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How can classroom management act as a foundation for student-centered and democratic classrooms?

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Who am I becoming as an educator?

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How can various classroom instructional strategies and practices create more equitable and inclusive educational experiences for diverse learners?

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How can various pedagogical approaches create a democratic, student-centered,
dialogic classroom space?

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Allowing your students to be able to choose themselves how their education is facilitated and presented. When students are given a choice with their education, they are also going to be more invested in their education, ultimately trusting them and showing them that when they make decisions, they will ultimately become trustworthy as well. "In some instances, students were encouraged to take part in key decisions concerning their classrooms and schools (Collins, Hess, & Lowery)." When making key decisions, they are able to make choices in a safer environment, ultimately making and creating trustworthy and more prepared adults.

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Seeing the impact of a student led classroom will help build responsible and trustworthy adults in the future.

Using different strategies tied to democratic classrooms allows everyone to get the content across in a meaningful way and sticks with them.

Discussion is vital for allowing students to grow and learn as well. Seeing the way it allows college students to learn shows that it's something that is a learning tool for any age.

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Allow students to hear differing viewpoints and actively talk to someone who disagrees with them is a way of them to learn.

Democratic classrooms allow students to openly share their viewpoints in which they might otherwise not feel comfortable doing so.

"[C]lassroom seminars and deliberations can play a central role in an education that aims to prepare students for and actually engages them in... 'talking to strangers' (Parker)."

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Remembering that a student-centered classroom includes trauma informed care

While all students have different experiences, the chance is that the majority of them will deal with some sort of ACEs.

While they might not be the same, staying informed and altering your teaching/planning will help these students learn better.

"... We must provide a safe environment in which students are free to explore those strategies, practice them, and discover the ones that work best for them (Souers & Hall, pg. 34)."

"Although such crises don't often arise in the classroom, students may enter into the same survival mode to manage their stress, manifested by behaviors that can be avoidant, disruptive, or disengaged (Souers & Hall, pg. 28)."

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Classroom management is important, yet some of the disruptants in the classroom are students that have experienced trauma or are in the ongoing fight or flight response.

While in this stage, many of them don't know how to control their emotions or decide when a good time for something is.

Remembering this is a good way to all flexibility for your students and yourself.

" Perhaps we should as, 'Is this willful disobedience, or could it be a response to a traumatic life event that Julie is struggling with (Souers & Hall, pg 31)?"

" Often, students experiencing trauma are dealing with situations outside their control and have to manage the stress as best as they can (Souers & Hall, pg 31)."

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Finding the importance of trauma informed care, especially in a classroom setting.

Understanding that trauma can present in different ways throughout different people.

Using these things and tools that are given in order to plan and adapt lessons for any student, no matter way they are going through.

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Classroom management is not just ruling the classroom with an iron fist so that students will obey the rules

It should be a compromise between the students and teacher in order for them to make decisions so that they are productive learners and make good choices.

Some of this includes having a voice within the classroom, but not one that yells constantly, especially in a middle grade classroom.

"On the secondary level, students need to hear a confident, authoritative tone in your voice to assume them that they are safe. (Berger, Strasser, & Woodfin, pp. 15)."

Showing students that they are safe and have a voice in the classroom is apart of classroom management, and creates a student centered classroom.

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Someone who is in calm and in control of their emotions, which is something that I need to be more aware of, especially when working with students.

Going to create a classroom with a warm environment, yet organized and student centered. I want them to see a room that is focused yet allows them to work together and be collaborative.

Working on finding my 'teacher voice'. While I know it might take some time, it's something that I need to work on. I need to have a voice that is confident in a room full of students but also one that is welcoming as well.

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Being able to build a classroom that is managed well is something that will help students due to the routine and wellness, but also the accountability between the students and teacher.

Apart of classroom management is being aware of learners that have varied needs and being attentive to those needs inside and outside the classroom.

"Responding to students' varied needs is an essential ingredient in any approach to classroom management ( (Berger, Strasser, & Woodfin, pp. 4)."

