The principal of I will intervene and both students will either serve an in school suspension or have to be escorted to all of their classes.  Both choices will be taking something away to stop a behavior.  The rule is stated and punishment is enforced when it is broken.  My classroom will have more guidance and discipline rather than punishment.  I believe there is a time and place for punishment, but most students have honestly never been shown how to act in certain situations.  I would rather show my students how to behave instead of just punishing them, because by punishing them, they do not learn what the correct behavior is.  I also believe that by using guidance and discipline, students will be more apt to work towards behaviors that are modeled for them in certain environments and situations in the future. Another reason I will use guidance and discipline, is because children who have only known punishment their entire lives are less likely to know there are other alternatives besides punishment.

    Students, when asked what grade they enjoyed the most in school, are directly influenced by classroom environments.  Students are not going to pick a classroom that has a negative atmosphere, but rather one that is positive and fun-loving.  I believe that the environment of my classroom is one of the most important qualities I need to have to become a successful teacher.  Students come to school to learn.  Students who dislike school are more than likely to have been exposed to a negative classroom environment sometime in their career.  Every teacher should strive to have a healthy, positive classroom environment.  A healthy environment not only helps children emotionally, but also socially.  More students will display good behavior in a positive classroom, when compared to a negative classroom.  In order for students to learn they need to feel safe and have their basic needs met.  How can students feel safe in a classroom full of insults, berating, and disorganization?  It is very unlikely that they can. Children like and adjust to routines.  In a classroom full of disorganization, a child will probably have more bad memories than good and will also not be as eager as other children, from positive classrooms, to come to school each morning. 

    As a future educator, I will strive to establish a routine and provide a healthy and safe environment for my students each day.  One of my goals is to have all children enjoy and come to school each day, not because they have to, but because they want to.  Another important aspect of a healthy, positive classroom is the physical environment within the classroom.  Students need to feel comfortable and feel that they own the classroom, not that the teacher does.  My classroom will have reading areas, comfortable rugs, and positive posters all around the room.  As a teacher I will strive to make my students comfortable and want to come to learn each day.  It will help them make friends and interact in positive, healthy ways.  As the students get older, it will also help them to stay positive in all different situations and perhaps think of alternatives to problems they may be having.

    As I think ahead to my teaching career, I am often struck with what my teaching style will be.  Coloroso’s three styles of teaching, backbone, jelly fish, and brickwall, are realistic and display good common sense.  Having a certain teaching style and following it each day is very important, not only for organization, but providing structure for the students.  My teaching styles can best be described as a knife, fork, and spoon.  The knife represents the brickwall style analogy.  It can only do one thing, cut.  The brickwall style does one thing also, bosses around students.  The knife style bosses around students, because the knife feels she is the most important.  Knives are sharp, do not bend or have any other responsibilities. The brickwall also does not bend and is strong; and therefore believes that students have to listen to these style teachers.   The spoon represents the jellyfish style analogy.  Spoons are often used to eat soft foods, whereas a jellyfish is soft and has no structure to it.  The spoon style represents a much laid back teacher with an easy going attitude.  The jelly fish style also represents that.  Spoons are not used to eat steak or any other food with any structure.  This style lets the students make the rules and allows the students to run the classroom.  Substances slide off spoons and spoons do not have good control over food.  When explaining the spoon teaching style, it too, has trouble keeping students from doing their own thing and from allowing any learning to happen. 

    The third and final comparison is the fork and the backbone teaching style.  The fork is the backbone of utensils.  Forks can be used for a multitude of things.  The backbone style teacher also does a multitude of things.  The fork teaching style cares about students, wants them to learn, and allows them to have new experiences.  The fork style is unlike the knife and spoon styles because it has more merit.  This style doesn’t just want it to be one way, but many different ways, and it does not let anything go.  There is discipline and guidance behind this style.  In becoming a teacher, I will choose to adopt the fork teaching style.  I want students to be able to explore new opportunities with structure, not chaos, but not to the point where I am telling them what to do. 

    Along with the fork teaching style, I also will have routines and transitions.  Transition time will be used wisely and will not account for a huge loss of learning throughout the day.  The most important word that I associate with transitioning is organization.  If students come into a classroom and there is nothing for them to do, they are not going to want to get there early.  Instead, I would have a special routine: an activity for them to do right when they come in and sit down.  It would involve the students getting their school work out for the day, learning, and also having fun.  When the school is done transitioning, my class will have their school work out and already be busy for the day.  It will make it much easier to control the students, because they will have something that is familiar for them to do, and provide for a healthy classroom environment.