Read the tips how to strengthen teacher's relationships with the students and answer the questions that follow.

 

❖ Use a variety of classroom teaching methods to keep your students motivated and challenged.

❖ Enhance your classroom control and encourage your students to think.

❖ Motivating students is the key to driving them to define and achieve their future dreams and goals.

❖ Computers in the classroom have a tremendous upside.

❖ Do not respond to students who call out. Let them know they must raise their hand and wait for permission to speak.

❖ Don't repeat every response that students give. Eventually they won't listen to other students because they know the teacher will repeat it.

❖ After asking a question, pause to let the students think and then say the student's name. If you say the student's name first, only he / she will listen.

❖ Don't just accept “yes” or “no” answers. Have students solve problems, infer and use critical thinking.

❖ Crossing your arms a lot is seen as a negative stand and could put students on the defensive for no reason.

❖ Before you begin teaching always “scan” the classroom and make sure “all eyes on me”.

❖ If the classroom is very noisy with students talking but they know that you want to start your lesson, one extremely effective tactic is to stand still and stare at the clock (watch) and wait patiently and calmly until they stop talking (do not cross your arms). When there is silence, say “You have just wasted 3, 4, 5, etc., minutes of my time. It is to be made up at recess”. At recess, the students are to sit quietlyfor the amount of time they wasted and then be dismissed quietly.

❖ When circulating around the room and talking, touch or put your hand gentlyon the shoulder of the student who is not focused and then continue walking. Touching is a very tricky subject. Touching as a sign of congratulations in younger children is accepted but should be avoided for older students.

❖ Illustrate, illustrate, illustrate. Drawings don't have to be sophisticated or accurate. In fact, often the sillier is the better. Have fun with it.

❖ Decrease the amount of time teacher is doing the talking.

❖ Use direct instruction techniques and other methods of questioning that allow for high response opportunities (i.e. unison responses, partner / buddy responses).

❖ Structure the lesson so that it can be done in pairs or small groups.

❖ Make frequent use of group or unison responses when there is one correct and short answer. While presenting, stop frequently and have students repeat back a word or two.

❖ Give a manageable amount of work that student is capable of doing independently.

❖ All students need positive reinforcement.

 

Questions

 

1) How can a teacher enhance classroom control and encourage students to think for themselves?

2) How can a teacher help students achieve their future dreams and goals?

3) How should a teacher respond to students who call out?

4) Why is touching a tricky subject?

5) What are higher-level questioning techniques?

6) How can crossing the arms be regarded in the classroom?

7) How should a teacher respond to students’ “yes” or “no” answers?

8) What is the positive reinforcement?

9) How can a teacher make use of group or unison responses, response costs?

10) What is the most powerful method of non-verbal communication between a teacher and students?

11) What are the possible ways of communicating the phrase “What are you doing?” to students?

12) Why is scanning the classroom of importance? When should the teacher do the scanning?

 

3. Give some tips (which have not been mentioned) how to get the students’ attention in the classroom and strengthen the teacher's relationships with them.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

 

1. Skim the text and fill in the gaps with the words which you think may suit.

 

Preventing Conflicts in the Classroom

 

A dispute between a teacher and a student quickly can turn classroom management into …. Diminish conflict situations with these ….

Students will try to challenge their teacher and provoke a …, even if it's just to divert the attention away from the …. It is important to remain calm and … but firm. Anticipation, preparation, and organization together with clear and fair rules diminish conflict situations.

The first important moment is the encounter in the hallway. Pack a few dozen children together in a narrow space and this will quickly turn into …, pushing and fighting. A teacher intervention at this time will turn the first contact with the pupils into a … confrontation. The … the students enter the classroom, the better. Stand at the … so that both the hallway and the classroom can be supervised.

Then, before the students enter the classroom, write a … on the blackboard. This will engage them … into working quietly. When extra material (books, worksheets, pencils, scissors, etc) needs to be provided, display the items on a … in the classroom so that pupils can take them upon entering. By not distributing the …, time will be gained and chances that pupils are disturbing the class will be decreased.