Cessie Vaquiro's blog
Title: Classroom management
I teach mainly working adults at a private ELF institution and some of my classroom management strategies are:
I try to create an inclusive classroom.
I try to engage in experiential activities.
I’m re-committing to the process of joy and stimulating my students’ minds.
How do I implement these strategies? At any given time throughout the year, I may have students from all walks of life in the same classroom. I could easily have a police officer, a taxi driver, a manager, a housewife, a rich teenage boy, a shy teenage girl, an outspoken working female, an air force pilot, a VIP from the government, etc, and I believe each of these students deserves the same amount of respect and attention. Sometimes, I make it a point of not knowing what each of my students does for a living, since this could predispose me towards them. I have everyone work with everyone (besides girls with guys because I teach in a Muslim country). Because of their culture and traditions, most of the students that come in to my class behave like nice brothers and sisters, so I almost never have a problem with students not liking each other, being rude, arguments, etc. I’ve had students in my class who show signs of dyslexia, ADD, stutters, etc, and they’ve all been welcomed and treated exactly the same way by my students and myself. As I teach EFL, experiential activities are a must in my curriculum. I try to engage students whenever possible in field trips, role-plays, research projects, etc, in order for them to apply the knowledge being shared in class. While learning English, experience with the language is a must. I would probably love teaching ESL and not EFL because of the immense range of immediate real-life applications to my lessons. I’m also re-committing to the process of joy in my lessons. If when entering the classroom I show joy and excitement, this kind of sticks to my students; I have seen how this really works in the past three weeks with two of my classes. I do try to give my students stimulating material outside the outlined curriculum in the form of additional reading, educational videos, etc.
How do they help my class be better? These strategies help my class to be a much better learning environment. Including everyone and making it positive, encourages students to keep coming back for more. Practicing their English in real or almost real-life situations, allows students to put their new acquired knowledge in to practice and get a sense of accomplishment. Students, whose brains are constantly stimulated with interesting food-for-thought material, seem more motivated and active in class.
Do they help me support and engage my students? YES
Have I created an optimal learning environment? I’m in the process of accomplishing this and even though I’ve been teaching for over 14 years, I still think I have a long way to go before I can say I have the optimal learning environment. This is mainly because we’re all humans; we make mistakes and wake up on the wrong side of the bed many days. I juggle teaching, with family life, personal problems, motherhood, etc, and at any given time I may we down, sad, bored, angry and this prevents me from being all that I can be in my class. I can’t say I’m the greatest, most creative, perfect teacher but I take it a day at a time and try my best.
What’s scaffolding and how is it valuable? Scaffolding is a group of strategies, geared towards supporting learning when you first introduce a subject. Scaffolding gives your students a context from where to begin, like a foundation. It gives students motivation to understand all the new information being presented by you.
How do we implement scaffolding? We can implement scaffolding by activating prior knowledge through readings, videos, or conversation; by breaking a difficult task into smaller, more manageable ones, consequently having students not feel overwhelmed; by showing students examples of you expect from their work. (I.e. if you want them to write about a famous person, give them an outline, show them how you’d like the format to be, words they can use, etc.)
Ps- Re: musical intelligence debate - I can see your point there.
Hello Cessie
Thank you for writing such an open and honest reflection.
What is so nice to read is that you don’t have class management issues in the traditional sense of the concept and so you could quite easily take the easier option when it comes to teaching and yet everyday you strive to make your lessons interesting and challenging. Even though your learners are adults you acknowledge the fact that they are individuals with thoughts and feelings and you try to address their needs by helping them to stay focused and motivated.
I’m going to share a secret with you here: I m currently learning German. Now my teacher is really lovely and I am learning BUT the lessons are so dull!! I wish u were my teacher!
You wrote: “If when entering the classroom I show joy and excitement, this kind of sticks to my students; I have seen how this really works in the past three weeks with two of my classes.”
In a previous school that I worked in we did a research project on attitudes to learning and almost 90% of the students surveyed stated (independently) that the ‘mood’ of the teacher as they walked through the door impacted their own mood. If the teacher was smiling and greeted them with a hearty hello then they felt happier and this had a direct effect upon their class work/behaviour. It’s something that works for all age groups.
Cessie, I think a perfect teacher is one that is able to effectively self-evaluate and as a result adjust their own teaching practice according to the needs of the students. A perfect teacher is able to build strong working relationships with his/her students and create a trusting environment where learners can explore and grow both intellectually and emotionally. A perfect teacher loves what his/her work. I could go on here but will spare you the philosophies.
Your blog entries certainly demonstrate these attributes.
