missed class.

Daily Schedule

The daily schedule will be written largely and clearly on the whiteboard each morning. This will

offer consistency and help to reassure students that suffer from anxiety of the unknown, which is

strongly related to children suffering from trauma (ED, 2018).

Teacher’s Desk

My desk will be kept neatly arranged with my laptop, class notes, phone, post-it pad, and spare

pencil container on display.

The First Day of School

The first day of school can be a huge source of anxiety and stress for our students, which makes

it the most critical date on the school calendar. Below, is my step-by-step plan on how to ensure

the success of this momentous day.

Send E-mails prior to the first day

I will send out a short e-mail to all students and parents with a short video clip of me welcoming

them to my class, introducing myself, and letting them know what kind of content they are going

to be learning about in my class. This is a small gesture, which will not likely be seen by every

student/parent, but it sets the tone that I am willing to go that extra step towards building

connections. It also helps anxious students know what to expect when they get to class on the

first day; they know what I look like, they know what I sound like, and what they are going to be

learning in class.

Greet students at the door and have the seating plan clearly displayed

I will make sure to be at the door, ready to welcome new students and introduce myself. I will

offer a hand shake or a fist bump as I know some students are nervous about physical

interactions. As students enter the room, the seating chart will be clearly projected on the

whiteboard as well as having their name tag placed on their desk.

Introduce myself

Once class has begun, I will introduce myself to the students, as not everyone will have received

or watched my email. I will have a short PowerPoint presentation ready with pictures of myself,

family, and hobbies. I will explain to students why I got into teaching and why I love Earth and

Space Science, and why I think they will also enjoy it.

Introduce rules and procedures

One thing that I want to make clear to my students is that I expect them to respect themselves

and each other. But I also want to make it clear that respect can be earned or lost, and I will be
doing everything within my power to gain their respect throughout the school year. That being

said, it will be made clear that there is no place for bad manners and student-teacher and student-

student interactions should always be polite and mannerly. I will pass out my handout on my

‘Core-Values of Respect’, which I will have prepared ahead of time. This list includes items that

I am not willing to exclude from our forthcoming class-wide agreement. Such items include;

listening to others when they talk, be tolerant, have patience, and don’t be rude. Once these core

values are established, I will lead a discussion to develop and establish an agreed upon class

contract. Rules that are written into the contract must have a 70% agreement rate, and rules can

be altered, added, or removed, subject to another 70% agreement rate. Once students are happy

with their contract, I will type it up and have the class sign it the following day.

At this point, I will make students aware of common procedures within the classroom and

how I wish for them to be carried out. Procedures will include; asking to use the bathroom,

sharpening pencils, getting a spare sheet of paper from the front of the room, responding to or

asking questions during discussions/lecture, how to transition between desks and lab time, where

to find materials after missing a day of school, how to handle late assignments, entering the

classroom, exiting the classroom etc.

Finally, I will establish my stance on discipline and consequences for not following the

rules and procedures correctly; consequences will be based on school policy as well as personal

policies. Consequences should be natural and a way for a student to recompence for their

behavior, and not a punishment, which only serve to take privileges away for the sake of it. I

personally hold a mindset from multiple discipline strategies such as ‘Discipline with Dignity’

(Delisio, 2019), ‘Capturing Kid’s Hearts’, and ‘Cooperative Discipline’ (Albert, 2019). All of

these discipline strategies discuss establishing a social or class contract (see above) within the
classroom, and then holding students accountable, based on the contract that they have signed. I

will make students aware that I will always fair and consistent with consequences for not

adhering to the rules and procedures. As per ‘Cooperative Discipline’, I aim to focus on the

behavior, rather than the student, which protects my relationship with them while also addressing

the discipline issue. I will also always offer an opportunity for students to review (what were you

doing? what should you have been doing?) and redo their behavior. For example, if a student is

continuously calling out answers without raising their hand, I would discreetly talk with that

student at the end of class, ask them what they were doing, and what should they have been

doing, as well as giving them the opportunity to enact the procedure currently during tomorrow’s

class.

First Day Farewell

I will wish my new students a great day and let them know that I am looking forward to seeing

them tomorrow during class.

Personal Expectations

Finally, I would like to address the expectations that I have set for myself as a professional

teacher. My aims as a teacher are as follows:

• Be someone my students can trust and respect

• Leave my emotions at the door

• Provide enthusiastic and quality instruction

I am a huge proponent of building personal connections with my students and I plan to

engage in real conversations with them, not restricting myself to only teaching content material.

By asking real questions and following up with what I learn, I believe this will lead to me being
an adult that my students know cares about them and that they can trust to talk to about their

lives. Near the beginning of the school year, I plan to ask students to fill in a fact sheet about

themselves, which will give them to chance to open up as much or as little as possible as they

feel comfortable doing. With this knowledge, I will make sure to commit at least one interest of

each student and talk to them about that during the school year.

Regarding my instruction, my students deserve the best. They deserve a knowledgeable

profession, who is passionate about their content, that can teach them material in ways that they

can understand; all while having a smile. This is a tall order, but I believe I am up for the

challenge. I am currently subscribed to numerous content and pedagogical journals that I

regularly read. I believe as a teacher, I need to be a master of my content, which can be achieved

by staying at the cutting edge of knowledge. Being able to draw from current data and examples

offers students significantly more useful responses to their intelligent questions, than simply

regurgitating a response from a high school text book. Being a geology enthusiast, I also plan to

continue to travel to various locations of natural beauty throughout my life, which also adds to

the authenticity of responses given in class.

Closing Thoughts

I believe the above plan is a great foundation of how I plan to run my classroom. I say

foundation, because I believe that experiences and different teaching environments can lead to

changes in approach. By running my classroom as described, I believe that I can create a

classroom that achieves all that is laid out in my classroom mission statement. It is incredibly

important that students feel safe in my classroom and that I provide their instruction in a quality

and consistent way that leads them to trust me as an adult.

References

Wong, H. K., Wong, R. T., (2018). The first days of school: how to be an effective teacher.

Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications.

Nelson, A., (2019, October). Creating and Supporting A Trauma Informed School. Presented at

Grand Valley State University College of Education, Grand Rapids, MI.

Delisio, E., (2019). Discipline with Dignity Stresses Positive Motivation. Education World.

Accessed via: https://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin534.shtml

Love and Logic (2019). Practical classroom solutions that save time and energy. Love and

Logic. Accessed via: https://www.loveandlogic.com/collections/educators