Be a Veteran at Classroom Management!

 “Classroom Management is not about having the right rules. It is about having the right relationships.” 

The hottest topic of discussion in a staffroom is a chaotic classroom. A teacher who does not manage a classroom like a pro often faces criticism from his or her colleagues and even the authorities. A newbie in the field often wonders how the other teacher is managing the neighbouring class like a veteran. She puts it down to years of experience and the situation worsens over a period of time. A few other teachers take control of their classrooms from day one and do not face any hassle to manage a bunch of 30 to 35 kids or whatever the capacity maybe. 

 Trust me many a teachers scare setting their foot inside a classroom which is not organised or chaotic. I have seen teachers refusing to take ownership of a classroom because they fear that the students will be out of their control. Any word or instruction will have to be shouted and not said. 

 ‘Discipline’ sounds more of a dictatorial rule than simply understanding that it is all about making the right decisions during a given situation. 

 So let us understand that classroom management is not a 5 tips or tricks away. 

“Classroom management is not about tips and tricks. It’s how we relate, speak, guide and care”-Liz’s Early Learning Spot .

The best thing that has worked in managing a classroom full of students is standing in silence. It spreads like magic. I’m sure you must have tried it out a hundred times. If not go ahead and do it the next time your students are having star wars inside the classroom. 

 I have said it umpteen times and would like to repeat it again-A teacher should plan her lessons in advance before entering a classroom. Also the students know very well that they can take you for a ride. 

You will have to be smarter, more proactive and have a sense of humour when you deal with them. 

 Why do you accept excuses like- 

I forgot to bring my book. 

I went out last evening so I could not complete my homework.

I had lent my notebook to my friend who is absent today.

There are hundreds of such excuses which they give if the work is incomplete or not done or simply that they have been lazy enough not to even blink an eye at the mention of the homework. Instead of getting perturbed, make them write the same in the classroom in front of you. If they do not have the concerned notebook, they can write it in a notebook. The point is to convince them that they have to realise their responsibility of completing the work. 

 “The goal isn’t to get a good class. The goal is to cultivate a good one.” 

Everyone wants perfect students who would not even utter a single word in the classroom. The teachers feel teaching should be like a cakewalk. Well it can be if you develop the right relationship with your students. 

Just like we cultivate a garden, we have to cultivate values, principles, humour, responsibility, integrity, etc. among our students. 

 Don’t you ever play the blame game… 

NEVER! 

The teacher blames the parent and the parent blames the teacher for the behaviour of the student. What each needs to understand is that react to the child’s behaviour after you have analysed the situation. And always remember to react positively. Because any negative or harsh words or your stern body language leaves scars on the child’s personality and character. 

 Leave aside your arguments or issues with the parents of the student. Don’t let the negative perception that you have of the parent come in the way of your dealing with the child. Never judge the child on the basis of your analysis of the parent. Treat the student as an individual identity. Treat the student as wet clay to be moulded until he is in your hands. Now, let your creativity run wild and carve a structure which symbolises happiness, empathy and sensitivity. 

A classroom is a room full of students. 

But take each child at a time. 

Remember it is that one human that you touch counts. 

Try to make a difference to that one student and soon the entire tribe is your fan. 

 You understand them and they will understand you. 

“The number one problem in the classroom is not the discipline. It is lack of authentic learning tasks, procedures and routines.”-Harry Wong 

The environment in your classroom will seem to be in order if you capture the interests of the learners. If the main objective of a classroom is to focus towards a learning environment, then the teaching learning process has to be in place according to the demand of the learners not according to the objectives set by a teacher. Of course, the learning objectives are planned well in advance keeping in mind the learners’ learning styles and quite a few other criteria. 

The students love certain routines which are created by a teacher. For example, the video which went viral which showed a kindergarten teacher giving the preferred welcome to my class as chosen by the student from the symbols pasted on the wall outside the classroom. 

Another example is the circle time which the students look forward to or the class library where they can choose a book to read, if they finish the assigned task or receiving a star or some extra time for games if they bring nutritious food in their tiffin boxes, etc. 

Some interesting learning tasks are experiential activities which the teacher takes up in the class or a poetry reading session in the outdoors. Describing your favourite person or creating a story with pictures are a few others. You can also grab the interest of the students if you can motivate them to be a part of the class magazine. Tongue twisters engage the students equally in the classroom. 

 “It’s the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom” – Michael Morpurgo 

All said and done.

 I will always conclude that it is the teacher which matters not the four walls of the classroom. The magic stick is in your hands. You need to wave it every time that you feel students need something new or more interesting to captivate their interest. 

 Don’t listen to the rumours. 

Don’t judge by your perception. 

Don’t get intimidated by your students. 

Don’t let them rule the class. 

Don’t make strict rules just to discipline your class. 

Don’t write the classroom rules on the bulletin board and forget all about them. 

Don’t lose your confidence. 

Don’t let others' judgement of your classroom handling overshadow your self-belief. 

INSTEAD-

Be cheerful. 

Understand your students. 

Listen to them. 

Guide them. 

Manage the classroom like a PRO! 

YO! 

