Personal Beliefs and Style
My Personal Classroom Management Style Based on Research
My personal management style is a collection of many different researchers’ and theorists’ ideas and suggestions. Specifically influential in the development of my personal management style are Harry and Rosemary Wong; Linda Albert (Cooperative Discipline); Jon Saphier, Mary Ann Haley-Speca, & Robert Gower; Howard Glasser (Nurtured Heart Approach); and Jim Fay, Charles Fay and Foster Cline (Love and Logic). Below are the elements that I use from each of these theorists and researchers:
Harry and Rosemary Wong: Wong and Wong (2009)
Linda Albert (Charles, 2005)
Attention- I WILL greet students by name. I WILL take time to listen and chat with students after class and during lunch. I WILL seek to learn more about the things my students are interested and involved in.
Appreciation/Affirmation- I WILL encourage students with specific and positive statements that point out quality characteristics that they have displayed and good choices they have made. For example, instead of saying something like, “Good work!” I can specifically praise through statements like, “John, I see you helped Michelle clean up her work. Thank you. That was helpful.” In so doing, the teacher can help give the student specific positive language about themselves (Charles, 2005).
Jon Saphier, Mary Ann Haley-Speca, & Robert Gower: (Saphier, Haley-Speca, & Gower, 2008)
Howard Glasser: (Children’s Success, n.d.)
Jim Fay, Charles Fay, and Foster Cline: (Love and Logic Institute, 2013).
In summary, my approach to classroom management hinges heavily on preventative methods. I will seek to prevent problems before they start by planning around them through methods of preparation such as organization, consistently implementing clear procedures, and creating a consistent environment for students; through methods aimed at meeting student needs such as building intentional relationships with students, empowering students and giving them a voice in the classroom, and helping them to connect with others; and through strategies aimed at engaging students and helping to focus their energy attention correctly such as using novelty, emphasizing the purpose of activities, and keeping class at an emotional level that is neither stressful and overwhelming nor dull and tiring. However, since prevention will not stop everything, my response to problems focuses on reacting calmly and empathetically, refusing to give negative energy to undesirable behaviors while still dealing decisively with the problem, putting the problem back in the student’s hands by emphasizing student responsibility in dealing with the consequences of their own actions, and using consequences that logically coincide with the offense.
My personal management style is a collection of many different researchers’ and theorists’ ideas and suggestions. Specifically influential in the development of my personal management style are Harry and Rosemary Wong; Linda Albert (Cooperative Discipline); Jon Saphier, Mary Ann Haley-Speca, & Robert Gower; Howard Glasser (Nurtured Heart Approach); and Jim Fay, Charles Fay and Foster Cline (Love and Logic). Below are the elements that I use from each of these theorists and researchers:
Harry and Rosemary Wong: Wong and Wong (2009)
- Preparedness: Avoiding problems by already having a plan that eliminates opportunities for them to arise.
- Organization: Goes hand in hand with preparation. Creates an environment of tranquility and allows for a smoother-running class.
- Consistency: Allows students to know what they need to do, putting them at ease and giving them the ability to be more self-regulated since they know what to do and what is expected of them.
- Clear Procedures: Setting out expectations and procedures clearly at the beginning of the year, teaching and rehearsing how I want things to be done until they are habit—avoiding problems through having a plan already in place.
- I WILL NOT frantically prepare for lessons and assessments the day before (or the same day) they will be taught or used in class.
- I WILL be prepared—I WILL have all lesson planning and preparation completed by at least the Friday before I teach it so that I am not scrambling to complete something the day before I am going to teach it. By doing this I will be able to give adequate time to thinking about all parts of the lesson and make sure that I am adequately prepared for all of them. By being prepared I eliminate chances of feeling flustered, which would certainly be conveyed to my students, creating an environment of unease for them as well. Preparedness also eliminates time wasted in scrambling to put everything together at the last minute, or trying to figure out what to do with unexpected time. When a teacher does not have a plan, it is much more possible that there will be down times when students are left waiting, which invites behavioral problems.
- I WILL NOT leave my desk or room messy at the end of the day.
- I WILL be organized—I WILL have a specific, labeled, and tidy location for everything in my room. This will help keep me sane as I use things, contribute to a professional and inviting environment, and eliminate the stress that comes from searching for lost or misplaced items.
- I WILL NOT fail to practice and “enforce” procedures in the classroom.
- I WILL have clear procedures in place—I WILL develop, write down, teach, and continually rehearse specific procedures for all classroom routines with students until they become habit. I WILL have a plan and communicate these classroom expectations to students clearly at the beginning of the year so as to provide them a sense of security and also create a classroom environment that operates smoothly.
