My management philosophy reflects my energetic personality. I want the daily learning in my classroom to be much like an exciting new adventure. In order to accomplish that goal my students need to be working together with hands-on activities to discover new concepts. I want my students to be learning through movement as much as possible. As the teacher I always want to be the facilitator and the positive role model, but still teach with a student-centered style. I believe that the best way to achieve this is to have high expectations for my students and well-planned lessons. From the very beginning of the year in my classroom I want the students to know that a lot of freedom and choice is allowed if my expectations are met. I want to use expectations instead of rules to help have a positive atmosphere. These expectations will center along integrity and respect, which are two life-long lessons to learn. To have a successful learning environment of students that work well together respect and integrity are incredibly important. The classroom climate needs to make all students feel comfortable enough to ask questions, share comments, and feel involved, and I believe this can only happen if we all work together as a community. The expectations that I can see in my classroom are along the lines of treating others the way you want to be treated, do the right thing even when nobody is looking, and always come to class with an open mind. The other aspect that greatly influences my management philosophy is reflected on my teaching style. I need to be 100 percent prepared to teach and have no wasted time. I do believe the saying, “an idle mind is the devil’s playground,” so I want to make sure that there is very little time for an idle mind. If the students always stay busy with important activities then there should not be much time to cause trouble. Also as the facilitator, I need to be engaged and constantly aware of what is taking place in my classroom. I want my students to be up and moving around, so I will have to be on my toes in order to keep everyone on task.
Much of my philosophy is based on movement, expectations, and freedom, which can be dangerous if not used with the right age. I believe this would work the best with 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. If it was children any younger I would have to have more detailed expectations. The awesome thing about my philosophy is that the children could help choose what the right actions would be to uphold the expectations. When the expectations are broken I will have consequences, but whatever those may be I will still give the child chances to work back out of the hole they are in. If a student is constantly in trouble with nowhere but down to go it will not take long for that to be a devastating situation. I believe that with these expectations in place and the teacher having well planned lessons then behavior will be at a low level. The key to my management philosophy is to try and prevent behavioral problems from occurring ahead of time. I do believe that in such a positive environment all types of children will grow and blossom in an academic sense as well as a spiritual sense that is important to making others feel happy in school and in society.