Classroom Management Philosophy
Essential Decisions
How will I differentiate my lessons?
Differentiation is a key tool for educators to ensure that their students are on the path to success. Differentiated instruction is a flexible approach to teaching that consists of a variety of projects, tasks, and activities. Differentiation allows for greater engagement, accessibility, and collaboration in the classroom. Some differentiation strategies I will use are: Project-Based Learning, Tiered Learning Targets, Voice & Choice, Choice Boards, Backwards Planning, Mock Trials, Role-Play, Learning Contracts, Goal Setting, Intentional Grouping, Problem-Based Learning, Rubrics, Learning Menus, Graphic Organizers, and Stations & Centers.
How will I group my students?
Grouping students is a critical element in the classroom because it can make or break an experience for students and it can hinder or enhance learning. My grouping techniques are split into two categories: Homogenous Grouping & Heterogeneous Grouping. Homogenous grouping will be typically used in math and reading because it consists of grouping students by intervention level. Homogenous grouping is beneficial for students when tasks require students to go at the same pace to get to the most out of the activity. Heterogeneous grouping takes students of varying intervention levels and varying learning styles and places them into one group. This type of grouping is most beneficial during critical thinking tasks, multidisciplinary units, open-ended discussions, current event discussions, problem-based learning, project-based learning, and hands-on experiments.
What are my classroom rules and expectations?
My classroom rules and expectations are as follows: believe in yourself, treat everyone with kindness, be ready to learn, always do your best, raise your hand, respect others, and respect yourself.
What types of consequences/rewards will I use in my classroom?
I will use an individual reward system that contributes to a class reward system. When students behave positively, I will give them a token. They can save their tokens to buy big prizes or use them right away for small prizes. During snack time, they can go to the treasure chest and buy something worth the amount of tokens they have. They put their tokens in the class bucket after they make their purchase. When the class bucket is full, the whole class gets a reward. To address misbehavior in my classroom, I will use a 5 step system. First, I observe the wrong behavior. Second, I give the student a warning. If the misbehavior continues, I will offer a choice to the student. Fourth, I will observe the choice the student made and acknowledge it. If the choice was to continue misbehaving, then the fifth step is to enforce a consequence.
What will my learning environment/space look like?
My ideal learning environment will be accessible to all of my students and this might look different each year depending on who is in my classroom. Ideally, all of my students will be able to see each other, providing a sense of community. My classroom will have a cozy corner where my reading rug is, a comfy chair for read-alouds, surrounded by bookshelves filled with engaging books. My classroom will have a word wall for sight words. It will have a numbers corner for math time. My class will have student work displayed on the walls. My students will sit at tables, allowing for collaboration and social development. My classroom will be cozy, minimalistic, neutral in color, and soft music will often be playing, so my students feel calm and centered in our room. I want my classroom to be a happy place, visually and academically.
My Code of Ethics
Ethical Conduct Toward Students
I will teach students character qualities
I will help students evaluate their own behavior
I will teach students to accept responsibility of their actions
I will foster civic virtues: loyalty, responsibility, cooperation, kindness
I will foster respect: for themselves & for others
I will measure success by academic progress & by their growth as a citizen in the community
I will work fairly with each student & actively seek to solve their problems with them
I will maintain confidentiality in all aspects concerning students unless required by law
I will be devoted to protecting students from any conditions harming their learning, health, or safety
Ethical Conduct Toward Practices and Performance
I will accept responsibility & accountability for my performance
I will strive to demonstrate competence and grow my skills
I will respect and obey the law
I will dignify this profession by demonstrating personal integrity
I will maintain my mental health & the physical stamina necessary to perform my professional duties
I will continue my professional growth
I will comply with my school polices, laws, and regulations unless they conflict with my ethics and morals
I will not work for any institution that conflicts with my ethics and morals
I will not use my professional privileges for personal gain
Ethical Conduct Toward Professional Colleagues
I will treat my colleagues justly and equally
I will maintain confidentiality in all aspects concerning colleagues unless required by law
I will not make false statements about my colleagues or my work place
I will not interfere with my colleagues freedom of choice
I will not include myself in any coercion that forces educators to violate their own morals and ethics
Ethical Conduct Toward Parents and the Community
I pledge to protect control over public education and private education
I recognize that quality education is the goal of the public, board of education, and educators
I recognize that quality education is only attainable by cooperation of the public, board of education, and educators
I will communicate to parents information that needs to be expressed for the best interest of the student
I will strive to understand and respect the values and traditions of the diverse cultures in my community and in my classroom
I will be a positive and active community and school member
My Theoretical Continuum
My Personal Management Philosophy
My management philosophy keeps what is best for my students in mind, what will create a comfortable learning environment for them, what will foster their growth and development, and what will allow success to be equally achievable for every student in my classroom. In its entirety, my Personal Management Philosophy draws on elements from my Essential Decisions, my Code of Ethics, my Theoretical Continuum, and my personal experiences.
