When you first begin your career as a teacher, I feel it is necessary to immediately implement certain strategies that can assist you in great classroom management. From what I have noticed when I did my observation, classroom management can be hard, especially for new educators. They're constantly having to adhere to whatever policies the school division has stated while also trying to create an environment for their students where they can be inspired and develop without circumstances. In Freedom Writers I noticed that Ms Gruwell had a lot of unexpected circumstances thrown in her face when she first started teaching. She didn't understand that going to a school where students fall into certain cliques, certain gangs, certain orientations. Now most schools are like this unfortunately but Miss Gruwell went above and beyond to truly show her students what respect for her and what respect for each other truly meant. I believe that in most schools today the cliques or groups based on your race, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and much more is because even today in a very accepting time, some people don't know how to respect others for their choices or a way of life. As an educator it will be our responsibility to set the tone forward our classroom management will be like. Some great advice I got from a previous teacher of mine was to “focus more on how you believe your students will react to your expectations rather than focussing on how to enforce them more” (Wanda Maughan). It's more important to set a positive attitude in your classroom that might encourage you students to follow rather than enforce strict rules that will enable nothing but bad behaviour. With this being said I seen a page in our manual talking about making clear rules for the students follow (Marzano 2005) As long as you as the educator are not whole heartedly focused on ensuring the students adhere to those rules and focus on how the student is learning then you will become a successful teacher. Another strategy I feel is effective in a classroom could be to clearly state your intentions for each lesson. If you are clear about what you're expecting of your students and you ensure to provide them with the resources they need, with the second family care they might need as well then that will ensure a great running classroom similar to 203. William Glasser once voiced “ The faster you go, the more students you leave behind. It doesn't matter how much or how fast you teach.The true measure is how much students have learned.”(50) With that quote in mind you see that it doesn't matter how fast cute teacher lessons it matters how well the students understand that way you're teaching them. Throughout the whole Freedom Writers movie, the school board and the teachers teaching the honour students couldn't have cared less about how they needed to learn to change. They only cared about the students that were already excelling and had already come to the conclusion that the underdeveloped students of 203 were not worthy of the time or effort to provide them the resources they needed, the guidance they seeked out for and the care they cherished. The simplest act of engagement in that students' well-being can improve their focus by skyrocketing rates. Changing the way your students perceive their accomplishments can be crucial. Erin Gruwell stated very wisely that “I realised if you can change a classroom, you can change a community, and if you change enough communities you can change the world.” Her quote stuck with me to the end of the movie.
Works cited
LaGravenese, Richard. Paramount Pictures. (2007). Freedom writers [Netflix]. United States of America.
Suzanne Capek Tingley, Effective Classroom Management Strategies to Achieve Your Daily Goals Accessed at: https://www.wgu.edu/heyteach/article/effective-classroom-management-strategies-to-achieve-your-daily-goals1809.html
Marzano, R. (2005). Classroom Management That Works. EDU 100.
*Image credits to the created companies, I found them online on google*
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