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I believe in running a classroom that will give my students the best education possible according to their needs and interests. At the start of a new school year, it is the best time to establish a safe, nurturing, and encouraging environment in the classroom (Milner et al., 2019). Therefore, at the beginning of the school year, it is important to create rules and procedures and a sense of community, and throughout the school year, students can provide their feedback and ideas so that I can adjust the classroom (Marzano et al., 2003). In my classroom management stance, relationships are very important. Relationships help build a community in the classroom, which can improve the climate of my classroom as well as my students’ learning and experience (Marzano et al., 2003). Because of this, I will have multiple ways to build relationships at the beginning of the year and continue cultivating them throughout the year.

I’ll demonstrate how I use my classroom management beliefs in a variety of ways, including providing engaging curriculums, building relationships, establishing rules, procedures, and consequences, communicating with students and parents and constantly evaluating and reflecting on my teachings. As shown, Figure 1 depicts my classroom layout and further demonstrates my classroom management philosophy, which is to allow students to sit on the carpet in the center of the classroom to support cooperative learning and encourage relationship building.

Figure 1

Classroom Layout

Because students in my music class are likely to participate in a variety of learning activities, the seating arrangement must be flexible at all times to allow students to do open space activities, such as dancing, singing, and instrument playing activities. Therefore, I do not have any desks or tables in my classroom and will have only a big carpet for students to sit on as there may not be enough room for tables or that it takes time to move them. In addition, I will have a teacher’s desk to the side of the classroom and will only be used for paperwork and lesson planning. For the rest of the class, I will sit on the carpet with the students. Sometimes I will teach on the carpet and become a participant in the activity, and sometimes I will teach or observe outside the carpet. I will also prepare a chair for myself so that I can often move around in different parts of the classroom throughout the lesson. This allows me to build relationships with my students when I participate with them and reinforce my position as a teacher when giving instruction. I will have a few chairs in the back of the classroom for administrators and visitors to sit in when they come in. These chairs are also for students who don’t feel well that day or for students that need a moment to cool off if needed. In addition, my classroom is full of different types of musical instruments, such as drums, rhythm sticks, maracas, recorders, etc. Playing, touching, and making noise with a variety of musical instruments helps my students learn in a variety of ways.  I also have a bookshelf that allows me to organize some instruments, especially the smaller ones. These are the few ways that I will design my classroom for my students to feel comfortable and confident as learners.

In conclusion, the way the classroom is set up impacts how well the students learn and interact with their classmates and me. I need to make sure that my class is arranged so that the students are productive and ready to learn every day (Marzano et al., 2003). Establishing a plan for classroom management begins at the start of school and continues throughout the school year. I have to be consistent and patient in developing relationships, teaching, respecting student time, responding to behaviors and needs, and adhering to learning behavior standards. I need to be able to adapt to situations that may not be in my class management plan.

References

Marzano, R. J., Marzano, J. S., & Pickering, D. J. (2003). Classroom management that works: Research-based strategies for every teacher. ASCD.
Milner, H. R., Cunningham, H. B., Delale-O’Connor, L., & Kestenberg, E. G. (2019). These kids are out of control: Why we must reimagine “classroom management” for equity. Corwin.