SALT LAKE CITY COMMUNITY COLLEGE

CAITLYN HILTON BAILEY

My Classroom Management Philosophy 1

Having a classroom management philosophy is imperative to making sure that your

classroom runs smoothly. A smooth-running classroom will ensure that children are able to do

their best, and that you as a teacher are able to properly enforce rules and procedures while being

able to properly assist your students and their learning. A well-managed classroom can be what

makes the school year a positive and productive experience.

Classroom management includes several aspects, it details the organization of your

classroom, what rules and procedures you plan to implement throughout the year, how you plan

to work with students, how you will approach problem behaviors, what discipline will look like

in your classroom, and more. Each teacher will have a classroom management philosophy that is

unique to them and it is likely that a teacher’s philosophy will be fluid as they experience

different classroom settings, sizes, and environments. Every year teachers will be faced with new

students and thus new behaviors and challenges; a teacher’s management philosophy must

change and adapt to figure out how to incorporate these new experiences. A teacher who spends

several years teaching in a predominantly wealthy neighborhood, or at a pricy public school,

would drastically need to change their classroom management philosophy if they moved to a

community with a large population of low SES students. Because of the complexity of what

classroom management entails, one’s philosophy cannot be stated in a sentence, rather it is a bit

of a roadmap explaining on how you plan to navigate a classroom.

One of the first big parts of classroom management is the introduction of rules and

procedures into your classroom. While rules and procedures will change depending on the

classroom you are in, the rules of the school you are teaching within, and the grade level you are

teaching. As far as procedures go, I don’t think you can form procedures until you are within a

classroom. I have no idea what procedure will work best for turning in homework, until I know
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what a week in my classroom will look like. Overall, I believe that rules and procedures should

be fair and realistic for students but should also be unwavering. If you find yourself giving too

many exceptions to a rule, it might be time to look at the rue and change it.

Having strategy and philosophy in place to prevent problem behaviors is just as important

as having strategy and philosophy in place to discipline behaviors. I strongly believe in the

saying that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Part of my philosophy is that it is

important for children to understand that they can ask for help if they need it, hopefully this can

prevent behavior from getting too out of hand.

Discipline is often a subject that isn’t thought about until it is needed. As a parent you

most likely haven’t thought of how to punish your child until they commit a punishable offense,

it’s just not a fun part of parenting. Likewise, as a teacher it isn’t fun to sit and think of how you

will discipline your future classes it is much nicer to believe that every student of every class you

teach will be an angel that requires little to no discipline or instruction. However, despite the

harsh sounding name, a disciplinary philosophy is much more than how you will choose to

“punish” a child displaying bad behavior. A disciplinary philosophy will help you. Decide how

you ultimately manage your classroom overall. My main belief when it comes to discipline is

that talking is key. As a teacher you must understand what caused the problem behavior so you

can further your knowledge of prevention tactics, and your student must understand why what

they did was wrong. Change cannot occur in a child if they do not understand why what they did

was wrong. The punishment should also be explained to the student, so they understand that it is

a direct result of their behavior. Talking with your student will also provide your insight to

underlying issues and help you pinpoint if there were other students involved.
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Just as important as managing problem behavior is encouraging good behavior in

students. Small notes or stickers are a nice and quiet way of encouraging behavior without

calling out specific students. It can also be good to encourage good behavior even if you aren’t

currently seeing any. If you have a child that is only seeming to exhibit problem behavior, think

of one of their best traits and take a minute to remind them of it and how much you appreciate it.

Parental involvement is a very important part of classroom management. It never hurts to

send home a friendly note or send off a friendly email to a parent to encourage open

communication. Open houses are a great way to show off your students work, your classroom,

and to meet parents as well. Unfortunately, not every parent will be interested in, or able to

participate actively in their child’s education. However difficult it may be, you should never stop

trying to include parents in their children’s education.

As important as it is to know what you believe in doing within the boundaries of your

classroom, I believe it is also important to know what teaching strategies you will not implement.

If you know that yelling at a child will do more harm than good, and you know it is

inappropriate, but a kid is really pushing your buttons it is easy to think that “maybe if I yell at

them once they will get the message”. All you will really accomplish by yelling at the student is

breaking your resolve and hurting the student. It is important to establish your boundaries and

beliefs in the classroom and stick with them, this is as much a part of classroom management as

anything else. A big part of what I will never do as a teacher, is I will never manage my

classroom through humiliation and calling students out in front of their peers. This is a

management technique that I am against. I am also against making examples out of children,

even if the child has done something right. If a child gets an A on a test, comparing the rest of
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the class to that students grade only puts pressure on the student with the good grade. Every

students grade, good or bad, is personal.

To reiterate, every teacher’s management philosophy is a personal one, just as their

teaching philosophy is. While a management philosophy may be multifaceted and a bit

complicated to create, the end result of a well-run classroom will be well worth the effort. We

must remember as teachers to take information from each student, each year, and use it to

improve our classroom management skills.