Running hear: GUIDING PRINCIPLES 1

Guiding Principles
Daniela Reyes-Marin
Christopher Carson
CLDE 4020
GUIDING PRINCIPLES 2

Introduction:
My biggest goal in life is to become a teacher at an urban school. I had a lot of influences
growing up with some of my family members because they would talk about the fun things they
have done in their classroom and it made me realize that I want to do the same things. I want to
work at an urban school because I was part of an urban school all my life and I know how to
work with students in these types of environment and how everything is managed in these
schools. Once I become a teacher I have a lot of goals to do in my classroom but my biggest goal
is to create a safe environment for my students. The environment that I want to create is a place
where students would not be judged, mistreated, or bullied because of their race, gender, sex,
culture, religion, socioeconomic status, the way they dress or things that they do. I want to make
students feel that my classroom is the second home for them. That they could go up to their peers
and have a conversation like if they know each other really well. The other thing is that I want to
create in my classroom where parents feel welcome to spend time with their student and if they
want to volunteer in the classroom. The other things that I commit to doing are build
relationships with my students. This is because I want students to feel that I am a person that
they could trust. If there is something that is bothering them then they could go to my classroom
and talk to me. In order to create these goals, I need to do steps so my students and their family
could feel welcome in my classroom and it could be a community.

Culture Diversity:
When thinking of culture and identity I commit in knowing more about my students’ culture and
make an environment that the students want to be in. When talking about the knowing the culture
of my students I commit to knowing the elements and depth of their culture and not just
identifying them as a race. Hammond (2015) describes culture as a tree where there is a lot of
aspects to each part of it but what is most important is to go into the deep part of a culture, in
which is the roots of a tree. In the roots of culture is knowing the beliefs, norms, the archetype,
and if the culture is part of a collectivist or individualist culture (p.23-25). These aspects of
culture will help me as a teacher know how my students work and interact with their peers. Zion
& Kozleski (2005) mention about elements to a culture which technically is the deep roots of a
culture that Hammond talked about. The elements they talked about our language, attitude
towards time, space, family ties, autonomy, etc. (p. 5-8). As a teacher, this is another thing that I
have to keep in mind to work with my students. From understanding their culture and be aware
of it, I can make an environment that students want to be in. As Zion and Kozleski (2005)
explain, “an awareness and understanding of the role of culture in the classroom, and the
different values and behaviors that may accompany culture can remove unintentional barriers to
a child’s success” (p.4). In other words, there are a lot of barriers to a child’s success but if a
teacher that knows the culture of their students they will be able to remove it. At the beginning of
the school year, I commit to taking time during the first few weeks to get to know every student
background. An activity that could help students open up about themselves with the class is a
cultural puzzle. While doing this not only are they using their creative side but they are letting
people know things about their life. Once the students present their own cultural puzzle, then
some classmate will find things in common and it could be a good environment to interact. When
learning about the culture of my students what I have to do as a teacher is make them feel
welcome and safe in the community. As Zion and Kozleski (2005) explain, a teacher needs to
resist from stereotyping students. When stereotyping comes into the picture, I personally think
that just lowers a teacher’s respect. With a teacher that is always stereotyping students, it makes
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students feel uncomfortable and not welcome. Once I get to know the students’ culture, I will be
able to then add culturally relevant connections one lesson and the other to another lesson of the
day. With this student will be excited to know what other things their culture that they did not
know.

Once everyone feels comfortable and safe in the classroom I will not lower my expectation
towards my students. Hammond (2015) asserts, “... a teacher who is friendly but holds lower
standards and expectations for certain students in a misguided attempt not to hurt their self-
esteem. [The teacher] offers caring without focus on helping students take on challenging
academics” (p.98). Basically, Hammond means that the teacher that has low expectation do not
help students expand their knowledge and skills at school. With not helping students expand
their knowledge in school with their challenging task then they will have trouble in the future
schooling. However, there should be a certain care for the students in order to be successful at
school. As Duncan-Andrade (2009) mentions, “certain hope… come from the sense of control
young people have when they are given the resources to ‘deal with the forces that affect their
lives’” (p.186). He further went and explained that teachers that he has observe have bought
students things in order for them to be prepared for the classroom and have the materials they
need. As a teacher, I commit to giving my students the necessary care/things that they need so
they could have a good day at school and not have to worry about things. Giving students the
things, they need in order to be successful is like knowing the deep root of their culture and
building a classroom of caring shows that the teacher cares about them and their education.

