Theoretical Introduction

I believe in a structured and nurturing environment for my classroom. I follow the adage, “there is a time and place for everything,” and in my classroom, there will be a time to learn and a time to play. If I set the boundaries in my classroom early on, with reasonable expectations for the abilities and behavior of the children in my class, then the children will behave properly and be ready for learning. I feel that children will gain confidence in themselves for having adequately learned a skill set, and feel like they have accomplished something for themselves. With these skills, my students can immerse themselves into hands-on activities and learning centers to further their knowledge. With boundaries in place, the children will know how to behave during classroom activities so that we do not waste our valuable and fun learning moments.

In addition to a structured environment, children also need a caring environment in which they feel safe to make mistakes and to learn. Though I believe that the classroom is a serious place for learning, there are also many opportunities for play and for silliness. I want my students to feel comfortable in the classroom, and to know that I am always approachable. Bringing in songs and costumes and participating in activities with my students will allow them to see that I not only care about their learning, but I also care about enjoying time with them.

My assumptions about young people are that their peers and the media pull them in many directions. When I look around, I see so many advertisements, TV shows, shopping stores, and people trying to get the attention of our children. They flash pretty pictures and sound off hip music to draw our children in, and convince them that they need to be cool by either buying something or having something in their possession. The young people today also seem to be more mature than in the past, but this maturity also brings about much confusion and anxiety. Young people are looking for a safe haven and refuge from the many mixed messages that are being sent to them. For many young people, their home environments are unstable, which leads to more confusion.

Schools and classrooms should be a sanctuary for students that will fill the voids left by difficult personal and family situations or simply “growing pains.” The students are also seeking validation from their peers and from people whom they respect. Our students desire to be cared for, and it is up to me to provide a classroom that welcomes my students. To have such a positive learning environment, students need more than just a “dominator-type” teacher. They should not feel fearful to come to class or to participate in discussions. Students must feel that they are a part of the classroom and their own learning, so that they will want to learn and work hard.

I also have observed that many young people view learning as another outlet of entertainment. They want learning and the classroom to be fast-paced and flashy like the music videos and cartoons they watch. Though some lessons can be taught in this manner some of the time, most of the time, my classroom will be taught with clear rules and expectations. Again, there is a time and place for everything.

Expectations / Policies / Rules / Boundaries

I expect my students to come to class prepared to learn. This preparation includes having the right supplies for school and the right mindset for learning. This may sound too ideal, but I expect that every child wants to learn. Maybe a child has had bad experiences with learning, but I believe that deep down, there is a desire to learn. When students come to my class, I also expect them to participate in the classroom activities and discussions. I expect them to sit quietly when it is time to listen for directions or for a lecture. I also expect them to jump around and play and dance when the occasion arises to do so. I realize that there are different learning styles, and that I need to try to meet all the learning styles in my class. I will offer the child who is bodily-kinesthetic learner the chance to dramatize a story we have just read. I will offer the musical learner opportunities to sing and chant rhymes associated with our thematic unit. However, I expect all these students to sit in their seats and listen when we are learning and reviewing our lessons for the day.

I expect my classroom climate to be structure-driven. Rules, expectations, and boundaries will be clearly drawn out the first few weeks of school. The students will follow a very consistent schedule every day, and they will know what to expect every day. In addition to this structure, I would like my classroom to feel warm and inviting for the students, much like a home. In a home, there are rules and boundaries, and an order of hierarchy in the family. But there are also times when the family gets together and relaxes over a good meal or watches a movie together. I expect my classroom to have both the structure and the care of a household.

I plan to develop clear boundaries by having the students make up rules and expectations for the classroom. They will get into groups and discuss what rules would benefit our classroom. After each group presents the rules, we will take a vote as to which rules are the most important. We will have a “Class Constitution,” (a.k.a. “Social Contract”) which we will all abide by. The students will feel ownership of these rules, and hopefully, they will commit to these rules because these rules are the ones that are important to them.

My expectations are more teacher-centered. I like it that my classroom has a clear goal and organization, and that the students can move effortlessly from one subject matter to another because they know what to expect from me. But after a lesson is completed, I do feel that I am open to student-centered learning activities, where I would be facilitating centers, discussions, and experiments. Moreover, I believe that it will take me a few years of on-the-job training and experience before I will feel comfortable and able to teach using a student-centered style.

