When you acknowledge and accept that, as a teacher, you make a difference you dignify yourself and the teaching profession — Harry K. Wong & Rosemary T. Wong
Harry and Rosemary Wong in their work, “The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher”, provide some alarming statistics that reveal many of today’s issues that may affect students’ ability to learn. One of these statistics reveals, “The average child receives an estimated twelve minutes of quality, personal, focused, undivided attention each day from his or her parents” (80). This reality has not only opened my eyes to the importance of fostering a safe and inclusive learning environment for students but the necessity for positive expectations I must have for my students to ensure their ultimate success.
In order to establish a welcoming and invitational learning environment, I plan on standing outside of my classroom door before class begins and after it ends every day. By standing outside my classroom door as my students enter and leave my classroom, I am intentionally inviting students into my room, addressing them correctly by their first names to establish a personal connection with each of them. Wong and Wong claim, “The invitational messages extended by the significant people in a person’s life have the power to influence the life of that person” (62). As a future educator, my role is essential in student lives because we become a significant role model as well as a provider of a well-managed and positive classroom. By promoting inviting personal behaviors such as smiling and making eye contact, listening attentively, and saying please and thank you, I will encourage a positive learning environment as well as model polite behavior for students to reciprocate.
As they enter my classroom on the first day of class, I want to incorporate some kind of artistic activity to not only help me get to know each of my students on a personal level, but also so that the students will be able to place their artwork on the walls, so they feel as though they have some kind of possession of the room. In addition to having students take ownership of the classroom on the first day of school, I also want to have communication with parents or parental guardians right away, in order to establish a partnership between myself and the students’ support system at home. The readings from Wong and Wong have further promoted my personal belief that parental involvement is beneficial and crucial to student learning. This being said, I plan on sending home contracts for parents to help me get to know their student better, as well as establishing some accountability to make sure parents and students are taking the time at home to talk about school. I also plan on sending home a newsletter at the beginning of every unit, so parents are familiar with the class, the types of learning activities that are taking place, and the nature of the course content.
To provide consistency into their daily lives, at the beginning of every class, I will provide on the front board the learning objectives for the day, as well as a list of daily activities so students can always come into class with a sense of confidence they know what they will be doing for the day. I also believe that seating arrangements are beneficial and will be implementing them into my classroom in order to create an all-inclusive community that doesn’t cultivate cliques or behavioral issues.
In summary, my classroom management philosophy focuses on providing an inviting and intentional learning environment. By providing invitational personal behaviors, and consistency into the students’ everyday lives, my classroom will become a well-managed, inclusive, and positive learning environment where students feel safe and excited to learn. I also want students to take ownership over the classroom, by putting their own artwork on the walls to provide an inviting physical environment.
Wong, H.K. and Wong, R.T. (2018). The First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc.
Ms. Tapia's Classroom Management Plan 