My Essential Decisions are carefully chosen with my students success in mind. In establishing my Essential Decisions I focused on differentiation, grouping, classroom rules/expectations, consequences/rewards, and my classroom layout. I believe that differentiation ensures that students can equally succeed. My lessons will be differentiated, meaning my lessons will consist of a variety of projects, tasks, and activities. I believe that grouping is a critical element in teaching because it can cultivate learning or it hinder learning. I will intentionally use two types of grouping in my classroom, homogenous and heterogenous. My classroom expectations aim to foster a comfortable and safe learning environment, where my students feel accepted, understood, and excited to learn. My reward system is based on individual motivation/reward and group motivation/reward. My students will have the opportunity to attain rewards for themselves and for the class as a whole, fostering motivation and classroom community. My consequence system allows for students to reflect on their behavior, make a choice, and evaluate how that choice affected them and the people around them. My classroom layout aims to create a comfortable, relaxing, and accessible learning space for all.
My Code of Ethics addresses my moral beliefs that influence my decisions in regards to my students, my practice and performance, my colleagues, parents, and the community. In relation to my students, I believe in teaching students character qualities, helping them evaluate their own behavior, teaching them to accept responsibility for their actions, and teaching them to respect themselves and others. I believe in measuring their success by their growth in their civic virtues and not just their academics. I will treat all students fairly, protect their confidentiality unless required by law, and devote myself to removing all barriers to their learning, health, and safety. In respect to practices and performance, I will accept responsibility and accountability for my performance and I will strive to grow and to be better. I will demonstrate competence and growth in my skills. I believe in demonstrating personal integrity to maintain the dignity of my profession. I will obey the law and comply with my school policies, laws, and regulations unless they conflict with my ethics and morals. In regards to my professional colleagues, I believe in treating everyone justly and equally. I will maintain their confidentially unless required by law and I will not make false statements about my colleagues or workplace. I believe in not interfering with their freedom of choice and I will not participate in any coercion that forces my colleagues to violate their own morals and ethics. My ethical conduct towards parents and the community keeps everyone best interest in mind. I believe that quality education is the goal of the public, the board of education, and the educators. I believe that this goal is only achievable through the cooperation of these three parties. I believe in communicating with parents and expressing any information needs out of the best interest of the student. I believe in celebrating diverse cultures, traditions, and values and I will teach my students the same.
My position on the Theoretical Continuum is greatly influenced by my experiences as a student and a pre-service teacher. With behaviorism on one end and humanism on the other, I have placed myself in the middle out of recognition for each approaches place in the classroom. I believe that behaviorist strategies should be used to to help learners acquire behavioral skills. Behaviorist strategies yield many benefits. They teach young learns “how” to do something, what is expected of them, and reinforces their positive behaviors through rewards. These strategies are highly specific, observable, clear, and concise. Humanistic strategies come into play in terms of higher level thinking and higher level tasks. Humanistic strategies focus on reflection, connection, thinking, judgement, and creativity. These strategies promote self-directed learning and helps students understand “why” they should do something.
My personal experiences as a student and a pre-service teacher greatly influence my management philosophy. As a student, I learn best through hands-on activities, collaboration, choice, and when I’m given independence. I plan to offer all of these in my classroom because I personally understand the benefits they yield. As a pre-service teacher during a pandemic, I was able to see how the absence of group-work and collaboration affects the classroom. Due to COVID, this type of learning was greatly limited and as a result, the students did not seem as engaged or excited to learn. They were in this routine of continuous independent work and they were getting very burnt out by this type of learning. More than ever, I’ve recognized the ortance of collaboration and kinesthetic learning.