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Philosophy of Classroom Management

A strong classroom management plan, combined with engaging lessons, can prevent
many of the problems teachers encounter in the classroom. Middle school students need structure
in the classroom, and teachers can meet this need by clearly outlining the expectations, routines,
and procedures in their classrooms. I agree with Harry Wong that routines and procedures are
some of the most important parts of a classroom, but I also believe that teacher-student and
student-student relationships are also integral to the functioning of a classroom. The classroom
should, above all, be a safe space for students to learn and grow, and positive relationships in the
classroom are an integral part of this goal. Teachers can also achieve such an environment by
creating a classroom management plan which emphasizes responsibility, high expectations, and
the differing needs of individuals. High expectations for the students should come not only from
the teacher, but from the students themselves; middle school students should, as Barbara
Coloroso suggests, take responsibility for both their learning and their behavior by developing an
inner sense of discipline. The classroom should also be a safe place to fail; classroom
expectations and teacher behavior should encourage taking risks and learning from mistakes.
Haim Ginott posits that the teacher should model desirable behavior and focus on the task at
hand rather than dwell on mistakes, and I agree; a classroom climate focused on growth, or asset
based thinking, will more effectively facilitate student learning. Such a climate encourages
engagement in challenging lessons, to which Jacob Kounin points as the most important part of
effective classroom management. Engaging lessons can reduce student misbehavior, as well as
help meet students needs for positive interactions with peers and adults and for meaningful
school work.
Teacher and Student Expectations

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Social studies classes are necessary for students to become informed citizens who
understand the importance of exercising their rights in this country. The social studies content
area is also integral in helping students develop their unique personal identity by examining
different issues and forming their own opinions on those issues. Social studies classrooms thus
have the most potential, in my opinion, to develop a community of learners who deeply desire to
investigate and discuss current eventsparticularly those relevant to adolescentsbecause this
content area helps meet an adolescents basic need to create self-concepts. In order for this to
work, however, the students must be active classroom participants. Having high standards for my
students as part of my classroom climate will help creative such active participants. I will expect
my students to take responsibility for their own learning. This means that my students will do
their best work on assignments and view their classwork not as one-off experiences, but drafts
which they will continue to revise and improve as they learn throughout the school year. They
should also utilize the choices I give them in learning new information or completing
assignments as opportunities to develop expertise in something relevant or interesting to them.
Many students want more decision-making power in the classroom, and I am more than willing
to provide these opportunitiesif my students are willing to capitalize on them. Finally, the most
important aspect of developing a learning community is creating a safe space. I will expect my
students to share their personal opinions or experiences, and to respect the opinions and
experiences of their peers. My students can and should disagree with one another or even with
me, but they should do so in a respectful and constructive manner.
My students can expect from me a positive outlook and a commitment to maintaining my
classroom as a safe space. They can expect my classroom to be a safe space to share their
opinions on the content material and to make and learn from mistakes. My students can expect

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me to take an interest in them as individuals and to make an effort to build relationships with
them. They can expect me to use the information I learn about their personal interests to create
an exciting curriculum which engages them. They can expect to be given choices throughout the
school year regarding what they learn, how they learn, and how they demonstrate that learning.
Further, my students can expect that I will cater to their learning style. Although I cannot
differentiate every single lesson to meet the needs of every single learning style, I can vary the
styles to which I do teach. They can also expect from me the gift of time. I know many high
school students are very involved in extracurricular activities or are otherwise very busy during
their time outside of the classroom, and completing large assignments is difficult for them. My
students should thus expect me to provide the guidance and time they need to complete their
assignments and do well on them. My students can also expect to learn skills and concepts which
will be valuable to them later in life; the work they do in my class will be meaningful and
authentic.
Classroom Climate
My classroom should feel like a community. Students must understand how to participate
respectfully in discussions about controversial topics so that each student feels comfortable
having a voice in the classroom. To accomplish this, my students and I will establish on the first
day of class what it means to respect one another and disagree with a classmates ideas as part of
a discussion without criticizing her as a person. We will review and practice these expectations
each time we have a class discussion. Over time, students can become closer and more
comfortable with one another after listening to the experiences of others and being able to tell
their own experiences. The class should be a community which can expect to learn not only from
the teacher, but from each other. Students in the classroom should feel like they are part of

