Classroom Management Philosophy

I believe that my classroom should be a safe space for learning. As a teacher of a 100% ESOL classroom, my daily goal is for every student inside my classroom to learn something new however small. I believe that students should be made aware regularly of the rules and the consequences of breaking them and of the learning expectations of the day’s lessons. For this purpose, these should be always displayed and visible for students. I believe in positive and open communication with parents and families. As a teacher it is my responsibility to be kind, professional, knowledgeable, patient and flexible in all of my interactions both with students and families. By establishing the rules and the expectations of the classroom and spending significant time on them I am able to impact on my students the kind of classroom culture that I want us to have. One were everyone is respected and were they will enjoy learning more about the subject, themselves and each other. I foster student engagement and participation by providing a lot of positive encouragement when my students reach milestones or when they are willing to raise their hand to share.

There are many benefits to having and effective classroom management but the main one is that the time that you would have used in discipline and behavior issues, is instead used towards teaching and learning. When classroom management is incorporated well, disruptions and interruptions are kept to a minimum because students know what they should be doing, how they should be doing it and when. A good way of making this be a reality inside of the classroom is by offering rewards and incentives for accomplishing tasks. For example, students that finish their work early will receive a work puzzle or computer time. Another example that I use in my classroom is that as a reward for a good learning week, my students are allowed to play Kahoot after their weekly quizzes on Friday for the rest of the class period. Having that to look forward to from the moment they get to school on Monday, really helps keep them on task and motivated to do the work because they know that if they do not have a good week there will be no Kahoot on Friday.

My school is very unique since it is a center whose purpose is solely to teach English to non-native students. In that sense, school variables have a great impact on the classroom throughout the school year. Class size can vary from 10 to 30 students depending on the time of year, and every time we get a new influx of students I must once again go over stablishing a classroom culture and a foundation of the rules and expectations. Student achievement and development is also wildly diverse as we can get students that came from their countries with very little schooling and the pace at which every child acquires a new language is always different. Maintaining a positive environment in my classroom where every student can feel equal regardless of backgrounds, cultures and anything else relies on me being able to maintain an effective classroom management where the goal is to learn.

I think a lot of what has shaped my personal philosophy of classroom management has been experience. When I started teaching, I had a completely different idea of what my classroom would be like. And then when things started spiraling out of control and I was dealing with discipline issues everyday I realized I’d have to change everything I thought I knew. I took a couple of professional development courses geared towards classroom management and from there I started learning that the best way is to provide constant repetition and exposure to the rules and expectations and to provide positive reinforcement. I can relate a lot to my students as I too came to this country when I was still in school and I had to live through that transition and adapt. So I use a lot of my personal experience through sharing that detail to connect with them and to know what they need.

Technology has been a big part of the past two years since the pandemic, and I have had to make the adjustment to including more virtual and technology bits in my classroom and lesson plans. I think that the role that it plays in my philosophy that I want to teach my students to view technology as an educational instrument and not a distraction. I want them to see their chrome books not as the place where they watch YouTube and play games, but where they can use interactive software’s such as Rosetta Stone to learn and practice their English or Discovery Learning to see the world.