This blog was meant to be a tool for teachers and students of Practice II.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Practical N 10
Watch the power point presentations about Classroom Management, Teacher's roles, Learner's roles and Disruptive Behavioour. Reflect upon these presentations and post your comment about them. Write extensively. Deadline June 27th
Hello everyone!! Well, here I´m posting my comment about Classroom management, Teacher´s roles and disruptive behaviour. Firstly, I consider that one of the most important instruments in our classroom management is the use of our voices. We have to remember that our voices should be audible, but it does not mean shouting; and we should vary the quality of our voices according to the type of lesson we are dealing with. What is more, I believe that our voices are crucial in a classroom because they can be accompanied by body language, such as face expressions, gestures or body movement. I could clearly see the use of voice and body gestures during my observations in school n° 1 and n° 4. For example, when the teacher wanted to call students ´attention at the beginning of the lesson, she remained silent and serious for a few seconds, so students realized that she wanted to say something important to the class. Also, when one of the teachers wanted to give instructions, for example “listen,” she used clear, audible,slow voice and at the same time she pointed her ears. Secondly, taking into account teacher´s roles, I consider that we should adopt a variety of roles within the classroom, for example, if we want to present a new topic and explain it, a CONTROLLER role would be necessary, but if we want to organize an activity, we should played an organizer role. During one of my observations last week, the teacher organized an activity in which students had to design a family tree. First, as a lead in, she showed the students a family tree which appeared on their books, then she provided instructions about what they had to do and she draw a model of a tree on the blackboard to make sure that everyone had understood the activity. Then she initiated the activity and finally she organized feedback, in this case “ content feedback”, such as “very good!,” “excellent!,” “ beautiful!” We, as future teachers, should remember that in our classrooms we are like actors who are always on the stage.We should be able to perfom and switch various roles such as controller, participant, prompter, tutor and resource, but a lot will depend on the particular students we are working with. Last, considering disruptive behaviour in classrooms, I think that is a common and increasing problem nowadays. The number of causes can be various, boredom , the family, etc and many times teachers are not prepared psychologically to face a situation like this. We can read hundred of books at university about how to deal disruptive behaviour in classrooms, but I strongly consider that it is the experience and the particular situation what will teach us how to deal with this problem. SEE YOU!!
"fe de erratas" Sorry!! in line 24 of the previous comment, it should say "we should (play) an organizer role" and also in line 29, it should say "she (drew) a model of a..." Sorry for the mistakes!!! see you!!
Hello everyone! It's Ailín, posting my comments for Practical 10. About the presentation on Managing the Classroom (Classroom Management), I would say that we as teachers, have a very powerful tool: our voice. As it is so important in our job, we have to take care of it, and that means, to avoid shouting. What we should do is vary our pitch level and intonation according to the class’ stage. I can see this voice variation in my observations. Whenever the teacher explains an activity, she makes use of different intonation patterns so as to engage the students in the tasks. And when students are noisy or not paying attention, the teacher just remains silent (instead of shouting), waiting for the kids to do the same. Also, to take care of our voice, we can use body language to complement what we are explaining. The teacher I observe does this. Whenever students ask her: “what is to draw?” for example, she makes a gesture with her marker to show the meaning of the word. Regarding students’ grouping, there are several ways of arranging the classroom, taking into account its spatial conditions. Generally, students are seated in orderly rows, which allow the teacher to have a view of the whole group. This grouping strategy is useful when the teacher explains a grammar point, or when students are watching a DVD or a power point presentation. Yet, a clear disadvantage is that this way of grouping students does not foster communication between them, since they cannot see each other’s faces most of the times. Other ways of arranging students are: circle and horseshoe. The former gives a sense of equality (showing teacher’s beliefs) and the latter does not show equality so strongly, but it reduces the rigidity of rows. In my observations, I noticed that usually, the students are seated in rows and in pairs (in desk with room for two). Only once, they worked in larger groups (four or five students) when doing an activity. It was very interesting to watch them work in a different way, since they seemed to enjoyed more and most of them were engaged in the activity. Concerning the presentation about Teacher’s Roles, there are different ones like: controller (when the teacher gives instructions, he/she does most of the talking thus there is little students’ participation), assessor (when the teacher gives feedback after an oral task, where gentle feedback is needed, or after controlled practice, where feedback is related to accuracy) and organizer (connected to how the teacher manages time, class’ stages, homework and materials’ complexity among others). Other roles are: prompter (the teacher encourages students to get involved in activities, in the learning process) resource (when students ask the teacher for information or words’ meanings they do not fully understand) and monitor (when the teacher supervises each student’s development). Some of these roles can be played in one single class, according to the class’ stages. I think it is very important to play different roles in one class, because otherwise, the lesson would be teacher-centered and not student-centered, as it should be. And finally, regarding the presentation about Disruptive Behaviour, in order to avoid this problem, we as teachers should go to our classes prepared, be consistent and do not shout, for instance. We also have to pay attention to students’ needs (to listen to them, to involve them in the class, to give them feedback when they show you a drawing, etc.) Whenever we face a problem like this, we should ask the institution for help and act immediately. Though at university we are told about this kind of problems, I believe that we cannot know what it is like to be in such situation till we are working at schools.