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somethingthey are growing together by sharing the same learning experiences and developing
their own identities by considering different sides of important issues.
For middle school students, I believe that an assigned seating chart is appropriate to
prevent too much distraction and to encourage my students to build relationships with other
people. My students will sit in groups which face the front of the room (with plenty of room for
traffic) so that they can see me but work in groups and participate in discussion often. However,
students will likely not stay in their assigned seats for the entire class period; I will offer
opportunities to work in groups they choose themselves, assign students to work in different
groups, or ask my students to participate in a whole-class discussion. Changing up student
groups in this way will allow my students to hear different opinions and work with students of
varying proficiency levels; this is particularly important for an English language learners I might
have in my classroom.
In the SIOP classroom which I am observing for my ESL education class, the teacher has
appointed student leaders who complete certain tasks such as picking up papers, distributing text
books, writing answers on the board, taking attendance, or helping with the projector. I would
like to use this model in my own classroom and possibly change the student leaders every two
weeks or every month. Student leaders could be chosen based on contribution to class
discussions, creativity in assignments, or interest in that months unit. I would not to choose them
based on highest grades because I believe doing so might shame the other students and reinforce
the idea that only certain types of students can be leaders.
Routines and Procedures
Routines and procedures are necessary to promote learning in the classroom; if students do
not know where to go or what to do when they enter the classroom, when they turn in homework,

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when they need to use the restroom, etc., confusion and discipline problems arise to detract from
the days lesson. On the very first day of school, I will teach the routines and procedures of the
classroom to my students by giving them a copy of my expectations for them. I will also ask my
students to practice this routine often; for instance, if they are not entering the room correctly and
beginning bell work during the first few weeks, I will ask the entire class for a do-over. Later
in the school year, I might say to the class, I need four people to be on-task and do the bell
work. Okay, now I need three. Thank you. The list of routines and procedures I provide will
look like the one below:
Hello, class! I am excited to guide you through learning about world history this school year.
For us all to learn and be engaged in this material, we need to avoid distractions and disruptions
in the classroom. You can do this by following the routines and procedures below:
Required Materials. Bring the following materials to class each day:

two sharpened pencils/pens

text book
notebook
Entering the classroom. You are welcome to talk to your friends at the beginning of class, but
you should be in your seat with all the proper materials you might need. When the bell rings, you
must be quiet and working on the bell work.
Attention signal. When I need the classs attention, I will hold up my hand and say, "Give me
five." I will count down with my fingers, and when I reach zero, the entire class should be silent
and ready to listen.
Asking questions. Raise your hand and wait for me to call on you. I may not call on you right
away if I am occupied, but I will call on you as soon as possible.

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Makeup work. When you are absent you are expected to make up any work you missed. On
the day you return, check the folder marked by the number of your class period for any missed
work.
Homework. Overnight homework is due at the beginning of class, but we do together will be
due at the end of class. Place homework in the bin at the back of the room marked with number
of your class period.
Late work. Missing assignments are unacceptable in this classroom. Much of the work we do
this semester, we will return to in order to revise our mistakes or expand on the topic. If you
cannot complete an assignment on time, you should come to me with your concerns and we can
create a plan for completing the assignment. If you fail to complete an assignment on time
without creating a plan with me, your grade on the assignment will be reduced by 10%, but you
must still complete the assignment and turn it in.
End of class. I will give you two minutes before the bell rings to pack up your things and
straighten the room. This means straightening the desks, putting away supplies, picking up the
floor, and returning to your assigned seat. When all of this has been done, I will dismiss you.
Restroom passes. You are expected to use the restroom between classes. However, you may
also use the bathroom during independent practice if necessary. Raise your hand and ask the
teacher for the bathroom pass.
Policies and Consequences
Although I might ask high school students to write their own classroom rules or
expectations, as William Glassers model suggests, middle school students need clear and direct
guidance on the very first day of school. One of the seven needs of adolescents is structure;
boundaries help provide middle school students with the security to learn and grow. Middle

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school students can and should help define what certain expectations look like in their classroom,
such as respect or engagement. I would provide this list of classroom expectations along
with the list of routines of procedures:

Respect yourself, your peers, and your teacher.

Take responsibility for your learning.

Be prepared and on time.

Cooperate with others, compete with yourself.

