Classroom management woes
Sometimes, I envy teachers who have seemingly perfect class control.
By perfect class control, I mean that whenever I walk past their class, pupils are seated quietly with all eyes on the teacher. The teacher concentrates on teaching, and the pupils are engaged in learning.
One disclaimer is that I bet those teachers don't employ group work strategies most of the time. I also suspect that they have taken drastic measures such as publicly mincing a kid into pieces to deter the others from trying their stunts in the classroom. =P
I think most people would think class control is easy. I used to think that myself, since I have a fiercer nature and people tend to be scared of me. After undergoing my practicum for more than 5 months, I know better than to make assumptions now. Children will be children, and if you spare the rod, you'll spoil the child. Nowadays teachers aren't allowed to use the rotan anymore, so our level of scariness has gone down a few notches. Scolding can't hurt you, and pupils are so used to being scolded that they're desensitized to it already.
I wouldn't say that I'm a failure at controlling the class, but things CAN get rowdy during group work activities. A lecturer said before that if kids aren't noisy, they aren't being kids. So I don't really mind if the noise level is a bit higher, but they're on task, discussing excitedly and motivating their friends to finish the task quickly. Sometimes, though, things can get a little out of hand. Like when some kids refuse to work with others, or they start fighting, or they take advantage of the fact that I can't keep an eye on them all at the same time and start to make shadow puppets with the light from the LCD projector and their fingers. =.= Classroom management is peanuts if you only plan to use individual worksheets and copying activities. Anything more fun and interactive than that, and you'll have to balance democracy, tolerance and assertiveness, and expect a sore throat by the end of the class.
The thing is, I keep on striving towards that ideal of perfect class control, but whenever I feel that I've nearly reached it, the pupils would act up and prove me wrong once again. Part of the reason I keep thinking I haven't achieved that ideal is because just one incident of belligerent or uncooperative behaviour in an entire lesson is enough to make me feel that my methods aren't good enough. Thanks to Kounin and all those classroom management theorists, classroom management seems like a piece of cake with simplistic definitions and ways to prevent misbehaviour, so I feel like a failure if I can't attain those ideals. Keeping the class constantly moving forward with good pacing can prevent misbehaviour? I USED to believe that.
When I reflect about it, though, my expectations of perfect classroom management are a little extreme. If pupils' characters were that malleable, there wouldn't be a need for a discipline teacher in school, or scoldings during assembly. Experienced teachers wouldn't have to spend entire periods scolding a class. If my own parents had to spend so many years disciplining me with a ping-pong bat (and I was considered a pretty well-behaved child), what makes me think that I can work miracles within a few weeks with 60+ pupils from various backgrounds and socioeconomic status, and without a ping-pong bat at that?
Teaching is fun; controlling misbehaviour isn't.
By perfect class control, I mean that whenever I walk past their class, pupils are seated quietly with all eyes on the teacher. The teacher concentrates on teaching, and the pupils are engaged in learning.
One disclaimer is that I bet those teachers don't employ group work strategies most of the time. I also suspect that they have taken drastic measures such as publicly mincing a kid into pieces to deter the others from trying their stunts in the classroom. =P
I think most people would think class control is easy. I used to think that myself, since I have a fiercer nature and people tend to be scared of me. After undergoing my practicum for more than 5 months, I know better than to make assumptions now. Children will be children, and if you spare the rod, you'll spoil the child. Nowadays teachers aren't allowed to use the rotan anymore, so our level of scariness has gone down a few notches. Scolding can't hurt you, and pupils are so used to being scolded that they're desensitized to it already.
I wouldn't say that I'm a failure at controlling the class, but things CAN get rowdy during group work activities. A lecturer said before that if kids aren't noisy, they aren't being kids. So I don't really mind if the noise level is a bit higher, but they're on task, discussing excitedly and motivating their friends to finish the task quickly. Sometimes, though, things can get a little out of hand. Like when some kids refuse to work with others, or they start fighting, or they take advantage of the fact that I can't keep an eye on them all at the same time and start to make shadow puppets with the light from the LCD projector and their fingers. =.= Classroom management is peanuts if you only plan to use individual worksheets and copying activities. Anything more fun and interactive than that, and you'll have to balance democracy, tolerance and assertiveness, and expect a sore throat by the end of the class.
The thing is, I keep on striving towards that ideal of perfect class control, but whenever I feel that I've nearly reached it, the pupils would act up and prove me wrong once again. Part of the reason I keep thinking I haven't achieved that ideal is because just one incident of belligerent or uncooperative behaviour in an entire lesson is enough to make me feel that my methods aren't good enough. Thanks to Kounin and all those classroom management theorists, classroom management seems like a piece of cake with simplistic definitions and ways to prevent misbehaviour, so I feel like a failure if I can't attain those ideals. Keeping the class constantly moving forward with good pacing can prevent misbehaviour? I USED to believe that.
When I reflect about it, though, my expectations of perfect classroom management are a little extreme. If pupils' characters were that malleable, there wouldn't be a need for a discipline teacher in school, or scoldings during assembly. Experienced teachers wouldn't have to spend entire periods scolding a class. If my own parents had to spend so many years disciplining me with a ping-pong bat (and I was considered a pretty well-behaved child), what makes me think that I can work miracles within a few weeks with 60+ pupils from various backgrounds and socioeconomic status, and without a ping-pong bat at that?
Teaching is fun; controlling misbehaviour isn't.
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