Teaching is a multifaceted diamond in the rough.

As a teacher we want to be so
many support systems for so all of our students. And so many times we have to wear
different hats to fit the needs of our students. Well, I want to be the referent
teacher: the buddy, the teacher with a positive relationship with all my students, and
communicates my care and like for each of my students (Levin, J., & Nolan, J. F) This is
very involved and this is something I will need to work on by participating in more in
school and after school activities, showing more of an interest in students activities. I
think that I do a fairly well job showing students that I am interested in their ideas
and especially in their learning. But sometimes my discipline style does not match the
dynamics of the classroom and I have to switch hats to something more authoritative.
This would be considered a Legitimate base style; where the teacher is the legal
authority in the classroom and students must respect that legal authority. As chapter
4 in Principles of Classroom Management states most teachers use a combination of
authority bases ( Levin, J., & Nolan, J. F. (2010)) So I need to prepare myself to have to
be able to switch bases on the drop of a dime; as well as know the differences between
the authority bases and their pros and cons. The 3 bases I feel that I connect with are
Referent, which is the teacher that has a positive relationship with their students and
thats why students behave. Then there is Reward/Coercive; this is the teacher that
uses extrinsic motivators in order to get students to behave. And lastly there is the
Legitimate base; that is the teacher that uses assertive authority to rule the
classroom. I feel that I match the referent authority base the most with a little of
the reward/coercive bases, and touch on the legitimate base but only when absolutely
required. Understanding the use of each will better help prepare me on when and how
to use each and the best situations for them in the future.

Levin, J., & Nolan, J. F. (2010). Principles of classroom management: A
professional decision-making model, (6th Ed.). Boston: Pearson.