Running Head: TEACHING PHILOSOPHY 1

Personal Teaching Philosophy

Kayla Ross

Cincinnati Christian University

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Personal Teaching Philosophy

Vision

“Love is the heart of the classroom.” This was a phrase that I adopted my first year of

college, when I sat in my introduction to teaching class and thought about what would be the

single most important aspect of the class I hoped to someday teach. Today, that vision still rings

true. While academics are important, and I can’t wait to teach subjects I love, like reading and

writing, I understand that the most important thing I can do for my students is to build a

relationship with them. In her TED talk, Every Kid Needs a Champion, education reformer Rita

Pierson (2013) states simply, “kids don’t learn from people they don’t like”. A teacher can have

the best lesson plans, a well-decorated classroom, and all the right books and tools, but if they

have no relationship with their students, it will all be for naught. However, it is the teacher who

loves her students that has the power to make a lifelong difference. Nine out of ten adults who

escaped the poverty they lived in as children said that they were able to do so because of a

relationship with a coach, teacher, counselor, or other caring adult who took interest in who they

were as a person (Payne, 2013). I want to be that kind of influence for students who come into

my classroom.

From birth to high school, the average student spends 13.36 percent of their waking hours

in school (Wherry, 2004). In a perfect world, this would mean that the remaining 86.64 percent

of the time would be spent at home building relationships and learning things that the school

could never teach. However, this is not always the case. As of 2011, 21.9 percent of all children

were living below the poverty line, with even higher percentages among African American,

Hispanic, and Native American children (Payne, 2013). Research shows that children living

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under the stress of poverty are more likely to experience increased anxiety, mood control and

memory impairment, and difficulty coping with stress (Boghani, 2017). When these students

come to school, they’re not looking for good pedagogy, well-planned classroom management

strategies, or appropriate standards. They’re looking for an escape.

With all I’ve learned about children, my vision for my future classroom is simple. I want

students to come into my class and feel safe, even when the rest of the world seems scary and

dangerous. I want my students to feel loved and respected, even when others would call them

worthless. I want to be the adult who looks them in the eye and says, “you matter to me” every

single day, even if I am the only one who does so. I want my classroom to be a place where

students feel free to create, imagine, and dream of the future. Where they feel free to learn, and

to love every minute of it.

Classroom Arrangement

One of the many tools that a teacher can use to build a meaningful school experience for

students is the way that the classroom is arranged and organized. Louise Phillips (2015), co-

editor of the publication, Practical Literacy, defines a place as “a space that we have made

meaningful”. She goes on to explain that such a place “informs people’s sense of who they are,

where they are, where they have come from and where they are trying to go” (Phillips, 2015). By

this definition, a teacher’s job when designing his or her classroom is to turn the space they are

given into a place that is filled with powerful meaning. One study even referred to classroom

arrangement as the “invisible hand” through which teachers can have a tremendous impact on

many aspects of classroom interactions, including individual academic performance, behavior,

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and even with whom students choose to become friends (Gremmen, Berg, Segers, & Cillessen,

2016).

Evertson and Emmer (2017) list five keys that every teacher should keep in mind when

deciding how to arrange their classroom for the first day of school. These keys include aligning

the classroom with instructional goals and activities, keeping high traffic areas clear, making

sure the teacher can see the students from every part of the room, keeping necessary supplies in a

convenient location, and making sure that students can always see the part of the room that will

be used for whole-group instruction. Paying attention to these five keys are vital to the

arrangement of the classroom space because the way that the classroom has an immense impact

on not only the learning that takes place but the attitudes that the teacher and students will feel

toward that learning (Gemmen, Berg, Segers, & Cillessen, 2016). In other words, the classroom

place that the teacher creates has the power to either make students feel excited about learning or

to make them dread it.

When planning for my future classroom, there are many things that I have considered as I

think about how exactly I want everything to be laid out. One important factor that may seem

small but is in fact very important is the location of the wall outlets in the classroom. This is a

part of the classroom that will be set before the teacher arrives, and can limit the locations of

certain items that need access to electrical power (Evertson & Emmer, 2017). In my layout of the

ideal classroom, I have three outlets placed around the room, with strategically placed items to

try and get the best possible use out of each of them. Near the front of the room is an outlet to be

used for the SmartBoard and projector. In the front left corner next to the teacher’s desk is

another outlet. This outlet serves two purposes. First, when I am at my desk, I can easily use the

outlet for my laptop if needed. Second, I have also chosen this corner of the wall to locate the

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classroom laptop cart, where the students can use technology and then plug it in when they are

finished. The third outlet in the classroom is in the back of the room, between the reading corner

and the kidney table. This outlet is open in the floorplan because, with the use of extension cords

and power strips, it could be used to power portable electronic items, such as laptops, in either of

the two stations located against the back wall based on how they are being used at any given

time. This outlet could also be used to power a small lamp to be placed in the reading area for

students to use during their independent reading time.