Action:
• Hang up posters in different languages, flags, things that students create about their
culture
• Celebrate their countries Independence Day
• Having lessons of countries history, culture, food, traditions, holiday, geography, etc.
• Having a food fest to show students the different food from other countries

Questions: The main question that I have about the culture in my classroom is how to deal with
families that dislike another race. Students have the idea of what their parents/ extended family
beliefs are towards another ethnic group and they will grow into having the same beliefs. This
might result in a student bullying the other student of that ethnic group. In other words, how do I
deal with bullying in my class when students think another student is less capable? Do I bring
awareness of the racism that is happening? What if when I bring awareness to that and the
bullying increase? What if that students that are getting bullied does self-harm? There are many
questions that I have in mind that I still do not know the answer to it or how to deal with it. I just
want to create an environment where students feel safe.

Classroom Community:
Building relationships between students and teachers are important, especially in a diverse
classroom. This is because it makes students feel cared for in order for them to succeed in school
since there are people that need more help in order to do the same thing as others. I will commit
to having a relationship with my students so they could do better in school and feel that they
have someone there to support them. As noted by Hammond (2015) this bonding between
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teachers and students is one of the four practices in The Rigor Framework which is learning
partnerships. This practice focuses on building the trust of the student, so the teacher could create
a social-emotional partnership that would learning to deeper learning for students (p.19). Having
student trust and know that they have cared for they would start enjoying the class and be readier
to learn. They would have the more confidence to go up to the teacher and ask about things that
they do not understand. As a teacher, I commit to having individual meetings with students to see
if they need anything or have things that they want to talk about. As Hammond (2015) explains
“The only way to get students to open up to us [teachers] is to show we authentically care about
who they are, what they have to say, and how they feel” (p.75). I will start having individual
meetings at the beginning of the year and continue until the last day of school just to check on
the students to see how they are doing. If a student does not want to meet that day or just does
not want to meet with me then I will respect their decision and not force them to meet with me.
Personally, I believe that will make me a better teacher, have a better classroom environment,
and a good teacher and student relationship.

In a classroom there is always going to have behavioral problems, meaning that there is going to
be students that always going to misbehave. Vitto (2003) explains that the reason why students
misbehave is that their psychological and physical needs are not met, they do not know the
teacher’s expectation, they do not have a strong relationship with the teacher, and many more
other reasons (p.39). As a teacher, I commit to talking to the students that are misbehaving and
ask what is the things that they need to or want to better their behavior. Being a warm demander
with students in order for them to not misbehave is a great way to work with them. There are two
ways that warm demander is described in which I commit in being both ways. Bond and Ross
(2008) describe it as “warm demander begins with establishing a caring relationship that
convinces students that you believe in them” (p.2). While Ford and Sassi (2012) describe warm
demander as a teacher that has authority, a balance in discipline, that cares to provide a learning
environment, and high expectation for students without excuses (p.43). Both ways are great to
deal with students that are always misbehaving and I do not mind being both. I commit to being
a warm demander to my students so we could have a great relationship but also have high
expectation for their learning. There another thing that I commit to doing is having consequences
for students that are misbehaving. Depending on the way that they are misbehaving it would be
consequence it could be from filling out a refocus form in another class or going to the office to
talk to someone there. But the most important thing that I will have are the classroom’s rule
posted around the class and mention about it every day or every other day. This will help
students not misbehaving.
Actions:
• Create days where I could meet with students and have a one-to-one conversation
• Have days where we meet about school-related things while some days will be about
non-school related
• Make students write in a journal about things about things that they could not talk about-
I have to check if they want
• Having the rules posted in the wall and mentions about it every day or every other day
• Have consequences for students that misbehave
Question: My biggest fear is that what if a student does not want to have a bond with me? Do I
approach them and ask them why or do I just leave it and tell them that when they need
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something I am here for them? Should I still make an individual meeting with those students?
For one of the actions where I make my students write in their journal what if they do not want to
write in it? Do just leave them with that day not write in the journal? Or make them write in the
journal just a sentence say that they do not want to write on the journal. My biggest fear is if
every day there is a particular student that does not want to write in their journal so I just let them
not write in it or do let them not write in it every other day. How do I approach a student that
does not want to work with me in things that they are supposed to do?

