Hello everyone! The internet is not being very friendly right now, I hope this goes through! My classroom philosophy is (Will be! Not in a classroom yet~) all about three pillars – respect, responsibility and most importantly honesty. I feel like respect has been talked about enough on this blog – but I guess it can get mentioned again. In my classroom, I will want things to be sort of open and free-flowing. I will come into the classroom with a set of things we need to learn that day, but I want to be open and let the discussion move in those directions as the students see fit. It’s not going to be “lecture about a, b, c, x, y, and z” format. For this to work though, I need the students to be respectful of me, but more importantly of each other. Disrespectful behavior will not be tolerated, because without respect discussion is not possible. I’m sure we’ve all been in English classes in high school structured like “Okay here’s a quiz, grammar lecture, literature lecture, class is over.” That’s boring to me, I want the students to have fun. Students do not learn if they are not interested, not having fun. As for responsibility, this sort of goes hand in hand with honesty. If you did not do something, take responsibility for it. It is not fair to the other students for you to get a pass on some behavior just because you are not willing to take responsibility. If I’m sounding draconian forgive me, of course I’m not going to be dictatorial about this. These lessons will be woven into the literature we read, the activities we do. Freshman and sophomores might need to learn these things so I will be more lenient, but if my seniors are acting irresponsibly then I will be more upset. Finally – honesty. A great ethicist once said that honesty is the pillar of society. If we cannot trust each other, then society (and classrooms!) will fall apart. I expect students to be honest with me, and with each other. More importantly, I need to be honest with them. I do not want to dissolve into that “scumbag teacher” (google it, you’ll understand what I mean). I will not make promises to students unless I think I can keep them, etc. There are obviously a few other things I want my classroom to be – fun, energetic. Though it may seem like it from reading this post, I certainly do NOT want a dry, boring, authoritarian classroom. I want to foster these virtues in my students overtime, not shove them down their throats like some bad teacher from an 80’s teen flick! Why did I choose these main three things? I think respect, responsibility and honesty are the three virtues that, above all, human beings need to interact with each other. If we don’t exhibit these three things in our daily lives in the classrooms, then there will be a barrier between us and our students that we simply can not break down. Then, how can we be expected to teach with this barrier between us? The three pillars of an effective classroom – respect, responsibility, and honesty. These are the three things my management style will be based on. By showing the students these three virtues, they will (mostly) fall into behaving on their own. Most students will not misbehave in a class where they like and respect the teacher, and are enjoying the atmosphere of the class. If they do not like you, or the subject matter, or the environment, that’s when a lot of managerial problems start popping up. I want to avoid those preemptively by making my classroom a place that invites (and therefore necessitates) good behavior, and effective learning.
Have a nice week everybody, see you all in class next week!
1 comment for “(Future) Classroom Philosophy”