Classroom Impact

Prepare a reflection about how your philosophy of education will impact your classroom?

1) Classroom Organization
I would prefer my classroom to be organized in groups of desks or tables that seat at least four students. Children are social creatures, and when you separate them, you’re only making it harder on yourself; they will find some way to interact with their peers with or without your permission. Having desks in groups is also convenient for when you’re doing group work, also an excellent idea.

2) Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is probably the best route for students, but extrinsic motivation will probably be necessary for special circumstances. There’s nothing wrong with a couple bonus points once in awhile. With well thought out lessons that include engaging activities, motivation will naturally occur.

3) Discipline
Middle and high school students are at a sensitive age where they can’t separate personal and academic criticism. If you tell them to please be quiet because others are trying to finish their work, it’s very likely they’ll avoid eye contact with you for the rest of period and sneak out of the classroom at the end of the period, thinking that you have some personal vendetta against them. So, while discipline is certainly effective at controlling a class, it’s not cure-all if you want to students to respect and like you. I would prefer to communicate with students rather than discipline them. Clear communication should be able to bring about the same results as discipline. If students know exactly what you expect from them, they will already know when they’ve crossed a line. A simple conversation should clear up any future problems. If your class rules/guidelines are relevant, and you enforce them, you shouldn’t have discipline problems. It all comes down to respect—for their environment, teachers and peers.

4) Assessment
Assessment is a necessary evil; on one hand, it’s needed to track your students’ progress or lack of progress, on the other hand, it promotes competition and stress within your classroom. Assessment doesn’t need to be arbitrary; it doesn’t need to be tedious; it doesn’t need to be mediocre. We can discover what students have learned about a subject without making them take a test. Authentic assessment is used to test a student’s knowledge of the core information they’ve been taught. The format of an authentic assessment will match the material that is being assessment. The nice thing about authentic assessment is that it can only be used to test authentic information. If you want to know whether or not your students remember the date of each battle fought in the US, you might want to skip over the assessment and head right to the multiple choice test...good luck with that.







5) Classroom Climate
When I close my eyes and think about my future students:
They are a curious bunch–always asking questions
They talk a lot–not necessarily about schoolwork–but I don’t mind
They give me lots of high-fives
They help classmates who are confused or behind
They don’t use derogatory words–ever
They complain when I make them write on paper instead of typing
Students will always be popping in just to say hi or drop off some make-up work

6) Learning Focus
While under contract by any school, I will certainly adhere to all state and national guidelines for school curriculum. My next concern would be to incorporate all mandatory readings and writing activities deemed appropriate by the school I’m employed by. Besides that I would just try my best to make things interesting.

Now, if I had free reign over my classroom curriculum, I would look through national core standards and combine them with my state’s standards to find the common ground. From the new set of standards, I would absolutely weed out any of the unnecessary or useless ones, and that’s where I would begin my curriculum planning. If I can’t explain to a student a realistic reasons for needing to know something, it gets tossed. My lessons would be skill–not fact–based. The goal of every lesson, every unit would be to help my students become well-rounded individuals, capable of making intelligent decisions regarding their life and their future. Individual lessons would combine essential core standard elements with relevant and interesting topics, engaging activities, and authentic, creative assessments.

7) Technology Integration
Yes.

8) Teacher and Leadership Style
I don’t know.