Class Management - Trick or Treat?

Did you know that one of five teachers leave this job forever on their SECOND teaching year? Why does this happen? One of the main, if not the major reason, is poor class management and unability to cope with evolving behaviour problems. What are the tricks and secrets of good class management? Come and read some of suggestions here.

Motivation is the main factor for successful learning, also for learning of languages. It is proved that the person who doesn't want to perceive new information - in our case, to LEARN - just blocks it out. Like a patient who unconsciously finds advantages in being sick and thus cannot be healed, the student who is not ready to learn, will not succeed - no matter how motivated, professional and well-paid his teacher is.

This is why a teacher's challenge is not to MAKE the student learn, but to cause him WANT to learn. A good teacher will increase student's motivation and interest to the lesson, and this is the only right way how to start teaching somebody. Motivation leads to interest, interest leads to concentration and hard work, hard work leads to success. More success leads to higher motivation. The student gets "dragged" into the learning cycle, and now his own motivation is the reason and the cause to continue learning.

One of the most important advices that experienced coordinators, supervisors and teachers give to their younger colleagues is to make a MEANINGFUL lesson. A teacher can present one rich, well-built and perfectly structured lesson plan, and in the end he will be asked by the supervisor: "Was this lesson meaningful for the children? What can make them be more interested in what you are teaching?"

MEaningful is all about ME. My interests, my thoughts, my opinion. You can easily attract students' attention to the topic of the lesson just by asking their opinion on the subject. The younger is the student, the more important for him is to have his opinion to be heard by others. It is all about raising his social status in the eyes of his classmates, it is all about socializing and being a personality.

One of the studies made in 2011 by the psychologysts in Montreal Concordia University shows that babies at the age of a year and a half can determine if the adult person is reliable or not by watching his behaviour and making conclusions in their little heads. In the study, it was enough to trick the babies few times, to make them stop imitating that "liar" adult in their following interactions. The babies stopped learning from that person. They didn't trust him anymore. And those were just speechless, brand new, "naive" babies.

Do you understand, how important is trust between the teacher and the student? Every word the teacher says, must be true; everything he promises, must be done - for good, or for bad. It is about teaching the subject, it is about giving the facts, it is about the future end-of-school parties and it is about telephoning parents. Once said and not done, the fragile bond of trust between the teacher and his students is in danger. By the way, being trustworthy and keeping promises is as same important (and even more) for parents.

Being a leader is another part of teaching job. Standing in front of dozens of people every day, motivating them to learn and showing them a way - this is what makes teacher a leader and, naturally, a role model for those who a sitting in front of him.