Taylor Piesco

Philosophy of Management
Over the course of this semester, we have discussed our beliefs of teaching and different
theories established by professionals in the education field. I was amazed that I was able to
realize my beliefs about teaching so early on in my career. I, also, never realized that my beliefs
would match up to others especially to the theories of Alfie Kohn and Nancy Sulla. My beliefs
consist of developing a sense of community in the classroom, the constructivist theory,
collaborative work, discipline, the students responsibility of learning, and the Learner-Active,
Technology-Infused Classroom model.
Alfie Kohn has many beliefs and practices that I have found to line up perfectly to my
beliefs about teaching and how to implement them in my classroom. Alfie Kohn discusses
developing a sense of community in the classroom that allows students to feel safe, are probed to
make judgements, express their opinions, and work to find solutions that affect themselves and
the classroom (Charles, 2013). My belief is that every student should feel like my classroom is
one of the safest places on Earth. I also believe that the students should be actively involved in
building the community. I want my students to feel like the classroom is OUR community and
not like it is MY community that they visit. One of the ways I was able to use this in my
internship was asking my students what things they would like to use for an attention getter (2f).
As a whole we agreed upon Macaroni Cheese. This worked well because the students were
excited when I said Macaroni because they knew we were moving on to another activity (2a,
2b). This relates back to Kohns theory that teacher-made rules have little practical value in the
classroom (Charles, 2013). I believe that when the students are able to work together to create
the classroom rules it holds them more accountable to follow them and they understand the
reasoning behind each rule because they are the ones who came up with them for a particular

Taylor Piesco
reason. The constructivist theory was presented by Alfie Kohn as well and states that students
cannot receive knowledge directly from the teacher but through experience. I am a firm believer
of this because of my past experiences as a student. Students learn better when they have
something to tie the learning back to, which is also a piece of the Learner-Active, TechnologyInfused Classroom model. As a teacher, I believe our teaching stretches far beyond the standards
of Common Core. As teachers, we should facilitate student growth in areas such as kindness,
happiness, and self-fulfillment. Alfie Kohn and I both believe that this is best achieved by
students working with their peers to understand and model these areas of emotion.
Nancy Sulla is a theorist that was just presented to me recently. One of my beliefs directly
relates to discipline. I believe that as a teacher discipline would be almost non-existent if we as
teachers provided engaging curriculum for our students, have a strong sense of community in our
classroom, and involve students in decision-making. This belief is one of Alfie Kohns teachings
and is a big part of the Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classroom model that was proposed
by Nancy Sulla. The Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classroom model is a very unique
model of what I believe is the ideal classroom. This model has students asking question rather
than the teacher and actively searching for the answers to those questions, deciding for
themselves how they will spend their time in class, setting and working toward their goals,
working individually and collaboratively to find solution to real world problems, moving from
one project to the next without being prompted by the teacher, and working with technology to
show their progress and to connect the classroom with the outside world (Sulla, 2011). My
beliefs are very student-centered which is exactly what the Learner-Active, Technology-Infused
Classroom model is. As a teacher, I believe that we should act as facilitators. Teachers in the
Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classroom model move around the room, sitting with

Taylor Piesco
students so they can share their accomplishments, asking questions and collecting assessment
data to help guide that student to their next activity. I also believe that learning comes in all
shapes and sizes whether it is individual, collaborative, inside the classroom, or outside of the
classroom. I was able to create my own groups and assess students that we thought needed extra
support (2f). Once we were done with assessment of the students, we were able to target those
that needed extra support. I was able to work one-one-one or pull small groups in order to help
those children in need. I was also to able to see their growth over the semester, which helped me
to see just how effective this teaching method can be. I love how Nancy Sulla mentions that the
students in the Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classroom model use the flat screen TV in
the classroom to talk to students from all over the world. My favorite teaching practice is outsourcing, which to me means find materials and people that are experts in that field be the
teacher. One day, I would like to have my students have pen pals with students from a different
place of their choosing to help them develop an understanding of other cultures. I believe that
with technology, our students have the world at their fingertips, which is amazing because now
we as a class could go places we could never go to with that technology.
http://taylorbrookep.weebly.com/blog/my-first-supervisor-observation
http://taylorbrookep.weebly.com/blog/attention-7

In this picture, I am using the

attention getter my students
chose (2a, 2b, 2f).

Taylor Piesco
Learning Environment
I have many beliefs; these are just a few to start and Im starting to see how the correlate
to my field experience. In my classroom, the teacher focuses on more whole group instruction
and has me pull small groups of students who are in need of more support. When the class is not
being taught as a whole group, the student will work independently, with a partner, or within
their small groups. Many times the learning is conducted me or my CT instead of placing
ownership on the students. The students are taking ownership of the practicing aspect of mastery.
Some students do very well with the whole group instruction but others are in need of more
support. A few of my students are below level and need the one on one attention in order to catch
up while still learning the new material. Many of those students also receive extra support from
the ESE team, the ESOL teacher, or the vice principal who focuses on reading. I believe that I
could positively change the learning environment by assisting my teacher in pulling students
from whole group lessons to give those who need the support more one on one attention to make
sure that they are retaining the information that is presented. I have pulled small groups for mini
lessons as well as one-on-one instruction (2a, 2h). I also think that showing these students who
are struggling to comprehend the strategy being used new ways to obtain their answers or going
over the strategy with them repeatedly to build with the scaffolding method. I have
accomplished this by pulling a Math small group to work on Make 10. My strategy I used was
still the same but my overall set up and how I taught the strategy was broken down into small
sections to track where the child is making that mistake (2h, 2i).
Many of my students need extra support in many different content areas. In order for these
students to be successful, they need the support in a more one on one setting. Through my belief
of allowing the students to take ownership of their learning, they are learning how to ask the

