managephil

There are many management approaches that have been conceived throughout the history of education, and to say that only one of them is correct is irresponsible as a teacher. Of course, all classroom management approaches have merit, but it is our opinion that a combination of many approaches is the best. Management theories such as the Behavioral Theory, Gordon's Effectiveness Training, William Glasser's Reality Therapy, and Alfie Kohn's Theory all have wonderful ideas that can be applied to classroom situations. All of them can be very effective management approaches if applied to the classroom correctly. However, we feel that it is important to look at all of these approaches very carefully and make your own management philosophy based upon all of them. We have done this and derived a management approach that we feel will be most effective in a mathematics classroom.

Our management philosophy is designed around the NCTM Principles and Standards for School Mathematics 2000.

This publication is a guide to reform based mathematics education. In the past, mathematics education was very traditional in that the teacher simply stood at the front of the room and told students about math. This gives the students no freedom to learn and discover for themselves. It also creates a very competitive environment for learning. This traditional approach to teaching high school mathematics works for some, but not for the majority. It is our opinion that reform based mathematics is much more inclusive and allows the students to take more control over their own learning. It allows them to have meaningful discourse with both the teacher and their peers. Discovering mathematical concepts will no longer be the exception, but rather the rule.

We have taken some concepts from many different management theories for our plan. We would like to implement some of Gordon's Effectiveness Training. We liked what Gordon had to say about building the teacher-student relationship. We feel that it is important to have a solid mutual respect relationship among students and teachers. Gordon suggested that the relationship be a talk oriented one with mutual respect on both sides (Cummings, 2000). If the students and the teacher are able to talk about any possible problems in class, then confrontations can be avoided. This will make the students feel more comfortable in class, and allow the teacher to have more trust in the students and how they deal with situations in class. It allows for more learning time and less time worrying about problems that may occur. Also, this increased communication will allow the students to have more freedom to communicate their ideas with each other without the fear of being harassed. Not only will more classroom problems be solved this way, more math problems will be solved also.

One of our main issues when it comes to management is allowing students to pursure their interests. If a student is allowed to learn a mathematical topic that they find interesting, or learn a mathematical topic that somehow relates to their interests, than they will be much more likely to understand and remember that concept. We want to encourage student interests and allow them to study them more in depth. We understand that not every student will love algegra or geometry. But, if we can teach these topics in more interesting ways to students, then they will at least understand and remember them.

By following the NCTM Standards for our management plan, we make a few basic assumptions. We assume that we can motivate any student to learn math if we make them feel comfortable and needed in our classroom. We assume that students will be willing to dicuss and discover mathematical concepts. Over the years, math students have been trained to feel uncomfortable expressing their opinions and ideas in the classroom. We want to change that, but understand that it will not be easy. Students are not used to working in groups to solve math problems. They are not used to leading class discussions or discovering ideas for themselves rather than the teacher telling them what to do and how to do it. We are also assuming that the students will be willing and capable of building a mutual respect with the teacher. It certainly can be done, but not easily. Students are not quick to trust teachers. The biggest assumption that we have made is that we as teachers will be able to execute all of these management ideas. Again, it can be done, but will much more work than most math teachers are used to. However, we feel that if it is executed correctly, our plan will foster much more mathematical learning which should always be the goal.