My Philosophy
My philosophy revolves around 7 key pillars. The pillars include rules and consequences, building rapport with students, classroom environment, routines, capturing student attention and tone and lastly intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
My instruction and learning will be active, meaningful, integrative, challenging and values-based. I also believe that powerful teaching and learning taps into all of the 21st-century skills. In my classroom I will have students using learning skills of collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking. Literacy skills of observing and reviewing different medias, information and technology material when it comes to social studies. I also want my students participating in leadership opportunities in the classroom and working to create social skills and other life skills. I plan to integrate multicultural education into the curriculum by meeting the needs of my students or just in general providing a space to study diverse backgrounds and different cultures. Students should be informed and aware of those who may live in their neighborhoods and communities but are the same and different and those from different cultures and backgrounds in different parts of the world. I hope the outcome from multicultural education is that students are able to understand and appreciate diversity and how this world came to be the place we are today, and how they can create social action to make the world a better place in the future.
Morning Meeting is an engaging way to start each day, build a strong sense of community, and set children up for success socially and academically. Each morning, students and teachers gather together in a circle for twenty to thirty minutes and interact with one another during four purposeful components: greeting, sharing, group activity and morning message”.
Pillar I
The first pillar rules and consequences, from open house night to the very first day of school I believe that it is imperative to set the tone for the entire year; setting rules that must be followed and what the consequences are for not following the rules. Rules and consequences are a contract between you and students, and must be consistently followed and maintained. The classroom management plan should be made clear from the very first day, giving students a fun yet detailed modeling, role-play and practice of what following the rules and breaking the rules looks and feels like. I think playing out the scenarios and allowing students to be interactive, have questions and discussions and then check for student understanding on their very first day both in practice and in a written way if possible.
Pillar II
The second pillar is building rapport with students; I believe that the first moments of the day when students arrive just sitting down, chatting, observing and listening is where building rapport starts, and having one-on-one conversations and for me being genual interested and open to going to students' extracurricular activities.
Pillar III
The third pillar on classroom environment sets the tone for effective classroom management; I believe that the classroom design from the small and whole group work spaces, to the classroom library, desks, display of student work, flexible seating (comfy seats, standing areas, whiteboard tables, etc), to the creative and intellectual spaces in the classroom to the lighting, colors, sound and nature elements of the classroom. Classroom design could be attributed to a 25% impact, positive or negative, on a student’s progress over the course of an academic year. Showing how the classroom environment and design affects and supports student achievement and learning, in addition to igniting engagement, staying on track and cultivating collaboration.
Pillar IV
The fourth pillar is routines to classroom management; having clear expectations and routines throughout the day is important to classroom management and like mentioned previously with rules and consequences, setting the stage for effective routines could start by modeling how not to perform a routine, then having a student model then a group model, practicing whole class and then going live, as routines showcase excellence and allows for teaching to be a lot easier when continually misbehavior doesn’t have to be managed. This is backed by responsive classroom strategies do not assume that children know or will carry over expectations from year to year. Modeling gives children, at every age and grade level, the opportunity to know what is expected and develop the competence and confidence to be successful -- at least most of the time.
Pillar V
The fifth pillar is capturing students' attention and tone. My philosophy is that teachers should not yell at students but rather get very quiet in a soft voice in order to see changes within classroom management and for students to listen and the energy in the room to be much calmer instead of intense. Getting students attention through lessons and instruction that is engaging, values based, integrative, challenging, fun/adventure, humor and laughter and active. Ensuring that getting students attention is done thoroughly and with purpose to reduce misbehaviors, mismanagement of the classroom management plan or increasing boredom within the classroom.
Pillar VI and VII
My last two pillars (sixth and seventh) are on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. My beliefs surrounding intrinsic motivation is that I will give praise when it is highly deserved and not an expected behavior and this can be done by praising in private moments, giving verbal or non-verbal cues, written praise, delayed gratification or even bursts of excitement or grows that can be worked on to improve performance. My belief in intrinsic motivation is capturing student interests in the content and subject matter, having students enjoy the work and have a desire to succeed and learn and enjoying the learning process. The value of choosing intrinsic motivation over its extrinsic counterpart is clear. Intrinsic motivation is fostered through learning about students interests, curiosity, rewards, goals, feedback or needs. Students are also more likely to be motivated if class material is relevant to their lives and involves their interests. However, when these things can not be met extrinsic motivation I believe should be used in order to foster motivation in students such as students desire to get good grades, get money in future careers, family pressure or praise from others.