Marcelo Gonzalez

Classroom Management
Classrooms tend to act as an extension of the teacher and can impact a student's attitude.
In high school, just from walking into a classroom I used to be able to recognize some of the
expectations a teacher may have had for me. If we were in tables with a partner I knew that
person would be the one I would rely on more often than not if I got lost in class or if the desks
were separated I had the understanding that there may not be as much group work in the class.
As a teacher I want to be able to set the stage for my students, giving them a glimpse of what my
class may is like from the moment they walk into the door. The goal of my classroom would be
to build a community that not only serves for the purpose of learning but also supporting each
other outside of just, Mr. Gonzalez's classroom. In my classroom trusting relationships will be
built through the feel of the classroom, the physical space, access to supplies, and ultimately the
expectations I have for my students.
My classroom management will be built on building strong student to teacher and student
to student relationships. The first step to building that relationship will be through a personal
history that I will ask of the student no less than a page due at the end of the first week of school.
I will let the students know that I would like some people to share with the class what they wrote
about and may start class with someone sharing instead of a warm-up for the first few weeks. I
will also write a personal history and let my students know about myself, I don't expect a deep
introspective look just something to give me a small idea of who they are. This will hopefully
begin to set the stage of my classroom being a safe space.
Another integral piece to my classroom will be making sure my students know that their
voice is respected and heard. I will encourage my students to express their voice not only
through speaking in the classroom but hopefully by more creative means for those that may be
more shy. I will use assignments as opportunities for students to voice their concerns and

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Classroom Management
opinions, many times by hopefully drawing comparisons between historical events and current
issues that maybe even some students are facing. This can be through just speaking up in class or
maybe asking students to create a poster for the assignment displaying their thoughts on the
historical situation. This will allow students feel that their voices matter and I hope that mentality
will also translate into the concept of their actions having an impact in the class.
Along with having students feel heard in the classroom, they still need to follow my
expectations. I will not only have set expectations but I will also open up a dialogue of any
possible expectations that want added to the class or maybe some that we can adjust. By
allowing the students to shape some of the expectations I am hoping to induce more buy-in from
the students. If they have a say in the expectations, I would want to believe that they are more
likely to follow them. Another part of students following those expectations is making them
visible, that way students have no excuse as to not knowing the expectations.
That being said there are some non-negotiable expectations that will be set in my
classroom. One of the most important to creating a safe space in the classroom is making sure
that a student's identity is not attacked by both me as a teacher or a classmate. I will not tolerate
slurs, curse words, or other forms of abuse on a student. While that behavior may be more
difficult to enforce outside of my classroom, I will inform my students that in my classroom we
will not hurt another person based on their identity. Another non-negotiable would be cell phone
use in the classroom. I would like to implement a system like the one that will be tried next
semester in the history department of Thompson Valley High School in which students have to
turn their cell phones in at the beginning of class. I would ask for support from my colleagues
and if a student refuses to turn their phone in then I will let them know I will keep the phone

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Classroom Management
until the end of the day if I see them with it in class. As of right now those seem to be my two
most non-negotiable expectations.
I will use these expectations and community to complement my teaching style. I do
strongly believe that students are able to learn from each other as much as from the teacher. I
want to build a classroom that capitalizes on lecture and student focused work. My teaching style
will be built on using the lectures to provide a concrete base for knowledge that they will then
apply in their student focused work. By student focused work I mean presentations, posters, and
group projects. The student work will be used more as a means to reinforce their understanding
while hopefully introducing high levels of thinking such as creation. A majority of the student
based learning will be considered formative assessments. The summative assessments, more
often, will see more traditional routes such as essays, examining primary sources, and short
answer. That is not to say that, on some occasions, their other projects may also used as
summative assessment in some situations. In order for my teaching style to work my classroom
also has represent my teaching style.
As far as homework goes in my classroom I will have them turn it into a basket close to
the front of the classroom after they walk in. I chose the front of the classroom because on some
occasions I may have tem retain their homework if it will be a part of their class work for that
day and I can hopefully relay that message to students at the front of the classroom on the board.
Along with the homework basket at the front of the room there will also be assignments for those
that may have missed class, if the assignments can be done individually. After students either
turn in homework or retrieve missing assignments then they will begin to get focused in class by
doing the warm-up.