Language Development:
When comes language development I commit to letting my multilingual students use their home
language to communicate with their peers. As Schleppegrell (2004) explains about Vygotsky’s
(1986) work on how social interaction helps develop language and thinking in children which he
calls it ‘zone of proximal development’ (p.22). What Vygotsky is trying to say is that in order for
students to develop their language and thinking they need to have social interaction with others.
Dalton (1998) suggests when doing Joint Productive Activity, the teacher should put students in
small groups to an activity so they could learn better (p.11). In other words what Dalton is trying
to say is that Joint Productive Activity is when students work together in small groups or with a
partner and the teacher only facilitate the group with questions. With students working together
to understand the material of the class it helps them because they are socially interacting with
their peers and by doing that they are developing their language skill and their knowledge. An
activity that I could do with my students in where they could help develop their language skills
and knowledge has a discussion of current news or any topic they want. I will put them in a
group and if they feel comfortable speaking their native language they are more than welcome to
do it. Also, if they do not understand what the topic is of the discussion they could ask in their
native language so they could understand it and participate because I do not want a student to be
left behind. Having students do Joint Productive Activity that helps their ‘zone of proximal
development’ is making students being able to work with a group in the future and being able to
be multilingual which is an essential skill in life.

Supporting my English Language Learners in a setting in where English is used only is important
to me because I know how it feels being in a classroom where there is not a lot of support. I
commit to using all of the things that Goldenberg (2008) suggest in “Supporting English
Language Learners in English-Only Setting”. The things that Goldenberg suggest is using
graphic organizers that make content and lesson visually explicit, opportunities and more time
for practice during the school day and after school or homework, give extra practice in reading
and writing to help their fluency and automaticity, etc. (p.20). These suggestions help students
improve their writing and reading skills that they will later use more in the future. Doing this
support will hopefully make my English Language Learners students feel more confident and not
be afraid of talking in class. Fairbairn & Jones-Vo (2010) mention that there are factors when
working with English Language Learners (p.6). They suggest knowing the educational
background, cultural background, social distance, psychological distance etc. (p.6-19). This is
because many teachers tend to ignore the factors that English Language Learner students bring to
the classroom and this makes them be scare to share out or participate in class. All of these
factors have important roles that I have to consider and keep in mind in order to be able to
connect with my students and teach them. With knowing all of the factors of their lives these
students will open up to me and we could have a relationship that will help them be successful in
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my classroom. Language development is important to keep in mind when teaching students

regardless of their background.

Action:
• Have assignments/projects that a student could talk about any topic but they have to use
their first language or the languages they talk. When they present their assignment/project
they need to say it in that language and translate so their peers could understand
• Have a word wall/vocabulary wall with English words that have a translation with the
languages that are used in the class including the definition
• Keywords in text define them- make students use it in writing and verbally at least three
times during the day- translate those words to other languages and making them say it
and write it at least three times- at the end of the week do a mini quiz with the words of
the week to see if they still know the words and previous words that we have used
• Label the classroom and have posters of different languages
• Have keywords or phrases that will help my English Language Learners

Question: There is always going to be students that do not want to learn a new language. How do
I approach them? I know that I have to talk to them privately but how do I let them know that
this will help them in the future? How do I tell them that they should not be that way and give a
chance to learn a few words in another language? When it comes to translating words, I know
that I will get words wrong and might need help from my students. Do I ask them at the
beginning of the year to help me throughout the year? Or do I tell them when I already translate
it to help me? Should I give them a reward for helping me or would that just make other students
mad for that? There are many questions that I still need help me with language development with
students.

Learning and Learning Theory:

Students need to learn in an environment where lessons could be a fun and challenging for them.
What students are used to in a classroom is the structure that is more of a lecture-dominated in
other words “cemetery approach”. I commit to having a classroom that is a Transformed
Classroom so that the students would not be just getting a lecture on, working individually, and
the focus is only on the teacher. As Teemant (2012) explains a Transformed Classroom is a place
where the teacher and student work together on real-world problems, activities that relate to
students, and activities that involved rich language and help develop academic skills. It is
important to have this type of environment because students need to interact with their peers so
they could talk more in class and have better social skills. Also, students need to move around
more because they are always in their seats and their brain needs oxygen in order to get more
information in. The other important thing that Teemant (2012) mention was that students should
have access to learning new things but also should have high expectation despite their
background. As a teacher, I should have high expectations for them so they could work hard and
put an effort in their class work so in the future they will know how to work hard. Having an
environment like a transformed classroom makes students better to learn things that will help
them in the future.
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The other thing that is important for students is seeing students’ parents getting involved in at
school. It makes students’ happy to see that their parents care about them in their education.
Therefore, I commit to getting parents to be involved in their students’ education so it could have
a positive for both of them. There are assumptions that parents in urban schools do not get
involved, I want to end those assumptions and prove people wrong. That is why I commit to
involving at least one or both parents, guardians, or family members in their student’s education.
Students will get excited and happy that they will try to do an amazing job at schools and
improve their grades. Parent involvement is one of the important factors in a students’ success at
school.

