Teach English in Xikou Zhen - Huaihua Shi

Classroom Management is a skill that a teacher must try to learn and gain. This skill is a skill of managing the class, organizing the class and the classroom, having relaxed manner and maintaining discipline. As a teacher it’s not easy to have relaxed manner and maintain discipline at the same time. To achieve this goal the teacher needs to know how to balance. How a class be managed effectively and efficiently can really affect how students perform in the class. Which in another word means the classroom management decides the environment of studying. This essay includes three big parts: Classroom Arrangement, Establishing rapport and Teacher talking time & Student talking time. I. Classroom arrangement When first thing you get inside one classroom the first thing you see is the classroom arrangement. I have seen different classes arrange their classroom in many different unique ways and most of them have the reasons why they place it in their way. As far as I am concerned, seating arrangements can really affect students. I have experienced that two students can be emotional almost half day just because they are not satisfied with the seats the teacher organized them. In my pinion I think a classroom should be separated into around three parts (grade 1 to grade 4). One area for the teacher. Two or three parts for the students. Within this three parts for students, one area the table/ seat part for them to study. This part is easy for them to do group work in class. This kind of seating arrangement is called Separate tables. Another part can put a carpet which when the teacher need to give instruction they can all come to the carpet and listen. If the classroom has extra space they can design a learning corner for students to read. When arrange the classroom there are so many questions the teacher need to consider such as which arrangement the students are comfortable with each other or which arrangement the teacher can maintain effective control over the class. These questions can be solved if the teacher have good enough information about each student and know their personalities. So next part will talk about how can teacher establish rapport or relationship with the students. II. Establish rapport It’s very important to build a good relationship between the teacher and students if you want an successful and enjoyable output. The atmosphere plays an important part here. If the students like the atmosphere and the teacher they will participate. They will relax and learn. There are several practical ways to help establish rapport. As a teacher every morning can ask how they feel what did they do the day before which can show them you care about them and their daily lives. Don’t start the course directly. At the beginning of course can play a circle talk. Which belongs to engage phase. They can also play a silly dance game so that when they throw out all their sillies they can focus. Let the students know they are responsible for their classroom and when they do something good for their environment such as pick up the garbage the teacher can give some rewards. But only give as a surprise. As a teacher, always smile and give clear instruction. Be patient enough to handle same questions or different issues come upon the same time. In one class as a teacher can’t control over the class all the time. Because first reason is the students will be tired and feel bored about the class. The second reason it’s not good for the skills balance. There are four skills in learning English: listening, reading, writing and speaking. It’s very important to speak while learning English. So next and the last part is about teacher talking time and student talking time. III. Teacher talking time & Student talking time In class there is time for teacher talking for example when it’s time to give instruction or when a certain activity need to be announced. Another time for teacher is when setting up activities. There are still many situation that is teacher talking time. Student talking time it depends on different activities or assignments be given to them. Let’s say in engage phase most of the time is student talking time. Study phase half for teacher half for students. Activate phase most time is student talking time. Why mange teacher talking time is so important is because it’s also part of the class management and it affect the effectiveness and efficiency of the class. There are several ways for teaching to use to avoid unnecessary teacher talking time. The teacher can choose carefully the language for explanation and instructions. Also another way is to use language that is at or below the level being taught so that no need extra time to explain again to students if they don’t understand at the first place. Conclusion From above can see classroom management plays an important role in class. It can affect the relationship between students and students and also between teacher and students. A successful and enjoyable class need to be maintained by both teacher and students.