Portfolio Assignment A

Classroom Organization & Expectations

Part A: Classroom Organization & Layout

1. After completing these tasks, consider whether your layout adequately addresses
Everston & Emmers five keys to good room arrangement (P. 13).

Five Keys to Good Room Arrangement

1. Use a room arrangement consistent with your instructional goals and activities
a. The activities that I have seen and experienced in first grade require a lot of
movement and modification as activities change. There is a lot of room in this
classroom to move from one activity to another. Students have the freedom to not
only learn at a table or desk, but to also be on a carpet with room to move with
activities and be with classmates all at once. The group table is important for
working with individual or small groups of children, which I know will be
important in some reading and writing lessons. The teacher desk area is
purposefully small because the point of teaching is not to have a space for the
teacher to be alone. Instead, it is to help students learn in a safe and successful
environment. I need room to be able to collect my thoughts and continue on with
putting students first. My day will not be spent behind a desk. It will be spent
walking around the room, participating in learning. I have space on the
whiteboards for posting the learning targets so that students can see those targets,
know what to expect from the day, and have an idea of how they will accomplish
them as the day progresses.
2. Keep high-traffic areas free of congestion
a. I purposefully made my teacher desk area a little more congested because I knew
that I will be the only one in that area for most, if not all of each day. There would
be few reasons for a student to be behind my desk. I put the group table area
further away from the computers so that students could access both areas easily.
There are two bean bags in the carpet area, but off to the side so that students can
easily sit there without being distracted and without bean bags in the way of their
learning. I am not the best with drawing to scale, but I tried to make the desks and
chairs somewhat to size. I wanted to space them out so that students could push
out their chairs without bumping into each other, but then I felt like the scale was
off. I tried to make it look correct and tried to give students enough room. In my
ideal room, there is a lot of cabinet space on the walls for books, activities, games,
and supplies so that there arent cabinets in areas that students would have to
walk.
3. Be sure students can be seen easily by the teacher
 a. I made sure that the tables closest to the main whiteboard had the most students
while the ones a little farther away had less students and students facing the
whiteboard as opposed to their backs turned toward it. The students in the two
rows of tables can easily look sideways if they need to see the whiteboard or look
to the other side for the second whiteboard. The computers are purposefully
turned so that if I am most places in the classroom, including the teacher desk, I
can see what the students are working on and if they are staying on task. The
teacher desk is facing the entire classroom so that when students are in the room,
they are seen. There arent any large storage items, tables or desks anywhere that
would hide students from the teacher.
4. Keep frequently used teaching materials and student supplies readily accessible
a. I put supplies for myself, as the teacher and for students in cupboards and on
shelves to be readily accessible to students. I have bins on each of the tables with
supplies for students to use immediately. The tubs would be colored so that each
group has a table name according to the color of their bin. The cubbies for the
students are also toward the front of the room and near desks so that they do not
have to walk far in order to put their materials away to take them home.
5. Be certain that students can easily see whole-class presentations and displays
a. I made sure that there are no large objects in the middle of the room or anywhere
that would block students views of the whiteboards, tables, or the teacher desk.
The boards on the walls are all easily seen from everywhere in the room.

Part B: Developing Classroom Expectations

1. Describe how you will develop classroom rules and expectations.

If I am teaching first grade, students will not have a lot of say in the rules or expectations.
For the most part, they will need to be told what should be done in the classroom and encouraged
in a positive way to do whats right. However, I think its important to have students be in on the
process from a young age. In the beginning of the year, I would ask the class as a group what
rules they think should be in the classroom and how we should treat each other. If rules or
suggestions come up that we should not have, we can talk about them as a group and I can
confirm why it may not be a good idea. I dont want students to think that they only have a say in
how they act in a classroom and how they should treat others when they get older. There is a
right way to view other people and allowing them to talk about it in first grade will shape their
ability to carry that out throughout their life.