Hello everybody! I´m posting my comment on Classroom management, Teacher´s roles and disruptive behaviour trying to complement the previous ones. As regards Classroom management it is true that our most powerful tool is our voice. So in order to avoid hurting our vocal cords and also hurting student´s feeling we should completely avoid shouting. In school 1, the teacher we have been observing has a very soft voice. However, students know when thay are being asked to calm down because of the teacher´s body language. This is also very important because student´s may not always understand the instructions in English but they will certainly get the face expressions or gestures that go with them. Many times it can be useful to ask the students to repeat the instructions themselves, even if they do so in Spanish, to check if they understood. Student's grouping is also a key factor for a succesful classroom and there are many ways for doing so. But as Ailin said, what we generally find in schools is a class divided into rows, which are arranged for pairs. This is not always the best options as it doesn´t allow all students to participate actively in the activities. We have noticed that this arrangement prevails because English classes are taught last and so teachers find it is not worthy to lose so much time moving the desks. It is also difficult for students as the desks and even the chairs are too heavy for them to move. Finally, regarding disruptive behaviour, as trainees we are adviced to be prepared and well organized when entering the class. This is because students pay a lot of attention to they way we dress, the way we talk and, of course, the way we teach them. Advices are useful but the best manner to face the problems of misbehaviour that may present in the class is by respecting the codes of conduct previously agreed on with the students, by being fair, by not generalizing and by listening to the students complaints and needs. I believe this is something textbooks deal with very nicely but that can only be mastered with real experience in different classrooms.
Hello everybody! I’m posting my comment about Classroom management, Teacher’s roles and disruptive behaviour taking into consideration the previous comments. I think that Classroom Management is really important in order to build an appropriate atmosphere that can help students and teachers develop their roles in the best way possible. Respect among each other, responsibility, collaboration and communication are very important values and crucial to achieve that kind of environment where all can work in a relaxing and motivating way. As my partners already said, voice is really important; it is one of our most prized tools. In our classes we should have a clear and friendly voice that invites and also help children understand what is going on. However, we should avoid shouting not only because we can damage our vocal cords but because most of the times we will not achieve what we want from students. There are many different alternatives to be listened instead of raising the volume of our voice. For example, in some of the observations we found very interest ways of calling the attention of students without shouting or talking to them in an aggressive way. Some teacher got silent for a very short period of time and children instantly realized what is happening, other clapped their hands, counted till ten or sang a specific song. Other useful strategy that we also saw during our observations is that teachers used gestures or made draws on the blackboard in order to be understood. Also, they called children by using their proper names or getting closer to them in order to have an individual talk in case they are misbehaving. As we know there are different ways of arranging a class but it also depends on the number of students, on how big is the room and mainly on the relationships already established in the group. It is important to remember that children can be very discriminative and hurtful. For example, in one of the last classes we observed, the teacher invited students to do an oral activity in pairs. It was not so easy for her to do it although they were already sitting in pairs in orderly rows, some of them were alone and no one wants to get together with them. In order to break that tense atmosphere, the teacher postponed the activity and tried to motivate them a little more by reviewing the topic again (adjectives in pairs of opposites) with the use of flashcards. After that, they were so enthusiastic and motivated that she could group them and do the activity she had postponed in a more relax and harmonious way. Therefore, it is very interesting and useful to rearrange the class in different ways but we have to be really careful and always bear in mind the characteristics of the group and each student in particular. In terms of the Teacher’s Roles, there are different roles that a teacher can adopt as controller, assessor, organizer. Each role depends on the activity organized, the part of the activity performed and the way in which the teacher decides to do it. The important thing is not to be monotonous and to change positions in order to make the classes more dynamic and challenge students to develop activities or check them in different ways avoiding the boring routine which usually lead to problems of disruptive behaviour. As I said before, the material about disruptive behavior is very interesting and also very useful, mainly for us that we are at the start point. There are always cases of disruptive behaviour but the important thing is to stop for a second, analyse the situation in order to decide what to say and what to do so as to solve it and not to get it worse. If we take a time to listen to our students and talk to them individually and in a comprehensive way, it can help us to solve the problem and even change it completely. All these materials and experiences are very valued tools that will help us face future situations which seem to be difficult or impossible in an easier and more convinced way. Romina Hernández
Estela and Liliana, mi comentario lo voy a tener que postear en dos partes porque es un poco largo y no me permite postearlo completo, me dice que se aceptan cierta cantidad de caracteres, asique ahi va en dos partes. Rocio.
