TEFL Classroom management

Classroom management requires a positive relationship between the teacher and the student. A teacher, who has a good rapport with their students, will have a better outcome. Respect for each other, will prove positive in both the relationship and study.

Obstacles to this rapport may involve the classroom set up, which can create problems, such as with rows. The students, at the back, are disadvantaged. Dr. Scott Mandel Pacoima (Middle school) states ??the further back you go, the more discipline problems there are with visual, oral and physical stimulation from the teacher is increasingly diminished,,,?1.

An alternative, he suggests, is to arrange the chairs and tables into a three sided box shape. In this fashion, every student is in the first row and the teacher can freely move around the room while talking, and therefore giving personal contact.

Training students to do what you want them to do, when you ask them to do it, is the side of discipline management called Responsibility Training. The goal is to make responsible behavior in the classroom a matter of routine.2 Maintaining good order in classrooms is one of the most difficult tasks facing young inexperienced teachers. The task has become more difficult over the past few decades as young people?s respect for authority has changed dramatically.3

The primary cause of misbehavior, in the classroom, is attention, power, revenge, self confidence and problems at home. To look at one example of misbehavior is when the student, that is the loudest in class, is commonly known as The Loudmouth. To act on the students? problems, this one included, we need to pinpoint the student?s needs.

We can identify that the student is looking for attention and cries out for it with every action. The school or home environment may be very painful and the student may be using loud behavior to protect him/herself from others. The status of the student is that he/she needs to be noticed and recognized and is trying to be somebody through negative behavior. The consequent mistakes, which can be made by the teacher, can be to avoid the student, or not deal with the problem at all. Never yell at the student, is sound advice, instead take the student aside and communicate. Putting the student down and making them feel immature in the classroom is a recipe for disaster. This will not only anger the student, but cause more problems with the whole class.4

The ways to get a routine of positive behaviour is to: ?Reward them with more than just a pat on the back.? Activities to help you get to know and understand your students. What to do if the whole class is good- or not? Encouraging new learning partnership?s with creative learning relationships. Getting people involved! 5 Consistency is all or nothing. You are either consistent or inconsistent. Being consistent lays the foundations for ?Meaning Business? Never make a rule that you are not willing to enforce. The line between acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior must be crystal clear.

When someone annoys us we get upset, and when you get upset in the classroom we can open our mouths and yell, without the students even listening to us. The most common management technique in the classroom is to ??nag?? Our first object, therefore, is to relax in response to seeing the disruption. Even though this is not a natural response, it takes training, but it is a skill that all natural teachers master. Relax, keep your mouth shut and give yourself a moment to think to signal to students that you mean business.

Student?s must first know, without a doubt, that they have just placed themselves on the ??front burner?. Stop what you are doing, take a deep breath, turn slowly towards the students and simply wait. The students can now see that in your classroom, discipline comes before instruction. Studying the student?s behavior is a common problem in the classroom.

How do you control a student that just sits there looking at you instead of getting back to work? The answer is to move closer, relax and wait. Human interaction is more intense the closer the people are to each other. You can get the student back on track simply by using time and proximity. In my opinion control, respect for both the teacher and student can lead to good classroom atmosphere. With practice, patience and experience most behavior problems can be overcome.

Bibliography

1.Dr Scott Mandel www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/classroom managementl 2.www.educationworld.com columnist Dr Fred Jones book Tools for teaching 3.Tony Murphy Catholic boys high school Dublin www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/classroom managementl 4.www.disciplinhelp.com/teacher/ 5.www.educationworld.com columnist Dr Fred Jones book Tools for teaching

Author: Warren Rogan

Date of post: 2006-08-25