I would then ask my middle school students to describe what each of these sounds like, looks
like, and feels like. I would document their answers and refer to them when the classroom
expectations are not being followed: You told me that being respectful looks like Asking
students to hold themselves to their own standards in this way helps them develop a sense of
responsibility and self-discipline, an important tenet in Barbara Colorosos model.
I believe consequences should make sense with regard to the behavior exhibited. I
worked at a summer program in my home town for children grades 3-8 the past two summers,
and we used the Love and Logic model of discipline. In this model, the instructor plugs in
compassion first and attempts to understand what motivated the students misbehavior, then
helps the student devise a logical consequence or a way to rectify that behavior. I would like to
use a similar model in my classroom. I will provide one or two tap-out chairs where students
can voluntarily remove themselves from a situation in the classroom without leaving the room
and missing instruction. I will also send students to this chair when they have been repeatedly
disruptive or have had a more serious problem in the classroom to reflect on their behavior.
There, they will fill out a worksheet describing what they did, why they did it, what other
behaviors they could have chosen, and what they will do to rectify the situation. In many cases

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this may take the form of writing out or delivering an apology to the teacher or another student,
but the student may also lose certain privileges in the classroom. The student and I will also have
a conference to go over this sheet. After the student has been sent to the tap-out chair to fill out
this form three times, I will set up a conference with her parents to create a behavior
management contract or plan. I will refrain to the best of my ability from using consequences
which exclude the student from classroom instruction or which are unrelated to the misbehavior,
such as detentions.
Instructional Strategies That Promote My Management Goals
Engaging lessons is the best way to prevent students from acting out in the classroom.
Student-focused instructional strategies are the best way to engage students. Although I will
likely not have the time or freedom to allow my students to design their curriculum themselves, I
will provide several opportunities for students to choose what they learn. For instance, I might
use an expert-novice activity in which each students researches something of personal interest
related to the lesson topic, then can teach other students about what they learn. I will also provide
choices for my students regarding how they demonstrate their learningsome students may
choose to create a physical artifact, while others create a picture book.
I will also create a curriculum that engages my students by planning for their diverse
backgrounds and learning styles. Bruce Larson and Timothy Keiper, the authors of Instructional
Strategies for Middle and Secondary Social Studies suggest that teachers acknowledge and plan
for the diversity of their students by incorporating the stories, cultures, and experiences of
members of minority groups. Planning information about marginalized groups or people into the
curriculum will engage students by introducing them to new ideas or allowing them to learn
more about their own history. The authors also suggest that teachers provide a variety of

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activities which focus on different intelligences in their classrooms. For instance, Larson and
Keiper suggest that students might read about a geographical region, look at a map of the area,
look at the regions demographic information, reflect on their impressions in a journal, and
discuss their reflections in groups. Teachers do not need to teach to every single intelligence, but
an activity such as the one such described by Larson and Keiper will engage students by giving
them multiple chances to demonstrate their learning. Many students struggle to stay engaged in
school because their main strengths are not reading and writing; teaching to multiple
intelligences will prevent these students from becoming frustrated and disengaged.
Many seemingly small practices can also help keep students engaged in the lesson.
Harry Wong suggests that teachers pause and ask questions frequently when showing a video,
rather than asking students to sit through the entire video and saving all the questions for the end.
Similarly, he suggests that when assigning reading in a text book, teachers provide the questions
they want answered before the students start reading. Teachers can also use both please and
thank you to encourage participation in class; the teacher I observe for my ESL education class
uses this practice, and it helps create a positive atmosphere in the classroom. Wong also suggests
that teachers write their objective for the day on the board, begin the lesson by pointing to the
objective, and refer to it during the lesson so the students can check for their own understanding.
Helping students understand the purpose and importance of the lesson helps motivate them to
participate.
Assessment Strategies That Promote My Management Goals
I will utilize multiple types of assessment in my classroom. The most well-known type of
assessment is summative; this typically includes tests, quizzes, projects, presentations, and
assignments which receive grades. I will vary the types of summative assessment that I ask my

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students to do and provide them with opportunities to choose how they demonstrate their
learning. For example, I may ask my students to do a cooperative learning project for one unit in
which they do research as a group and then give a presentation on their findings to the entire
class. For the next unit, however, I will give my students the choice of writing and performing a
skit, giving a presentation, writing a paper, or creating an artifact such as a model, an
infographic, a song, or something else of their choosing to demonstrate what they learned.
Students learn in many different ways and possess a wide variety of talents, so I will not rely
solely on tests to assess my students learning.
I will also use diagnostic assessments, such as pretests, in order to target my lessons
specifically towards the information my students do not know or are most interested in learning.
I will most often use formative assessments, the continual, every day assessments a teacher uses
to measure student learning. In my classroom, this will most often take the form of asking my
students open-ended, higher-order questions in whole-class or small group discussions or on an
exit-slip at the end of the period. I will also use graphic organizers to see what types of
connections my students are making and quick checks such as asking for a thumbs up or
thumbs down from the class to find out how comfortable my students are with a particular topic.
Larson and Keiper also provide guidelines for effective assessments: assessments should
accurately and appropriately measure student learning (validity), produce the same results over
time (reliability), and not be too difficult to administer (usability).
The purpose of any educational feedback is not to rate, rank, humiliate, or sort students.
The purpose of feedback is to improve student learning. This quote from Harry Wong
encapsulates my approach to summative assessment of student work. Most assignments in my
classroom will represent opportunities to improve. I will not simply hand back assignments with

