Here are seven ways you can make sure your classroom is ready to be the educational haven you want it to be.
Every teacher wants a pleasant, enjoyable classroom.
Students do, too. But the perfect classroom doesn’t come without a little work. Here are seven ways you can make sure your classroom is ready to be the educational haven you want it to be.
1. Be Prepared
If you want your classroom to run smoothly, it’s essential that you be prepared. This means more than just planning each day’s lesson. It also means having backup activities and time fillers ready to go at any time. One of the hardest things to do as a teacher is gauge exactly how long a lesson will take. So many variables play into how long your students need to absorb and perfect a new concept. Sometimes they will be quick to grasp an idea or they will breeze through your planned exercises. You’ll need a filler on hand for those moments. Other times they will need more explanation or practice than you anticipated, so you might need to modify your plan for in class exercises or homework. Which leads into point two…2. Be Flexible
Blessed are the flexible for they shall never be bent out of shape some people say, and it’s certainly true for teachers. If you get thrown off your game when things don’t go according to plan, you may want to reconsider your career choice. Or at least work on being more flexible. To have a happy, healthy classroom, you’ll need to be flexible with your time management, lesson plans, teaching techniques, and assessment methods. You’ll need to do whatever it takes to give your students the best learning experience possible, and that means that things won’t always go the way you plan.3. Know Your Best Resources
Even the best teachers encounter questions they struggle to answer, and new teachers most certainly do. Sometimes they find the answers in books, but more often the answers come from more experienced teachers. If you have a mentor teacher, that’s great. If not, find a colleague either at your school or online that you can go to for answers to your toughest questions. Frequent education chat rooms or talk to one of your professors when you have a tough to answer questions. And most importantly, have these resources in mind BEFORE the tough questions come so you don’t have to scramble when your students do ask them.4. Be Careful of Your Body Language
Body language is not universal. What is acceptable is one culture might be offensive in another. If you teach students who all come from the same background, take some time to research the differences in body language expectations between your culture and theirs. If you teach a class of various internationals, try having a discussion about body language in their home cultures and what is considered polite and rude at the beginning of your school year. You might be surprised to find out pointing and eye contact are considered rude or even aggressive in some cultures. Take time to learn about the students you teach and you will make your classroom a more peaceful place.5. Let the Right Mistakes Go
Believe it or not, you do not have to correct every mistake a student makes.
In fact, if you do they will get discouraged and down on themselves. Be
selective in both the errors you correct and how you correct them. Try
to limit your corrections to what your students should already know and
be proficient at. Don’t correct everything that is required of perfect
English. Or focus on errors that individuals make frequently and base
your lessons on the correct language usage in those contexts. You don’t
have to correct every mistake right after it has been made. You don’t
even have to tell your students that they made a mistake. Simply
repeating them using correct grammar and pronunciation will alert the
language learning center of their brain that they made a mistake. In all
likelihood, they will assimilate the correct usage without you even
teaching the necessary language points.
6. Focus on Communication
For most ESL students, their English usage will never be perfect. While some students will sound like native speakers, they are few and far between. That’s why you should focus more on communication
in class rather than perfection. The purpose of language is to
communicate. And while you do not want to encourage poor language use in
your students, ultimately, if they are able to communicate their point
then their language use is successful. Make sure you give your students
plenty of opportunities to talk in class and be creative with the
language that they do know. If they can make their meaning clear to a
native speaker, and in your classroom, then their use of English is
successful.
7. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!
Communicating with your students is so important.
They need to know what they are doing right, the improvements you see
in them, as well as areas they need to improve. The more you communicate
with your students, the more successful they will be in your class.
Sometime this communication will happen in a conversation. Your students
will love to talk to you, especially if you are the only native English
speaker they know. But not all communication has to happen face to
face. Try jotting down thoughts on sticky notes throughout the day on
your students’ successes and struggles, and then stick those notes on
their desks after class. When they come in the next morning, they will
see the comments you had for them the day before (and you won’t have to
remember what it was you wanted to tell them). Email is another great
way to communicate. Sometimes your students will want or need to talk to
you outside of classroom hours. Be willing to answer questions outside
of class. You might find that not only will you make your students happy
but your shier students will be more willing to communicate with you if
they can do it in writing.
