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Games, activities and teaching ideas > STUDENTS WITH PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE... HELP!! HELP!!
STUDENTS WITH PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE... HELP!! HELP!!
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MissMelissa12
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STUDENTS WITH PROBLEMS OF DISCIPLINE... HELP!! HELP!!
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I started a new job teaching english at one of the � �best schools � � in my city and Im having problems with the discipline of the students. I acknowledge that not everybody likes English and that I should not expect my students to be quiet all the time, but I had never experienced students with such non-interest.
I hate to find myself in the middle of the class yelling at them, threatening, raising my voice, stopping the class every minute, frowning my forehead all the time, and this happens without distinction of gender.
I teach from 11 to 16 years old. Not 100% of them are as bad. But the number is meaningful for me if I compare to the 4 years I have of experience teaching the same ages.
I have classrooms of 52 students, they are around 15-16 years old, and there are more males than females. (This is my worst classroom) These kids are too focused on math and science, I see about 4 students in my class sleeping. I feel frustrated.
The other classrooms are not as bad but they do present signs of disrespect, they dont obey the orders.
I dont want to be a teacher who is � �mean � �, I want them to like me. I wish I could find a way to be strict but fun at the same time. I wish I could find some punishments that are not physical OR too harsh, but innovative and creative, something that they will surelly take it seriously.
I need your ideas, please.
Thank u,
Miss Melissa  |
15 Jun 2011
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Mehlika Sultan
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hi i had the same problem with the 6 grade this year...
sometimes debate (topics related to their age) it worked
another times competition, games, song/movie-based activities
may be try changing the chair/table position in the classroom and each group can get a project from u
i guess you will need time to get their respect and their involvement in your class.
make the lesson different not as usual. ask some of them to be in your place give them responsibilities...
sometimes i used music background and give them some motivational ppts or stories and tried to make them think as if they are already grown-up adults. so mostly during 1.5 month it worked for me coz i see them once in 2 weeks.(i am not the subject teacher but in a native position)..
wish u good luck
aysegul
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15 Jun 2011
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MWeed
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Is there any way you can get a volunteer to help you out? 52 is a huge number of students to have to deal with, and since you can �t be everywhere at once, it �s no wonder the disruptive ones will take advantage of that.
Is it possible to work things that interest them into lessons, like pop culture or simple videos about the making of everyday things? Try an episode of "How It �s Made" if they �re interested in science and technology. The speech is rather slow, the narrator enunciates well, and each episode talks about the making of several different things, so there �s something for everyone. http://videos.howstuffworks.com/science/how-its-made-videos-playlist.htm#video-40580Videos also have the advantage of capturing everyone �s attention, and maybe making it easier to keep their attention once the video �s over. |
15 Jun 2011
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dawnmain
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52 - my god!
you might like to look for some books on classroom management in englishtips.org
good luck
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15 Jun 2011
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inmaaa86
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Hi Melissa
I can understand you very well since last year I was in a very similar situation as yours. It was terrible. Some days I use songs to fill gaps, or word searching activities, or attrative work sheets from this web. This helped me a lot. I wish you the best,
Inma. |
15 Jun 2011
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Fernandez
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I had the same situation when I was teaching back in England. For de first 3 years in my career as a teacher of Spanish (which they considered absolutely pointless) I had the worst lots. Fortunately they were not so large... I think 52 is impossible.
I know we all want to be kind and likeable but from my own experience I go more results by being a b**ch teacher. I mean, first you must state your rules with positive and negative consequences. I stopped shouting at them and I started being quiet. When they see that the teacher is silent, waiting for them to pay attention, eventually, and I mean eventually they do respond, better than when you scream at them.
Then, for unmotivated groups, the best option is to allow them to do easy stuff. They probably feel it is too difficult most of the time and they rather challenge you than accept they can �t actually cope with the work.
Finally, using humour is great. I used to call the notiest 14 year-olds things like "sweetheart" or similar embarrasing names... They can see you are mocking them and this may ease the atmosphere.
My advice: be firm, constant with your rules but not annoyed, do not take it personally, that is the worse you can do. Try to feel comfortable but in control and do not worry much about how much they get done in class... I think first things first, get them to do something (no matter how little) and make sure they all do something, do not let anyone get away with doing nothing and you will see you can gradually get them to do more and more.
There will be bad days, though, but the aim is to survive and not to get a nervous breakdown: they would love that!!
I hope some of this can inspire you, I promise it worked for me!
Regards from Spain. |
15 Jun 2011
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martinasvabova
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After reading your message I realized how lucky I am. The largest group I have is of 17 pupils. I really can�t imagine teaching 52 pupils. In my opinion it�s impossible.
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15 Jun 2011
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teacher jessie
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I totally agree with you Fernandez. I usually do the same thing. And whenever they are too talkative and don �t listen, I just stand in front of the class and just look at my watch and I say "I can wait for you, but time is important, so I �m counting the minutes that we are wasting. We �re going to use minutes from the break to make up for the wasted time." And then you have to do it, use the break time to go on with the lesson. You �ll probably have to do it twice, the third time they �re going to pay attention sooner.
Hope it helps |
15 Jun 2011
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aidamour
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it � s very normal to find this because you haven �t got experience by the time you will have the experience and you will be able to behave with each one correctly because in the class you have many different characters do not worry be happy because teaching is a beautiful thing when you love it you can love the children |
15 Jun 2011
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caren_630
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I had exactly the same problem but my classroom was 34 students, all were boys. Here is how I managed it. First of all, my classroom was divided into 5 rows. I gave each row a name of a football team like Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United..... and so on. U tell ur students that they have to work as a team to win points. The team who wins at the end of the week all his members will get present sth like pens or even awards. You can find many certificate awards on eslprintables and they r veryyyy motivating. U will be facing one problem which is how to collect the points. when i first enter the class i usually draw a table on the board with each team name on the top of a colum. once i start my lesson, i give the first point for good behaving teams. I usually give all teams this point. Always remember, a team who has got nothing to lose will cause u the most problems. U start teaching whatever u want and u go asking ur question in turn. U give each team a point and u put it on the table which u draw at the beginning of ur lesson on ur board. At the end of the lesson, u count the points and the winning team get a star which u can put on a chart and u can give one more star for the most well behaving team. U keep on adding stars till the end of the week. The winning team get presents. | Day | Liverpool | Chelsea | | Sunday | | | | Monday | | | | Tuesday | | |
| no | liverpool | Chelsea | | 1 | � | / | | 2 | | | | 3 | | | | 4 | | |
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15 Jun 2011
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