Hello everybody, I’m Rocio and this is my comment as regards classroom management, teacher’s roles and disruptive behaviour, I hope you like it! Regarding classroom management, in a class teachers’ voice is essential, and it is fundamental not to shout so as to keep an organized calmed class and also not to loose our voice. If the teacher shouts in the class, students may be afraid of the teacher, they could see her as an imposing authoritarian teacher and they would probably remain silence the whole lesson due to insecurity and shyness. I believe that teacher’s voice transmits and communicates a lot at the moment of dealing with a class and children can perceive that, so that is why teachers should be aware of not only varying their pitch level (higher if the teacher wants to caught students attention for example, lower if she wants to calm the students down) but also their intonation (especially when practising dialogues, varied intonation can be very enriching for a classroom since children like role playing and different usages of intonation are appealing to the children’s ear, so whenever they have a dialogue they are eager to imitate the teacher’s intonation patterns). A great thing would be to use body language, this reflects also a lot. A teacher can use body movements for example to demand silence (she can make aye-contact to show that something is going wrong), she can make gestures or facial expressions to explain a word or a whole phrase so as to keep English as the main language and avoid using the L1. In school nº 143, the teacher applies all these aspects (variation of pitch level and intonation) and also another technique, when she wants her students to make silence, she writes on the board the letter S, if students are still messy she writes letter T, and so on so as to complete the word STOP. Knowing how to group students is relevant when teaching a class, the idea would be to vary different seating arrangement whenever possible. According to spatial conditions students can be seated in a semi-circle which is the most effective way because everybody sees each other’s faces, students can interact perfectly with each other, and the teacher can be placed in the middle of the class or in front of it. Students can also work in small groups (three or four students) which foster cooperation and working in groups creates a friendly working atmosphere and students are encourage to talk fluently because they feel secure. However, group work can cause discrimination in a class since students are quite selective when choosing whom to work with (I saw this while observing a class, students had to form groups of 4 and most of them avoid working with a girl, she ended up alone and the teacher assign a group for her). And/ or students can work in pairs. In the schools I have being observing, students were seated in rows, one school has individual desks and the other has pair desks. I realized that being at the back of the class was very useful due to the fact that I could see many aspects and observe lots of disruptive behaviour that the teacher could not see. This happened because, as the students were seated in rows, the teacher could not monitor all the students since she could not move around the class.