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a grade; I will hand back assignments and ask my students to fix their mistakes. Failure in my
classroom will not constitute making a mistake; a student can only fail in my classroom by
refusing to improve upon their mistakes. Rather than returning an assignment with a grade, I will
more often return an assignment with feedback and suggestions on how to improve it. This form
of feedback encourages students to see learning as a continuous process; my students cannot get
away with carelessly completing assignments because they expect to never see them again.
Feedback for improvement is thus more effective in motivating students to actually learn than
feedback which consists only of grades.
Student Motivation
The students of my classroom will be extrinsically motivated on a short-term basis by my
own enthusiasm for the subject and by the praise I give them for their real successes in the
classroom. I will strive not to give meaningless praise for simple tasks or tasks which are always
expected of the students, but rather to give thoughtful and intentional praise for tasks which truly
challenged the student. In the long-term, they will be motivated by the curriculum and classroom
climate. I will provide several opportunities for students to choose what they learn and how they
demonstrate that learning. Further, I will construct my curriculum around topics of interest to my
students, as Thomas Erb and James Beane suggest. The social studies content area is uniquely
appropriate for including topics of student interest and student choice in the curriculum, as the
events of history have strong correlations to the more current events which often interest middle
school students. I will also provide my students with several opportunities each week to share
their personal opinion on a matter, which also motivates students at that developmental level who
are trying to situate their identities and opinions among those of others. Opportunities foro
choice in learning and for discussion in lessons can trick students into learning because they

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are intrinsically motivated to engage in topics which are relevant to their interests and opinions.
My classroom climate will encourage students to share their opinions respectfully in a safe space
for growth. My students will also find motivation in the high standards of my classroom; my
students will be welcome to fail and learn from their mistakes, but everyone must put forth an
effort. Initial failure is okay, but failure to try is not. Long-term curriculum and classroom
choices such as high learning standards and the development of curriculum around topics of
student interest intrinsically motivate students to learn by making school relevant and valuable to
them.
I will also employ instructional strategies and create assignments which will motivate my
students to be an active participant in the classroom. Doug Lemov in his book Teach Like a
Champion offers several strategies for motivating students to participate in class work. I will
employ at least three of these strategies in my classroom: Everybody Writes, Wait Time, and
Vegas. For the first strategy, Everybody Writes, the teacher asks a higher-order question of
the class and then gives the students time to think and write down their answers. When the
teacher asks for students to share their answers, they are able to provide longer, more refined
thoughts as a result of processing those thoughts through writing. Wait Time is a very similar
strategy; the teacher does not necessarily ask students to write their answers down, but provides
at least three to five seconds of wait time after posing a question to the class. This type of wait
time helps every student collect their thoughts, and motivates all students to participate: students
can see that the teacher wants to hear the thoughts of all the students in the class, not just the
students who are able to answer the quickest. Both Everybody Writes and Wait Time can
intrinsically motivate students by helping students construct valuable answers which they can
feel confident sharing, and this confidence in turn encourages students to see themselves as a

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valuable part of the learning community. Using Vegas strategies in the classroom can also
motivate students. Lemov refers to Vegas as the sparkle. This might take the form of a song,
or a skit which the students create to demonstrate the days vocabulary word. These types of
activities provide students with an opportunity to be creative and active in the classroom while
still working toward the lessons objective. Vegas strategies can again intrinsically motivate
students by tricking them into learning while they are having fun. I will also motivate my
future students by creating assignments for them which cause them to enter a flow, as
described by Bruce Larson and Timothy Keiper in Instructional Strategies for Middle and
Secondary Social Studies. An assignment which causes students to enter a learning flow is just
challenging enough for the student to engage her, but not so challenging that she becomes
frustrated. Flow experiences motivate students intrinsically by giving them confidence in their
ability to learn and overcome problems.
Building Relationships with Students
Building relationships with students is crucial to creating the strong learning community I
want in my future classroom. On the first day of school, I will conduct various ice breaker games
with my students so that I can get to know them and they can get to know each other. I will also
ask them to fill out forms with questions about their interests, hobbies, favorite subject in school,
and something in history about which they would like to learn. These forms will help me not
only find the right questions to ask them during free time to learn more about them individually,
but also construct my curriculum around their personal interests. I will also try to make time to
go to school events such as basketball and football games or scholastic bowl matches to support
my students, as Harry Wong suggests. I will also make learning names quickly my number one
goal at the beginning of each new school year or semester. I have worked with high school and

