Class Management and Atmosphere

Teachers come in all shapes and sizes. We know that everybody have different qualities and different personalities, but there are many abilities and attitudes which can be learned and worked on. For example, as a teacher of young children it helps a lot if you have a sense of humor, you are open minded, adaptable, patient etc. But even if you are the silent, reserved type, you can work on your attitudes and abilities.

Abilities. We may all be brilliant music teachers like Susan's Mr Jolly, but most of us can learn anything, for example, we can learn to sing or to draw in an easy way. We can all learn to be organized with our worksheets, and also we can certainly all learn to have our chalk handy.

Attitudes. You must be secure in what you are doing, knowing where you are going it is an essential part. You can build up your own security by planning, reading and talking to others.

Helping the children to feel secure. Once the children feel secure in the classroom, they can be encouraged to become independent and adventurous in the learning of the language, but we have to know that security is not an attitude or ability, but it is essential. How we can create a secure class atmosphere, here we have some examples:

Respect your pupils in the school. Whenever a pupil is trying to tell you something, accept whatever he or she says, mistakes also. If you are direct correcting him/her is effective, but it does not help to create a good atmosphere, only when you are working on guided language exercises. Do not give children English names, avoid giving physical rewards or prizes, is better to tell them that you like their work and give children the responsibility for doing practical jobs in the classroom, for examples, making sure the calendar is right, sharpening the pencil or colors, also watering the plants.

The physical surrounding. Children respond well to surroundings. You have to put as much on the walls as you can; for example calendars, posters, postcards, pupils' drawing, etc. Have plants and any kind of interesting objects. Your classroom probably will be used for other subjects, but try to have an English corner. You need shelves, cushions or a couple of comfortable chair. Make sure you mark all your files and boxes with pictures and different colors for you and your pupils know where to find what.

Arranging the desks. You have to decide to arrange the desks because sometimes you move or want to change the desks for different lessons. Here we have three different way to arranging the desk. (Arrangement A, B and C): 

Arrangement A. Lets you do pairwork easily and leaves you space in the middle of the classroom for more general activities, for example, play games, tell stories, etc.

Arrangement B. Works for individual and whole class work, and you can easily do pair work; also does not encourage natural communication since pupils can only see the back of the heads of pupils in front of them.

Arrangement C. Works in the same way as arrangement B, but it is more flexible and leaves you more space in the middle of the classroom.

Grouping the children. Is important to know that not all children take well pair and group working at the beginning, particularly five and six years old. They are often happier working alone. They will want to keep all the cards, toys etc. If you realize, when they are working as groups; they often develop a group identity. We would recommend some sort of the regular grouping, especially for the five to seven age range.

Pair work. Is a really useful and efficient way of working in language teaching and it is possible to organize and to explain in this way. Let pupil who are sitting near each other work together, do not move the chairs, only if it is necessary. Also, you can establish routines for pair work, so that, when you say 'Now work in pairs' pupils know what is expected from them. Pair work means that everyone in the class is occupied, but even when all children are working at the same time, it does not mean that all pairs will finish at the same time, too.

Group work. Everything which has been said about pair work applies to group work too. If your pupils are not used to work in groups in other classes, do not force them. You can introducing them gradually to group work, for example, you can start by having teaching groups, then you can go on to introducing self-reliant groups, start with just one group, tell them what the purpose is and go through this process with all the groups before you let the whole class work in groups at the same time, and you have to know that the limit number in the group is between three and five.

Classroom language. If the cooperation and communication are part of the process of learning a language, as well as part of the process of growing up.