Action:
• Creating small groups where one student gets to be the teachers and teach about a topic
that relates to the lesson of the week
• Have stations that relate to the topic/lesson for the day but it would have students read
and write so they could improve reading and writing skills
• Make students work with partners but they need to be someone new every time so they
could not just work with the same person
• Invite parents to participate in class activities
• Give homework where parents and students can work together
• Create events for parents and students could do fun activities together
• Do home visits- go to student’s homes and talk to the parents
• At the beginning of the year take time and do positive phone calls to parents about their
students

Question: As I commit in doing these things for my students my biggest worries is how to deal
with students that just do not want to function with me. Meaning that I do not know how to deal
with students that are not willing to work with me or meet a compromise with me. How do I
approach them? Do I make a deal with them if they do their work I will reward them? But what
if I always have to reward them? Should I just make it once in a while that I reward them? What
if students get mad because they see that I am favoring one student? Should I talk to students
about the actions that I am seeing in the classroom? As for the home visits, I know that I need to
make an appointment with my students’ family to see when is a good day for me to visit them in
their home, but what if a student does not want me to go to their house? Do I ask why or do I just
do the home visit later in the year? I might need a little more help in knowing how to build
relationships with my students.

Student Voice:
There are many assumptions when it comes to students at urban schools from their lives to their
education. From these assumptions, students are not able to express what they want for their
education or what they want from their teacher. Christopher Emdin (2012) mentions in his
TEDxTeachesCollege speech that when teachers are recruited to urban schools that are often told
that students’ have a harsh life. Basically, what Christopher Emdin is that when teachers are
hired into urban schools they are told that these students have a hard life and they need to change
it for the better. With teachers having this mentality about students’ lives and believing that they
could go into an urban classroom and want to change it is wrong. As a teacher, I commit in not
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assuming my students’ lives are bad because they are not and letting them voice their opinion on
things that they want from me and their education. I will have a box where students could write
things that they want to change in the classroom or what they want me to do more to benefit their
education. Having students being able to voice their opinion and most importantly have a voice
will help them get what they believe is good for their life and for their future.

The other thing that I commit in doing in order for my students to voice their opinion is making
them take surveys like the Colorado Student Perception Survey. The Colorado Student
Perception Survey is 34 questions that measure student’s experiences. This survey focusses on
students’ learning, student-centered environment, classroom community, and classroom
management. Although, this survey helps to see the school which teacher is doing good in there
it also helps teachers see what their students want in the school. For my classroom, I will make
my students do surveys that are at least five questions that will tell me what they like or not like
about the lesson and what is something that they want to see as a change. This will help me with
what I should change the way I teach things or if the students like the things that I am doing.
With students doing a lot of surveys in my class I know that they would get tired of doing it so I
would limit to do it sometime throughout the school year. Having students take surveys will help
them voice their opinion about things that they do or do not like in the classroom.

Action:
• Having work of students with a picture of them holding a sign that has words that talk
about power.
• Students can write things that they want to see as a change and it could be anonymous
• Have words that powerful for students could see that they are powerful and mention
about it every day at the beginning of class.
• Try to have a student council for the older students at the school

Question: My main concern is what if students want to always find my lessons and things that I
do as negative. Do I talk to that student? Should I come to an agreement with them that will be
beneficial for both of us? Or do I just leave them and see if they change their mind in the future?

Classroom Outside of School:

Learning should not always be inside in a classroom there should be an option where students
once can go somewhere else to do a lesson. As a teacher, I commit in some of my lesson being
outside of the classroom. This is because I want my students to be able to recognize the things
around them and be able to identify it. For example, if there is a lesson on the types of trees and
leaves then a place we could go have class there is at the nearest park at school. This will help
students be able to see what characteristic of the trees and leaves that are near in their
community. The main thing that students need to do is take pictures of trees and leaves because
they are required to do a presentation and they need pictures to represent what they are talking
about. But the important things in their presentation would be comparing the trees that they
observe in the park to a tree from another country. Going outside the classroom would make the
student be more interested in the lesson because they get tired of just being inside and sitting for
the whole day. They just want to get up and moving since they have a lot of energy to waste.
Having outside it is a fun and interesting way to get students attention.
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The other thing that I commit is taking my students to field trips that are fun, interesting, and that
they get to learn something. For example, a field trip that we could take is going to the zoo, in
which they see all the animals and have fun doing the activities there but also learn facts about
these animals. Students enjoy going to field trips because it is a time for them to be out of class
and not do any class work. When it comes to field trips I commit to letting the students choose
the field trips however I need to approve if it is safe and what is there to do. With letting my
students choose their field trips I know that there is going to be a problem with some not wanting
to go there so I will make a voting poll online so students would not gain upon other students for
choosing that field trip. I want to be able to choose some of the field trips that could relate to my
students’ culture. This is because I want students to for that culture being the one that is the tour
guide and is proud of where they come from. Field trips are always fun and students could learn
from it and they could be able to explore what is in their city.

