Philosophy of Classroom Management

Wares Salehzai

Establishing successful and efficient classroom management practices is a marathon, not

a sprint. When trying to implement classroom management techniques, I think that we often
focus too much on the current day’s lesson and neglect the long-term goal of creating a self-
maintaining and productive learning environment. To this end, routines need to be set,
expectations need to be managed, and adequate modeling needs to be demonstrated. I do not
expect my students to have exemplary behavior on the very first day, but I do expect them to
show improvement over time. For that reason, I believe that effective classroom management is a
long-term goal that requires consistent practice and foresight.
One instance in which a long-term approach can be advantageous is when the teacher
obtains and maintains silence in the classroom before speaking. In my experience, obtaining
silence is not the difficult part – there are a variety of methods that I can use to prompt my
students to be quiet: having the students clap in unison, having the students hold their hands on
their heads, knocking on the podium, and more. The real challenge, in my opinion, is
maintaining silence long after it has been requested, because many students have a tendency to
start chatting again immediately after quieting down.
For this reason, maintaining silence is something that I have been actively trying to
improve on. So even if it means abruptly putting today’s lesson on hold and sacrificing a chunk
of our class time to establish some classroom management norms, we will actually save time in
the long run because we will not need to keep quieting ourselves down later in the year. In the
actual classroom, this means that I would pause to the point of the dead silence becoming
uncomfortable before resuming my lesson. Otherwise, the teacher and students can get caught in
an endless loop of requesting silence over and over as students constantly resume chatting. I
believe this is where the importance of setting a routine and expectation for silence early on
shines.
As an educator, I believe my role is to foster habitual kindness and respect in my
students, with the long-term goal of ultimately “leading” my students “out” (ēdūcāre in Latin
means literally “to lead out”) into the world to become respected members of society. To
accomplish this, I intend to promote respectful behaviors, positive interpersonal relationships,
and peaceful conflict resolution. Routinely emphasizing these values makes classroom
management easier for me in the long run because students will feel a stronger social and
emotional obligation to conduct themselves in a courteous manner. I believe that these are useful
skills for students to have not just as individuals in the classroom, but also as human beings in
general. Not only that, these are especially important for younger students, like the freshmen,
since they are the future of the school’s student body and can help establish change within the
school itself.
One thing that I pay attention in particular is the power that words have on us, whether
those words are spoken between the students themselves or between the students and me. It is a
pretty common occurrence for high school students to say mean or hurtful things to each other. I
know that insults often get tossed around between friends who know that they should not take
each other’s insults personally, but regardless, insults can be extremely hurtful and damaging to
the person on the receiving end. The classroom is supposed to be a safe and inclusive
environment where everyone feels comfortable and respected, and insults can create a hostile and
unwelcoming atmosphere that undermines this goal.
Moreover, mean and hurtful language can distract from the learning experience and
disrupt the educational process. When insults are thrown around, it can be difficult for students
to concentrate on the lesson and absorb the material being taught. Instead, the student on the
receiving end and the neighboring students may become preoccupied with the insult or upset by
the situation, leading to a loss of focus and decreased academic performance. In extreme cases,
insults can escalate into violence or bullying, which can have long-lasting negative effects on the
mental health and well-being of the victim.
In the majority of cases, so long as emotions are not running wild, I like to diffuse the
situation by reminding students that that kind of language does not help cultivate our positive
learning environment, and then I ask the aggressor to give 2-3 compliments to the student whom
they insulted. This has a couple of positive effects on the class – it replaces the negative energy
in the room with more positive and friendly energy, it helps establish a culture of respect and
positive interaction in the classroom, it helps prevent future conflicts and disruptions by teaching
students how to handle difficult situations in a constructive and positive manner, and it helps
reinforce our sense of community in the classroom. I noticed this effect in particular in one of my
afternoon classes that has two talkative students who used to make fun of each other on a daily
basis. After just a few instances of me telling them to share compliments with each other, they
began to instinctively apologize to each other and take back their words after they realized that
they said something mean. In addition, the neighboring students have begun to start policing
each other’s language as well – some students have even begun giving compliments after
realizing that they said something hurtful without even being prompted to do so.
With regards to the words that get exchanged between the students and me, I realize that,
as the figure of authority in the room, each one of my words carries a great deal of weight with it.
Teenagers in particular have a tendency to take words to heart, so if they feel like they are being
targeted, or if they feel like their voices are not being heard, then it makes classroom
management more difficult down the line, because the students do not want to cooperate with a
teacher who seems to have a grudge against them. To circumvent this, when there is an issue in
the classroom, I try to refrain from pinning the issue on any individuals. I try to address the issue
by mentioning the behaviors, the set up of the classroom, the language, the noise level, or the
work ethic, and I try to frame those factors as not being conducive to learning. By pointing out
those other situational factors, it makes the students feel less targeted, and acknowledges that,
although the students themselves are not the problem, they can still help improve the situation.
I was recently able to implement this approach when four chatty sophomores in my Latin
2 class (who are all friends) wanted to play a 2v2 Latin board game together. I initially allowed
it. But after prompting the students several times to stay on task and after realizing the
teammates were not participating equally when answering the questions (the stronger student on
each time was answering all the questions), I approached them and explained why I was
considering splitting them up into two 1v1 games – I explained to them that the goal of the
activity was to practice the forms without doing a bland worksheet, and that the current 2v2 set
up was not allowing them to reach my learning goals because they were unable to engage in
equal participation and collaboration in the game. This approach resonated well with them,
perhaps because I gave them the opportunity to prove to me that they could improve the situation
and function well together. After the intervention, they began to play the game as intended and
gave everyone an equal opportunity to practice the language, and I noticed that the weaker
students began to step up and become more invested in their own learning.
Although I learned a lot about classroom management while student-teaching as a guest
in another teacher’s classroom, I also felt restricted by the norms and expectations that had been
set in the classroom prior to my arrival. Now, as a new teacher, I am excited to finally have my
own classroom – my personal sandbox – where I can experiment with new techniques and
comfortably develop my own style of classroom that works for me and my students.