- I WILL create a consistent classroom—This can be achieved through organization, preparation, and clearly established procedures and routines. I WILL also contribute to a consistent classroom environment through daily posting the schedule on the board as well as daily posting the days objectives on the board.
Linda Albert (Charles, 2005)
- Empowering my students to feel as if they have a say and a role in the classroom through things such as allowing them to draft their own norms, and referencing these norms (which they made) if they decide to infringe on one of their norms.
- Seeking to create an environment where students feel capable, connected, and like they contribute in a meaningful way.
- Being aware of and seeking to meet each of students’ four “misguided goals” of attention, power, revenge, and fear of failure as far as I am able to in my personal interactions with them and in the way I structure the class.
- Giving logical consequences as the result of actions.
- I WILL have students write a short sentence or two after each assignment explaining why they were successful or not. In doing so, I am helping them to focus on past successes (Charles, 2005) and helping them to develop a “growth mindset” that believes change can happen through effort and commitment rather than a fixed mindset which believes that they will always be what they are and they cannot improve because they will only obtain what they were born able to attain (Dweck, 2010). I WILL help students to feel that mistakes are okay (Charles, 2005). I will do this by not penalizing students on formative assessments through giving them a grade for work that is still a part of the process of learning (Tomlinson, 2014). I WILL help students to see improvement as an achievable set of moves that are taken one step at a time (Charles, 2005) through offering clear and specific feedback on their work that shows them what the next step is that they need to take. These things will help students feel capable (Tomlinson, 2014).
- I WILL seek to address the following three “A’s” in order to help students feel connected (Charles, 2005).
Attention- I WILL greet students by name. I WILL take time to listen and chat with students after class and during lunch. I WILL seek to learn more about the things my students are interested and involved in.
Appreciation/Affirmation- I WILL encourage students with specific and positive statements that point out quality characteristics that they have displayed and good choices they have made. For example, instead of saying something like, “Good work!” I can specifically praise through statements like, “John, I see you helped Michelle clean up her work. Thank you. That was helpful.” In so doing, the teacher can help give the student specific positive language about themselves (Charles, 2005).
- I WILL keep tallies of who has talked and who I have asked questions to and seek to pull in those students who do not normally contribute in discussions. I WILL provide opportunities for students to contribute within the classroom through seeking their feedback and taking it into consideration. These things will help students feel able to contribute (Charles, 2005).
- I WILL NOT feed students’ desire for power by entering into a conflict. I WILL remain calm and relaxed in all situations (Charles, 2005).
- I WILL give students a true sense of power, ownership, and contribution to the classroom by delegating responsibilities and giving students options to choose from (Charles, 2005).
- I WILL be intentional about offering genuine encouragement to help students feel that their attention need is met in their relationship with me as a teacher. I will do this through things such as writing one letter of encouragement a day to my students as well as seeking to genuinely encourage students all throughout the day (Charles, 2005).
- I WILL follow Albert’s advice to build relationships that communicate to my students that I care about them through eating lunch with students every Wednesday (Charles, 2005).
Jon Saphier, Mary Ann Haley-Speca, & Robert Gower: (Saphier, Haley-Speca, & Gower, 2008)
- Avoiding misbehavior through helping students to be engaged. This can be done through giving clear instructions; using novelty and varied experiences; conveying excitement for the subject matter; and using voice variety, gestures, challenges, props, praise, enthusiasm, humor, and dramatization.
- Helping students see the relevance of class through stating objectives, describing desired outcomes and real functions and benefits of these desired outcomes, and helping students connect what they already know with what they are about to learn.
- Helping students focus their emotion by creating a classroom environment that is neither too stressed or hyper nor so tranquil that students begin to become sleepy.
- I WILL help students stay engaged through giving clear instructions; using novelty and varied experiences; conveying excitement for the subject matter; and using voice variety, gestures, challenges, props, praise, enthusiasm, humor, and dramatization.
- I WILL help students see the relevance of class through stating objectives, describing desired outcomes and real functions and benefits of these desired outcomes, and helping students connect what they already know with what they are about to learn.
- I WILL NOT overwhelm students with a feeling of having to learn and accomplish so much that they become stressed-out or fearful and shut down. I WILL NOT allow my class to become so excited about what we are doing that they go wild. I WILL set high expectations for my students, but I WILL provide the necessary support to help them reach those expectations. I WILL convey a passion for my subject matter and seek to involve students through movement and fun, but I WILL NOT seek to make class all about entertaining students at the cost of learning.
Howard Glasser: (Children’s Success, n.d.)
