My philosophy of classroom management revolves around understanding the students as individuals. I think that once individuals feel important, classroom management will fall into place. Showing them that they are worth the teachers time (individually), even outside of the classroom, helps them realize their self-worth. I also believe that a huge part of classroom management has to do with the way the class is disciplined.
The students must realize that there are consequences to everything that they do, they can be good or they can be bad. Having good and bad consequences in the classroom helps students become responsible for the choices they make. It also helps them to see the big picture of what they are getting into. In order for this to work, the teacher must be consistent in the consequences they give. The consequences must also be fair and relevant to what it is that the student did. I will never use corporal punishment because all the child remembers about it is the actual punishment, not why they were punished. Whoever uses this method believes that teaching a child to fear is most effective. This is not true. It may be the quickest fix to a problem in that moment, but it will not teach the child why what they did was wrong. When the child is taught why, they will be more likely to not want to do it again. Not wanting to do something is part of a belief, if you believe something is wrong you will not want to do it. This is stronger than fearing a punishment that will last a short time.
Desists are a great way of giving students simple reminders of what they should be doing, since after-all, they are children and are still learning. Time-out should never be used. It takes away time from the teacher, from the class and isolates a student making them feel unwanted and that they don't belong. It can also be seen as a reward for the student being put in time out because they are being asked to leave the classroom (lecture), where they probably didn't want to be in the first place. Detention is better since the time taken is not during school. Although I don't think this time should be used to do homework, this time should be used to make goals, talk about what was done wrong and to apologize. If this time is used to do homework or read, then the students are being taught that they don't have to do anything to right their actions, they just need to pay the time by doing what they would have done at home anyway.
I believe a productive learning environment is created when there is mutual respect among peers and the teacher. This respect is built upon a foundation of trust which is created when the teacher is fair in how they treat all students, the students know what to expect from the teacher and the students know what the teacher expects of them. This way the students feel safe and secure because they know what should be happening in the classroom, it is not chaotic. They can predict what the teacher will do and they know what choices to make to be the best they can be. When students know these things they feel in control enabling them to learn as much as they can and feel safe in whatever they do while in the classroom.
