August 9th Class

Classroom Management

☝General

The team teacher employed the following classroom management strategies:

👉Set the rules at the beginning of the lesson and remind students of them each time one breaks them. Try to make learning the rules memorable.

👉 Give clear and concise instructions that are written on the slides, which one of the students reads.

👉 Monitor students by asking them questions about the activities to check their understanding.

👉 Monitor students during individual and group activities.

👉Explain the corrections and verify understanding of them.

👉 Pair students with complementary personalities (e.g., active and calm, extroverted and introverted).

👉Use mimics to convey ideas and use an steady tone of voice.

👉 Create connections between the presented topics with examples, not introducing them as isolated concepts.

👉Use timers or do an activity until a song ends to keep track of time.

👉Praise participation and correct answers with expressions such as "Good job!" "Very good!" and "Perfect!".

① Class (9 AM - 11 AM)

💢 As the team teacher set the rules from the beginning, the students corrected each other.

Example:

One student started talking in Spanish about her family traditions, and another classmate told her, "English!" Despite the interruption, the student continued speaking Spanish. When she finished, the teacher said, "(Name of the student), please speak in English," in a different tone of voice than usual.

💢Address disruptive behavior calmly.

Example:

One student was distracted, playing with his pencil. The teacher called his attention by saying his name in a higher tone, without being aggressive, to encourage him to work on the activity.

💢Fair with all students

Example:

One student wants to talk during each activity. The teacher lets him participate, but only once per activity. Then, she asks for help from other students to avoid making him feel excluded and to encourage the rest of the students to participate in the socialization of the activities.

② Class (11 AM - 1 PM)

💢 Foster a positive learning environment.

Example:

One student was disruptive and did not want to participate. The team teacher monitored him, but did not focus completely on him. However, she asked him some questions about an activity to get his attention.

💢Check understanding

Example:

The team teacher presented a video about comparatives and superlatives, and asked the students if they agreed or disagreed with each statement. If the video said, "America is worse than Brazil," she asked them one by one, "Is America worse than Brazil? Agree or disagree?" She also reminded them that they had to answer with full sentences.

💢Build rapport

Example:

The teacher randomly organized groups to do activities and encouraged them to share ideas to foster friendly relationships with their classmates. The topic helped with that because students had to talk about a food that brought to mind a specific moment. Afterwards, they shared with the entire class what they had discussed.

👀Challenges

💣It is difficult to see each student's facial expression to know if they truly understood the activity or to trust the short answer they gave. Therefore, it is important to monitor students who freeze because they do not know what to do after the instructions are given.

💣Shy students may know a lot and not say anything, so it is important to promote their participation without forcing them too much.

💣It is challenging not to focus on students with disruptive behaviors, but it is better to correct them and continue.