I have always tried to gather information on my past experiences in the classroom to determine how I would manage my own classroom. I have seen good examples and some not so good examples and some extreme examples where I can honestly say I would never have my class ran in that way.
I think to begin the year off I would try and create an open classroom where the student's and their families feel they are welcome and safe. In doing this I plan on getting to know my students and their families by doing home visits before school starts. In doing this I believe it will give me a better understanding of each students background and develop a strong connection with the families.
I do not want the students to come in thinking I am a drill sergeant, but that I do expect respect. I also know that in order to get respect from my students I must give respect to my students. My students will know that I have high expectations for each and everyone of them and that through this mutual respect there is a sense of genuine care for all. I would love to set my classroom up as a sort of "family" environment with students grasping the understanding that this is our classroom and that we are all responsible for what happens within the walls of the classroom. Classroom rules will be displayed on the walls for easy reference and the rules will be followed by all including myself. I will model the expected behaviors on a daily basis thus being a from of DLT as a concrete example and give rewards to students as they demonstrate these behaviors on a random basis leading to BLT in the classroom. I would constantly model these behaviors for children to see what is expected and instead of just telling them (abstract) the behavior would be modeled (concrete).
I have seen many classroom settings in my past experiences and one that I always refer back to is the pod seating, where children are set in pods of four students. In doing this type of seating arrangement the children will feel more confident in using their more knowledgeable peer (SLT) in the classroom and they can refer to students in their pods to ensure they are grasping the contents being taught. In addition to basic classroom seating charts I would pay more attention to my language to ensure it is comprehensible to all students and when it is not I would go back to DLT and provide concrete examples of the terms not understood.
I believe my goal to visit each of my students home before the school year starts will give me a better understanding of each child's (CLT) background. Finding out how the student's family dynamics work and take that into considerations when planning my classroom. Who has access to what materials and what I need to do as a teacher to ensure that all of my students have the same opportunity to succeed. I believe if I have a small understanding of each studnets schema I can work off that ensuring sucess for all.
Many times I hope that as I become a classroom teacher I would be able to model the type of classroom management found in movies such as "Freedom Writers" or "Stand and Deliver" with James Olmos another great one was with Morgan Freeman in "Stand by Me" and another great one is Ron Clark who developed the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. I know it seems like a dream but that is eventually my goal to be the type of teacher that they write stories about... good ones of course.
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