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Classroom Management
One way I hope to do this is through making sure that the students know that at the
beginning of class they will always be primed for the rest of the lesson. This will be done
through warm-ups at the beginning of the class. To hopefully set up the class for the period, I
will have students start class with a variety of warm ups, this will include answering brief
historically based questions on, art, music, quotes, previous lessons, and maybe even just
newspaper headlines. These will have something to do with the lesson that will be taught that
day. I will also use some class time to share answers occasionally to reinforce the dialogue in the
classroom, especially on lecture heavy days. I will grade the warm-ups to provide an incentive to
do them in class. This will hopefully set the tone for the rest of my class along with giving me a
chance to see how the class may react as we go along with our day.
Going through the day I feel like my classroom will more or less follow three different
structures, heavy lecture days, heavy student focused work days, or a split of lecture with student
focused work. I will hopefully be able to develop a pattern to the classroom's needs and will also
help keep the class from getting stale. While I am a big fan of student centered learning, I do still
believe lecturing has a place in the classroom. The only other addition may be summative
assessment days, tests, or state issued test days. These will of course be known to the students so
they can prepare adequately.
In ending the classroom I want my students to end how they started class engaged. If we
are not caught up in the student projects, then I would like to have all my students in their seats
and have questions prepared to ask of them in terms of the content they learned that day. This
again reinforces the idea that their student voice matters. If the class that day was lecture heavy
then I will make sure to have an ending in which students have an opportunity to speak in the

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Classroom Management
end of class. I want to really push the idea of productive dialogue in the class room, an idea that
can not only be applied to learning but classroom management as well.
One thing I want to try in creating a sort of ambience in my classroom is adjusting the
lights depending on the time of day. I would preferably have the lights the brightest in the
morning and possibly end of the day depending on the results of my first few weeks as a teacher
goes. I am hoping that the bright lights in the morning can help students wake up and that the
lights will also keep my students engaged near the end of the school day when they may start to
feel tired again. I would like to keep them dimmer mid morning and after lunch to curb excessive
energy in the classroom. This would all again be dependent on observations made in the first few
weeks. This leads into another important part of the classroom, the actual physical space.
The physical space itself would ideally be composed of individual desks that can easily
be moved. I would have the desks in rows facing the front of the classroom. While this may still
be seen as a traditional sage on the stage set up for a classroom, I feel it would still allow for
dialogue along with giving me control of the class because that may be what students are used to,
a teacher in the front of the room. Along with the desks I would also have a seating chart to help
keep order in the classroom. As the first few weeks go by I would adjust my seating chart
accordingly and every quarter after that first adjustment.
I would have history orientated posters throughout the classroom, possibly making some
walls or sections of the walls subject specific ( econ, geography, world history, etc.) and leave
space next to those posters for student work. I want to show students that their work can be
perceived as important as that history related poster by setting them very close together. This will
hopefully encourage more pride into their student work. On some occasions I may also reference

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Classroom Management
student work during class that way students once again feel that their work meant something
outside of just having something to turn in.
I would like to have my desk in one of the corners of the front side of the room along
with a bookcase of history related books right next to my desk. This would be so there is some
sort of private space between me and the class so that I can talk to students about their work
individually at my desk. I would also have a bookcase for cell phones in which students can
place their phone according to my cell phone policy, next to my desk. The homework table
would be on the opposite corner depending on where the desk is placed. As far as the physical
space in my classroom, those seem to be the major points and are also visualized in the
following diagram.

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Classroom Management
In terms of managing resources I have already described some forms of management
such as some routines, like turning in homework and how the class will begin and end. Those
routines also need to factor in time for the class. History classes can sometimes lead to exciting
conversations that may sometimes veer the class of topic for more time then intended. In my
time budget I will usually include 5-7 minutes for students to finish the warm up and we may
occasionally share adding 3 minutes to that part of the class. As far as the lessons go plans I will
ask for input from other teachers on how long some lessons may take. Once that is figured out I
ideally would like to spend the last 5 minutes of class coming to a conclusion and preparing them
for the next day. If on some occasions the lessons may run longer than expected I will be sure to
include flexible days in my lesson planning for the different units, an example could be instead
of spending an extra day reviewing possibly teaching a second lesson or vice-versa.
Managing the use of paper in my classroom encompasses both budgetary needs along
with addressing some issues with time. In terms of passing out paper I will typically pass the
assignments out through rows, giving the first person enough to pass back throughout their row.
Class work may vary by the medium but if it is paper or posters I will have them place it on a
desk close to the exit. As far as printing goes I will make classroom sets for project based student
work while providing the worksheets on occasions where I want to see more traditional input
from the students. this will hopefully help with my paper budget.
The last piece that connects with management and success in my classroom would be
classroom rules, expectations, and consequences. The rules and expectations will be addressed
in the mock syllabus. As far as consequences go I want to make sure the student understands
what they may have done to disrupt their learning or their classmates learning and how to adjust
accordingly. I do like the discover model that I have seen at Lesher middle school and would like

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Classroom Management
to implement something like that more geared towards high school students. I would probably
remind students about the expectations up to three times before I ask to talk after class depending
on the severity of the disruption of course. Ideally I would like to believe that if conflict were to
arise then I would have a strong enough relationship with the student to have a productive
conversation after class. If the conversation is not productive then I would then involve parents
and administration.
These are currently my thoughts on a positive classroom management, I am welcome to any
further critiques.