Another important part of the classroom is the open floor space. Evertson and Emmer

(2017) recommend that teachers plan their floor plan first around the area where the most whole-

group instruction will take place, and then by the small group areas. In my classroom, a lot of

whole group instruction will take place around the SmartBoard, so the student desks have been

arranged so that no seat is facing away from the board. Students with ADHD, vision or hearing

impairments, or other impairments that may make watching the board difficult, will sit in desks

closer to the board, both to help them access instruction and to allow a better line of sight of

these students during instructional times. I chose student tables instead of individual desks

because for the small group activities that I plan to use, students can sit around the tables and

work cooperatively with one another. The teacher desk, which will probably be more of an extra

storage area than a place where I spend a lot of time, is conveniently located near the board so

that necessary supplies can be stored on or in the desk and easily accessed whenever they are

needed during whole group instruction. In the back of the room is a reading corner, storage area,

and kidney table. The reading area has small bookshelves to cut off the area from the noise of the

room while still keeping it visible to the teacher, a comfy circle rug, and bean bag chairs where

students can sit and read. The storage area also provides further separation between the reading

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area and the kidney table, so that both can be used at the same time without disrupting one

another. Finally, the kidney table sits in the corner with chairs around it for the teacher to work

with small groups of students. There is also a small easel behind the table that the teacher can use

for instruction if needed during small groups.

Another important part of the classroom is where materials will be stored. Instructional

materials that will be used the most frequently should be stored in the most easily accessible part

of the room, whereas seasonal items can be stored in areas that are more difficult to access

(Evertson & Emmer, 2017). In addition to the classroom laptop storage cart, I have included two

main storage areas in my classroom. In the front of the room is a storage closet behind the door.

In this closet is where seasonal supplies, such as thematic classroom decorations, will be stored

because these items will not need to be constantly accessed. The storage area in the back of the

room will hold supplies needed for small group activities, such as art supplies and games.

Additionally, there is a long counter attached to the sink where constantly used supplies can be

stored. This counter is also a good place for personal touches such as plants and a cage for a class

pet.

A final part of the classroom that the teacher must pay attention to is the wall space.

Evertson and Emmer (2017) caution teachers that overly decorating the walls can make the

classroom cluttered and chaotic, when really simple displays of important classroom information

are the most important things to include, and later student work can be added to brighten up the

room. On my classroom walls, I have included three bulletin boards for this purpose. The first

one, right inside the classroom, between the door and the cubbies, will be used for daily

information so that students can turn to this board as soon as they walk in the room. This board is

where students will find the passes to leave the room and a calendar with reminders of important

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upcoming events. Additionally, there will be a folder hanging on this bulletin board where

students who have missed a day of school can look for information and work that they have

missed. The second board at the front of the room will hold other important information such as

the daily classroom schedule, rules, and procedures, so that students can easily look to this

information throughout the day. The final bulletin board, near the back of the room next to the

counter, will be a display board. Students will regularly choose their best work that they would

love everyone to see, and that work will be displayed on the board. Additionally, any open wall

space would also be used to add other work that students want displayed and pictures of the

students to add a personal touch to the room.

Socio-Emotional Environment

Evertson and Emmer (2017) define social-emotional learning as “the process of gaining

competencies and intrinsic motivation for emotional self-awareness and regulation, for safe and

responsible behavior and for assertive, empathetic, and skillful social interaction” (p. 195). In

simpler terms, social-emotional learning is the way students interact with their own feelings and

the feelings of others. The classroom atmosphere has a huge impact on the growth students make

in this area. Additionally, the interactions between the teacher and students can play a vital role

in establishing a healthy socio-emotional environment.