Concerning the teacher’s role, during my observations I could see different roles reflected on teachers: Controller: during my observation number 10 (where we had to complete the time spent in several aspects of the class) I could see that whenever the teacher explains an activity or gives instructions she spent lots of minutes talking and explaining and there was little students’ participation since the teacher postures herself in the role of a controller which is necessary to caught students’ attention. Assessor: feedback is essential in a classroom; students need’s desperately their teacher’s approval. In both schools I observed that teachers provide feedback in every activity students did, and this support was essential to keep students motivated. In school 143, students were supposed to draw in a room the objects the teacher described and with the colours she assigned. There was a boy who not only needed our approval (he asked us of all the pictures he draw: “¿Está bien teacher?”) but also his teacher’s approval, so he went to asked his teacher also if his drawings were correct. Whenever the teacher answered Great pictures!, Wonderful!, Very Good! This boy and also the rest of the students felt great. Organizer: for each activity teachers assign a specific time for students to solve the task, it has to do also with materials use in class, the homework students are assigned to do at home, etc. Prompter: teachers always have to encourage their students to get involved in the activities, one way of doing this is to get them motivated with a game for example, or just telling them “Come on, you can do it” so as to make them feel better and secure of using a foreign language. Resource: students see their teacher as a “dictionary” that contains and knows every word in English. Children are very demanding in a class, so it is important for teachers to be aware of the vocabulary used in class so as to be prepared whenever a student asks the meaning of a word that they do not know or understand or any kind of information. Monitor: to follow every student’s development is extremely important so as to detect possible errors on time and go back to the problem so as to work hard on “that specific problem”. The idea would be to mix all these roles so as to achieve a successful class and teachers must not forget their focus, which are students. Disruptive behaviour is something usual in every school (public or private). To soften this situation teachers must play an active role, they should demand discipline and make their students to respect each others and never allow students to be cruel (which is quite common among children). Teachers should go prepare to classes, they should not raise their voices, motivate their students so as not to get them bored, teachers should not praise students since this reflects favouritism and children can see this as unfair and they may feel discriminated (the ones which are not praised). Our attitude is a key factor, a negative attitude would not be appropriate. Teachers must encourage learning; their optimist attitude must be transmitted in every student so they can enjoy their lessons. If all these aspects do not work and a teacher faces a problem, she must talk with the student/s, call their parents and inform them the situation, talk to the headmaster of the school. Disruptive behaviours are common since students want to be noticed, most of the times this has to do with problems in their houses, or just because they are bored or problems with their self-esteem. The teacher must be able to detect these problems and try to find the most suitable solution so she can develop her classes without interruptions and creates a peaceful learning environment. Rocio Rodriguez.
Hello everyone!I´m Antonella and I´m posting my comments on the topics! Well, as we are to become teachers I found very useful and interesting all the materials regarding clasroom managment, teachers´s role and disruptive behaviour. We have to become aware of all the different circumstances that surround today´s clasroom and the different variables we have to handle as well as techniques to make our classes profitable and enjoyable at the same time. As regards classroom managment, it is of utmost importance to make a special use of our voices. We should be clear and speak audibly enough (always having in mind to take care of our precious tool)and adapt it to the aims of the class.Children need also to feel closer to the teacher so I believe that proximity and eye -contact is another key factor. It is part of the positive rapport and the socializing aspect of the primary school. I´ve observed that students are very eager to greet the teacher when she arrives for example.Now , when the teacher gives the class,I believe it also important to make a good use of the L1 and not to overuse it.For that we have our bodies,and can complement what we say with the help of gestures,mimics and facial expression.I agree here with what sole said ..to be teachers we have to be great actors.As regards the spatial organitazion of the classroom, we have to take into account that different grouping techniques serve to different purposes and they can be very fruitful if we bear in mind the characterisc of the group and the kind of activities(each grouping has its benefits and drawbacks).Different arrangings not only create dynamicy ,as romina said, but also is funadamental to keep motivated the students.However, till now in all what I osbserved , groups do not vary . Student are always seated in the same way ,although they are in pairs, what it is nice for primary learners they face the blackboard and are in orderly rows. Another factor of extremely importance for teachers is the different roles they can perfom.We do not want to stick to a stereotype but have our own way to be teachers.What we have to have in mind is that the different roles such us controller,prompter,participant, assesor,tutor,monitor, and even friend contribute to facilitate learning and to suit the types of tasks wanted. Finally,to handle a group, it is very useful to know how to deal with disruptive behavior, which is becoming more an more common in today´s schools.Altough trying to solve these problems generally involves the whole institution, teachers have to be aware of the difernet types of motifs students may have in misbehaving and the possible actions to be taken so as to solve the conflicts.A very simple action such us changing the place of one student who always bothers it is sometimes enough.Conducts are learnt and a teacher can foster also this.It´s for the whole group benefit and for a better teaching-learning environment. Anto.
