Parent Letter 1

Parent Letter: Classroom Management

Chris Atkin

ITL 606 Learners and Learning II

Alan Reitman

July 23, 2019

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Dear Parents, Guardians, and Families,

My name is Chris Atkin and I am excited to share that I will be your 5 th-grade teacher for

your student this year! I look forward to getting to know all of my students and creating a safe

environment in which they will excel academically and socially within my classroom. With that

being said, I wanted to go over my classroom rules and procedures. I will be using a behavioral

approach with my classroom management. I feel that this will be effective due to each student

having an opportunity to receive a positive reinforcer. This will help the students to understand

what positive behaviors I expect while in our classroom (Slavin, 2018).

My reinforcers will be using a classroom money system in our class store. This helps to

build life skills of being responsible with money, saving, and purchasing items. They will count

their money to ensure they paid the correct amount and that if necessary, received the correct

amount of change. Unfortunately, if they do not follow our classroom rules they may have to

pay a fine with their classroom money which will be the negative reinforcer. Please keep in

mind that this is not real money and if a student were to bring any to our store I would contact

you immediately (Slavin, 2018).

This system will be used throughout the entire year, so all students will become very

familiar with this behavioral approach to classroom management. If any parents would like to

donate items for our class store, please email me so that we can discuss this further. It is not

required, but I have had many parents in the past contact me regarding donating items (Slavin,

2018).
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Sincerely,

Chris Atkin

Here are my four main classroom rules with procedures:

1. Be safe:

 This includes walking versus running in class. I don’t want anyone falling and

getting injured.

 Notify me of any medical concerns, health issues or medications that I may need

to know about to ensure your student’s safety while at school. This includes any

past issues or current ones that may occur in our class in the future.

2. Keep our classroom clean:

 In keeping our classroom clean, we will ensure that it is a safe environment. Pick

up any trash and put it in the trashcan. Notify me of any spills and wipe them up

as we do not want anyone potentially getting hurt or injured.

 Please keep all food outside on the backpack rack so that we eliminate any ant

issues or other bugs within our classroom. We don’t want students to have to

worry about ants crawling around in class while trying to work hard on their

academics.

3. Be prepared to work:

 Have all materials (pencil, paper, dry-erase marker, iPad, etc.) ready that you

may need so that you can succeed in class. We will be utilizing many different
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forms of materials to help all students achieve success. Signs and baskets will be

arranged around the classroom with these materials readily available.

 Please use the restroom before school, during recess, lunch, or after school. This

will allow you to be in class while not missing important opportunities to learn

and improve. There will be a hand signal to use in class so that if you can’t wait I

can just nod or shake my head without the class being disturbed.

 I will allow students to keep a water bottle at their desk as long as it is not a

distraction to others or themselves. Remember to fill them up at recess and use

the restroom as well so that you do not miss class time.

 Follow directions and I will make sure that all students understand what I am

asking of them. If there is any confusion, please raise your hand and ask.

 Do not talk while I am talking. I will state a phrase like, “Oak. Grove.” I will state

the “Oak” and the students will state “Grove.” This will help the class to know

they need to stop and listen to what I have to say. I may also use a “T” signal

with my hands. This will help students to know they need to be quiet and listen

to what I need to say.

 Missing assignments require you to talk with me about the situation. I will allow

students to make up whatever work they are missing.

 Talking with your neighbor is acceptable and encouraged when in your

collaborative groups, or during activities in which I direct you to talk. Please

make sure it is at an appropriate level so that we do not disturb our neighbors. If

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you have a question, please make sure to raise a quiet hand until I call upon you.

This will help students and myself be heard more clearly and easily.

4. Show respect to each other and yourself:

 Respect other’s personal space. We all have a space around us in which we need

to respect each other and not get too close. Also, we want to respect everyone’s

possessions as we have personal belongings in our classroom. This will also

include our classroom supplies such as pencils, sharpeners, erasers, dry-erase

markers, scissors, and rulers.

 My desk area has many gifts and personal items, please refrain from touching or

playing with them.

 Respect our differences. We all come from different experiences and cultures.

Treat everyone with respect and respectfully stand up to those who do not. Try

to show empathy as we all have bad days from time to time.

 Respect your family and other students. When attending our school, we will

ensure that it is a safe environment where students will not need to worry about

being disrespected. If a situation arises, please talk with me so that I can help

resolve the situation.

All students, including my special needs students and English Language Learners (ELL),

will have equal opportunities to receive the reinforcers and I will adjust as needed to help them

be successful. There will be pictures of the items and matching prices to assist my ELL students.

We will role-play in groups on how the store process will work to provide support for all

students. If there are any challenges due to religious or cultural beliefs, I will adjust accordingly
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to ensure that all students have an opportunity to participate. I strongly believe that all

students will thrive as I implement this behavioral approach.

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References

Slavin, R.E. (2018) Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice. 12th Edition New York. Pearson