Introduction
My Classroom Management Stance artifact is my stance on classroom management in my future classroom. I explain my stance on rules and procedures, relationships, documentation, and the physical classroom layout. I believe that my future classroom and students are a garden full of wildflowers. Every wildflower is different, are at different heights, and have different needs. The same can be said for my future students.
My Stance of Classroom Management
My future classroom is a garden full of wildflowers. Every flower is different and at different heights, just like how my students’ learning styles will be different and at various levels compared to everyone else in our garden. Flowers need nutrients, routine, and guidance to help them bloom into their full potential. The same can be said of students. My students will need guidance, routine, and structure to become successful .
A student-centered classroom gives students agency and a voice in how their classroom is run. A student-centered classroom makes the students partners in how they want their classroom community to operate. With this in mind, our first day of class activity will be devoted to coming up with our rules and norms as a class. This activity will be done within student-led groups, and then we will come together as a class. Milner and colleagues (2019) state, “Individualized resources and tools that address specific students’ needs is a key concert for success in a classroom environment.”
The third aspect of effective classroom management, after rules and procedures and disciplinary interventions, is teacher-student relationships (Marzano et al., 2003). Not only is a teacher-student relationship the third aspect of effective classroom management, but a teacher-parent/family relationship is as well. Having relationships with the students and their families will help me help my students grow into the beautiful wildflowers they are. To build relationships with my students, we will do questions of the day. This is an opportunity for me to learn more about my students’ interests and goals, but it also allows me to build a relationship with them and for my students to have brain breaks. To build relationships with families, I will do a newsletter for every new unit to explain our objectives, assignments, and achievements. At the beginning of the school year, I will send out an email with my contact information and brief information about me and the course; within this email will be a Google Form. The Google Form will have questions about their student’s learning preferences, home life, and anything they believe I should know.
The physical classroom is the most critical aspect of classroom management, other than rules and procedures and relationship building. “The physical organization of a classroom should promote the types of interactions [the] teacher wants students to have (Lemov, 2014; Manning& Bucher,2012). I want my classroom to be student-centered. That said, it is ideal for my students to be grouped into groups. For example, if there are twenty students in my classroom then there will be four groups of four. I know this type of setup may not work with every class and every student, so I plan on having a backup plan to fit my students’ needs and wants.
Milner and colleagues (2019) state, “The importance of being able to see all the students, easy student access to all class materials and important room locations, pathways between desks that can accommodate daily traffic flow, elimination of obvious distractions, and a layout that lends itself to students’ easily working in pairs, triads, or groups (pg. 87).” With this in mind, I do not plan to teach from my desk. I plan to have a rolling cart and stay away from my desk when teaching and group work is in progress so my students can ask me questions and that my students will not be in the red zone of my supervision. The red zone within my classroom is the area of supervision where I cannot make sure my students are staying on tasks. I want all my students to be in the green zone therefore I can reach them if they need help and guidance. My students will have a resource/calm area; there will be resources about the unit we are learning here, and if students need some time, they can come over to the calm area. The turn-in/grab workstation will be next to the door, allowing students to see items they need to grab and turn in as soon as they enter the classroom. The student center will be on the other side of the door. At this center, there will be extra supplies and materials. I plan to have all of my centers easily accessible to my students to help eliminate distractions and limit the amount traffic flow.
References
Marzano, R., 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 reimage “classroom management” for equity. Corwin.