Dear Trainees: Your comments are really interesting because you have linked them to the theory on classroom management, but most important, to the practice that you derived from observing classes at Priamry School level. You could also read and share your views with your classmates, so ...Well done! Kind regards, Prof. Estela Braun
Hello everyone!! Well, here I´m posting my comment about Classroom management, Teacher´s roles and disruptive behaviour.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I consider that one of the most important instruments in our classroom management is the use of our voices. We have to remember that our voices should be audible, but it does not mean shouting; and we should vary the quality of our voices according to the type of lesson we are dealing with. What is more, I believe that our voices are crucial in a classroom because they can be accompanied by body language, such as face expressions, gestures or body movement. I could clearly see the use of voice and body gestures during my observations in school n° 1 and n° 4. For example, when the teacher wanted to call students ´attention at the beginning of the lesson, she remained silent and serious for a few seconds, so students realized that she wanted to say something important to the class. Also, when one of the teachers wanted to give instructions, for example “listen,” she used clear, audible,slow voice and at the same time she pointed her ears.
Secondly, taking into account teacher´s roles, I consider that we should adopt a variety of roles within the classroom, for example, if we want to present a new topic and explain it, a CONTROLLER role would be necessary, but if we want to organize an activity, we should played an organizer role. During one of my observations last week, the teacher organized an activity in which students had to design a family tree. First, as a lead in, she showed the students a family tree which appeared on their books, then she provided instructions about what they had to do and she draw a model of a tree on the blackboard to make sure that everyone had understood the activity. Then she initiated the activity and finally she organized feedback, in this case “ content feedback”, such as “very good!,” “excellent!,” “ beautiful!” We, as future teachers, should remember that in our classrooms we are like actors who are always on the stage.We should be able to perfom and switch various roles such as controller, participant, prompter, tutor and resource, but a lot will depend on the particular students we are working with.
Last, considering disruptive behaviour in classrooms, I think that is a common and increasing problem nowadays. The number of causes can be various, boredom , the family, etc and many times teachers are not prepared psychologically to face a situation like this. We can read hundred of books at university about how to deal disruptive behaviour in classrooms, but I strongly consider that it is the experience and the particular situation what will teach us how to deal with this problem.
SEE YOU!!
Soledad Roldán
"fe de erratas" Sorry!! in line 24 of the previous comment, it should say "we should (play) an organizer role" and also in line 29, it should say "she (drew) a model of a..."
ReplyDeleteSorry for the mistakes!!!
see you!!
Sole Roldán
Hello everyone! It's Ailín, posting my comments for Practical 10.
ReplyDeleteAbout the presentation on Managing the Classroom (Classroom Management), I would say that we as teachers, have a very powerful tool: our voice. As it is so important in our job, we have to take care of it, and that means, to avoid shouting. What we should do is vary our pitch level and intonation according to the class’ stage. I can see this voice variation in my observations. Whenever the teacher explains an activity, she makes use of different intonation patterns so as to engage the students in the tasks. And when students are noisy or not paying attention, the teacher just remains silent (instead of shouting), waiting for the kids to do the same. Also, to take care of our voice, we can use body language to complement what we are explaining. The teacher I observe does this. Whenever students ask her: “what is to draw?” for example, she makes a gesture with her marker to show the meaning of the word. Regarding students’ grouping, there are several ways of arranging the classroom, taking into account its spatial conditions. Generally, students are seated in orderly rows, which allow the teacher to have a view of the whole group. This grouping strategy is useful when the teacher explains a grammar point, or when students are watching a DVD or a power point presentation. Yet, a clear disadvantage is that this way of grouping students does not foster communication between them, since they cannot see each other’s faces most of the times. Other ways of arranging students are: circle and horseshoe. The former gives a sense of equality (showing teacher’s beliefs) and the latter does not show equality so strongly, but it reduces the rigidity of rows. In my observations, I noticed that usually, the students are seated in rows and in pairs (in desk with room for two). Only once, they worked in larger groups (four or five students) when doing an activity. It was very interesting to watch them work in a different way, since they seemed to enjoyed more and most of them were engaged in the activity.
Concerning the presentation about Teacher’s Roles, there are different ones like: controller (when the teacher gives instructions, he/she does most of the talking thus there is little students’ participation), assessor (when the teacher gives feedback after an oral task, where gentle feedback is needed, or after controlled practice, where feedback is related to accuracy) and organizer (connected to how the teacher manages time, class’ stages, homework and materials’ complexity among others). Other roles are: prompter (the teacher encourages students to get involved in activities, in the learning process) resource (when students ask the teacher for information or words’ meanings they do not fully understand) and monitor (when the teacher supervises each student’s development). Some of these roles can be played in one single class, according to the class’ stages. I think it is very important to play different roles in one class, because otherwise, the lesson would be teacher-centered and not student-centered, as it should be.
