Читать книгу Teach Without Stress. Great Lessons Without Great Efforts - Jenny White - Страница 4

Classroom management is an aspect of teaching that implies multitasking. A teacher should be a manager, a policeman, a coach, an actor and what not. The aim of it is to make the process of learning go smoothly without interruption.

In this chapter you will find some pieces of advice that will:

• help your students to “cool down” when necessary

• prevent disruption caused by the unsuitable seating plan

• adjust desks arrangements to the type of the lesson

• offer various types of praise according to the difficulty of the question

Week 1: Different Degrees of Praising

The way you praise your students can work wonders! But your reaction should be equivalent to the level of difficulty of the question you asked. Various degrees of praise, both verbal and non-verbal, will help students understand how well they work. For easy questions you can just say a typical “Well done!”. For a correct and funny answer, you can wink and show thumbs up. If the answer is excellent, you can even come to this student and shake hands. Use stickers, applause, give high-fives, draw stars on the board!

Week 2: Seating Arrangements

Students are often very sensitive when it comes to seating arrangements. They may want to sit only with their friends or alone, or near the board, or far away from the board. In order to prevent arguments, explain that everybody will change seats every month because it is good to work with different partners. Say: “The number of your seat for this month is inside this box”. Students should take out a number out of the box and sit at the desk under this number. It looks like a lottery and no one usually objects.

Week 3: “Put Your Hands Down…” (cool-down technique)

After the break students can get too excited. This transition chant will help them switch from fun to studies. While they are still standing, say loudly and use body gestures (make sure students do them too):

“Put your ha-a-a-aands (put your hands up and hold them) down (put them down quickly), hold your he-e-e-ead (touch your chin) up (raise it), slowly sit down, don’t stand up (hands crossed). Put your ha-a-a-nds on the desk (tap tap). Put your fe-e-eet on the floor (stomp stomp). Keep your back straight (straighten your back) and say: “Hello!” (wave your hands). Make a pause after every word in bold and let students finish with the words in italics.

Week 4: Change Desks Arrangement

Some teachers keep the same desks arrangement throughout the academic year. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different seating arrangements. Surprise your students by changing the way your classroom looks like.

Arrange the desks according to the main type of activity in this lesson. For group work and projects put desks in small circles, for class discussions a semicircle of chairs would be most suitable. Rows and lines of desks with some space between them are great for tests. You can even put the desks to the walls and sit down on the floor in the center!