So many are the improvements that I feel I can make in my current year group after taking this

first unit in the course. The first point which I would like to highlight from my own experience is

that, thankfully, I no longer feel that I am alone in the struggle for better classroom management.

It was comforting to read confessions such as Choe’s honest report as well as Kractochwill,

DeRoos, & Blair (2014) when they say that a considerable percentage of teachers receive little to

no training regarding classroom management at university and in their first years of teaching

practice. Which makes me wonder whether I can (1) surrender to the thought that others are to

blame for my not being able to get all the necessary class management tools beforehand or (2)

minimize the possibility of stress and burnout while researching and drawing from other

teacher’s experiences to learn how to better manage my classroom. After this first week, I am

certain that I have chosen the second option.

I am often bound to believe that students must already be aware of

Analyze the concepts introduced in this Unit and design a positive classroom environment. What

are some elements you would include based on what you’ve learned? Use examples from past

experiences or include hypothetical examples.

So many are the elements we teachers are encouraged to include in our planning when it comes

to classroom management, that it may seem overwhelming at first to draw on the ones that would

be considered the “most effective ones”. Cini (2021) brings into discussion how important seven

elements are for effective classroom management, but I dare to say less is more in terms of

successful classroom management.

What I mean by that is that after having tried so many different strategies over my seven years of

experience as a class teacher in primary school is that, you have to gain students’ trust. They

must trust you and that you are there for them no matter the situation. I remember L., one of the

students from my last group. She had an extremely tough personality and would miss school a lot

simply because she would not handle the classroom environment, which was the only place in

her life where she would have to negotiate, be flexible and bend over to rules which were not

necessarily created to satisfy only her personal needs. We had and extremely harsh start, and

countless were the times in which she would not listen to me simply because that was her default

mode: she would burst out of the classroom so she would not handle a conversation.

I will now fast-forward a couple of months and zoom back into how L. has developed skills to

understand her own role as a student and as part of a community that needed her to do her part so

that the engine would keep on running. What had happened?

At a certain point I decided to drop all the beautiful tools and visual resources and I simply

focused on developing one sole thing: the IB learner profile.

Morning meetings were a big thing in my class. I would always start with a brief conversation,

often followed by students’ sharing of their personal experiences, which would certainly bring

problems related not only to L., but also to other students in the class. And so without ever

exposing anyone, after a while students became aware of their own responsibility as learners and

as individually within a community – in that case the community. Therefore, one of the few

elements which will definitely be part of my classroom design everywhere I go is the IB Learner

Profile.

Having as many as three rules is another element that I will also implement into my classroom

design. I absolutely agree and support Cloe, Y. when she says that at a certain point she decided

to “cut classroom rules from ten to three” and that nowadays she only wants her students “to be

respectful to all, to be on time, and to come prepared.” Because, ultimately, those three rules

encompass more than what any other strategy could suggest, and also the exact things students

need to thrive in the classroom.

Finally, the last element to be included in my classroom design after this week’s studies is

kindness and care towards my own self. Kractochwill, DeRoos, & Blair (2014) say that a

considerable percentage of teachers receive little to no training regarding classroom management

at university and in their first years of teaching practice. This affirmation makes me realize I did

not accept that the responsibility for my not being able to get all the necessary class management

tools beforehand as well as minimizing the possibility of stress and burnout is also a

consequence of poor school leadership and management. I believe that society in general

demands too much from teachers, and that at the end of the day we begin to believe and accept
that role which was given to us: caretakers of others, but never of ourselves. Thankfully, I have

found comfort and hope in Wolpow, R., Johnson M. M., Hertel R., & Kincaid S. O. (2016)’s quote,

with which I would like to end this paper:

“To maintain our patience, compassion, and creativity we must consciously plan time to care

for ourselves. If we don’t, there will be personal and professional consequences. Without self-

care we might not recognize the silencing response, a symptom of compassion fatigue and

burnout.”

This is by far the most important aspect of my new classroom design aimed at successful

classroom management from now on.

References

Cini, S. (n.d.).  Seven  key  elements for  effective  classroom  management. Retrieved April 16, 2021,

from https://classroom.synonym.com/seven-elements-effective-classroom-management-

6562940.html

 Choe, Y. (n.d.).  Becoming a positive teacher.  ASCD.   Retrieved from

https://web.archive.org/web/20210413152016/https://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/

vol4/405-newvoices.aspx 

Wolpow, R., Johnson M. M., Hertel R., & Kincaid S. O. (2016). The Heart of Learning and Teaching:

Compassion, Resiliency, and Academic Success. Washington State Office of Superintendent of

Public Instruction (OSPI) Compassionate Schools, 68.

REFERENCES

Choe, Y. (n.d.).  Becoming a positive teacher.  ASCD.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210413152016/https://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/

vol4/405-newvoices.aspx

Slavin, R. E. (2014). Good Instruction is Good Classroom Management. In Robert E. Slavin (Ed.),

Classroom Management and Assessment. (pp.66-69).Corwin.

Kratochwill, T.R., DeRoos, R., & Blair, S. (2014). Good Instruction is Good Classroom Management.

In Robert E. Slavin (Ed.), Classroom Management and Assessment. (pp.60).Corwin.