Dora Cottrol
2/4/15
Philosophy of Classroom Management and Discipline
As I look forward to my first year as a teacher, I envision a classroom where each student
feels completely safe and comfortable in his/her environment. I imagine the setup of the room to
include desks set in small groups, student classwork and art surrounding the room, a cozy
reading corner for relaxation, different learning centers and a diverse physical environment that
easily allows for whole group and individual instruction. In this future classroom, I know each of
my students well and tailor my instruction based on their individual needs. Each student feels
that he/she is special and excitedly comes to class fully prepared to learn. On a wall in the corner,
there is a list of rules and expectations that we made as a whole class. Because the students were
involved in creating these expectations, they feel a sense responsibility and obligation to uphold
these standards. The opinions, input and needs of my students are truly valued and together we
collaborate to create a classroom environment that is optimal for learning. The overarching
theme of my future classroom is respect. My students respect the classroom, each other and their
teacher, and I do the same.
As someone who is studying to become a teacher, I have several ideas, dreams and goals
for my future students. While I realize that my ideas may change once I actually become a
teacher, my personal experiences as a student have certainly guided my philosophies on effective
classroom management and learning. One of my main goals is that my students become
independent thinkers and lifelong learners. As teachers, we have a responsibility not only to help
our students understand content in different subject areas, but also to help our students figure out
how they learn best and learn to solve problems for themselves. The skills and strategies that a
student gains when learning specific information for a subject are the same skills that he/she can
utilize when he/she needs to learn something on his/her own in any future endeavor. Further, it is
important for a teacher to get a student excited about learning by engaging him/her with the
material so that he/she will want to seek out opportunities to learn in and out of the classroom in
the future. This requires teachers to really get to know the students, their needs and their
interests. Lifelong learning is one of the most important purposes of education to me. Specific
facts aren’t likely to be remembered by students a few years down the line, but a passion for
learning and the ability to learn independently is something that students will take with them for
the rest of their lives. A good teacher successfully makes his/her students into lifelong learners.
To me, a good teacher first and foremost cares about students and always has the
students’ best interest in mind. This teacher recognizes that each child is different and is creative
in his/her instruction so that the same material is presented to students in a variety of ways
(Visual, audial, kinesthetic, etc.). Good teaching occurs when a teacher gives students a degree
of choice. I believe that it is okay for teachers to give options for students regarding the type of
work they want to do for a specific activity (group work, individual, whole class, etc). The
teacher is choosing the options that the students can pick from, so the teacher still has some
degree of control. Giving students some choice, however, gives them another opportunity to
figure out on their own how they might learn best. I believe it is an effective strategy that helps
promote lifelong learning.
A teacher needs to consider many things in a classroom management plan before actually
implementing it. First, one must make sure that the plan takes into account student physical and
psychological safety. A teacher must ask him/herself if the student’s needs are met with this
management plan. (Is the room set up safely? Are there rules/expectations set in place regarding
behavior? Are students with special needs being considered in my management plan?) In
addition to general safety, I believe that another goal of a classroom management plan should be
to get students involved in the actual management planning. At the beginning of the school year,
the teacher and students can create a list of class rules together. I’ve found in my experience that
when students work together with the teacher to create their rules, they are more apt to hold
themselves accountable to these rules. Once these rules are created, though, it is important for the
teacher to stay consistent with them. A changing of the rules might result in confusion, distrust
and increased misbehavior. Similarly, I think that early on students should understand that
misbehavior results in negative consequences. I think that the ultimate goal of a classroom
management plan is that students feel supported, encouraged and respected and that they are in a
setting where they can effectively learn.
In my classroom, I want to maintain a moderate degree of control. While I strongly
encourage student input and believe that it positively benefits their classroom experience, I still
feel as though teachers need to maintain some control over the classroom. Students may not be
able to anticipate what they or their classmates need to learn effectively like a good teacher can,
so it is important for the teacher to provide his/her input into classroom management. As
mentioned earlier, I like the idea of teachers create their own pre-approved ‘options’ for students
to choose from. With this, students still feel valued and included, but the teacher still has a great
deal of control. Students will always have options, but with the oversight of the teacher.
I believe that my current view on classroom management and discipline is most closely
aligned with William Glasser’s Choice Theory. I specifically like that there is an emphasis on
collaboration between the students and the teacher in this model. According to Glasser, students’
behavior is influenced heavily by whether or not their needs are being met. Student choice in the
classroom allows for students to express what they need. It also helps them discover the ways in
which they learn best, which fits in with my goal of creating life-long learners. I like that choice
in emphasized in every aspect of classroom management for this theory, even behavior. This
model asserts that behavior is a choice and just like any other choice, good choices results in
positive consequences and bad choice results in negative consequences. This model teaches
students to hold themselves accountable for their decisions, which is something that I would like
to instill with my future students. I believe that starts at the beginning of the school year, which
the entire class creating the classroom rules.
I really like that the model suggests teacher-student meetings as a strategy to help with
classroom management. This could be a one on one meeting with the students or full class
meetings. Periodic meetings are great way opportunity for teachers and students to develop a
trusting relationship. Additionally, I like that this allows teachers to find more about each student
and what they need specifically. I also found the idea of the students creating a self-evaluation to
be interesting. With self-evaluations, students have the opportunity to assess their work and
decide where and how they need to improve. Of course this is supplemented with teacher-led
assessments, but it is still a great opportunity for students for students to have some degree of
control with how they learn.
At the moment I feel strongly about my moderate teacher/student centered philosophy of
teaching. Based on my experiences, it is one of the most effective ways to manage a classroom.
While I expect that my philosophy may change over the years, I hope that I will still hold the
central values of student support, input, respect and encouragement when I work with my
students.