And finally, regarding the presentation about Disruptive Behaviour, in order to avoid this problem, we as teachers should go to our classes prepared, be consistent and do not shout, for instance. We also have to pay attention to students’ needs (to listen to them, to involve them in the class, to give them feedback when they show you a drawing, etc.) Whenever we face a problem like this, we should ask the institution for help and act immediately. Though at university we are told about this kind of problems, I believe that we cannot know what it is like to be in such situation till we are working at schools.
Ailín Alietti
Hello everybody! I´m posting my comment on Classroom management, Teacher´s roles and disruptive behaviour trying to complement the previous ones.
ReplyDeleteAs regards Classroom management it is true that our most powerful tool is our voice. So in order to avoid hurting our vocal cords and also hurting student´s feeling we should completely avoid shouting. In school 1, the teacher we have been observing has a very soft voice. However, students know when thay are being asked to calm down because of the teacher´s body language. This is also very important because student´s may not always understand the instructions in English but they will certainly get the face expressions or gestures that go with them. Many times it can be useful to ask the students to repeat the instructions themselves, even if they do so in Spanish, to check if they understood.
Student's grouping is also a key factor for a succesful classroom and there are many ways for doing so. But as Ailin said, what we generally find in schools is a class divided into rows, which are arranged for pairs. This is not always the best options as it doesn´t allow all students to participate actively in the activities. We have noticed that this arrangement prevails because English classes are taught last and so teachers find it is not worthy to lose so much time moving the desks. It is also difficult for students as the desks and even the chairs are too heavy for them to move.
Finally, regarding disruptive behaviour, as trainees we are adviced to be prepared and well organized when entering the class. This is because students pay a lot of attention to they way we dress, the way we talk and, of course, the way we teach them. Advices are useful but the best manner to face the problems of misbehaviour that may present in the class is by respecting the codes of conduct previously agreed on with the students, by being fair, by not generalizing and by listening to the students complaints and needs. I believe this is something textbooks deal with very nicely but that can only be mastered with real experience in different classrooms.
ANA CAROLINA GUELER
Hello everybody! I’m posting my comment about Classroom management, Teacher’s roles and disruptive behaviour taking into consideration the previous comments.
ReplyDeleteI think that Classroom Management is really important in order to build an appropriate atmosphere that can help students and teachers develop their roles in the best way possible. Respect among each other, responsibility, collaboration and communication are very important values and crucial to achieve that kind of environment where all can work in a relaxing and motivating way.
As my partners already said, voice is really important; it is one of our most prized tools. In our classes we should have a clear and friendly voice that invites and also help children understand what is going on. However, we should avoid shouting not only because we can damage our vocal cords but because most of the times we will not achieve what we want from students. There are many different alternatives to be listened instead of raising the volume of our voice. For example, in some of the observations we found very interest ways of calling the attention of students without shouting or talking to them in an aggressive way. Some teacher got silent for a very short period of time and children instantly realized what is happening, other clapped their hands, counted till ten or sang a specific song. Other useful strategy that we also saw during our observations is that teachers used gestures or made draws on the blackboard in order to be understood. Also, they called children by using their proper names or getting closer to them in order to have an individual talk in case they are misbehaving.
As we know there are different ways of arranging a class but it also depends on the number of students, on how big is the room and mainly on the relationships already established in the group. It is important to remember that children can be very discriminative and hurtful. For example, in one of the last classes we observed, the teacher invited students to do an oral activity in pairs. It was not so easy for her to do it although they were already sitting in pairs in orderly rows, some of them were alone and no one wants to get together with them. In order to break that tense atmosphere, the teacher postponed the activity and tried to motivate them a little more by reviewing the topic again (adjectives in pairs of opposites) with the use of flashcards. After that, they were so enthusiastic and motivated that she could group them and do the activity she had postponed in a more relax and harmonious way. Therefore, it is very interesting and useful to rearrange the class in different ways but we have to be really careful and always bear in mind the characteristics of the group and each student in particular.
