Discipline for Dummies

[Cutetwirler]

Not particularly. I have the option to send a student out if I want to. Otherwise, there's nothing really we can do.

[Tdol]

The joys of summer schools.

[Delmobile]

I am suddenly tuning in to this thread with great interest...I've just been asked to sub for 3-4 weeks for 3 blocks (1 1/2 hr classes, 25 kids per) of French I at my kids' high school. (The teacher is having an operation.) I'm not worried about my ability to convey the days of the week, months of the year, and how to conjugate avoir...but I'm very worried about controlling the class!

[Cutetwirler]

Ha, I find the same problems with me questioning my ability to name English tenses! Sure, I am a native speaker but I was never actually taught any formal grammar. This is why I worship at the alter of Teacher's Books!

The main problem children (the Jordanians) have gone back home now so I can sleep at night now, but I am assessing what I did right and wrong with the class. Some of the things that were going against me were things that I can't help (being a 20 year old girl who's only 5"3) but I also went into the classroom for the first time I didn't establish myself as a strong powerful teacher. If I had to do it again, I'd go into the classroom with less smiles and I wouldn't try to be 'down with the kids' as much. I tried to gain their respect by being 'with it' as opposed to gaining it through control.

I have only one more week left at the school (am going to Japan to study for a year) but I think that I would only do another summer school if I'd had sufficient training in discipline. It's been a long, hard time teaching but I think I've grown as a teacher (and as a person) through it.

To delmobile, good luck. I really mean it. Go in and kick ass. Never try and justify yourself and, as one of my superiors told me "shit on them from the start!"

[Cutetwirler]

P.s
I'd still appreciate any other comments/advice on disciplining kids from anyone reading this out there! Thank you!

[Anglika]

I was advised a long time ago that you should go in hard and sharp at the beginning, allowing yourself to soften once you have established who is in charge.

Not easy advice to follow, but in fact very effective. The same principal is advisable in offices.

I also think that summer school teaching is more difficult as it is for so short a time, the youngsters see it as holiday, and there is not really a disciplinary structure.

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by Anglika

The same principal is advisable in offices.

Um, principals do have offices, but priciples don't.

[Anglika]

Originally Posted by RonBee

Um, principals do have offices, but priciples don't.

Sorry - my principles and principals do tend to become confused - particularly at the end of a day

[Dareena]

Hi, I've been teaching for some time and have met some really difficult cases. But in my class i usually have one or two, maximum three disruptive students. How i coped with them?
Not always successfully but:
first of all never show that you are irritated by their behaviour: it only makes them outrageous;

a good joke towards the 'dummies' will make a miracle. It will make them either ashamed and calm down for some time, or at least make them a bit more attentive in order not to miss some fun;

or may be their need a friendly tete-a-tete talk - there might be reasons for such behaviour (lack of confidence, boredom etc)

In my country it is praised if the teacher is strict and even a bit "cruel" sometimes - students like it (it make them be more disciplined). So, one more way is to badly scold offenders. It really shocks my studentswhen after all this fun and laugh and teasing and kidding i suddenly turn to be strict...


i don't know if my advice helps in any way, but just take it easy, there is always a way out with such children.

[Soup]

Originally Posted by Cutetwirler

I teach teenagers and have a class of 12 REALLY rowdy kids.

Motivate them. Peak their interests. Get them curious.

When I was teaching in Japan, my school asked me to take over an after school class of a group of 16 year old boys ("naughty" is the word the school used). I didn't speak Japanese, I had no formal training or experience teaching teenagers, and my first class was a disaster: the boys sat in groups and gambled! I tried every trick I knew to capture their interest, but nothing worked. So, I walked around and watched carefully how they were playing this gambling game of theirs, and I asked questions on how to play, and I even played with them. The next class, I used the exact same gambling game as a warm up to introduce the contents of my lesson. It went OK, but not great. I had their attention for all of 10 minutes, 15 minutes at the most, but as the days progressed, it became a little easier to hold their attention longer. (The Japanese have a saying, and it holds true universally, why use force, when persuasion is so much more easier.)

Find out what motivates your students and use it to your advantage. (My students, the ones I spoke of, were using English as a means to an end (to win a game). English wasn't their goal and so it shouldn't be treated that way; that's how you motivate "naughty" ESL students . You find out what's important to them. Get them curious.)