Teach English in ZhAngguying Zhen - Yueyang Shi

To commence with , class room management is the skill of organizing and managing the class , maintaining discipline, having a friendly and relaxed manner. Most people tend to believe that in order to be a good teacher one must be gregarious whilst l contradict with that popular belief because some good teachers are very low key , while other teachers , both lively and amusing , are regarded as nothing more than entertainers. Personally l am an extrovert teacher and l have mastered various teaching skills such as when to be firm and when to leave the students alone. Being a teacher doesn’t mean that you become a robot and behave as if you are programmed, you have to be flexible , to be able to change roles according to the activity and situation without being dominant or leaving the students uncertain. When it comes to managing classes eye contact, gesture and the voice are some to the important factors. Good eye contact in the class room is important because it helps establish good rapport with students , it shows that the teacher is confident and it helps with discipline , but over staring will cause students to feel uncomfortable thereby leading to un production. As much as we as teachers would like to use eye contact it should be avoided when it comes to activities which are not teacher centered. Some of the situations where it can be used is when encouraging contributions, to show students that they are all involved in the lesson , to indicate who to speak among others. Good use of gesture can be effective and useful when conveying language meaning , to add visual interest and to increase the paste of the lesson just to mention a few. Voice and student’s name can be used together and the greater the variation the greater the effectiveness. Names are usually used when organizing an activity, acknowledging the students and getting there attention. Moreover one can’t talk about managing a class with out talking about grouping. There is no real limit to the way a teacher can group students, though factors such as class size and classroom furniture can be problematic based on the type of activity. There is whole class grouping , students working on there own , pair work and group work. I usually group my students according to the class size and type of activity and l mix them up so as to create variety and competition because it enables student talking time and gives them opportunities to participate. As l mentioned before managing classes comes with a lot of factors and l have already mentioned some of them but it doesn’t categorize them as the most important once neither am l saying the following factors that l’m going to mention are the most important once. Class room management is one of the factors to be considered when managing a class , a teacher must know that his or her position and the position of the students is of great importance and it largely depends on space available, type of chairs or tables , age of the students, nationality and student personality. I have the right to move students for disc art purposes or for the benefit of an activity. I do this with a reason like some that l have mentioned and k make sure that the students can see the purpose by doing it firmly but polite and mostly at the beginning of the class for students not to get used to sit at one place. Depending on class size and other factors l can arrange the class in rows , circles and horseshoes , separate tables and l then position my self at a strategic point depending on activity, role among other factors. Furthermore when it comes to writing on the board l try my best to reduce the amount of time l spend with my back to the class , by using an overhead projector whenever possible, preparing vocabulary cards , having board work already up before the class among other methods. I have realized that students need attention so some of the things l do is to know all their names , include them equally in an activity and spending longer time with students who don’t understand if necessary. When managing classes one must learn to balance teacher talking time and students talking time depending on the type of lesson, activity and the level of the students. Usually l speak more when presenting , providing language input, giving instructions and when establishing rapport. I give instructions by using simple language, being consistent, using visual clues and by checking the instructions. Above everything, l don’t forget to establish rapport with my students and to maintain discipline because it helps to control the class , it makes them comfortable and allows the class to flow well. I relax the atmosphere in my class room and help my students to know me by having ice breakers , showing them that l d Joy the job , being positive, smiling , l show interest in them , l let them help each other , l pair them into groups and l make sure they know each other among other methods. Finally when it comes to discipline l make my classes interesting to reduce boredom , l show them respect for them to respect me as well , l’m always punctual , consistent and fair. In a nut shell l can say that with out class management it is almost impossible to have a successful and effective class. Thank you.