Classroom Management

Fostering a Community of Scholars

The classroom layout often portrayed in popular culture – 25 desks facing an imposing teacher with chalk in her hand and her back to the students – provides few opportunities for meaningful learning to take place. This mundane classroom format does not acknowledge the various needs of students. It limits success for only the select few able to navigate an educational system reliant on testing and standards. Learning should be student-centered, with a focus on their culture and surrounding community. It should be exciting, with numerous opportunities for input and engagement.

In these schools, the classroom becomes an interactive environment allowing students to “connect abstract ideas about power, privilege, identity, and ideology with personal experiences” (Sleeter 119). Effective learning has the ability to turn the classroom into a community, recognizing each student as an independent scholar with strengths and values. In fostering a community of learners, the educator must take on multiple roles to facilitate

and guide students through the educational system. Educators must prepare students for the challenges of post-graduation life by acknowledging oppressive societal forces and the tools available to students by highlighting these resources in the classroom. Fundamental aspects of successful classroom communities include an interesting curriculum, peer and cross-cultural respect, a clear set of rules or guidelines, high expectations, and fair, character-building consequences (should disciplinary actions be necessary).

Student engagement requires a safe, comfortable environment where students have opportunities for discussion and interaction, with the ability to freely express their ideas and learn from their peers. Providing open discussion “allow[s] students to vent frustrations and disagree with school- or teacher-imposed constraints” (Bondy, Ross, Gallingane, and Hambacher 390). Giving students the opportunity to share their difficulties creates an accessible environment in which students feel valued, while deconstructing the top-down oppressive factors that exist in many schools (Peterson 174-84).

The defining aspect of progressive classroom management design is respect, whether it is between students, educators, or administrators. Each individual involved in a student's education, including peers, must be respectful of beliefs and opinions while recognizing cultural differences as valuable resources in order for the student to feel comfortable and accepted. Recognizing students as young adults rather than children encourages high expectations while still providing opportunities for open, honest, and personable communication. Students will respect a teacher who demonstrates care and support, and in turn will work to meet the high expectations placed upon them. Building a communal classroom environment for the success of all students leads to a sense of “collective responsibility,” (Peterson 183) in which each member serves an important role in their education and the education of others.

A classroom needs to have rules. Regardless of the amount of respect or support an educator provides, a set of rules promotes appropriate behavior. These classroom guidelines are necessary so that each student has the opportunity to share their opinions without offending others or prohibit effective learning. In order for rules to be effective, they must be clear, explicit, and student-centered, with an intended purpose for each. Working with the students to come up with the class contract contributes to ideas of self-governance and allows students to recognize necessary aspects of an effective learning environment. The rules or class contract should be posted and visible, reminding students of expectations while still remaining an active and dynamic document with the ability to amend as necessary. One of my personal difficulties with classroom management is ensuring that I actively enforce the classroom rules. As a teacher, I want to be liked by my students, but need to recognize that in order for effective learning to occur, I must place the needs of the whole over being liked by a single student.