Teach English in Changcheng Zhen - Weifang Shi

During my voluntary teaching course in rural areas, I found the class management the most challenging part of the teaching. As a teacher, you may have varieties of new ideas and methods to deliver to students in order to teach them English language, but an important fact is that as long as you don’t know how to keep the class disciplined you cannot reach what you really want. Consciously or not children destroy the discipline of the class for different reasons and there is no control over it, unless you found the reasons and solve the problems. To get over this, I started to read and investigate about it and here’s my findings: Sign an agreement: Discipline is a part of class management, as it is crucial to explain what are you going to teach during the course or what are the materials you need, it is essential to explain how you really expect them to behave in the class or outside. This can prevent unwanted misbehavior from the students who really do not want to disturb. The instructions must be clear and comprehensive to cover every important aspect. For example, clearly tell them “I expect you to be on time in the class.” Repeat the instruction from time to time to renew the initial agreement during the course. Sometimes a written instruction on the notice board would be a good idea. Make a friendship: An intimate friendship between you and your students, specially rebels! can bring their support in the class. Try to understand their world, interests and motivations. A short warm walk and talk about their favorite topic in the corridor to the class can change a rebel to a loyal student since she/ he knows you are friends and it is not just a student-teacher relationship in the class. Remember to emphasize this friendship cannot change the rules in the class and we are in a same company who want to improve our English skills. Try to analyze them psychologically: It is not a written rule which you must know every character in the classroom, but if you do, you have solved most of the problems. For example, some kids are more creative with less attention on details, while some others focus more and prefer to have routine activities. If you do not notice these differences, you cannot balance the activities. Furthermore, getting familiar with every student will help you to predict their future reaction. And if you predict the possible behavior, you can be ready with a proper reaction in advance. Make the class like a playground! Boredom is one of the main reasons for children’s misbehavior in the class. Don’t spend lots of time to a rough issue such as grammar, however, playing and games could be a part of learning as well. Try to give a time to time fun activities to refresh the students. To keep the discipline, explain the time-table of the class and Promise to have a game after a specific activity. Students would understand playing time is limited because they need to finish other activities. Help them to be seen! Some students enjoy additional attention. They might make joke, or give a comment loudly when you haven’t asked for it. This can be offensive for teaching process. In order to manage this potential to the right way, you can give them special responsibilities. This can fulfill their desire to be an important person. Show them you are not the cruel boss: Some students may want to duel with you to show who is the boss in the class. Notice to be non-confrontational. Ask them for their cooperation in the class and tell them it is not possible to manage it without their help. You can explain about the plan in the class and tell them without discipline our plans will not be done properly. Praise them for their positive activities: If a student has improved his/ her behavior, simply tell him/ her thank you! Even if misbehavior continue, intimately tell them you thank them for their positive future changes. Remember to praise the students who do right behavior for what they are as well. You can express your appreciation as a greeting in the door of the class or when they are leaving. Motivate them: When students get frustrated for a couple of reasons they give less attention and get distracted in different ways. Be fair with everybody. If they feel that they are not observed as much as they deserve, they would be frustrated and lose motivation for class. Motivate them about their learning process and show the efforts is more important than the result. Show you proud to all of them and everything is well. Don’t start a war: Any shout, anger, corporal punishment, pushing them out of the class or any other aggressive reactions could be the trigger for starting a war. So avoid them completely. Somehow, if you couldn’t solve the problem yourself, ask the head master or parents to check the problem. Conclusion: Whether you have lots of things to deliver to your students or not, it is crucial to control the discipline in the class. Naturally you will face different personalities in your class and the best way is to understand their world to predict them and cover their interests during the course. Provide a clear list of dos and don’ts for your class and refer to it whenever it is necessary. Being friendly and intimate is the key for a good class management.