For various reasons, even best teachers can have a class that almost crosses the limits and slides to near chaos. With such a class each day can seem a battle, and instead of focusing on students’ learning, a teacher can spend their entire time screaming off at the problematic students.But using smart strategies for managing a classroom makes all the difference.
If you got such a class, you need not worry, as it is possible to control the class. What matters most is a teacher’s persistence, patience, long-term strategy, and commitment. In this article, the various ideas to manage a bad class are covered.
Be a calming influence
Slight disciplinary problems in class can always be stopped if a teacher stations themselves near the problematic students. Take some measures such as walking near them, standing beside them and show them that you aren’t afraid of them.
Ensure that you don’t do it aggressively but instead take a friendly and calm approach. If still there isn’t progress, having a light hand on the shoulder of the student will in a friendly and gentle way stress that you are paying close attention to them and intuitively indicate to them to stop engaging in the disruptive action.
First of the smart strategies: Lay down the Law
Ensuring that you have clear rules with your classes from day one always has a big impact as far as positively influencing a bad class is concerned. Uncertain class rules make students not aware that they are doing anything wrong.
Rule of Thumb that will help enhance discipline
To ensure discipline is at maximum;
- At the beginning of your first classes, explain to your students the rules.
- Ensure you consistently enforce the rules.
- Always be serious of the set rules.
- When implementing a rule, ensure you are firm but, at the same time, don’t act in anger.
Be proactive by having engaging lessons
Being proactive about discipline is a very helpful measure when it comes to managing a bad class. The most important step that a teacher can take to ensure that they minimize disciplinary problems is planning, engaging, and active lessons where all students actively participate. When everyone is participating, the problem students will not have the time to be troublesome.
Keep Calm and carry on
One of the most important points to keep in mind when managing a class that’s usually problematic is that even if your class doesn’t behave as you wish, don’t lose your cool.
Stay rational, calm, and don’t act out of anger. If there has been a student with discipline issues in other classes, have a plan of dealing with their common problems before your next class.
Have an action plan that will help stop the bad behavior. One of the best ways to ensure you change bad behavior patterns is by mixing the class’s geography. Move the problematic students near you instead of having them sitting with their buddies.
Get disciplinary guidelines from your employer
The appropriate discipline differs from culture to culture and school to school. When you start your teaching job at a school, it is important that you find out the procedures that the school commends for discipline.
It is a common trend that public schools are usually more open to discipline and that language training centers and private schools may not encourage some disciplining methods.
After your boss informs you of the official disciplinary measures, it is also wise that you confirm from your fellow workmates what they do in practice. In most cases, paperwork and reality are always different, and knowing what is practically done is prudent.
Figure out where things go wrong
When a class gets out of control, as a teacher, one should assess what went wrong. Questions such as was it crazy from the start?
Or is it that you got off the right way? Is it the students who you let bend the rules gradually until it was out of control? Taking some of your time to look back and figure what went wrong in the class will be a good tip for managing a bad class.
Come up with incentives that encourage good behavior
It should be every teachers’ will to ensure that students don’t follow the rules out of the fear of getting punished. Having some motivations that encourage good behavior is helpful as far as motivating students to stick to the rules is concerned.
For instance, every 10 minutes that pass in the class without breaking the rules offer the students an extra minute of game time at the end of the class.
A teacher can also provide cool classroom roles such as a scorekeeper or a leader. The compromise is that only students who meet behavioral goals that should be offered these roles.
Acknowledge both negative and positive behaviors
While the class may be bad, there never lacks some good-mannered students. Teachers should have skills that can manage both the negative and positive behavior types.
Analyzing the motivations that may be propelling the unfitting behaviors can help better understand why students act in a particular way and what purpose it serves them.
Such motivations that lead to disruptive behaviors can include behavioral disorders and learning difficulties. Power has a significant role to play as far as a teacher-student relationship is concerned.
Teachers are encouraged to apply a broad range of theoretical approaches to have a way of acknowledging both positive and negative behaviors and applying the appropriate action.
Be consistent.
Consistency is one of the key factors that help in behavior management. Students tend to respond to consequences that are clearly set out as well as routines positively.
To ensure you can manage a bad class, and get rid of the bad characters, ensure they are aware of what will befall when they exhibit the wrong behavior by making the consequences known. This way, students tend not to misbehave.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, while teaching may seem an easy task when it comes to problematic students, it can be a teacher’s headache.
With this article, however, a teacher can change a disorderly class into a good mannered class. A teacher needs to follow the laid out steps. What do you think?
