Blog #6 – Personal philosophy for a productive classroom environment

I believe that students cannot obtain productive results during the process of learning if their activity is done in a classroom where environment is not set to follow a number of pre-established and appropriated rules. In this process, the teacher has the main responsibility in designing and implementing those rules without discrimination and in the most effective ways. By adopting an effective classroom management, teacher and students alike can focus on understanding instead trying to fix daily misbehavior, minimizing the time required by nonessential activities and maximizing students’ involvement in learning.

Some of many steps teachers can take to create a productive classroom in my opinion would be:

• Learn about their students: their challenges, interests, prior experiences and future goals
• Learn about common issues that characterize students based on students developmental stage
• Make sure to master the subject taught and adapt it to the needs of students in class, modifying instructional strategies when necessary
• Arrange the classroom in a way that minimizes distractions and facilitates a good interaction with students
• Create a classroom climate that gives students an identity that motivates them while making them feel comfortable.
• Develop a written statement of shared beliefs, use class meetings and teach students specific strategies for conflict prevention and resolution
• Efficiently organize the time and materials in classroom, teach meaningful, innovative lessons inspired from real life situations
• Constantly exhibit withitness in classrooms
• Communicate periodically with parents not just when problems arise in addition to participating in meetings with counselors, administration and other teachers
• Avoid relying on punishment and use preventive managing behavior strategies that should minimize potential discipline problems
• Stick with the classroom rules previously discussed and practiced and set reasonable limits for behavior
• Do the best to become a role model for students.