MY PHILOSOPHY ON CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

What is classroom management? How Should a classroom be run? These are questions that many people have and many different beliefs on how it should be done. I am going to be giving my philosophy on classroom management, how I believe we should respond to bullying, what are the teacher’s expectations, and how to build relationships within the classroom environment by using restorative practices.

Our beliefs on classroom management come from our experiences as a student and as a teacher. We need to remember what happened when we were in school as a student is not necessarily the right way, even though it was done that way for many years. We have learned a lot on how to enrich the students learning and give them the passion to want to learn. Spark their curiosity. Every student is different and how the learn is different. In the article “How to manage your classroom environment” Lisa had a lot of great points on what to do from her experience in her first years. Like most I would like to make my class very comfortable for my students. There are many ways to do this. Most of this is going to be done through experience and I believe my ideas will change over the years. I will set out clear expectations for the students, so they understand what is expected of them. I would have them sit in a circle and have them introduce themselves and have them tell us something about themselves that others might not know. We would then set out rules for the class on behavior and work assignments. This will be laid out at the start of the school year. Giving them a rubric for each assignment so they can see in writing how to achieve the best marks they can. I like these because when I was a student in high school, I found it hard to understand how to achieve higher marks. It was not clear to me. I would go over the expectations with them and make sure they understood how give their best. I would also make sure that I am consistent with all the students on how I interact with them. Nothing is worse than one student gets to do something, and others are not. This is favoritism. No student should be treated different for any reason, for the teacher or other students. If I have difficulties with students, I will ask my fellow collogues who have more experience than me. They have been doing it longer, they could have some interesting and creative ways on how to do things.

Bullying has always been an issue in life. You will find that no matter where you go. It is about power and control over another. Dealing with bullying was a normal way of life for me, from JK to grade 8 I had gone to 4 different schools. Always being the new kid and having to prove myself again and again. I believe that we need to teach our students how to deal with bullies. I teach my girls that when it happens that other student has a reason for doing that. Don’t let them beat you, most of the time they are lashing out due to other things in their life. As a teacher when I see this happening I need to intervene early. To stop the bullying. Support the students, there has been a block of communication and they need to talk. When this happens, I would have the class sit in a circle and discuss what has happened. Ask why the student is doing that. Have the other student explain how they feel. The other students would listen and discuss what was wrong and what should be done. Regain a safe environment for the students. When this is over this would give closure to the issue. Cyber bullying is a new issue that I have had to deal with. My daughters have had this happen and I would explain to them that the other person is saying this behind a screen and afraid. This is such a hard issue to deal with and changes depending on the subject. Communication and support are the only way I see right now on how to deal with this. Just being there and showing support for them.

After every day I believe that we need to reflect on what we have done that day. Was their anything we could do different or keep the same. The expectations for a teacher are whatever we need to do to make their learning experience the best for them. Making notes on what works and what doesn’t will help us grow as teachers. In the article of advice from the pros I really liked their idea. “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.”