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Learn the Art of Persuasion to Teach Well!

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 Aristotle gave the structure of a great speech to his students. He framed it around Ethos-Pathos-Logos. According to him great things are achieved if one knows the art of persuasion well. He taught his students the art of persuasion through delivering a powerful speech. 

 When we consider a teacher in a classroom setting or any other setting what comes to light the most is that she/he has to speak to deliver a lecture or speech most of the times. He/She has to communicate effectively to his/her students. 

Imagine a classroom where a teacher is teaching and the students are all around the classroom. The teacher is focussed at completing her curriculum. She has received a deadline and now finally she is just at her job. 

In another classroom all the students are sitting with eyes and ears glued to what the teacher is teaching. She is delivering her lecture with certain notes and diagrams or graphs which she is interlacing while teaching. 

 In both the cases we have professionals. 

Both are focussed. 

 They know their task. 

They know their targets. 

But the way to achieve the target is absolutely different.

 One has a captured audience and the other simply has the audience but no ways and means to capture their attention. 

It is somewhat similar to what happens when a salesman simply tries to sell a product and a veteran salesman sells the solution of the problem to the buyer.

 While teaching communication skills to the students we teach that words or speech gain only 20% of the audience’s attention. Where as 80% is contributed by the body language, your tone, intonation, expressions, etc. Curriculum delivery becomes fairly easy when the relationship between the teacher and student is empathic and considerate. 

So how to do it?

 Here we go- Ethos-Pathos-Lagos 

Ethos- Is your own character. It is your credibility that you build as a teacher. It tells, persuades or even compels the audience to believe in you. So, when we speak of command over the subject, inter twinning practical examples in your teaching material or taking them out for an experiential class where you deliver the lecture to co relate things around you into the teaching material it is all a part of building credibility. The more knowledge you have you will be able to deliver to it in a better manner. It is important for a teacher to build her credibility. 

You want the students to trust you that whatever material you are delivering is important for them to remember, understand and reproduce. The more the faith the better the understanding by the students. It is directly proportionate. Build on faith. Hence professional development is constantly suggested to keep upgrading your knowledge and skills. The new generation has a lot of information at the command of their finger-tips. If you are able to cater to their interests in unique and innovative ways you have won half the battle. 

Let us understand with the example of advertisements. Big brands higher celebrities to advertise their product. Why? The customers value the celebrity. They trust them and in turn that trust gets converted into compelling them to buy the product because it has been endorsed by the celebrity. 

 You will also find some ordinary people making a great impact through the advertisements. We do remember the TATA motors ad launched on Durga Puja. It showcased common people being a part of the celebrations. Enjoying the routine. Just feeling and being happy. 

 What I mean to say is by being happy in a class you automatically endorse that the concept that you are teaching is pretty good, simple and easy to understand. 

 Pathos- It is the empathy that you have for your audience. You are addressing some of their major concerns. These are the problems that the students are facing related to the academic content or concepts. They are confused or totally unaware of these topics. In a way you are voicing their concerns and then providing them the solutions. 

Remember through pathos you are touching the emotions of your students. You need to appeal to their senses, memory, nostalgia, feelings of joy, excitement, integrity, etc. We often stick to an advertisement because it involves high drama of emotions. You sit back and take note of it and then ultimately you remember. Apply the same sequence of thoughts to your students. It happens just the same with them. The goal will be sooner achieved because they will remember what you have taught because of the emotions that got entangled or ran free or uncontrolled at that moment of time. 

The humour, the drama, the fear, the extent of helplessness, the vastness of the devastation, etc. all such emotions should be put to use. They will understand the extent which you want to deliver. They will empathise with the situation and remember the lesson. That is what the ultimate goal is.

 Logos-The logical reasoning behind the concepts taught. Yes, all the academic concepts are related and assembled together because they are logical. There is a reason why we teach these concepts to the students. 

 One of my students put up a question to me on ‘Instagram’. The student asked, “Respected Madam. When a teacher cannot teach all the subjects why are the students expected to study each one of them?” 

Oh! But true.

 My Reply, “Education aims to expose you to different concepts and subjects. It wants you to taste everything and finally decide which subject you want to specialize in.”

 In response to this, I received a smiley. 

 So, the logical reasoning part can be taught by including statistics, graphs, calculations, and some live examples to prove the point. This is the best way to include LOGOS in your speech to persuade the students. This technique comes in handy while you are trying to teach Social Science. The students feel this subject as boring which it is absolutely not. When you deliver certain facts by stating statistics, percentages, numbers, graphs, etc. the students remember the information. Because they get captured by the numbers fairly quickly. Even better than a well dramatized story. 

 I conclude with the lines taken from an article from the blog Farnam Street- 

Ethos is about establishing your authority to speak on the subject, logos is your logical argument for your point and pathos is your attempt to sway an audience emotionally. 

 Link for the article- https://fs.blog/ethos-logos-pathos/ 

 So, learn the Art of Persuasion and go on and teach well. 

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 DISCLAIMER: The author has no intention of using a copyrighted image. It will be removed if the publisher has an objection. Due credits have been mentioned on my blog.

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