Introduction

When I begin to think about my philosophy of classroom management, I can close my eyes and picture my future classroom. I picture a positive environment for the students and parents, complete with positive notes being sent daily with students and parents, and I visualize students getting the opportunity to create their own representations of the content being taught, and I can see myself giving students the opportunity to choose how they would like to learn a lesson, or what reward they would like to receive to best fit their personality. Though classroom management is vital to the success of the learning environment, it doesn’t mean that a teacher should be a dictator and control every aspect of the classroom including learning styles. In my opinion, a teacher’s job is to facilitate the learning that best fits each student individually.

Positive Environment

When thinking about a positive classroom environment, I am reminded of Wonder, a book about a little boy, who has a facial deformity, attending school for the first time. In the book, the student is ridiculed by students and a few adults, but in my future classroom, it would be my goal to eliminate the bullying all together by building up the classroom community. In my future classroom, I would want the students to feel part of a team and want to build each other up. In order to achieve this, it must start with me. I must take it upon myself to build up the students in the classroom and build up their parents as well so that they are involved in our community as well. In Wonder, at the end of the book, the school attends a graduation ceremony where the child receives a prestigious award, and after a hard year, he is met with a cheering, smiling crowd. I don’t want our classroom to have this revelation at the end of the year. I want it to begin from the very first day.

Create

This semester, I have gotten the opportunity to visit different schools, and generally I walk through the halls and see lots of projects the students have created. In my future classroom, I want my students to be able to create artworks which can be seen by all as well. When looking at Bloom’s Taxonomy, the highest level of understanding is creating, so I believe that if a student creates a representation of the subject being covered, then they are more likely to grasp the concept and retain it for further instruction. When I think back to my time in elementary school, I can vividly remember creating a map of a zoo that I designed to better understand mapping skills. To this day, I refer back to the legend and compass rose that I designed. It’s fifteen years down the road, but I can still remember where I sat, what I used to color my manilla paper with, and the lesson that was taught before I created my map. In my future classroom, I want the students to be able to have similar connections, and by displaying these types of artworks, it can help build student’s ownership for their work. I believe that if a student is truly proud of the work they did, then they are less likely to act out or not complete their assignment because they are striving to make their creation look good for presentation.

Choice

When given the choice between vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream, a person can assume that a group of people might go half and half. I might choose vanilla while my best friend chooses chocolate. At the end of the day, because we were given options, we are more likely to enjoy our treat because we got to choose what we wanted. In a classroom, I believe that learning can be done in a similar way. I believe that students who are given a choice will be less likely to act up because they are getting to decide what route they take. This also builds on metacognition because students can figure out what type of learning best suits them along the way. When given a choice, students are more likely to perform better because they take ownership in the decision they made. The same goes with rewards. If a student was given a choice between drawing a prize from the treasure box, or cozy toes, a student is more likely to work harder for the reward that they want, which promotes positive behavior in the classroom. I believe that in a classroom, students should be given chances to put in their two cents because this helps the students feel as though they play a role in their learning. In Teaching With Love and Logic, it stated that students should play a role in the classroom and that a teacher should not dictate every aspect of the classroom, and that dividing the power, at least a little bit, helps the students take ownership of their learning.

Conclusion

My philosophy of classroom management is to create a positive environment for students to learn and grow in, as well as include parents into the environment so that everyone can have a sense of belonging, as well as letting the students create artwork to demonstrate the work they are doing in the classroom to help them continue to work hard and not disrupt instruction while developing a better understanding of the concepts. Also I want the students to take ownership in their learning by choosing from a list of options that they want in their learning journey so that they feel more inclined to work hard to reach their goals as a student and as a positive classmate. As a future teacher, I want our classroom to be a place where the students can grow and develop into positive lifelong learners.

References

Fay, Jim, and Charles Fay. Teaching with Love and Logic: Taking Control of the Classroom. Love and Logic Institute, Inc., 2016.

Palacio, R. J. Wonder. W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library, 2015.

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