Lauren Sammon

2/4/14
Philosophy of Classroom Management and Discipline
Classroom management may be the scariest aspect of education for new teachers. It is
certainly the area of teaching that makes me the most nervous. However, I am confident in my
views about effective classroom management. I believe students should be involved in their own
education, and in the same way, believe students should be involved in the management process.
When most people think of education, I believe they think of becoming knowledgeable.
For me, I believe the most important goals for educators are to teach children how to become
problem solvers and to help them become respectable, honest persons. Teachers should do
whatever is in their power to better their students. Based on the goals I listed, I believe teachers
should demonstrate while teaching how to solve problems, and model how to act with integrity.
I believe teachers should always keep in mind they are shaping the future of America by teaching
the next generation of citizens. Teachers do this by finding opportunities every day in the
classroom to motivate and encourage students down the right track for the rest of their lives.
Whenever I hear the question what is a good teacher? my answer is Mrs. Cassara.
Mrs. Cassara was not just a good teacher, she was the best! She was my 4th grade teacher. She
possessed all of the characteristics and personal attributes of an excellent teacher. She was
warm, friendly and made our classroom a welcoming environment. My classmates and I felt like
we were a part of a team, the entire class was constantly working together toward shared goals. I
believe the main reason I felt strongly about her then, and still do to this day, is because she
respected us. She treated us more like adults than children. She never talked down to us. She
genuinely cared about our well-being, and she was generally interested in our lives outside of
school. She made learning interesting and exciting. She encouraged us, supported us, and taught

us valuable lessons beyond what was structured in the curriculum. She is the role model for the
teacher I want to be.
In my opinion, the main goal of a management plan is to provide a structured, effective
system for maintaining order in the classroom. I believe a management plan should define the
roles of the teacher and students, lay out the daily routines of the class, define clear expectations
for student behavior, and provide clear consequences for infraction. I want the focus of my
management plan to promote integrity and making good choices, and not a focus on punishments
and reinforcements. Though I do believe that the plan must be structured in order to be effective,
I also believe students should be as involved with developing the management system and
classroom rules as much as possible.
I believe it is important for the students to be a part of the decision-making process. For
that reason, I want to maintain a moderate degree of control in the classroom, but I also want my
students to join me in developing the management system. Further, I want my students to have
as many opportunities as possible to be responsible for their own choices. I believe the more the
students are involved in developing the classroom rules, the more likely they are to respect and
abide by them. For the same reason, I believe it important for my students to help decide what
the consequences will be for misbehavior.
Currently, I align my views with Rudolf Dreikurs philosophy of logical consequences.
His philosophy focuses on creating a positive, nurturing environment. He describes misbehavior
as the result of students not having all of their needs met, and that is why his focus is on meeting
students needs. In dealing with behavior issues, Rudolf promotes the use of logical
consequences over punishments and reinforcements. Logical consequences are modeled after
the consequences that occur naturally, such as burning your finger when you touch a hot stove.

These consequences must have a clear connection to the misbehavior, and that connection must
be logical to the student in order for it to be effective. I am a logical person, so that is probably
why this philosophy makes so much sense to me.
I completely agree that in order for a consequence to benefit a student, it must be logical
and have a direct relation to the misbehavior. It is important to reduce and deter unwanted
behavior (which I think is the main role of punishment in the classroom), but I believe teaching
students not to make poor decisions in the first place is more important. What I like most about
this classroom management model is that it promotes the involvement of students in making their
own choices. If students make poor choices, the logical consequences that follow provide
students the chance to reflect and introspect. Introspection gives students a chance to question
their own behaviors, understand what they did wrong, and consider how they might change their
behaviors in the future. In my opinion, providing students a chance for reflection and
introspection is more important than simply deterring unwanted behavior.
The strategies associated with this model are ones I plan to use in my future classroom.
The strategy I most easily relate to the model is the classroom contract. This is essentially the
list of class rules, but rather than the teacher creating the rules in advance, the teacher and the
students together write the contract. Giving the students the chance to provide input to the
classroom rules demonstrates their opinions are valued, and it encourages the students to take
ownership of the classroom contract. I also like the strategy of you break it, you fix it because
of its simplicity, and because it results in the student taking responsibility for his or her actions in
ways completely related the rule breaking.
My future classroom management plan will be closely tied in with the philosophy logical
consequences. I believe in order to maintain a welcoming, but orderly classroom environment,

logical consequences should be used for misbehavior and students should be included in the
decision-making process. I firmly believe in the benefits for students this model provides. All of
the strategies I plan to use in my future classroom help promote one of the most important goals
a teacher can hope to achieve for her students: personal responsibility.