- Making a big deal about the good things and dealing with the bad things in a non-ceremonious way.
- Dealing with problems by asking students to “start over.”
- I WILL NOT react to student misbehavior with emotion such as yelling or fighting. I WILL calmly deal with the situation in a discrete way if possible.
- I WILL address first time problems through asking students to “reset” or removing items that may be causing problems.
- I WILL give energy and attention to the GOOD things in my class through genuine and specific praise. I WILL NOT let negativity become the driving force in my class and I WILL model a positive attitude.
Jim Fay, Charles Fay, and Foster Cline: (Love and Logic Institute, 2013).
- Avoiding power-struggles through offering students many choices.
- Genuinely empathizing with students, but also letting them deal with the consequences of their actions.
- Avoiding making threats or requests to students, but instead using “enforceable statements,” which present students with options in a positive way while not leaving the teacher powerless. These enforceable statements emphasize the relationship between student choice and consequences. An example of an enforceable statement is, “I’ll be happy to answer questions from students who raise their hands and wait quietly.” This is contrasted by a statement such as “Raise your hand or I will not let you speak.”
- Avoiding dealing with tense situations in the heat of the moment, but rather delaying consequences until both the student and the teacher are able to think more clearly.
- I WILL allow students to make many choices by offering them several acceptable choices to choose from throughout the day and on assignments and assessments when applicable.
- I WILL make genuine and empathetic responses to student predicaments, whether undeserved or deserved, and I WILL supportively hold them to the standard of dealing with the consequences of their own action. I WILL help them take responsibility for their actions through the use of action plans. I WILL create a clear connection between their actions and the consequences through consequences that are logical and delayed (in order to truly think them through and ensure they are logical).
- I WILL NOT engage in conflict with students.
- I WILL use enforceable statements.
In summary, my approach to classroom management hinges heavily on preventative methods. I will seek to prevent problems before they start by planning around them through methods of preparation such as organization, consistently implementing clear procedures, and creating a consistent environment for students; through methods aimed at meeting student needs such as building intentional relationships with students, empowering students and giving them a voice in the classroom, and helping them to connect with others; and through strategies aimed at engaging students and helping to focus their energy attention correctly such as using novelty, emphasizing the purpose of activities, and keeping class at an emotional level that is neither stressful and overwhelming nor dull and tiring. However, since prevention will not stop everything, my response to problems focuses on reacting calmly and empathetically, refusing to give negative energy to undesirable behaviors while still dealing decisively with the problem, putting the problem back in the student’s hands by emphasizing student responsibility in dealing with the consequences of their own actions, and using consequences that logically coincide with the offense.
How My Personality Impacts My Style
Everything about my management style comes back to one key phrase: "I care about you."
I am a very compassionate individual and it is because I care so deeply about my students and want to seem them grow that I teach. This is seen in the way that my management style is very relational. Like Linda Albert (Cooperative Learning) I feel that students are more likely to succeed when they feel that they are capable, connected, and able contribute in a meaningful way. As a teacher I seek to create a classroom environment and a teacher-student relationship that enables them to feel capable of accomplishing the goals they set for themselves, connected to our classroom (a place of belonging), and able to contribute with their own unique knowledge and abilities.Because I care about my students, I invest in them as people.
This mantra of "I care about you" has the weakness of potentially sliding into a well-intended but structure-less form of management where students know that they are cared for, but for lack of "fear of the teacher" are not well managed and the resulting classroom environment is not conducive for learning. This is in fact what happened to me to a certain extent at the beginning of my teaching. While my students perhaps felt boosted in their confidence as people, they were not learning to their full extent since I was not managing them well. Recognizing the error of my ways I have since made drastic changes. I now recognizing that "I care about you" goes a step farther. Because I care about my students, I care very intensely about their success in life academically and in areas outside of academics. It would be the most uncaring thing of me to allow them to hijack their own learning by not keeping them focused at all times on the learning goals. Because I care about my students, now I do not accept behaviors that take away from the learning of the class; my students are too important to me to allow that. Because I care about my students I hold them to high expectations for their behavior, their preparedness, their academic effort and achievement, neatness, and interactions with others. I have found that students rise to the expectations set for them and that they desire the structure and clear guidelines that I am now determined to give them. Harry and Rosemary Wong's management ideas have become especially helpful to me, and I follow their suggestions on setting out clear guidelines, teaching them, practicing them, and enforcing them to communicate clearly to students what I expect of them. Additionally, I do not withhold consequences now but rather see them as a powerful learning opportunity for students. Love and Logic’s model of using empathetic statements allow me to be both caring and firm at the same time without being a push-over or harsh. Using enforceable statements put the responsibility of the student's behavior back on the student. These types of responses to student misbehavior allow me to pair my genuine care for my students with a clear and firm consequence that is not a punishment but simply the result of what they chose to do.