Action:
• Going outside of the classroom to do some lessons so students could have hands-on
• Field trips that are to learn about things in their state
• Having field trips that are for fun so the students would enjoy themselves
• Field trips that relate to students’ culture

Question: My biggest worry is when we are outside the classroom students start to complain
about anything? How do I deal with this? Do I pull aside one by one or tell the whole class that
there are some of their peers are complaining? As in for field trips when we go to a museum or
somewhere that represents some of my students’ culture and one student or some students start
acting up. I know that I have to talk to those students but what if they still act up and say
disrespectful things?
Teacher Reflective:
There are many things that I have to do in order to be an effective teacher towards my students.
Although there are a lot of ways for me to be an effective teacher, I believe that if I constantly
reflect on things that I do in my class. That is why I commit to reflecting on things that I do
around my classroom to be a better teacher for my students. One of the things that I will reflect is
on my lessons because I will be able to see what something in the lesson is that my students
understood and what is something that I did wrong that my students did not understand. The
other thing that I will reflect on classroom management because I want to see how things are
going in my class and if my students are doing the things that I ask for. The final thing that I
think is important to reflect on is the activities that I will be doing in my class. This is important
to me because I want to see if every activity that I am doing in class my students understand the
why is the activity going to help them in their learning. Reflections are important to me because
this will help me be a better teacher each year as I advance in my career.

Action:
• Plan ahead of time to do my activities in my class
• At the end of the day reflect on what went well in class and what went bad
• Have a journal with all of the notes that I work down that I wanted to reflect on
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Questions: What if I am harsh on myself? Should I always reflect on myself? Or should I just do
it once a week so I would not be harsh on myself? Will having a journal or a binder to have
every there be helpful? There are many things that I still have questions about but having a plan
will hopefully help me to become a good teacher.

Conclusion:
These are all of the steps that I have to take in order to achieve my goal to have a class that is
culturally diverse, a community, and learning being effective. With the actions that I presented in
my guiding principles, I commit to doing all of it so I could be an amazing teacher towards my
students. Even though, I will have hard days in my teaching career I believe that something that
my students will make up for it and everything will be great. Overall, these guiding principles is
helping me see what type of environment and teacher that I plan to be.

Reference:
Bondy, E. and Ross, D. (2008) The Teacher as Warm Demander. Educational Leadership.
Volume 66:1 p 54-58.

Dalton, S. (1998). Pedagogy Matters: Standards for Effective Teaching Practice. Research
report for the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE).

Duncan-Andrade, J. (2009). Note to educators: Hope required when growing roses in concrete.
Harvard Educational Review, 79(2), 181-194.

Emdin, C. (2012, August 23). Reality Pedagogy: Christopher Emdin at TEDxTeachersCollege

[video file].

Fairbairn, S. & Jones-Vo, S. (2010) Differentiating instruction and assessment for English
language learners: guide for K/12 teachers. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing.

Ford, A. C., & Sassi, K. (2014;2012;). Authority in cross-racial teaching and learning
(re)considering the transferability of warm demander approaches. Urban Education, 49(1), 39-
74.

Goldenberg, C. (2008). Teaching English language learners: What the research does-and does
not-say. American Educator, 32(2), 8.

Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain. Thousand Oaks, CA.
Corwin.

Schleppegrell, M. J. (2004). The language of school: A functional linguistics perspective.

Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Teemant, A. (2018). Sociocultural theory as everyday practice: The challenge of K12 teacher
preparation for multilingual and multicultural learners. In J. P. Lantolf, & M. E. Poehner (Eds.)
GUIDING PRINCIPLES 11

with M. Swain (in preparation). The Routledge handbook of sociocultural theory and second
language development. London: Routledge.

Vitto, J. M. (2003). Relationship-driven classroom management: Strategies that promote student

motivation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Zion, S. and Kozleski, E. (2005) Understanding culture. National Institute for Urban School
Improvement. Retrieved from
http://guide.swiftschools.org/sites/default/files/documents/Understanding_Culture_Part_1_.pdf