2. List your rules/expectations and describe how you will explain the importance of these
rules and promote buy-in. How will you post the rules, communicate them with parents,
 class constitution?, posters?, formal contract sent home and discussed with parents?, use
a story with younger students? Check out our texts again for ideas.

I am not a teacher yet. There are so many things that I still need to learn. I dont know
everything about teaching in a first grade room, and it could be that this plan would utterly fail.
But, I want students to do what is right because it is right, not because rules are outlined for them
on the board. The only two rules or expectations that I want to teach them and have posted are 1)
Be kind and 2) Choose whats best. There are many situations in life that are hard to choose
between, but there is always a best answer. I would stress that these two rules are the main class
rules, and the rest of the rules that we come up with together such as walking in the halls,
cleaning up your space, not pushing, pinching, tattling, etc. fall under those two rules. If you are
being kind, you are not pushing, pinching, etc. If you are choosing whats best, you are not
running in the halls. Then, instead of telling kids to not run or telling them to stop yelling at each
other, I could simply remind them, we are kind! or, are you choosing whats best? It gives
them a concrete list of two rules that are easy to apply to my classroom as well as to their lives
later on.
However, that initial conversation with my students in the beginning of the year would be
focused on those two rules/expectations and then would be drawn out into the larger list of rules.
I would ask students what rules they followed in kindergarten and what they think some of the
rules should be. Hopefully, they would come up with listening to the teacher, raising your hand
when talking, no running in the room or halls, etc. This list would be more specific and may need
to be posted in the room at the beginning of the year for a reminder. My hope in structuring this
area of instruction is to encourage students to live choosing the correct thing, rather than living to
follow a set of rules. Eventually, I would hope to have a classroom of students who verbally
affirm each other in doing whats kind and the best choice over not running in the halls, not
yelling, etc.

3. Describe how you will clarify what these rules mean, as well as, how you will assist and
support students meeting these expectations.

The answer to the question above outlined how I would clarify the overarching rules. I
would assist and support students meeting these expectations by using the language of being
kind and choosing whats best throughout my day. I would incorporate these phrases into
everyday life and into situations within curriculum. For instance, if students are reading a math
problem out loud, and the story problem deals with students who are fighting over a number of
cookies that need to be divided into groups, I could ask if the students are making the best choice
by fighting. I could also ask if they are being kind to each other. These phrases become part of
everything within the classroom, not just in social studies activities or when my students are
having trouble with each other. It shows that expectations and rules are a part of everything we
do. We can always be learning about being kind and choosing whats best.
 4. You will need to explicitly teach and follow up these initial lessons so that all students
meet classroom expectations. How will you monitor, reinforce rules. Reminders?
Consequences? Corrective Feedback?

Again, my answer to the question above molds into this answer. If I am including our
rules and expectations into daily work and everyday situations, the lingo of being kind and
choosing whats best will be ingrained into students minds. They will hear it constantly and then
begin using the phrases. If a student is harassing another student, hurting feelings, overstepping
boundaries, etc. I can always ask them, Are you being kind? or Is this the best choice to be
making? In those instances, students know if this is the best choice. They may still want to
make a bad choice, but they know whats best, and thats the standard that our classroom is held
to.
In terms of consequences, I may have a chart with a number on a pin that each student
corresponds to. If they are not cooperative, they may need to move their pin to a lower area,
showing themselves visually that they made a sequence of choices that were not the best. If I
used this method, I would have students start out at the same level each morning and perhaps
have lower and higher notches that they move their pin. Lower notches might say, Time to
choose whats best, can I have some extra help choosing whats best? and Im really struggling
choosing whats best. These signs would be a progression of the standards that we talk about in
class and would give students a meter of where they are and what they need to be able to move,
not just physically, but also mentally up the list toward continually choosing the best thing. The
higher levels would say, Ive really got this choosing thing down, or Im helping others choose
whats best! These higher levels show initiative in going further than simply decent. I want to
be able to recognize students who are going above and beyond, even if I silently tell them to
move their pin up, rather than telling the whole class. That affirmation in their choices and
character is important to their self-esteem and decision-making process.