Classroom Management

Annotations:

• Range of Variables
• How the classroom space is organised.

1. To control a classroom we need to know these important Ranges of Variables.
   1. How is the space in the classroom organized. The students are working on their own or in groups
   2. How we organise classroom time. How we appear to the students.
      1. The teacher in the classroom
         1. Proximity: In order to apply this stage with our students, we must know how they feel comfortable, because some students feel uncomfortable when the teacher stands near them, and others feel comfortable when the teacher is nearby because they can ask anything. with trust.
         2. Appropriacy: The teacher must take into account the way in which the students feel comfortable, many times the students need to have confidence with the teachers to be able to ask some doubts they have, and this environment only the teacher creates it.
         3. Movement: In this stage the teacher can choose how they can walk in the classroom, but should not walk a lot throughout the classroom because it can be very stressful for students, should be moderate to have greater interest of students.
         4. Awareness: The teacher must understand each student, this can be very difficult, but the teacher must investigate and ask each student what is happening to him or her, to know why the reaction of each student, in this way the teacher can have more empathy with each student.
         5. Using the voice
            1. Audibility: The tone of voice that the teacher uses in the classroom should be moderate, this should be heard in the first row as well as in the last row, but the teacher should not shout because this can be annoying.
            2. Variety: According to the type of activities that the teacher is doing in the classes, this must be the type of voice that should be used.
               1. Talking to students
                  1. Many students do not understand what the teacher is saying, because they do not know the language at an advanced level, teachers have to adapt their vocabulary, intonation, and speed, depending on the grade and level of students we have, it is also necessary to use gestures, mimics, and sounds for them to relate what we are saying.
                     1. Giving Instructions
                        1. The role of the teacher is very important at this stage, because he or she has to explain well the instructions of the activities that the students will do, so that the students know what they will do and why they are doing it, the teacher can ask if everyone has understood, also ask a student who translates the instructions into the native language.
                           1. Using the L1
                              1. It is unheard of that the target language is not used in the English class, most of the time the teacher must speak and explain in English, but in some activities that are difficult for the students to understand the teacher can use the L1, but the L2 has to predominate most of the time for students to become acquaint with the language.
                                 1. Different student groupings
                                    1. Whole class
                                       1. To create a communication environment regardless of how the students are seated, the teacher must transmit confidence so that the whole group can express their opinion without fear.
                                    2. Groupwork and pairwork
                                       1. Students work in groups, in this case they are autonomous because they research, analyze, and compare ideas with the other classmates in their group, and do not need much from the teacher because they help each other, and the teacher can help a group in particular that they have doubts, although they working in teams can go back to L1 since the teacher is not supervising them all at the same time.
                                    3. Solowork
                                       1. The students work individually, this allows them to be autonomous, think and analyze and they do it according to their abilities and speed.
                                    4. Class-to-class
                                       1. In this stage the teacher can join two classes of different levels, so that they can observe and learn from a higher level, and those of higher level help with their knowledge to the lower level, could be done: presentations, debates, conversations and much more.
                     2. Student talk and teacher talk
                        1. It is not correct that a teacher speaks only him or her the whole class, it is clear that when the teacher interacts with the students a meaningful learning is achieved, in other words the teacher must make the class interesting and comprehensible so that the students speak.
                           1. Creating lesson stages
                              1. The teacher has to motivate the students to start each class, it is very beneficial to tell, what they can learn from that lesson, although many times the students are distracted by the way the teacher placed them in the classroom, it can be satisfactory that the teacher use strategies to get their attention.
                                 1. Different seating arrangements
                                    1. Orderly rows
                                       1. In this way the students are in very neat rows that allow the teacher to walk and observe all the students, the teacher must take into account all the students as the ones in front as the ones in the back, also ask the questions in a random way with the students.
                                    2. Circles and horseshoes
                                       1. The shape of circle and horseshoe helps communication and eye contact between teacher-student and student-student, in the circle stereotypes are removed that only the teacher is right and is the leader, the horseshoe is even less rigid than the traditional rows.
                                    3. Separate tables
                                       1. With this type of groups it is very accessible to see the overhead projector and compare ideas among them, it is easy for the teacher to walk in the classroom and help them, but they can also be isolated from other classmates.
            3. Conservation: Caring for the teacher's voice is very important, since most of the class depends on the teacher, the tone of voice used in the whole class may vary.
   3. How we use our most valuable asset:Our voice. The way we talk to students - and who talks most in the lesson.