Instructional and Assessment Strategies that Promote your Management Goals
Instructionally, I meet the students’ needs by teaching them the basic skill sets, and then letting them use these skill sets in activities that will further their learning. In this manner, I can teach my students the foundational skills they need to read and write and add and subtract. But I will also give them the opportunities to learn through dramatic play, group projects, and art interpretations. By using these strategies, I will be teaching to all learning styles, but I will make sure that every one at least knows the basics, no matter what their learning style is.

I prevent the students’ needs to act out by setting clear boundaries in my classroom early on. I will have reasonable expectations for the behavior and abilities of my students so that they will be ready for learning in a proper manner. If I know that my students cannot sit on the rug for story time for more than 20 minutes, then I will arrange my schedule to match their developmental needs, as well as their academic needs. I will finish reading the story and presenting the material, and then have my students move to a learning center to enhance their learning. The way in which I present my materials will also curb my students’ needs to act out. Instructionally, I will present curriculum using lateral or interdisciplinary relationships. I will try to connect many different subject areas for my units so that I can touch on most of my students’ interests. Some students may like science more than reading, and by incorporating both these disciplines in my units, I can hold the attention of my students, and thus lessen their need to act out. As a class, we will also do role-playing activities so that we can learn together what is acceptable and appropriate behavior in class. We can act out situations and show which method would be a better way to handle problems in class.
Through the proper matching of my assessments to the learning goals that I want my students to attain, my assessments will promote the goals of my management. Knowing that my classroom will have students from different learning styles, cultures, and backgrounds, I realize that not every student will feel comfortable filling-in a test form or stepping out in front of the class to show me that s/he has learned the material. Having a variety of assessment methods allows my students to show me what they know in the manner that they are comfortable with. If I want my children to show me that they understand the water cycle, I can either have them draw it out and label the diagram or have them act as a raindrop to show me what s/he goes through when s/he is moves through the water cycle. By having a variety of assessments to use in my classroom, the students will know that there are many ways to show understanding of a subject matter, and the students will feel less frustrated and anxious when it comes time to assess them. Students who may have tuned out from learning because they were not good test takers will show more interest in learning, and this in turn, will result in less behavior problems, too.

To meet the diverse needs of my students, I have to first get to know my students and their family backgrounds. Once a comfort level is established within the classroom, the children can feel safe to have open dialogs about their culture and their backgrounds. I would also like to incorporate learning about one another’s cultures into our curriculum, so that discussing about culture becomes commonplace in our class. Students can bring items in from home to share with the class. Students will have a chance to invite their parents to come to our class and introduce us to their culture’s music, foods, and traditions.

In regards to different learning styles, they will be addressed in my lateral units and activities. As I mentioned above in my instructional and assessment strategies, the students will have the opportunity to interact, learn, and show knowledge in a variety of modalities. As for their different circumstances in their personal lives, I feel that I need to be understanding of these difficulties. Providing learning activities where they can share their feelings in a journal or in an art book will be some ways that I can incorporate learning about my students into my classroom, and also give my students a place where they can share what they are feeling. We all come to school with “baggage,” and our children are no different. Some of our children face violent or unstable home environments, and some may just be adjusting to a newborn in the family. Regardless of what the circumstances are, I need to be aware of what is going on so that I do not jump to conclusions that one child is “bad” or “can’t be reached.”

Motivation
What motivates students in the short-term are prizes, rewards, and verbal praise. These external forms of motivation are easy to hand out, and the student feels an immediate sense of reward. However, the drawback of these methods includes the students learning only because they want to get a prize or the praise in return. The student does not care about the learning itself, but the prize at the end of the learning. These rewards will result in short-term motivation because most likely, these students will not continue behaving or striving to do well in class if you take away these rewards.

What motivates students in the long-term is the promotion of self-improvement of the student. Teachers can motivate students in this manner by giving the students more control of their learning, giving students a chance to set their own goals and methods to reach the goals. Students will have a greater desire and intrinsic motivation to accomplish the goals that they have set for themselves, and they will have a greater sense of accomplishment because of their ownership in this process.

My students will do what I ask them to do because they will know when they enter my classroom that I care about their learning and their success. In building a positive teacher relationship within the classroom, I will clearly state my expectations for my students, and I will tell them that I expect them to aim high because I know that they can. I may have some extrinsic rewards such as stickers and certificates for general behavioral situations, and I will use praise when I see a student behaving properly or showing kindness to a friend. Some of my students may do what I ask them to do because they have already come into my class driven by good grades, but I hope that I can motivate them to learn just for the sake of learning and trying new things.

