Teach English in Jinhui Zhen - Shanghai Shi

TEFL Classroom ManagementOne of the most important aspects of teaching is classroom management. Classroom management is a teacher?s ability to organize and guide a classroom that is both engaging and respectful. One goal of classroom management is to create a sense of community in the class that will be conducive to the students overall growth both as students and persons. In teaching english as a second language many foreigners find themselves teaching in a monolingual or multilingual class room with students of one or several different cultures. This is a challenge, but when we also consider the fact that the students have different personalities and learning levels it can seem a bit daunting. The TEFL teacher may find themselves? continually searching for ideas and tips on how to best guide their class rooms. With all the searching we are reminded that what is most conducive to learning is a sense of harmony and well-being in the class room. If there is disorder, lack of respect, or excess rigidity the students will tend to get distracted by their environment and the teachers? words or the activities themselves will be lacking in effectiveness. It is encouraging to know that most TEFL teachers and english students themselves desire the same thing, that being a harmonious class room environment where learning another language would become a great adventure and a joy. I think most of us want our class rooms to be places of affirmation, sound teaching, team work, creative thinking, good conversation, confidence building, and peace. These are things that we desire and perhaps do not come easy, but only with constancy, respect and practice in managing a classroom. Aubrey Neil Leveridge gives some very practical insights and tips that I find interesting and certainly worthy of implementing. Aubrey points out that a teacher should strive to model behavior for the students by being on time and prepared for class. We should have an idea of what we would like our class to be like and try to communicate that to the students. If we model respect in listening, and speak respectfully, and calmly albeit changing our tone at various times and situations the children will tend to model this. She mentions that one technique to get the students ready for the lesson is to be quiet and wait for the students to be still and calm. I find this true for older students at the intermediate-advanced levels. In seeing us ready and waiting they will put their books in place and finish their conversations. With the very young a technique that I had seen work was a teacher who entered the room and appeared excited with the lesson he had prepared saying, ?Are we ready? or ?Whose ready?? The students begin to associate the beginning of class with getting ready for something exciting. The teacher can than go around and say, O I can see ____is ready? Encouraging them to get ready and than call for volunteers? The students can be rewarded to be chosen as a volunteer for an activity or given a sticker later. After a time we would hope that not the reward itself, but the desire to be ready or a good volunteer will be in itself a kind of motivation. Aubrey mentions the necessity of setting the class room rules on the very first day of class. The rules we set must be reasonable, culturally sensitive and promote a positive learning environment. If the rules are too severe or easily broken, the students may give up trying to stay within the boundaries. The teacher must also abide by the rules and value systems themselves. At the breaking of a rule the teacher must be honest, fair and sometimes serious in order to get the student or students back into harmony with the task at hand and the rest of the class. On the other hand, volunteering, a helpful attitude, good teamwork, good focus, being always or most often ready for the start of class or an activity could be affirmed in class and praised later with a sticker or positive note to the parents. Finally, there is the value of being prepared and excited about teaching a class and seeing how the students improve. One of the wonderful things that motivates? both teachers and parents alike is seeing the students blossom as english students and persons. When just beginning a class we won?t see immediate blossoming, but only as time goes on. However, the sense of fulfillment of seeing the students happy, in harmony with one another and excited about learning is in itself a reward, consolation and inspiration for the teacher. In conclusion, I think it is wonderful that we as teachers can be kind of an extension of the parents care for their children. Reflecting on this I hope I will see this role with ever greater clarity and present the language to my students as a service and gift. This gift we ourselves are stewards or ambassadors of and reflecting on this again does lend certain value to our work. Let me be one of the first to admit that I have sometimes failed to remember this and at times have become distracted with many things. With this in mind, I have to remember that the students, their culture, and unique personalities are gift as well. Than we have a mutual exchange of gifts in the class room and everyone receives something of a reward.