Theoretical Introduction

Although I enjoyed the novel Lord of the Flies, I don’t completely agree with the author’s sentiment that if left along, people would grow to become brutish, selfish, and unruly. And although I do believe that human beings need some sort of social structure or guidelines because we are social animals, I whole heartedly believe that human are basically good and that if let to develop in a nurturing environment, we would grow into self-responsible and noble creatures. I believe that acts such as selfishness are definitely learned behaviors. Therefore, I think as my approach to classroom management, I would adopt the approach of a “nurturing” supporter. I believe the role of teacher is someone who supports the learning process of students (like that of Developmentalist) where the curriculum would be student-centered. Because each student has his or her own learning style, a single “method” would not be able to reach every single student. That is why I believe that a teacher is more like a “facilitator” rather than a “boss”. As a facilitator and/or supporter, it is a teacher’s responsibility to acknowledge all of his/her students and their learning style and needs in attempt to create and provide the nurturing environment that would help the students to develop into self-responsible and noble human beings.

Expectations / Policies / Rules / Boundaries

I must admit that during my brief experience as “teacher” while teaching English overseas, I was guilty of setting different expectations for my students. One reason was that I had students of different age groups all in the same classroom. However, I am still guilty of having higher expectations for the students who were more outgoing and more verbal. I inadvertently had higher expectations for these students because they interacted with me more often. This led to them having more “conversations” with me in English where they had the chance to practice their English speaking ability much more than the other students. In hindsight, I should not have done that. Learning from my mistake, I believe that I should have set my expectations for the “class” as whole rather than for any individual student. This means that I should have the same expectations for all students in the class regardless of their personalities, backgrounds, gender, learning style, etc. This is not to say that I should not adjust my approach to meet each student’s needs that would help all of them to excel. As I’ve mentioned earlier, as a teacher, I should facilitate the students to meet these expectations.

My expectations for the classroom climate, I must admit, are of a calm and peaceful one to begin with. However, more importantly, I’d like to promote and expect a climate where students feel warmth, care, a sense of trust from the teachers and other students, and a sense of self-responsibility. In order to create a sense of self-responsibility that would translate into the classroom climate, a social contract should/would be adopted. This gives students the sense of belonging and ownership since they designed the contract but also a sense of responsibility for their own actions according to their own rules. I’d emphasize that the classroom is not “Ms. Peng’s” classroom but all of ours (the students and I). Since it is “OUR” classroom, all of us would be responsible to maintain a safe and caring environment. This leads to my next position of where my expectations are, type one or type two. I believe, and it is probably obvious now, my expectation is type one – student centered. Although type one is where I would like to be, I think, realistically, I will start out as a type two to set up some sort of ground rules and/or structure or foundations to build upon and then transition, hopefully in a period of a month or less, into type one and continue to manage the classroom with it.

Instructional and Assessment strategies that Promote your Management Goals

Instructionally, I think, I would set clear objectives, set high expectations, and be inclusive of all my students and their learning styles to help meet students’ academic needs. In order for students to do well, they must be clear of what their objectives are and what are expected of them. Students who know what they are working toward and have concrete goals will be able to take steps to meet such goals. Of course, some times along the way, they can stumble but with the teacher’s assistance, students should be able to reach these goals eventually. Every students are capable reaching teacher’s expectation (reasonable expectation, of course) if given the proper assistance and guidance. Knowing and understanding each student’s background, needs, and learning style is half the battle and being able to facilitate and be inclusive of all students and their learning style is the other half.

In order to prevent students’ need to act out, rules need to be established not only by the teacher but, more importantly, by the students. These rules or social contract should be positively oriented versus negatively oriented (i.e. we will respect others while they are speaking versus don’t talk when others are talking). The teacher should be consistent with the consequences when students act out regardless of the number of offense. Consistency is a good start to prevent students to act out. Being aware of all the students’ needs and allowing them to set their own rules give them a sense of belonging and responsibility. With the sense of responsibility, students should have less need to act out. Of course, there are times that they will act out due to stress or troubles at home. At times like that teacher should recognize the stress factors and be sensitive to them. Understanding or just being sensitive to where students are coming from can also resolve their need to act out and prevent future occurrences. By being sensitive to students’ stress factor can help gain trust from the students in the teacher.