"It also must include learning about the individual realities that students being into the classroom with them. If, for example, you have a new student with an autism spectrum disorder, learn about that diagnosis (Berger, Strasser, & Woodfin, pp. 4)."

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Classroom management involves also putting students with some responsibility .

Some of the things that allow for better classroom management might not be what is the token things.

Allowing students to know that they are as much responsible for their education and they have to work for it too allows them to be accountable and honest.

These things also require scaffolding in order for them to be done efficiently and correctly.

"... Ruth Charney... discusses the three 'stages' of scaffolding students on their way to independence. She begins by teaching students the basics of the classroom and the schedule... [then] she allows students to carry our routines without guidance, ... but steps in where needed to reinforce, remind, redirect, and critique the process. Step three is when students are trusted to run things themselves, although the teacher always provides affirmation and constructive feedback to keep things running well (Berger et al, 41)."

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Allowing students to use the first and last five minutes of the class period.

Depending on your class, this time can be used solely for transition and gives them time to get their head in the right space.

" When students entered the room, they immediately put their backpacks away, made choices of activities in the room, and for five to ten minutes worked silently with blocks, legos, art supplies, and books (Berger et al, 42)."

Also, giving students time to practice these transitions and get used to these things allows them to be confident that they know what is going to be happening when they first get inside the classroom.

"Practice is not punishment. It is the way in which you empower your students to know exactly what you (and they) need to do to have a self-managed classroom (Berger et al, 43)."

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Something that I really want to push in my classroom is transition times, as someone who can get a little overwhelmed with everything, it's something I feel is important.

The first few minutes of my classroom I want to be is chill time. I want them to work on something and get settled down (especially while I take attendance) but also want them to be able to be a bit social as well.

Working on my nonverbal signals, I tend to be someone who shows exactly what they are thinking on their face and with their hands. I also want to incorporate hand signals as a way to as a question, use the bathroom, etc.

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Preparing your students for a world outside of the classroom is the main goal of a democratic classroom, including developing social skills.

By putting students in small groups with an equitable amount of collaboration, this can prepare them for the real world.

"Collaborating with peers around meaningful academic work supports students' healthy development, academically and socially, in ways that a teacher alone cannot ( Berger et al, 77)."

Scaffolding your students so that they are able to complete group work, facilitate ideas, and develop a norm around collaboration will allow their social needs and academic needs to grow inside and outside the classroom.

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Being intentional with how you group your students can help their needs and yours depending on what you want the goal to be and the outcomes of the grouping/activity.

This can cater to students needs more carefully because the groups can be together by students who need more teacher instruction or pairing students that can help the students around them because they are more knowledgeable on the topic(s).

"Every group is made up of individuals with their own needs, which lends special importance to the teacher's role in students' group work. Group work can be orchestrated for a wide variety of purposes and needs- from lab partners to desk groups (Berger et al, 77)."

When grouping students, it's also important to give clear directions. Plus, while some groups need more teacher instruction it's still important to make a way around to all of the groups, and check in to see how they are doing with the content.

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I have always loved group work even as a student, I think it's something that allows seeing different viewpoints and ideas that might not be shared out loud in a large group setting.

After introducing a topic and the initial teaching of it, allowing for students to work in groups on experiments and work will help them better understand the topic and facilitate collaboration that they might not get outside of a school setting.

Someone who will be very intentional with group planning and make sure if students do pick their groups, it is still a group where they will be able to get things done and focus as well as having productive conversations.

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Creating classroom norms for you and your students allow the classroom to be held accountable and an efficient student-centered room.

Allowing students to also have an input in their classroom norms allows them to be paid attention to more.

Using positive language when talking to a child, or giving them a chance to 'fix' their behavior will allow for students to not feel shamed when they make a poor choice.

"School wide and classroom norms are the foundation for respectful behavior among students between students and teachers and among teachers (Berger, 27)."

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Not only can classroom norms allow for a better managed classroom, but it can also be differentiated class wise and connected within different classes or schools.