In terms of the Teacher’s Roles, there are different roles that a teacher can adopt as controller, assessor, organizer. Each role depends on the activity organized, the part of the activity performed and the way in which the teacher decides to do it. The important thing is not to be monotonous and to change positions in order to make the classes more dynamic and challenge students to develop activities or check them in different ways avoiding the boring routine which usually lead to problems of disruptive behaviour.
As I said before, the material about disruptive behavior is very interesting and also very useful, mainly for us that we are at the start point. There are always cases of disruptive behaviour but the important thing is to stop for a second, analyse the situation in order to decide what to say and what to do so as to solve it and not to get it worse. If we take a time to listen to our students and talk to them individually and in a comprehensive way, it can help us to solve the problem and even change it completely. All these materials and experiences are very valued tools that will help us face future situations which seem to be difficult or impossible in an easier and more convinced way.
Romina Hernández
Estela and Liliana, mi comentario lo voy a tener que postear en dos partes porque es un poco largo y no me permite postearlo completo, me dice que se aceptan cierta cantidad de caracteres, asique ahi va en dos partes. Rocio.
ReplyDeleteHello everybody, I’m Rocio and this is my comment as regards classroom management, teacher’s roles and disruptive behaviour, I hope you like it!
ReplyDeleteRegarding classroom management, in a class teachers’ voice is essential, and it is fundamental not to shout so as to keep an organized calmed class and also not to loose our voice. If the teacher shouts in the class, students may be afraid of the teacher, they could see her as an imposing authoritarian teacher and they would probably remain silence the whole lesson due to insecurity and shyness. I believe that teacher’s voice transmits and communicates a lot at the moment of dealing with a class and children can perceive that, so that is why teachers should be aware of not only varying their pitch level (higher if the teacher wants to caught students attention for example, lower if she wants to calm the students down) but also their intonation (especially when practising dialogues, varied intonation can be very enriching for a classroom since children like role playing and different usages of intonation are appealing to the children’s ear, so whenever they have a dialogue they are eager to imitate the teacher’s intonation patterns). A great thing would be to use body language, this reflects also a lot. A teacher can use body movements for example to demand silence (she can make aye-contact to show that something is going wrong), she can make gestures or facial expressions to explain a word or a whole phrase so as to keep English as the main language and avoid using the L1. In school nº 143, the teacher applies all these aspects (variation of pitch level and intonation) and also another technique, when she wants her students to make silence, she writes on the board the letter S, if students are still messy she writes letter T, and so on so as to complete the word STOP.
Knowing how to group students is relevant when teaching a class, the idea would be to vary different seating arrangement whenever possible. According to spatial conditions students can be seated in a semi-circle which is the most effective way because everybody sees each other’s faces, students can interact perfectly with each other, and the teacher can be placed in the middle of the class or in front of it. Students can also work in small groups (three or four students) which foster cooperation and working in groups creates a friendly working atmosphere and students are encourage to talk fluently because they feel secure. However, group work can cause discrimination in a class since students are quite selective when choosing whom to work with (I saw this while observing a class, students had to form groups of 4 and most of them avoid working with a girl, she ended up alone and the teacher assign a group for her). And/ or students can work in pairs. In the schools I have being observing, students were seated in rows, one school has individual desks and the other has pair desks. I realized that being at the back of the class was very useful due to the fact that I could see many aspects and observe lots of disruptive behaviour that the teacher could not see. This happened because, as the students were seated in rows, the teacher could not monitor all the students since she could not move around the class.
segunda parte...
ReplyDeleteConcerning the teacher’s role, during my observations I could see different roles reflected on teachers:
Controller: during my observation number 10 (where we had to complete the time spent in several aspects of the class) I could see that whenever the teacher explains an activity or gives instructions she spent lots of minutes talking and explaining and there was little students’ participation since the teacher postures herself in the role of a controller which is necessary to caught students’ attention.
Assessor: feedback is essential in a classroom; students need’s desperately their teacher’s approval. In both schools I observed that teachers provide feedback in every activity students did, and this support was essential to keep students motivated. In school 143, students were supposed to draw in a room the objects the teacher described and with the colours she assigned. There was a boy who not only needed our approval (he asked us of all the pictures he draw: “¿Está bien teacher?”) but also his teacher’s approval, so he went to asked his teacher also if his drawings were correct. Whenever the teacher answered Great pictures!, Wonderful!, Very Good! This boy and also the rest of the students felt great.