Regards
Hema
Dear Eliana and Alicia,
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I'll tell you Eliana, to me scaffolding is like a part of my body already. I've never known teaching without it. I don't know, I guess that when teaching EFL, that's just the way it is. I've never really thought about having to be convinced! Having said that, if I had to explain scaffolding in very simple words, I could compare it to watching a play. When we watch a play, the actors do not dive right into the core of the drama!, they make us think a little, they build suspense, they keep us interested and wanting to know what the real story is about. I use scaffolding for this very same reasons, I make my students think a little before diving into, let's say a grammar point. I set the scenario, I do activities which build upon that particular point I want to teach, so when they finally open their books and see it, they already know what's coming, they've had time to experience it through one or two activities, and they realize that it isn't just a grammar point! It's useful language in real life.
I guess every lesson you teach is so different from the other, and some lessons are easier to scaffold than others. This week I've been teaching: Unreal Conditional Sentences with If Clauses. Sounds fancy, uh?? not at all...this is a great lesson for scaffolding!! and it can cause a great deal of discussion among Muslim students.
My lesson starts by reading some short headlines from newspaper clippings. (My book provides these, so it's awsome) One of the stories is, a man finds $750,000, returns the money and the owner thanks him with a phone call. This creates conversation, that is already related to my grammar point. We go ahead and discuss if they think what the man did was right, if they would have done the same or different. (According to Islam, taking something that doesn't belong to you is a sin). So, most students will say, YES!! I would have done the same thing...but then I add things like: But what if you needed the money? What if you couldn't find the owner?
Now if you notice, I've already started using the structure I'll be introducing, so through scaffolding, I've already gained valuable territory and I've managed to put my grammar into a real-life context.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU FOUND $750,000?
I WOULD TAKE THE MONEY TO THE POLICE
I WOULD GIVE THE MONEY TO THE POOR
I WOULD GO SHOPPING RIGHT AWAY.
I love this lesson so much, my scaffoliding probably lasted for an hour...I kept giving the scenarios of some normal and weird things that could happen and they had to come up with ideas. By the time I got to the grammar on the book, the teaching was 90% done, I only had to go through the form, since the meaning was clear as water.
I'll say it again, some lessons may be very difficuly to scaffold. When I was in high school I hated Chemestry!! I don't know if teachers scaffold when teaching it!!! can they??? any Chemestry teachers wanna share scaffolding techniques???
Alicia, expertise or experience...I'm sure you have both of them. My teaching environment IS a challenging one! since my students had their knowledge spoon-fed in school, arriving to my class is a shock!!...it takes some time for them to adapt to the idea, that they're in my class to enquire, and find the knowledge they need for themselves with just enough guidence from me, rather than to passively wait for knowledge to fly into their brains!! But believe me, some of them do sit there for one month, waiting patiently, because they think, at some point I'll give them a magic potion of something!! and they fail, and move one and I won't bang my head against the wall because of it. I try my best, but I only have a month, so those who cannot adapt fast are the ones who surely suffer.
Cessie,
I really enjoyed reading your post entry. It shows that you are a passionate teacher that loves what you are doing.
Actually, I was wondering how exactly you would explain scaffolding to a less experienced teacher or a teacher that is not convinced of the method? How can you accompany a less experienced teacher through the process?
I found the last descriptive part helpful and very clear in your exposure. And I would like to know which materials you propose in the concrete to your class because I am aware that there is difference between Muslim culture and your own. As I read through your description I found that you managed to adapt to a different reality very well and this shows that you are an innovative and adaptable teacher, in my eyes.
It was inspiring and great pleasure reading your post
Thank you
Eliana
Very interesting Blog Cessie. It shows all your expertise (or experience? I`m not sure about the right word).
thank you very much for sharing. It helped me a lot with "scaffolding" concept, since i`m not very familiar with it. Specially the las part, where you write about implementing it.
And, altough your teaching enviroment coul be perceived as very challenging (diferent culture) it looks as you have figure it out. And even when there are days when you are "down, sad, bored, angry.." I think that is also a lesson for students, even when you feel you are not in your best, you show up and do your best and that`s a great character virtue, that can be an example. Congratulations on your work and your blog.
sincerely
Alicia
Hi Hema and Cessie,
I concur with Hema that a teacher's mood almost certainly will determine how the lesson goes and how the students will respond in a particular lesson.This is one contagious aspect that all of us as teachers need to invest a lot in.A fired up,optimistic,energetic teacher will make even the passive students wake up and do something positive in the lesson.Thanks for that information especially your research project on this issue that recorded and overwhelming affirmation that a teacher's moods affect the students.