How to manage a class.

Note : For beginners.



1. Be their friend first. Take your time and get to know your students. Understand them - their different attitudes and needs. Let them feel more comfortable with you. Once a bond has been formed, teaching would be an easier process. You would have won their attention. Have games and fun activities with them. Learning can be done through play too. Create a lively atmosphere. A simple ice breaking session is all it takes. Personally, if I were assigned to teach a class, I would use my first week just for ice breaking! In fact, this is what I did when I helped coach a group of students for a choral speaking competition last year; and it did wonders!

2. Have a classroom procedure. Spell this out to them as early as possible. It makes lesson time seem to almost organise itself! You could, start classes with a 5 minute recap of the previous lesson and end your classes with a recap of the day's lesson. You could add in other procedures (don't confuse procedures with regulations) to make your lesson time more special. I like to call it 'customising the lesson'. According to my guru, an effective lesson would have one third a session engaging with your students, a further one third activating their minds (both these sessions falls under the Student Talk Time), and the final one third for the actual study time ( the Teacher Talk Time).

3. Encourage a reward system rather than one of penalty. The more positive you are with your students, the more positively they respond! Remember, being stern does not mean being cold and unloving and being positive does not mean being soft. A reward system would encourage students to take their own initiative. Learning would then begin with them and not the teachers - and this, this is true learning! A penalty driven system would only scare and shame students into a cocoon.



This is Laveena Kukanesan writing to you for Antara TV. I hope you had a good read! Don’t forget to give me your side of the story!

Til next time!