Organizer: for each activity teachers assign a specific time for students to solve the task, it has to do also with materials use in class, the homework students are assigned to do at home, etc.
Prompter: teachers always have to encourage their students to get involved in the activities, one way of doing this is to get them motivated with a game for example, or just telling them “Come on, you can do it” so as to make them feel better and secure of using a foreign language.
Resource: students see their teacher as a “dictionary” that contains and knows every word in English. Children are very demanding in a class, so it is important for teachers to be aware of the vocabulary used in class so as to be prepared whenever a student asks the meaning of a word that they do not know or understand or any kind of information.
Monitor: to follow every student’s development is extremely important so as to detect possible errors on time and go back to the problem so as to work hard on “that specific problem”.
The idea would be to mix all these roles so as to achieve a successful class and teachers must not forget their focus, which are students.
Disruptive behaviour is something usual in every school (public or private). To soften this situation teachers must play an active role, they should demand discipline and make their students to respect each others and never allow students to be cruel (which is quite common among children). Teachers should go prepare to classes, they should not raise their voices, motivate their students so as not to get them bored, teachers should not praise students since this reflects favouritism and children can see this as unfair and they may feel discriminated (the ones which are not praised). Our attitude is a key factor, a negative attitude would not be appropriate. Teachers must encourage learning; their optimist attitude must be transmitted in every student so they can enjoy their lessons. If all these aspects do not work and a teacher faces a problem, she must talk with the student/s, call their parents and inform them the situation, talk to the headmaster of the school. Disruptive behaviours are common since students want to be noticed, most of the times this has to do with problems in their houses, or just because they are bored or problems with their self-esteem. The teacher must be able to detect these problems and try to find the most suitable solution so she can develop her classes without interruptions and creates a peaceful learning environment.
Rocio Rodriguez.
Hello everyone!I´m Antonella and I´m posting my comments on the topics!
ReplyDeleteWell, as we are to become teachers I found very useful and interesting all the materials regarding clasroom managment, teachers´s role and disruptive behaviour. We have to become aware of all the different circumstances that surround today´s clasroom and the different variables we have to handle as well as techniques to make our classes profitable and enjoyable at the same time.
As regards classroom managment, it is of utmost importance to make a special use of our voices. We should be clear and speak audibly enough (always having in mind to take care of our precious tool)and adapt it to the aims of the class.Children need also to feel closer to the teacher so I believe that proximity and eye -contact is another key factor. It is part of the positive rapport and the socializing aspect of the primary school. I´ve observed that students are very eager to greet the teacher when she arrives for example.Now , when the teacher gives the class,I believe it also important to make a good use of the L1 and not to overuse it.For that we have our bodies,and can complement what we say with the help of gestures,mimics and facial expression.I agree here with what sole said ..to be teachers we have to be great actors.As regards the spatial organitazion of the classroom, we have to take into account that different grouping techniques serve to different purposes and they can be very fruitful if we bear in mind the characterisc of the group and the kind of activities(each grouping has its benefits and drawbacks).Different arrangings not only create dynamicy ,as romina said, but also is funadamental to keep motivated the students.However, till now in all what I osbserved , groups do not vary . Student are always seated in the same way ,although they are in pairs, what it is nice for primary learners they face the blackboard and are in orderly rows.
Another factor of extremely importance for teachers is the different roles they can perfom.We do not want to stick to a stereotype but have our own way to be teachers.What we have to have in mind is that the different roles such us controller,prompter,participant, assesor,tutor,monitor, and even friend contribute to facilitate learning and to suit the types of tasks wanted.
Finally,to handle a group, it is very useful to know how to deal with disruptive behavior, which is becoming more an more common in today´s schools.Altough trying to solve these problems generally involves the whole institution, teachers have to be aware of the difernet types of motifs students may have in misbehaving and the possible actions to be taken so as to solve the conflicts.A very simple action such us changing the place of one student who always bothers it is sometimes enough.Conducts are learnt and a teacher can foster also this.It´s for the whole group benefit and for a better teaching-learning environment.
Anto.
Dear Trainees:
ReplyDeleteYour comments are really interesting because you have linked them to the theory on classroom management, but most important, to the practice that you derived from observing classes at Priamry School level. You could also read and share your views with your classmates, so ...Well done!
Kind regards,
Prof. Estela Braun
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