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Classroom Management Philosophy

Curtis McHenry
Texas State University
CI 4343 & CI 4370
Professor Kurt Moede
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Classroom Management Philosophy

Band students come from all walks of life. They come from the highs and lows of the

socioeconomic spectrum, the various cultural backgrounds of the world, and from their own

incredibly unique and intensely complex personal experience. I envision band as an opportunity

for these diverse students to join together, work as a team, and create something bigger than

themselves. Building a band program that brings that ideal dream to realization is not easy. I

think a director who creates that kind of community must be committed to the craft and have a

solid grasp on classroom management. It is my belief that there is a way to cherish the diversity

of all band students while being stern in the proposition that there are certain unwavering

principles to be upheld. These three key principles are as follows: band students must respect one

another, band students must respect their instruments and property that is not theirs, band should

be fun.

Respect is an essential element of successful interpersonal relationships and is vital to

creating a positive learning environment. I believe band students should respect one another. In

my experience, without respect, the educational experience is cheapened greatly. When students

are mean or say unacceptable things, the victimized student oftentimes get the message “this

environment is not for you.” I want my students to want to be in band. I think they will learn

better that way.

When I was in middle school, I had a problematic case of acne. My face was beet red and

covered with large cysts, and this was the source of much teasing: “Do you even wash your face?

You look like a witch.” Being bullied like this made me hate coming to school most days.

Resentment built within in me and I began to stop trying in my classes. On a separate note, as a

high schooler, I remember drama permeating the air with its oppressive force. The highly
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personal details of students’ lives were shared without regard for how this would affect the

student whose life was being shared. It really detracted from the learning environment and got

the kids to lose that joy of music making. I do not want students to feel contempt towards my

band class.

My idea of interpersonal respect will be treated as if it is part of the curriculum. Because

student’s ideas towards respect are so diverse, students need to be taught exactly I mean when I

say respect. Respect needs to be defined in observable classroom behaviors (Ambrose, 2010).

So, in terms of specific behaviors that I endorse, those would be, but are not limited to, keeping

hands and feet to oneself, keeping the mouth shut when mean thoughts arise, and maintaining an

inside voice. Without respect for one another, the positive music community I envision would

not be possible.

My second key principle is also grounded in the idea of respect. It is that students must

respect their instruments and the property of others. In a pragmatic sense, maintaining

instruments carefully will greatly increase the odds of the instruments lasting much longer. I see

having working equipment as being essential to the successful band program. I think students

feel more motivated to work hard for the band whenever the band provides quality instruments.

As a middle schooler, I remember the horrifying mistreatment of instruments my peers engaged

in. There was one specific “game” my fellow tuba players would play that they dubbed “tuba

wars.” “Tuba Wars” involved slamming concert tubas together to see who could create the

biggest dent. Needless to say, the instruments were horribly battered. In High School, we got a

brand new Miraphone 191 Bb concert tuba that was truly magnificent. It was an absolute

pleasure to play on. This specific tuba was quite pricey, and, if my memory serves me correctly,

I believe it cost around $9,000. Within a week, it was rendered unplayable. A freshman tuba
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player dropped it. I understand that mistakes happen, but this was not an isolated incident in the

slightest. Nearly all the instruments at the school were dented and scratched in a myriad of ways.

The thought of seeing beautiful instruments destroyed due to carelessness or the thought of

emptying my band’s savings every year on repairs leaves a sad spot in my heart.

In my opinion, the director should have very high expectations regarding the care of

instruments and should develop a higher control strategy when it comes to instrument care than

with other parts of the curriculum. This means teaching instrument care with strategies like

Assertive Discipline (Canter & Canter, 2002). Lee Canter maintains that the teacher should set

high expectations at the beginning of class, clearly teach the procedures that allow students to

meet those expectations and be assertive in enforcing those expectations. Applying Assertive

Discipline to the context of instrument repair might involve teaching exactly how I would like

the students to care for the instruments. I will tell the students how to carry their instruments

safely and consistently enforce those methods. I will also teach the students about the proper

ways and frequency with which to oil the various parts of their instruments. All this care and

attention to detail, I believe, will create a learning environment that is more positive.

My third and final key principal is that band should be fun. Fun is often left out of the

music making process, but I think fun should be an essential part of every director’s approach to

music making. Yelling at the students and making my stress palpable in the air is not how one

makes band fun. I think a director should approach every lesson with a bit of levity and always

remember the important mantra: “it’s just band.” We are not hospital workers trying to save

people’s lives and the world is not going to explode if we do not make TMEA honor band. My

middle school director said frequently that band could create a “forceful vacuum” in its

participants lives if they do not take a little bit of time to have fun every once and a while.
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“Forceful vacuum” was a clever way of saying that band can suck. He also frequently said, “If

you don’t do the fun things in band, then band’s no fun.” Additionally, I think students learn

much better whenever they are having fun versus when they are being harassed by their

tyrannical dictator of a director. Abraham Lincoln famously said, “A drop of honey catches more

flies than a gallon of gall.” A study in 2015 called Fun in the College Classroom: Examining Its

Nature and Relationship to Student Engagement found that a “fun delivery of content” which

featured the use of humor, creative examples, and storytelling was positively related to student

engagement (Tews et al. 2015).

Again, I think band can be a glorious thing. Making the dream of the ideal band, in my

opinion, requires adherence to the three key principles of respecting one another, respecting

instruments and the property of others, and keeping band fun. Band directors have an incredible

responsibility set before them. I believe that if I do not follow these principles closely, then my

band community will not be what I want it to be. Therefore, I will always strive to implement

these principles as my working philosophy of classroom management.

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Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M.W., DiPietro, M. & Lovett, M.C. (2010). How Learning Works:
Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Canter, L., & Canter, M. (2001). Assertive discipline: Positive behavior management for today's
classroom. Los Angeles, California: Canter & Associates.

Tews, M., Jackson, K., Ramsay, C., & Michel, J. W. (2015). Fun in the College Classroom:
Examining Its Nature and Relationship with Student Engagement. Retrieved October 08,
2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/87567555.2014.972318