CLASSROOM

MANAGEMENT
THE TEACHER

• Who the teacher is in the classroom, how he or she can

encourge the most learning and what changes the teacher
might be able to make to his or her own actions, reactions and
behaviour.
BEING YOURSELF

• Rogers (1983) suggested that authenticity was the single most important
teacher characteristic since it created the conditions for good rapport and
helped build a real depth of trust and respect, and that this made the difference
between a successful classroom and an unsuccessful one.
• Cowley (2009) said that “[…] how you feel inside doesn’t matter…your aim is
to develop an air of confidence, self-control and a mastery of everything that
happens in your classroom”. “Putting on a great performance”

Such great performance in which you have:

• “A stage on which to perform…a show to present…an audience watching your
every move…a carácter to step into…when you’re on that stage, ‘being’ the
teacher, you’re not playing yourself”
FIVE STEPS TO AUTHENTICITY

1. Don’t try to be a ‘teacher’

2. Have real conversations
3. Don’t pretend omniscience
4. Be wary of staffroom advice
5. Be appropriately authoritative
 BUILDING RAPPORT: SOME THECHNIQUES

• Rapport refers to the quality of the relationship in a classroom.

1. Be welcoming, be encouraging, be approachable
2. Treat each learner as an individual
3. Remember positive things about your students
4. Empathise
5. Be you rather than ‘the teacher’
6. Don’t fake happiness or pleasure
7. Be culturally sensitive
8. Avoid sarcasm
IN GROUPS DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING:

• How would you characterise the quality of rapport in your own lessons?
• What factors seem to improve or worsen it?
• How do you feel about these colleagues who deride teachers that have a good
relationship with students?
• Are they right about the inherent dangers, such as loss of discipline or blurring of
hierarchical roles?
VOICE TONE, GESTURES AND FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

• Teachers’ voice tone and how you use it can help create a large part of the atmosphere
of your classroom.
• Tone is distinct from volumen. *
• Gestures and expressions may add a crucial element to instructions and explanations.
• When the teacher starts using gestures, learners will learn to associate the gestures with
an instruction.
Reflect*
• Is voice tone something you have ever paid attention to?
• Is there one tone you tend to adopt for most of a lesson?
• With low-level classes:
• Gestures and expressions add a crucial element to instructions and explanations.
• They provide visual support that helps learners to understand what is being said.
• They also allow the teacher to say less, which by itsefl may help to make the
instruction or explanation clearer.
• Learners will associate the gesture with an instruction.
• What voice tones do you use to different purposes?
• Do you use gestures? Which ones do you tend to use most?
• Do you find it natural and easy to make eye contact with
students in class?
THE LEARNERS

• Who the students are and how the teacher can work with both the group and the
individuals.
• Some teachers do not learn students’ names and do not see this as important
• “Too many students”
• “It takes too long to learn so many names”

• Learning students’ names makes and important difference.

• Avoid students being just ‘Anonymous members’ of the class. (Tr→Ss/Ss→Ss)
SOME TECHNIQUES:

• Preparing to meet your class

• Name cards or labels
• Individualised cards/labels
• Turning the cards around
• Room map
• Noting memorable characteristics
• Photo poster or booklet
• Class photo
HELPING THE GROUP TO WORK TOGETHER

• A class can have an identity, life and energy that are more tan the sum of its component parts.
• Beyond the obvious central job of teaching a language, part of the teacher’s job is to help
create the feeling that everyone is working together in a coherent group.
• Some techniques:
• Getting to know you
• Creating a sense of community and purpose
• Creating synergy
• Quick fixes to change the class mood
• Reflect:
• Have you ever noticed synergy in class activities?
• Which activities do you use that seem to foster synergy?
• Have you been aware of noticeable changes in class carácter over
time?
MIXED-LEVEL CLASSES

• One of the most common complaints from teachers is that their class has too wide a
range of levels in it.
• If the teacher goes at the speed of the fater students, he/she loses the weaker ones; if she
goes at the speed of the weaker ones, then the stronger students get bored.
• Possible alternatives: either dividing the class or offering differentiated work.
• Reflect on these suggestions:
• Separating weaker and stronger students into halves/pairs/groups.
• Keeping the class as a single mixed-level group.
SOME TECHNIQUES AND SUGGESTIONS

• Split-and-combine workflows
• Differentiated workseheets
• Multilevel tasks
• Letting students choose what to do
• Ask for in-class learning support.
• Set different time requirements for different groups.
• Discuss and agree personal learning plans with each student.
• …..
• Any other suggestion?
LARGE CLASSES

• There is no guarantee –large or small classes to lead more learning.

• However, the better the ratio of the teacher to students, then the more chance there is to
give personal support and guidance; so in this respect, smaller is better.
• Learning is something that can only be done by the individual. It is always done privately, one
student at a time.
• Then, there is no reason why a student cannot learn (or fail to learn) equally well in a class of
one as in a class of one hundred.
• What do you consider a large class?
• What has been the largest class you have had?
THINK OF THESE TECHNIQUES:

• Don’t feel that you can only do teacher-led, whole-class teaching.

• Make sure they know that you know them all
• Create systems for managing materials efficiently
• Take a long hard look at the room
• Train students on how to be organized
• Don’t get stuck at the front
• Try mini-clases within the class
• …………
A LEARNER-CENTRED APPROACH

• What exactly does it mean?

• It suggests that the learning is not just directed at the learner, but in some way focussed on
them, drawing its sense of derection from them, maybe drawing its energy and power from
them.
• It is about having trust in your students’ abilities to learn and in their abilities to make
dicisions about what and how to learn.
• It is about a greater degree of empathy with each individual.
• It is about creating a political climate in which students can be more autonomous within a
class.
BUT……

• How much is learner-centredness desirable of possible anyway?

• What kind of classroom (teaching approach) do you have/teach?