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middle school students in my hometown during my summers and assisted in a Northview Middle
School classroom this semester, and in both instances I have strived to learn the names of all of
my students on the first or second day. I can do so quickly by studying a seating chart or playing
ice breakers with the students, and they are always amazed when I am able to call them by name
later that day or on the next day; this makes them feel special. I will continue to make learning
names a priority in order to help make my students feel welcome and prized in my classroom.
Building Relationships with Parents
I believe that parental involvement is integral to a students education. On the first day of
school, I will ask my students for their home phone numbers, addresses, and e-mails so that I can
communicate with their parents throughout the semester. I will also create a class blog which will
contain information such as the course calendar, assignment descriptions, and due dates. I will
contact students not only to create a behavior/schoolwork management plan with them and their
student as part of my consequences policy, but also to alert parents when their child is behaving
or performing well in class. I would like to send home certificates of congratulations when
students have done remarkable things in my classroom, such as performing exceptionally well on
an assignment or overcoming personal challenges. To prevent this from becoming timeconsuming, I will create templates for these certificates which I can quickly fill out according to
the students accomplishment and send to the parent. Such certificates will help encourage the
parent to take an interest in her students accomplishments and inspire pride and confidence in
the student without becoming too time-consuming for me as a teacher.
An Ideal Day in my Classroom
When my students enter the classroom, they look at the board to see what materials they
need, grab them, and sit down in their assigned seats. My students sit in groups of fourthese

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are their home groups which I created for easily taking attendance, but they often break into
their assigned discussion groups for class activities. I created heterogeneous discussion groups
with students of varying ethnicities, genders, ability levels, and first languages so that they might
learn from multiple viewpoints and help each other grow when we discuss important historical or
current events topics. The students begin immediately on the bell work assignment, which is
projected on the board, while listening to music from the time period or geographical region
which we are studying. The bell work assignment is a review of information they learned the
previous day. When the bell rings, I take attendance while my students finish up working on the
bell work. Some students are talking rather than working on the assignment, so I remind the
entire class what they agreed working on bell work should look like: everyone is writing or
listening to the music quietly until everyone is finished. After I have finished taking attendance, I
ask students to share their answers to the bell work. Students may raise their hands to answer, but
each desk group must provide an answer to at least one of the questions. If the same student from
a desk group answers every time, I may ask someone else from the group to give an answer.
After we have finished with bell work, I announce that we will be playing Four Corners
to continue discussing the various positions of the Framers of the Constitution. The students have
played this game in my classroom before; I read a statement, and the students go to a certain
corner of the classroom depending on whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly
disagree with the statement. I have already placed papers on the wall in each corner of the room
so that students know where to go. Once they have decided their opinions on the statement, the
students work with the other students in their corner to take notes and deliver a statement to
defend their position. The students are able to participate in these discussion respectfully because
we worked together to write classroom expectations for discussions on the first day of class, and

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we have practiced those expectations often since then. I also review the expectations before we
begin the activity and refer students to the sentence stem charts on the wall which give examples
of how to respectfully agree and disagree with others when participating in a discussion. I give
each group a specific amount of time to talk and write down their position, present that position,
and give one rebuttal to another groups position; this prevents long debates and conserves class
time for other topics. When one student is too aggressive in her response, I ask her to pause and I
review classroom expectations for discussion with the entire class before we continue. Overall,
the students are respectful and engaged because they enjoy opportunities to share their opinions.
I simply act as a moderator while the students do most of the talking. One group cannot agree on
what to write for their position on the given statement, so I go over and help them problem solve
and construct a statement which includes all of the relevant ideas that have been put forward.
I end the activity when there are two minutes left before the bell rings and ask the
students to return any materials they used, pick up the floor and make sure the desks are in order,
and return to their seats. The students are talkative during this time, but I am fine with the noise
level as long as they are not yelling. Most students have returned to their seats before everything
on the floor has been picked up and thrown away, so I tell my students that there are still a few
pencils and pieces of paper on the floor, and they will not be dismissed until the floor is clean. A
few volunteer students take care of the problems and return to their seats. When the bell rings, I
dismiss them.