I plan to motivate my students by both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. Extrinsically, I have already mentioned about using stickers and certificates. Intrinsically, I hope to motivate my students by inviting guest speakers who have reached success even though there were difficulties and setbacks along their paths. If my students can meet positive role models, then perhaps they, too, can feel like they can do anything that they set their minds to. Another method of helping my students reach an intrinsic level of motivation would be to have them pick a topic or person whom they would like to learn more about, and allow them control over their project and what aspects they want to learn from it. With this activity, the students will feel like their opinions and choices are valued and that they themselves are contributing to their own learning.

My motivational style begins with building up the teacher relationship with the students. I will use some extrinsic rewards so that the students will be “kept on track” and have a sense of accomplishment for doing a good job on a task. However, my overarching goal for my students is that they come to a point where they desire to learn for the betterment of themselves.

Vision
It is 8:00 in the morning on a bright and sunny day, and my third-grade students are lined up outside my classroom getting ready for the start of the day. They are talking excitedly to one another about the homework assignment on sea creatures that they did the night before. They are comparing their collages and drawings, and showing one another their hard work. I walk down the line and praise the students for working so hard and producing such beautiful artwork. I wait for the bell to ring. After the bell rings, the children are immediately quiet, and listen attentively to my words about what to do with their homework and folders.

The children file into the classroom in an orderly fashion. They place their folders on the back table for the teacher’s assistant to look over, and they place their collages on their desks. The students hang their backpacks on their chair, and sit in their seats to show that they are ready to begin class. We begin the class by having one student lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, and we sing “America the Beautiful,” a song that we have been practicing since the beginning of the year. After we finish this morning routine, I again express to the children how excited I am about their projects. I tell them that we will have a “gallery walk” today, and that each project is on “display” or “exhibit” for our friends to see. Each student walks through the aisles, and there is a little bit of pushing among some students. I walk over to them and tell them that I know that they are very excited about their work and this activity, but that we need to be careful as we are walking through, so that we do not damage any one else’s work. Another student does not seem interested in participating in this activity, and I make him my “docent helper,” and he comes over to me and helps me “lead” the students around our gallery.

After the gallery walk, I have the students come to the rug, and we write down positive words to describe each other’s work. Each student feels good about their work, and feels like they have received public recognition for what they have done. We reread a story about sea creatures, sing a couple songs with hand motions about the sea, and I review with them all the things that they have learned about sea creatures as we finish this thematic unit.

For math, we are learning to add two-digit numbers. Some kids are listening attentively while I teach at the front of the room, but there is a table of students who are not listening. After I assign the workbook pages for the lesson, I walk over to the students and talk with them about their behavior and how it relates to the “Class Constitution” that we wrote together at the beginning of the school year. Once I feel that the students are willing to recommit to the class, I do a small-group activity with them to review what they missed. When the students finish their worksheet, I ask them to partner up and compare answers. If any answers don’t match, I advise them to work together to figure out the correct answer.

Before we head out for lunch and recess, we get together to discuss some issues that have been happening on the playground. We role play what it means to share the playground equipment, and how we should ask nicely when we want a toy that another friend is already playing with. The children participate nicely, and there are no problems on the playground today.

We come back to class, and we study nutrition. We talk about what we ate for lunch, and where each item fits on the food pyramid guide poster at the front of the room. I open the discussion up regarding healthy snacks and the difference between healthy foods and junk food. The students are eager to contribute their answers, and talk about their favorite junk food. To bring the students back to the lesson, I bring out some grocery story advertisements. We identify the different foods that we see in the ads, and I tell the students that the activity for our lesson will be to categorize foods based on the food pyramid guide. They are given scissors and glue sticks, and they work at placing the correct food items on a worksheet that is passed out to them.

We end the day by my reading a chapter book aloud to them. The students sit on the rug and hold puppets that they made of characters that relate to our story. Whenever one student’s character enters a scene, that student will act out the character. The children thoroughly enjoy this, but there are two students who are too shy to participate. I let them sit there and listen, because I know that they feel awkward, but are still attentive to the reading.

I end the day by passing out their homework folders. The students line up at the door, and walk out of the classroom after the bell rings. The students have had a productive day of learning and fun, and they are excited to come back to school the next day.