Ninety-nine point nine percent of classrooms in our areas are very diverse, recognizing diversity, not only culturally but also learning styles, is crucial to a successful classroom management. Teachers should advice the students of the diversity in the classroom when planning their social contract. The teacher should also make the effort to have students understand the importance of diversity and how it is the reality of their classroom and that it is something that they should embrace and celebrate. A classroom that has both students and teacher sensitive to the diverse student body popluations will help in creating a social contract that is suitable and appropriate for all students and instructional methods that are inclusive of all students.

Motivation

I believe that children are intrinsically motivated. They do things because of interest, enjoyment, a sense of accomplishment, and a desire to learn. However, students LEARN to become extrinsically motivated. I truly believe that extrinsic motivation is a learned behavior and it is often introduced and reinforced in school (as early as pre-school). Teachers often foster environment where students work to receive some sort of rewards such as approval or material goods. I think teachers should be very aware of how they motivate students. If a student begins to adopt the extrinsic motivation behavior where they work only for rewards, it becomes very difficult for him or her to switch back. In the end we should help students to maintain the intrinsic motivation that I believe human are born with. It is critical for teacher to use extrinsic motivation, if they have to, as a short term practice. It is much more beneficial for the students to do things for intrinsic reasons. I believe that students should be shown that learning if self-benefiting –not for benefit of the teacher or the school staff that students learn and gain knowledge. I would like to promote intrinsic motivation by first fostering a safe environment where students will have a positive self-image and a sense of self-worth. By having a sense of self-worth students can began to understand what they want and be able to explore what they are interested in without feeling inadequate, ashamed, or foolish if it is not the interest of other students or the teacher. A sense of self-worth will, I believe, lead to the drive to learn and sense of accomplishment with things they do.

Vision

My vision of my “ideal” classroom is a classroom where students are not afraid to ask question. I am a researcher by background and my nature is to ask questions. I would hope that my students aren’t afraid to ask question about things that they saw, encountered or just curious about. If students aren’t afraid to ask question, they will, hopefully, be intrinsically motivated to do things that interest them and for the enjoyment of learning something new. I want to work with the students to find answers to their questions rather than just providing them with the answers. In my classroom I won’t be the commander or the boss but rather be a part of the class just as the students are. We should all have equal parts in making sure objectives are met. Although, it will eventually be my own responsibility if students are not meeting their objectives. However, I will not lower my expectations if students do not meet their objective but instead, examine what went wrong and how I might improve my approach. Not only would I have high expectations for my students but for myself.

My students are expected to follow the social contract not because I said so but it would be something we all decided and agreed upon. I want the students to understand that not only are they responsible to follow the rules and standards that they have set but I also will be responsible to follow it through, I am no exception to the rule. My classroom is all about understanding each other. I want to understand my students and have them understand me too.

In terms of the type of “power” I would exert it would probably be “attractive/referent” followed by “expert”. I don’t claim to know everything but hopefully with the knowledge I have I hope that I will be able to guide the students to start their critical thinking process at a very early age. I believe that there is nothing more important than having the ability to think critically. I would like to have my students to understand that my way is not always “the way” and with the power of knowledge, they will be able to decide “the way” that they would like to operate things. Hopefully by this logic they will be intrinsically motivated to learn and gain knowledge that will empower them for the rest of their lives. Although I will be the one doing the teaching, I think what will be more important for me in my classroom is that I will be “learning” from my students and with my students.

In the event that disciplinary problem arises, I hope to handle it accordingly and by the rules in the social contract that was drawn up by all of us (mostly the students, of course). I would follow through with the consequences, being consistent, but at the same time be sensitive to factors that might contribute to the student’s reasons to “act out”. Hopefully, in my classroom, I will have had successfully performed the preventative measure that there will be no disciplinary problem (again, this is MY IDEAL classroom).

It would be my ideal classroom if students feel comfortable, respected, and trusted. It would be my ideal classroom if they students are sensitive the needs of other as they are to their own. I would like to foster an environment that promotes a sense of self-worth, self-respect, and positive self-image. I want all students to be proud of their accomplishments and not be ashamed for their failure but come right back and be able to examine critically what went wrong and how it can be fixed. Although the environment would be about one’s “self”, it will not tolerate a “self-centered” attitude. My students would work in teams as much as possible. Human are social animals after all. I think students can learn for each other more than they can learn from me. Being able to work with each other can help all students. Working in a group foster a positive attitude and embracement of diversity and that is what I would like to instill in all of my students.

All in all, my ideal classroom is a safe, respectful, responsibility-oriented, and cooperative place for the students. The class is about the students and not the teacher. The teacher and students would work as a team, a team that is driven by being able to ask questions, questions that are critically thought through and in return, we will all work together as a team towards answering the questions.