Connecting these ideas allow students to practice them school wide which can create a routine.

Routines in a classroom, especially regarding classroom norms allows for students to not have to switch up every class which also allows for better differentiated instruction based on the respect in the room.

"To the extent possible, teachers should work collaboratively to make the process as coherent as possible for students so that the norms are meaningful to them (Berger, 30)."

"In most schools, they live primarily in a handbook or poster, and are not a living part of the school culture and daily discussion. To make them come alive, they need to be discussed and reinforced in every classroom (Berger, 32)."

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Being intentional and informed in your problem solving and consequences is apart of pedagogical approaches.

It is important to poor choices doesn't always make a bad kid, as often times adults make them to be.

"Consequences aren't punishment, ... they are a form of specific, kind, and helpful feedback (Berger, 36)."

"If a consequence for a poor chocuie is warranted, however, consider the guidelines of relevant, respectful, and realistic consequence (Berger, 37)."

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Often times in schools and education, whatever is said goes and therefore does not teach students that their opinion matters nor how to correctly agree and disagree with their peers and other people.

When they voice their opinion, they should learn and know that they need to have their research and ability to tell their facts in order to use their voice.

"Perhaps, but philosophy teachers owe it to our students to teach them how to construct and defend an argument – and to recognize when a belief has become indefensible (Stokes, 2012)."

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Scaffolding students in order for them to be able to have the tools, management, and attitude in order for them to agree and disagree with each other.

Giving them this tool will prepare them for the real world in order for them to have an opinion and voicing their opinion as well.

"Secondly, I say something like this: “I’m sure you’ve heard the expression ‘everyone is entitled to their opinion.’ Perhaps you’ve even said it yourself, maybe to head off an argument or bring one to a close. Well, as soon as you walk into this room, it’s no longer true. You are not entitled to your opinion. You are only entitled to what you can argue for (Stokes, 2012).”

Giving students the tools and teachings for how to create a defensible argument and use it in order to back up their opinion provides then with a scholarly argument and a foundation that they can build upon, not to mention is a useful tool in everyday life that they can use throughout their life.

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Something that has always been a pet peeve of mine is saying an opinion or statement that does not have any sort of facts that back that up.

Through I can be guilty of it sometimes, but I try my best to research and think before I speak on any sort of opinion.

One that that I think is super important to teach students is to how state their opinions 'correctly' and how to properly disagree with one another.

Even though emotions run high in middle school, giving students the teachings of how to properly disagree with someone else's opinion. In high school, I did this a lot and it taught me how to be kind but also not agree with everyone and it really helped me.

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Understanding emotions and how your emotions can affect the students within your classroom (even though it's your own emotions that are responding to something).

Knowing how emotions can be heightened/become stronger is one way to take into account, especially when you are responding to a certain event in your classroom with strong feelings or not the most ideal emotions.

"Learning to identify all of the parts of the cycle in yourself is freeing because then the cycle can be interrupted. You can intervene at any step (Aguilar, 49)."

While this isn't exactly student-centered information, it can be used to help the classroom to create a safe space and a tool for classroom management. Many students kind of understand the fact that emotions come and go, but they rarely understand the effect of a teacher's emotions. When an emotion overtakes and you react, it can break the trust between you and your students in which will take a long time to repair.

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By not only engaging students in fun and interesting learning, but also by leading discussion based learning in order to better their understanding of the topic/content.

As demonstrated, using the Five Practices within a classroom can help better the understanding and learning of your students.

"The Five Practices is a research based strategy originally developed in mathematics education for facilitating discussions that can deepen understanding and encourage meaningful student talk about science. Teachers can use the Five Practices to increase the effectiveness of their classroom discussions (Davidson & Ross, 1)."

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Being aware of my emotions and how to act upon them inside and outside the classroom.

I have always been one to overreact in times of stress and it's been something that I have worked on within the past year, especially when being around kids (mainly summer camp).

Being aware of the emotion cycle and understanding why I am reacting a certain way is essential for how I respond to something, in addition to being able to think before I act as well.