Philosophy of Classroom Management Haley Kocefas 1

As a teacher, I believe that the guided discipline approach to classroom management

is the best method to build a positive classroom community and gain students’ trust and

respect. I am a big proponent of personal conferencing with my students to truly create a

sense of community. After all, the better you know your students, the more effectively you

can reach, teach, encourage, and support each individual in the classroom. My main goals

that drive my practice and classroom management are preserving the dignity of my

students, creating a nurturing learning environment for all, and implementing

social-emotional learning principles.

Building rapport with students can help to further engage them in the lessons being

taught and help to build trust, which can make unwanted behaviors occur less frequently.

One way that I have been able to do this is by soliciting student feedback to better

understand my students on a personal level and also to know what works best for them in

the classroom. For example, a new music-centered warm-up activity that I began

implementing in my Spanish 1 classes has helped me to connect with students through

their music interests. One of my heritage speakers in the class, Luciana, really liked this

warm-up activity after the first time I did it, and approached me about presenting a

particular artist. Once I did a warm-up activity using the artist she asked to do, I received a

lot of positive feedback from her and other students, including a lot of new suggestions.

That being said, I have learned that conveying to students that you care about their

interests and are willing to implement their feedback can help to build trust and strengthen

relationships.

In order to bring a sense of familiarity to my classroom, I believe that using the

same, familiar phrases to get students’ attention is effective, especially when teaching a
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world language. Soliciting feedback from the class about what works best for them has been

one of the most effective ways to get their attention when silence is necessary. In addition,

giving clear instructions before an activity, as well as knowing whether or not to use the

target language to make the instructions comprehensible for students, is vital to ensuring

student success. When sidebar conversations pop up in the classroom, which normally

happen during transitions or when giving instructions, knowing how to shut these down as

a teacher is important to preserve the dignity of the students talking and at the same time

redirect the whole class to be back on track. For eliminating unwanted behaviors such as

sidebar conversations, being assertive that talking when others are talking violates

classroom norms and using proximity/prompts both prove to be effective strategies.

Another facet of managing a classroom is being able to think before intervening

when difficult situations arise. Thinking through what to do when potential situations may

come up and knowing how to manage your anger in those instances is incredibly

important. For example, if someone says something disrespectful during class and it needs

to be addressed with that particular student, using strategies like immediate

acknowledgement of the inappropriate response, allowing them time to cool off, and

personal conferencing with them afterwards can be effective. My main priority is to act

with the student’s dignity at the forefront while being assertive about my expectations at

the same time.

In conclusion, my approach to classroom management all revolves around acting in

the best interest of my students, teaching them the importance of self-regulation of

emotions, and consistently collaborating with them to build a supportive classroom

environment for everyone.

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Revision Reflection

I was partnered up with Ethan for the peer review activity in seminar and we talked

a lot about how similar our PCM’s were in the sense that they felt deeply personal. He had

really liked the way that I structured my student anecdote, so I chose not to change that. I

also was unsure about adding further elaboration on the final paragraph before the

conclusion since I wasn’t sure on length, and Ethan said that he didn’t think it was

necessary. After rereading what I had written in order to expand on that paragraph, I

agreed that it didn’t seem necessary. Ethan’s feedback on the organization of my PCM and

the first paragraph helped me to tweak it to make it flow better and feel more concise, so

after seeing how he modeled his, I was able to make revisions to mine. For the first

paragraph, the initial sentence fit better as a more organized three-step thesis statement, so

I chose to move it to the end of the paragraph instead of the beginning. Since it summarizes

what I talk about for the rest of the document, I think it makes way more sense to structure

it this way. Then, when reading over the rest of the doc, I think it shows examples of ways

that I think about doing each of these three components. Then, the conclusion summarizes,

and it feels really full circle. I think overall I’m happy with the final product.