I want the atmosphere in my classroom to be one in which students feel safe and valued

no matter what. Abraham Maslow’s research on the hierarchy of needs explains that students

who do not feel safe will not seek acceptance and love, and those who feel safe but do not feel

loved will not seek the higher needs of esteem and self-actualization, or fulfilling their potential,

until those more basic needs are met (Snowman, McCown, & Biehler, 2012). To make students

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feel safe, I plan to communicate to them from day one that no matter what is going on at home,

when they come to school, they are my kids and I would do anything for them. Robert Marzano

(2010) urges teachers to build a relationship of trust and guidance with students by finding every

way possible to communicate to them, “You can count on me to provide clear direction in terms

of your learning and in terms of behavior. I take responsibility for these issues...We are a team

here and succeed or fail as a team. Additionally, I have a stake personally in the success of each

one of you” (p. 149). I want my students to know that I care about their success. The Pearson

company’s “My Voice Student Aspirations Survey” (As cited by Hare, 2018) revealed that while

seventy percent of students said they believe their teacher thinks they can succeed, only forty-

eight percent think their teacher cares. I hate to even think about more than half my students

spending an entire year in my classroom believing that I don’t care about them. I plan to spend

every day investing in my students through simple gestures like greeting them with a smile,

asking how their day was, and getting to know them as a real person, not just a seat in my

classroom.

When I interact with my students, I want it to be in a light and supportive way that says,

“I’m here with you” instead of “I’m here to rule over you”. One study found that the most

effective junior high teachers were the ones who joked with students and smiled often (Marzano,

2010). The National Education Association found that not only does humor make students feel

more comfortable in the classroom, it can also bring content to life and stimulates parts of the

brain that regular teaching doesn’t (McNeely, 2017). Not only does smiling make people feel

better by releasing stress-reducing hormones, it is also proven to be contagious, and can even

make the person who is smiling appear more competent (Gutman, 2011). To me, smiling and

laughing with my students seems like a no-brainer. If one simple strategy, that requires no

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additional time, effort, or money, can make me feel good, make my students feel good, and help

them learn, why would I ever choose not to use it?

Perhaps the most important thing I learned to say during my semester of classroom

management experience in Ms. Goldstein’s class was this: “Lo siento. Yo no se mucho de

español pero yo practico para tu.” This was the first full sentence I spoke to one of our students,

a little boy who showed up in the middle of October unable to speak or understand any English

at all. To be honest, I’m still not entirely sure if it’s entirely grammatically correct, but in rough

translation it means, “I’m sorry. I don’t know very much Spanish but I’m practicing for you.”

When this student first arrived, I was so overwhelmed at the challenge of trying to teach him or

even speak to him when the last time I had used the Spanish language was in a high school

Spanish class nearly five years ago. But what I did know was that I needed some way to tell him

that even if I couldn’t always find the words to say it, I cared about him and wanted to support

him just as much as the other students. So I pieced together the limited Spanish vocabulary I had

at the time to tell him that, even though it was hard and I was sometimes not going to do well at

it, I would put forth every effort I could to be able to talk to him just like I do the other students

in the class. When I spoke that sentence to him, I saw understanding flash in his eyes, and ever

since then we’ve had a special bond. Sometimes, I point at things and ask “que es esto?” (“What

is this?”) and he gives me the words, and other times I give him the words that he needs. We

learn from each other, and I know that our relationship in the classroom is stronger because of it.

The relationship that I now have with this student is exactly the type of relationship that I

want to have with all of my students. Whether their needs involve translating into another

language, accommodating for a disability, or just giving them an extra push, I want to be the

teacher who looks them in the eye and says, “I may not have all of the answers now, but I

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promise I won’t stop looking until I find them.” Doctor Rawatee Maharaj-Sharma (n.d.), a

professor of education at the University of the West Indies in Saint Augustine, encourages

teachers that admitting when they don’t know the answer to something can eliminate barriers that

come from students expecting the teacher to know everything and to not be questioned. She goes

on to say, “Students usually remember and speak of teachers as “good teachers” not because they

knew their subject, but because they were able to inspire, interest, and motivate students to learn.

Students are more likely to remember and respect teachers who were able to climb down from

their pedestal to the students’ level, even if they had to admit on occasions that they could not

answer the students’ questions.” (Maharaj-Sharma). I know that it is one of my biggest struggles

to admit that I don’t know something, especially in front of my students, but knowing that it will

make me into a better teacher and my classroom a better place for my students is what drives me

to step out and say, “I don’t know” in whatever language my students need to hear me say it.

Behavioral Management

Behavioral management encompasses so many more aspects of the classroom than just dealing

with problem behaviors. Management is actually more about teaching and maintaining the

correct behaviors (Kratochwill, 2018). Emmer, Evertson, and Worsham (As cited by Marzano,

2010) state, “it is just not possible for a teacher to conduct instruction or for students to work

productively if they have no guidelines” (p. 118). In this light, managing my classroom is just

another way that I can show students that I care because doing so is ultimately going to

contribute to their success in the classroom.

