Teach English in Zhongbei Zhen - Tianjin

Discipline in the classroomI have chosen discipline in the classroom as I feel this is incredibly important. Understandably if there was no discipline there would be no structure, no control. I feel however that you will not achieve true discipline if there is no respect. If the students do not respect you they will not listen to you. In the very beginning when you first start your class, from day one you need to lay down the ?Level of law? so to say. In other words the teacher needs to state from the beginning what he / she will accept and what he / she will not. In other words would you accept a student chewing gum in the class, speak without raising there hand, interrupt, the level of noise which will be tolerated etc. If you find that there is one particular student that is causing all the trouble, ask them to leave the class. If they repeat the behavior more than three times and still there has been no change request for them to be transferred to another class. This will show them that you are serious and will not accept unruly behavior. Set clear rules and explain them to students the first day of class. Be serious about the rules, enforce them consistently, without showing any upset, and you are on your way. Another trick that works well in a class of all ages is to show them that when you raise your hand you expect silence and if there are students that are talking to each other they must politely show there finger to their lips as a sign to stop talking. This means that you do not have to raise your voice above the noise of the class so there will be no stress nor no screaming. Another of these small motions is to gently put your hand on the offending students shoulder. This direct attention 9 times out of 10 will get them to keep quiet or calm down. This should work with both adults and children alike. Sometimes one may get an adult class that decides to carry on speaking while the lesson is going on. Personally I feel the best way to deal with this kind of lack of discipline is to stop the activity, keep quiet and look at the person causing the ruckus. Once they finally get the jest that they being rude you can politely explain to the class that if they carry on in this manner they are not only wasting your time but their time as well. Once they are made aware of this the general behavior in the class should inferably change. Keeping the students busy with interesting activities should generally control most discipline problems and stopping the problem before you become irate should keep problems low. Generally students mostly children, will act out when they are seeking attention. If you do have of the attention seekers in your class give them something ?important? to do. Tell them they are in charge of making sure the board is kept clean, that everyone is silent when the lesson is to start, etc. It is also important to find out from your respective employer what their basic rules regarding discipline is, as most language schools are privately owned. Generally a privately owned business may be a bit more relaxed when it comes to discipline in the classroom, as they would not want to chase away clients or prospective clients. You would also need to know if the particular establishment ?backs up? their teachers as you would not want to be confronted and have to lose face. All in all however, I would surmise that an active and interested student should not be a problem no matter what the age, culture or race and any disciplinary problems which may arise can be sorted out in a polite manner without either party getting too worked up. Staying calm is the key to any impending stressful situation.