Finally, because I care about my students I seek to engage them. In my life I am also always personally driven to understand the relevance of something, and in my teaching I find helping students to understand relevance to be one of the most important parts of a lesson. Because as a student I wanted to know why something mattered, I am extremely driven to help my students also see the relevance in what we are doing. Also, due to the many years I have spent teaching biology in a camp setting to elementary-age children, movement and novelty are naturally things that I value and find myself constantly seeking to incorporate into lessons regardless of the age-group to which I am teaching. My drive toward helping students see relevance and using strategies aimed at engaging students such as movement and novelty are strengths to my management style because when students are engaged they are less likely to cause problems due to boredom, and research shows that students are able to retain more information when the learning is tied to an experience that is enjoyable or fun (Saphier, et al., 2008). However, when making class fun, it is also important to make sure that things do not get out of hand, in which case management and learning would both go out the window. To adjust for these potential weaknesses in my management plan, I will be sure to clearly define, in writing and orally, and practice with my students procedures for how we will effectively transition into and out of more active learning experiences, as well as clearly teach students procedures and expectations for how we conduct ourselves during these types of learning experiences.
Everything about my management style comes back to one key phrase: "I care about you."
I am a very compassionate individual and it is because I care so deeply about my students and want to seem them grow that I teach. This is seen in the way that my management style is very relational. Like Linda Albert (Cooperative Learning) I feel that students are more likely to succeed when they feel that they are capable, connected, and able contribute in a meaningful way. As a teacher I seek to create a classroom environment and a teacher-student relationship that enables them to feel capable of accomplishing the goals they set for themselves, connected to our classroom (a place of belonging), and able to contribute with their own unique knowledge and abilities.Because I care about my students, I invest in them as people.
This mantra of "I care about you" has the weakness of potentially sliding into a well-intended but structure-less form of management where students know that they are cared for, but for lack of "fear of the teacher" are not well managed and the resulting classroom environment is not conducive for learning. This is in fact what happened to me to a certain extent at the beginning of my teaching. While my students perhaps felt boosted in their confidence as people, they were not learning to their full extent since I was not managing them well. Recognizing the error of my ways I have since made drastic changes. I now recognizing that "I care about you" goes a step farther. Because I care about my students, I care very intensely about their success in life academically and in areas outside of academics. It would be the most uncaring thing of me to allow them to hijack their own learning by not keeping them focused at all times on the learning goals. Because I care about my students, now I do not accept behaviors that take away from the learning of the class; my students are too important to me to allow that. Because I care about my students I hold them to high expectations for their behavior, their preparedness, their academic effort and achievement, neatness, and interactions with others. I have found that students rise to the expectations set for them and that they desire the structure and clear guidelines that I am now determined to give them. Harry and Rosemary Wong's management ideas have become especially helpful to me, and I follow their suggestions on setting out clear guidelines, teaching them, practicing them, and enforcing them to communicate clearly to students what I expect of them. Additionally, I do not withhold consequences now but rather see them as a powerful learning opportunity for students. Love and Logic’s model of using empathetic statements allow me to be both caring and firm at the same time without being a push-over or harsh. Using enforceable statements put the responsibility of the student's behavior back on the student. These types of responses to student misbehavior allow me to pair my genuine care for my students with a clear and firm consequence that is not a punishment but simply the result of what they chose to do.
Finally, because I care about my students I seek to engage them. In my life I am also always personally driven to understand the relevance of something, and in my teaching I find helping students to understand relevance to be one of the most important parts of a lesson. Because as a student I wanted to know why something mattered, I am extremely driven to help my students also see the relevance in what we are doing. Also, due to the many years I have spent teaching biology in a camp setting to elementary-age children, movement and novelty are naturally things that I value and find myself constantly seeking to incorporate into lessons regardless of the age-group to which I am teaching. My drive toward helping students see relevance and using strategies aimed at engaging students such as movement and novelty are strengths to my management style because when students are engaged they are less likely to cause problems due to boredom, and research shows that students are able to retain more information when the learning is tied to an experience that is enjoyable or fun (Saphier, et al., 2008). However, when making class fun, it is also important to make sure that things do not get out of hand, in which case management and learning would both go out the window. To adjust for these potential weaknesses in my management plan, I will be sure to clearly define, in writing and orally, and practice with my students procedures for how we will effectively transition into and out of more active learning experiences, as well as clearly teach students procedures and expectations for how we conduct ourselves during these types of learning experiences.