CLASSROOM GOALS - OUR CLASSROOM WILL:

Be a welcoming and safe place
Be interesting
Foster respect and acceptance of others and their space and materials
​Foster community
Promote critical thinking
Promote learning

COMMUNITY BUILDERS:

Morning Meetings build community by helping each student learn about each other and accept differences.  Morning meetings are a routine.  Children need routines so they know what to expect.  If a morning meeting happens soon after all of our classmates arrive then the students will be prepared for morning meeting each morning.  The first morning meeting may be used to teach what behavior is appropriate during morning meeting.
Rules maintain order and help students discern appropriate versus inappropriate behavior in the classroom. The rules will be specific and easily understood.  When a rule is broken there will be consequences.  Consequences are what the teacher uses to enforce the rules.  Students learn from consequences, and these incidents can be useful tools for teaching lessons to a large group.
Responsibility is giving a child the opportunity to make a choice whether the teacher thinks it is right or wrong and allowing the child to learn from it.  It can be stressful and difficult to teach responsibility, but in the long run, it will help reach each student achieve the classroom goals.
Environment.  The tools in the classroom and the toys available to the children will be complex and interesting so that the children do not become bored.  On occasion, new things that the children have not played with before will be brought in and introduced.  Children will learn how to explore new toys or manipulatives.
Dolphin Dollars will be used a as reward system for students. Student will be able to receive dolphin dollars for showing good citizenship and being an example for other students in our classroom, and showing kindness to peers, adults, and anyone who needs help. Dolphin dollars can be used on Tuesday afternoons to shop at the store for rewards.  Students may also lose dolphin dollars for behaviors that do not model good citizenship or are disruptive to our learning environment.
CHAMPS  is a management system where each time we start a new activity or transition, I map out for students the expectations for the activity and what it will look like when done successfully.  The CHAMPS acronym stands for: conversation, help, activity, movement, participation, and success. The system will allow children to be autonomous when making decisions on if they can talk to each other and how loud, how they can ask for help, instructions for the activity, when they can get up and move around the classroom and for what reasons, what it looks like to participate in the activity, and what the successful product should look or feel like.