My Personal Classroom Management Stance
As the
mother to five very different children, a full-time teacher education student, and
a future educator, I have given a lot of thought to what makes an excellent
teacher. While there are many excellent
teachers that are Existentialist , Constructionist, and social reformists, I personally fall somewhere between the Existentialist and Constructionist theories of classroom management: I make efforts to do a lot of planning and
organizing, yet I still seek the students’ input toward making the classroom
feel like it is theirs and that their opinions matter. With today’s elementary school classrooms
sometimes serving 30 or more very different children at a time, I realize that
being an excellent teacher is a very tall order. While even veteran teachers don’t have all
the answers, I am confident that some of what I have discovered along the way
will help me get off to a good start on the road to becoming an excellent
teacher. Here’s a bit of what I have
figured out:
Excellent teachers create excellent learning
environments. As a future educator, I hope to create a
learning environment that will encourage ALL children to have positive social
interactions where children will WANT to learn and do their best and where
children will feel that they belong. I
will do this first and foremost, by getting to know each of my students and
what is important to them. I also plan
to continue to build communities of caring and learning through Morning
Meetings. Morning Meetings are an
opportunity each day to for everyone to interact and learn more about each
other while building classroom unity. While
every minute of curriculum instruction is vital and important, I have learned
that the time invested in helping children feel that they belong and that they
matter will always be a worthwhile investment. (Edutopia, 2015)
Excellent teachers set up “systems” and procedures that
help children know what to expect during their day, what is expected of them,
and what to do in most situations they will encounter. I am NOT a control freak nor an obsessive
compulsive organizer. But I learned a
long time ago that it is better for me to be proactive than to be reactive. It is vital for me to put systems in place
for situations like: taking roll, show and tell, letting the children know the
schedule for the day, turning in homework, turning in classwork, storing home
lunches, having a guest in our classroom, passing out papers, entering scores
into the computer, letting parents know about parent teacher conference, what
we do in the library, what we do in the computer room, etc. etc. etc. It is also important that children know how
and when they can: sharpen their pencil, ask to get a drink, ask to use the
restroom, get a tissue, line up for lunch or recess, or ask for individual help
on an assignment. While it is not
feasible to expect that children will always remember what to do or how to do
it and it is also not feasible to have a system or procedure in place for every
situation they might encounter, setting the basic systems and procedures in
place will help me to focus on teaching and them to focus on learning.
Excellent teachers recognize the individual differences
in learners and make efforts to reach each and every student in ways that keep
him or her actively engaged in learning.
In classrooms where 30 or more students is not incredibly unusual, this
can be a very difficult task, but when teachers make learning fun, show
learning to be valuable and applicable to lives, and give the children
scaffolding to bridge their understanding, it is totally possible to keep 30 or
more students actively engaged in learning.
I believe this is best done by providing a variety of learning
activities that can teach the same thing in different ways and then allowing
the children opportunities to choose which activities they would like to
do. I also believe that providing the
children with guided practice is essential toward ensuring that each child
knows exactly HOW to do what it is they are being asked to do. Progress monitoring can then help me to
identify struggling students and seek for ways to meet those students’ needs
through small group or individual instruction and through activities that are
geared toward that child’s specific learning styles and preferences.
Excellent teachers make efforts to communicate
respectfully with their students and their parents. As a student, I have seen what happens when
teachers do not communicate their expectations well. As a parent, I have seen what happens when
teachers communicate with children well, but leave parents completely out of
the loop. I feel it is vital to keep
every parent informed of what is going on in our classroom. Since many children cannot be counted on to
be reliable messengers of either spoken word or written note, the best way to
do this is to use electronic communication when possible. I also feel that it is vital for all
communication with parents to be in that parent’s native tongue. In a day and age of google translate, there
is no reason why this should not be possible.
This effort can also help parents and students alike to feel that their
culture and language are of value, which will help THEM to know that they are
of value. (Fields, 1998)
Excellent
teachers make efforts to either solve problems that arise in appropriate ways
or to help children to solve problems that arise in appropriate ways. Problems are going to come up. It’s just a part of putting so many humans in
a common situation. Some problems are
best for teachers to handle and some problems are best for students to
handle. But most students need guided
practice through solving those problems before they are ready to practice
tackling problems on their own. When
conflicts arise between two students, sometimes It is best for teachers to act
as a “facilitator” that models and encourages appropriate problem solving
skills.
Excellent
teachers teach children to be thoughtful and considerate of other people,
especially people that are different from themselves. As a future teacher I will make efforts
during my Morning Meetings to encourage children to provide service to each
other, allowing the students to learn what that feels like. I will encourage the children to participate
in #operationsprinklekindness where the students and their families look for
meaningful ways to serve others in our community and post photos with that
hashtag to social media. We will also
use morning meetings to focus on cultures and languages that are different from
our own and to spotlight each member of our class. Encouraging children to think of others and
consider others' points-of-view encourages children to make efforts to get
along with other people which also encourages a positive learning environment.
There are a million other things that make up excellent
teachers: They are flexible. They understand that sometimes things don’t
go the way they intended for them to.
They expect the unexpected. They
walk around the room and find out what students are doing. They always have a plan b and often a plan c
that they are not afraid to use. They
realize that helping a student to learn is far more important than proving what
a student doesn’t know. They make
efforts to help children succeed, not only in school, but in life. Excellent teachers aren’t afraid to say, “My
mistake!” when they make one and they are forgiving of children’s mistakes as
well. They learn from those mistakes and
teach children to learn from their mistakes as well. They use technology in their classroom but
keep it in its place. They give positive
comments and encouragement. They HAVE
FUN with their students but know how to reel students in when it is time to
switch gears.
I am smart enough to know that my opinions about what
makes an excellent teacher will change over the years as I gain more experience
with the grand experiment that my classroom will be. Just like new parents have a distorted
perspective of what an excellent parent is, new teachers have distorted
perspectives of what an excellent teacher is.
The truth is, the BEST parents AND the BEST teachers parent or teach with
their own children or students in mind.
And they realize that what works for one child or student will not work
well for another child or student. The
truth is, the most excellent teachers are the ones that never stop learning
themselves and seek to learn something from each and every student.
Works Cited
Edutopia. (2015, 10 19). Community Begins With the
Morning Meeting. Retrieved from YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiuAFOv8wvw&feature=channel
Fields, M. V. (1998). Effective Discipline through
Effective Communication. In M. V. Fields, Constructive Guidance and
Discipline (pp. 139-142). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall,
Inc.
http://www.principalspage.com/theblog/
http://readingyear.blogspot.com/
http://www.learningismessy.com/blog/
A few fun Educational Blogs of Interest:
http://mscassidysclass.edublogs.org/http://www.principalspage.com/theblog/
http://readingyear.blogspot.com/
http://www.learningismessy.com/blog/
