Personal Reflection 1

Brian O’Connor
University of Scranton
As I prepare to embark upon my career as an educator, I find myself constantly imagining my

future classroom. I recognize that I will need to be flexible in my expectations and standards

every year, but especially so in my first years as an educator. Through my education, I have

learned more techniques in regard to establishing a strong learning environment as well as

methods of effective teaching. There are three main factors that I am planning to incorporate

into my future classroom: organization, respect, and fun. I believe that a proper balance of these

principles will help me to be successful as an educator and create a good learning environment.

The first tenet to my success is organization. I want to have a room that is orderly and

easily understandable by all. I intend to have the desks in rows and to have decorations around

the room limited and specifically directed to the subject I teach. I believe this will be important

and effective for multiple reasons. For instance, with all of the desks in rows facing the front of

the room, it will naturally direct the students’ attention toward the lesson taking place. Also, I will

be able to see the faces of all of the students. If a certain student has a confused look, I will

hopefully be able to notice and know that I need to cover the specific topic in a different way.

Additionally, proponents of the Cognitive Load Theory would agree that potential distractions to

students in the classroom should be limited. The decorations in the classroom will naturally

draw the attention of students, especially disengaged students, away from the lesson. “An

example of the role that the physical environment can play is…that while working on a task,

working memory resources are consumed by unintentional monitoring of the environment”

(Paas, 2014, p.193). I do not want clutter in the classroom to be the reason that a student is not

paying attention to the lesson or, even more so, an exam. I believe that the products used to

decorate a history classroom should primarily relate to history so that even a distraction still

relates to historical events. These decorations also can become teaching aids when that

particular event is discussed in class.

 The second tenet is respect. Respect is vital for any successful relationship, including

the teacher-student relationship. In an examination of schools specifically catering to students at

risk of dropping out, Schussler (2009) stated, “Students are respected as learners because

teachers convey the belief that students are capable of achieving success (Schussler, 2009, p.

115). Even when a student does not feel he/she can succeed, he/she can build off of the

instructor’s confidence. However, this is all predicated upon respect for each other. An educator

must have respect for his/her students, their feelings, their desires, their goals, and their

opinions. “To engage students, teachers must make them feel like they not only belong in the

classroom, but also that they are capable of doing challenging intellectual work” (Schussler,

2009, p. 117). This is done by pushing the students to improve, but also by providing support to

the students to ensure that success is attainable. Students must also respect their teacher as a

role model, an elder, and as a subject matter expert. Charles (2012) states that “discordant or

dissimilar groups of people (such as, adults and teens) can often work together to find

consensus” (p. 5). Through a mutual respect, each party is able to succeed by working together

toward a common goal: the education of the students.

The final tenet to my success is fun. This is not to say that students, or even educators,

need to be enjoying every minute of every day, however fun can be a very effective tool for

learning. Students that are enjoying what they are doing will learn without even realizing, and

educators are also able to teach without feeling like they are the only person speaking. Fun

must be kept in check though, because it can easily get out of hand. This is where the art of

teaching comes into play. Fun can be had by all in the room, but the teacher must know when to

reel the class back in before it descends into chaos. Fun is a great tool to use, but it can be a

difficult one to wield.

As I prepare to begin my career in teaching, I am constantly considering different

methods and scenarios. I know every district, school, and classroom has different rules, but
since “a rule is only as strong as its enforcement in practice” (Charles, 2012, p. 10), I want to be

sure that I have as refined rules for my classroom as possible from the very beginning.

Hopefully, using these tenets, and as much careful preparation as possible, I will be in a position

to only tweak my system rather than reevaluate it in its entirety.

 Refernces

Charles, A., (2012). Cell phones: Rule-setting, rule-breaking, and relationships in classrooms.
American Secondary Education, 40(3),4-16.
Paas, F., Ayres, P., (2014). Cognitive load theory: A broader view on the role of memory in
learning and education. Educational Psychology Review, 26, 191-195. doi:
10.1007/s10648-014-9263-5
Schussler, D., (2009). Beyond content: How teachers manage classrooms to facilitate
intellectual engagement for disengaged students. Theory Into Practice 48, 114-121. doi:
10.1080/00405840902776376