Taylor Piesco
right questions to maximize learning. During classroom management, we discussed how
collaborative learning and giving students ownership of learning can increase overall learning.
During collaborative learning it is imperative that there is individual accountability. Individual
accountability refers to each group members feeling that he/she is responsible for completing
the task and cannot rest on the laurels of the group or allow other members to do the work for
them (Levin & Nolan, 2014). Face-to-face interaction, positive interdependence, and individual
accountability lead to teaching social skills processing group functioning which make up
cooperative learning (Levin & Nolan, 2014). In seminar, Mrs. Smucker introduced us to a
theorist name Nancy Sulla, who is a firm believer in leaving learning ownership with the
students and has dedicated her research to this belief. In Nancy Sullas book, Students Taking
Charge, she talks about how in order for students to take responsibility and ownership of their
learning expectations must be clearly articulated and consequences, structures that students use
to meet with success, and guidance and feedback for the teacher. Collaborative learning can be a
very powerful tool however students would still need to perform and show mastery individually
(Sulla, 2011). Sulla states that it is the job of the teacher to ensure that students have achieved
mastery. As part of small groups, I believe that peer tutoring is also a great tool to use in the
classroom because it will help the student performing the tutoring as well as the student being
tutored. People learn best from those who are hierarchically similar (Sulla, 2011). I was able to
create my own groups and assess students that we thought needed extra support (2f). Once we
were done with assessment of the students, we were able to target those that needed extra support
(2g). I was able to work one-one-one or pull small groups in order to help those children in need
(2b). I was also to able to see their growth over the semester, which helped me to see just how
effective this teaching method can be.

Taylor Piesco
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Final Question
I believe that community is the most important part of the classroom environment.
Through getting to know my students and my CT and I discussing their home lives, I have
discovered that for many of my students coming to school is the highlight of their day. This was
when I realized that my attitude and how I create my classroom environment seriously effects my
students. I want to make sure that my students feel safe and loved when they walk into my
classroom. I want them to come in ready to learn and have fun and forget, at least for a little
while, what is going on outside of the classroom. I have been able to start implementing this
belief in my internship placement as well. Through working one-on-one with a student or pulling
small groups, as a teacher I will be able to build positive relationships with my students. StudentTeacher relationships have been proven to be a factor related to students dropping out of school
(Levin & Nolan, 2014). I believe that these relationships can be built through small group
lessons with the teacher and one-on-one intervention with the teacher. A successful studentteacher relationship requires the teacher to have high expectations for the student and holds the
student accountable for meeting them. Alfie Kohn goes further into detail by saying that teacher
need to practice unconditional teaching. Unconditional teaching means that although the teacher
does have high expectations for student behavior, the teachers personal affection and concern
for each student are not dependent on how the student behaves (Levin & Nolan, 2014).
Unconditional teaching is a way for the teacher to model unconditional acceptance and shows the

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students how they should treat each other in class. I was able to do a read aloud on Kindness, the
school-wide theme for the month of September. This showed me how I can bring in outside
materials to teach students how to love one another and show them how much I love them. As a
class, I had the children discuss how they were kind to one another and how they could continue
to be kind to the community as a whole (2c, 2f). Teaching how to treat others and creating a safe
and loving classroom environment shows students how to act respectfully and builds
unbreakable relationships.
Many of my students act out or have disruptive behavior due to how they are treated or
no treated at home. However, it is very hard to teach when students are not behaving as they
should. According to Nancy Sulla (2011), Disruptive behavior has been mitigated by teachers
who are perceived by students as being trustworthy and caring (p. 197). I believe that positive
student-teacher relations are important and result in positive academic gains with a reduction of
discipline problem in the classroom (2a). According to Levin and Nolan (2014), the one of the
best ways to reverse misbehavior is to find out why that student is misbehaving (p. 174). Another
way to resolve misbehavior is to create an open communication between parent and teacher.
However, according to Levin and Nolan (2014), it is a necessity of having positive proactive
interactions with parents before any contacts are made regarding disruptive behavior (p. 196).
My CT and I have thought of many ways I could reach out to both my students and the parents.
We came up with communication through our sharing board and writing notes to the parents in
each students planner (2e, 2f).
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Taylor Piesco
References
Charles, C. M., & Senter, G. W. (2013). Building Classroom Discipline (7th ed.). Boston, MA:
Allyn and Bacon.
Levin, J., & Nolan, J. F. (2014). Principles of classroom management: A professional decision
making model. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Sulla, N. (2011). Students taking charge: Inside the learner-active, technology-infused
classroom. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.