How to Overcome a Classroom Nightmare through Talking

How to Overcome a Classroom Nightmare through Talking

Harmer (2007) asserted that “a good primary classroom mixes play and learning in an atmosphere of cheerful and supportive harmony” (p.83). Most methodology writers tend to provide this kind of excellent and professional pieces of advice which sound fairly easy to achieve but hard to follow in real-life scenarios.

However, there I was, just like Mariel (2009), with my lesson minutely planned ready to enter the classroom. I opened the door gingerly and there they were: 12 energetic and boisterous children roaming the classroom. You might wonder whether I managed to do what I had intended to, well, the answer is: How could I with unruly children moving about the room?

Days went by without a more promising outcome until I discussed this growing problem with a colleague of mine who eventually became my mentor. She was an experienced and skilled primary school teacher who willingly began to share some of “her secrets” with me. For instance, she overtly agreed with Cheney (1989) on the fact that students’ behaviour could considerably improve by setting regular classroom routines (as cited in Hoffman Kaser, n.d.).

I gradually began to structure my lessons in such a way that students would know exactly what to expect. At the outset, we would begin singing the weather song followed by the story time and the circle time. Although I hesitated to follow this and other pieces of advice thinking children would be bored, I put them into practice with impressive results.

Little did I know that very first day that it was my behaviour that needed adjustment to bring about other changes in return. Mentoring dialogues (Sempowicz Hudson, 2011) with my peer teacher had proven successful to enhance classroom management practices and therefore, since then, I have continued to deploy and share this powerful technique.

References

Harmer, J. (2009). The practice of English language teaching (4^th ed.). Essex, UK: Pearson Longman.

Hoffman Kaser, C. (n.d.). Series on highly effective practices—Classroom routines. Retrieved October 2011, from http://education.odu.edu/esse/docs/classroomroutines.pdf

Mariel (2009). My first day at kindergarten. Retrieved September 2011, from http://marielv-myeapentries.blogspot.com/2009/11/my-first-teaching-experience-at.html

Sempowicz, T., Hudson P. (2011). Analysing mentoring dialogues for developing a preservice teacher’s classroom management practices. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 36. Retrieved October 2011, from http://ro.ecu.edu.au/