Personal Style and Philosophy

Personal Style and Philosophy:  This should clarify your plan on how to effectively manage a classroom.  It should give the reader an understanding of what you believe is important in order to construct learning opportunities for students.   It should reference theorists from your own reading and research.  It can be based on one theorist or a combination of models.

While thinking about how I plan to effectively manage my classroom next year, the most valuable component of classroom management comes from the mentality that I adhere to when my students and I enter my classroom. This concept of mentality is addressed by Marzano in Chapter Five of “Classroom Management that Works,” and suggests that despite the human brain’s natural predisposition to automatically responding to outside stimuli, we must make active attempts to become more mindful individuals with what Marzano describes as “a heightened sense of situational awareness and a conscious control over one’s thoughts and behavior relative to that situation” (Marzano, Chapter 5, 2003). As a teacher in control of a classroom’s attitudes, behaviors, positive learning outcomes, progress, and goals, it is critical that before we begin to teach to these responsibilities we advocate for a mutual mentality between teacher and students that allow us to constructively learn based on our mindfulness of what Marzano calls “withitness” and “emotional objectivity.” I believe that students react on the emotions that are exuded by the teacher, and this concept of emotional constancy is critical in maintaining objectivity in a classroom with the common goal of accessing and progressing through academic content. In order to construct effective learning opportunities for students, it is our responsibility as educators to instill the concept of community in a classroom to promote positive learning.

            In a classroom, the teacher is both a manager and educator for the students. For management purposes, teachers should exude genuineness for learning and student growth by regularly monitoring and circulating the class. In an effectively managed classroom, teachers strategically position themselves so that they can effectively observe all students and have predetermined pathways in the classroom that allow for optimal circulation and student interaction. It is critical to have these predetermined pathways so that the teacher can, without struggle, detect behavior that may be deemed inappropriate and prevent these behaviors from escalating into further issues. This follows well with the notion of emotional objectivity where the teacher strategically plans paths and methods of teaching to minimize behavioral issues and keep the students engaged so that there are minimal disruptions and misbehaviors from students. By “knowing the triggers” of students, a teacher can predict and eliminate behavioral problems before they escalate and cause a class-wide disruption or disturbance (Shukhla-Meta & Albin, 2003).

            In addition to exuding the “withitness” that Marzano constantly references (Marzano, Chapter 5, 2003), it is critical for emotional objectivity to be a concept portrayed within a teacher and explicitly taught to the students. I believe that in remaining emotionally object it is the responsibility of a teacher to be realistic with students regarding the school and classroom expectations. Reasons should be provided for these expectations so that students understand the expectations are in place to promote and stimulate young learners and achieve their goals. Since a substantial part of behavior management in a classroom involves a teacher redirecting misbehaving students or correcting inappropriate actions or behaviors, allowing yourself as a teacher to avoid becoming emotionally involved shows character of strength and firmness while not personalizing the redirection or correction to the point of embarrassment or harm for the student. “Depersonalizing student behavior,” as Marzano describes it ((Marzano, Chapter 5, 2003) sets an objective lens that students can trust and helps build teacher-student relationships by instilling this trust of objectivity in behavioral redirections while still ensuring that the teacher cares. While many theorists argue against this fact that emotional objectivity takes a teacher’s personality out of the classroom setting, I would advocate for emotional constancy as a catalyst to effective teaching and learning when all other issues and emotions are put aside. Both students and teachers subsequently understand, after applying emotional objectivity, that the goal of school and the classroom is to stimulate the minds of young learners and provide steps to achieving short and long-term academic and life skill goals. When this mutual understand forms between teachers and students, the behavior management is minimal and pedagogy and learning are optimal, enjoyable, and meaningful. 

"Teacher Withitness"