Philosophy of Classroom Management

The management of a classroom may vary slightly depending upon the age of the
students that I will be working with, but I think overall the general ideas of how I want my
classroom to run will be very similar. Personally I believe that children learn best through active
exploration; because of this the classroom that I envision will be noisy, active, essentially
organized chaos. I think that the best way to get students actively involved in following any rules
is to first allow them in helping create the rules and to then make sure to build strong bonds with
each child.
I think the most important concept I want to foster in my classroom is a community of
caring; I plan to do this by showing each child that I respect them, and then help the class learn
about each other by holding classroom group meetings. I would have one meeting at the
beginning of the day to discuss what we will be doing that day as well as allow the children to
share things that happened to them at home the night before and another meeting would be at the
end of the day to allow children to share their experiences from the class day. During these
meetings I want children to understand that they are in a safe environment where they can feel
free to share whatever they would like and they will be respected. When setting rules for these
group meetings I will want to come on the first day with a list of ideas of what I think should be
the types of behaviors that would facilitate and hinder a positive and safe environment; but
before I share my ideas I would want to open up a discussion for the class to decide what types
of things are important to them to help create a safe and positive atmosphere where they will feel
comfortable sharing.
To help foster this community I will also provide many opportunities for group work, in
order to help facilitate this I will arrange desks so that they are grouped together with children

facing each other. I will also set up learning centers that will have materials set up and prepared
for students; in these learning centers the children will be able to work in groups, depending
upon the lesson plan they will be set up as either an activity where children can choose which
center they would like to go to and how long they would like to stay there or they may have a
certain about of time at each center. I feel that it is important to provide both of these types of
learning centers because the first allows for children to choose what and how long they want to
spend on a particular task, while the second can help work on time management skills. Another
reason why learning centers are important is because it allows the children to get up and
physically move to a different location; this can help get some restless energy out as well as help
them shift from one mental activity to the next by physically moving to a different location.
To help build a sense of pride and community within the school I will have jobs that will
be assigned to the students; depending upon the group of children I am working with will
determine if these jobs will change after a scheduled period of time or if each child will have one
job that they will do for the entirety of the year.
Another way that I plan on helping my students get their extra energy out is by
scheduling physical activity breaks; I feel like the spacing of these breaks would depend upon
the grouping of students that I have. During these breaks we would do things such as dancing,
yoga, going outside and running, or anything else to get the blood flowing and the whole body
moving. This is important to me for various reasons; such as the importance of being physically
active, moving helps get oxygen to the brain which helps learning, and I dont believe that
children are supposed to be sitting still.
In my mind if I child is acting out then it may mean that either something at home or
something here at school is not working for that child and their problem behavior is potentially

their way of asking for help. Then if they are not following the rules I would work with that child
first to see if there is any way that I could better explain the rules, then I would talk with fellow
staff members and the parents about what is going on with the child that may be preventing them
from following these rules and how as a teacher I could promote the positive behavior that I am
looking for versus trying to punish the negative behavior.