Managing behaviors in the classroom takes a lot of planning and preparation, but also a

whole year of active involvement from the teacher to be sure that the appropriate behaviors

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continue after the first few weeks of school (Evertson & Emmer, 2017). This is another area in

which I have learned a lot from Ms. Goldstein during my semester of classroom management. In

the beginning of the year, I got to watch as Ms. Goldstein laid out her expectations. Just as

Evertson and Emmer (2017) suggest, Ms. Goldstein laid out her expectations and never wavered

in enforcing them. More than once, she has stopped class and held a meeting with the class about

the expectations and rules they are breaking and why it is important for them to correct this

behavior. This is how I want to manage my classroom too. I want my students to always know

that if they put in the effort to learn and follow my rules from the start, I will honor and respect

that agreement by never changing things up on them. Not only will this help enforce my

classroom guidelines, but it will also assist me in my goal of establishing a relationship of mutual

respect with my students (Payne, 2013). I think that the ultimate goal of behavioral management

in the classroom is best summed up by Evertson and Emmer in their book Classroom

Management for Elementary Teachers (2017), where they wrote: “Your goal is not to be the

ruler of a classroom kingdom, but to be the designer and facilitator of an interactive classroom

community” (p. 96).

I love the idea of having my students take part in the design of classroom rules and procedures,

as this gives them a sense of ownership, as well as an understanding of why these guidelines

exist (Marzano, 2010). Often, when given the chance to participate in rule-setting, students will

come up with numerous examples that the teacher can then organize into more general categories

that convey his or her expectations (Evertson & Emmer, 2017). In essence, my expectations for

the classroom are simple: respect yourself, others, and the building and materials we use at

school; come prepared to participate in class every day; keep a positive attitude and try your best

even when things are hard; and always obey the rules set by the school. These expectations

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presented as rules, along with many examples of what each one means, are general enough that

they encompass a wide variety of both positive and negative classroom behaviors while still

being specific enough that students know exactly what is expected of them (Evertson &

Emmer, 2017). I intend to have many discussions with my students, not only at the beginning of

the year but throughout it, about why we have rules and why it is so important to follow them.

The reward management systems that I choose for my classroom will depend somewhat on the

grade that I eventually teach. Personally, I like the idea of managing a classroom economy, such

as Class Dojo as an incentive program. I have used this and other programs like it in other

classroom settings and have found it to be a successful management tool for most students. I

especially like the idea of one Scholastic teaching plan for older students, which suggested using

the classroom economy as a tool for teaching the actual economic system by setting up a class

store in which students can buy goods or raw materials that can be used to make new goods that

students can in turn sell to other students in the class store (Newingham, 2018). With younger

grades, I would use a much less complicated system, in which students earn points, and can trade

their points for a small reward. Whichever system I end up using, I want to be sure to take

Evertson and Emmer’s (2017) suggestion to tie these rewards directly to positive behavior as

much as possible, so as not to destroy students’ intrinsic motivation by overdoing it with

rewards.

When I think of my future classroom, I already think of it as what will someday be my favorite

place in the world. It’s the place where I’ll get to show students every day how much they matter

to me and remind them that they have an important role in this world. I hope that my students

will see my classroom that way too. Not as a place where they dread going, but where they can’t

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wait to go because they always know it is the place where they’ll see a smiling face and caring

open arms no matter what.

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Works Cited

Boghani, P. (2017, November 22). How Poverty Can Follow Children Into Adulthood. Retrieved

September 22, 2018, from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-poverty-can-

follow-children-into-adulthood/

Evertson, C. M., & Emmer, E. T. (2017). Classroom Management for Elementary Teachers(10th

ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Gremmen, M., Berg, Y., Segers, E., & Cillessen, A. (2016). Considerations for classroom seating

arrangements and the role of teacher characteristics and beliefs. Social Psychology of

Education, 19(4), 749–774. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-016-9353-y

Gutman, R. (2011, March). "The hidden power of smiling". Retrieved November 30, 2018, from

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Hare, J. (2018). Survey Reveals What Students Really Think of Teachers. Retrieved November

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Marzano, R. J. (2010). The art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective

instruction. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

McNeely, R. (2017). Using Humor in the Classroom. Retrieved November 30, 2018, from

http://www.nea.org/tools/52165.htm

Newingham, B. (2018). Creating a Classroom Economy Unit Plan. Retrieved December 1, 2018,

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classroom-economy-unit-plan/

Payne, R. K. (2013). Framework for understanding poverty. Highlands, Texas: Aha! Process.

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