This document provides tips for classroom management, including arranging seating to facilitate interaction, standing while directing activities to be visible to students, making eye contact to check comprehension, admitting when you don't know an answer to avoid embarrassment, using the back of your hand for gestures, being explicit in instructions, and using verbal and non-verbal reinforcement. It also emphasizes the importance of knowing students' names.

1. HOW TO DEAL WITH YOUR
CLASS
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2. Content
I. Introduction
II. General Tips
III. Verbal and gesture reinforcement
IV. Knowing your students
V. Interest
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3. I. Introduction
One of the most important aspects is to
do with, we methodologically called,
“classroom management”. What does
the term refer to?
The term “classroom management”
refers to those activities concerning with
how to make classroom looks tidy, or
interesting, or motivating. The following
are the useful guides to this
methodology term:
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4. II. General Tips
1. Arrange the Seating to Help
As a good teacher, you should prepare
to re-arrange the chairs so that it is both
easier and more natural for students to
see and talk to each other. For the
typical adult class of perhaps between
five to fifteen students, the one below
would probably be best.
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5. However, for a class of about 30 students,
it is probably good to use the conventional
arrangement for activities which are
centered upon the teacher and allow
students to move their body for pair work
and group work. Moreover, the seating
should suggest that students are
encouraged to talk to each other; at the
same time, teacher himself should keep
enough space for moving around the class
during activities.
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6. 2. Stand up when you are directing
activities
In general, it is a good idea to sit down in
a language classroom on only two
occasions. First, if students are doing
something which, for the moment, does
not involve you. Second, if you are
having a conversation or discussing with
the class.
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7. However, for most activities in language
classroom, it is important that students
can see you and, in particular, your mouth
and your eyes, so this is much easier if
you are standing. Besides, standing also
means you can see all the students clearly
and can use your eyes and hands
effectively.
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8. 3. Look at students
If you are standing with your eyes
constantly moving over the class,
everyone feels involved, that is your
eyes help your students’ concentration.
What is more advantageous is that this is
the easiest way to check whether your
students understand what you have said,
or what they have read or heard by using
your eyes to look at theirs as any
comprehension and confusion will show
in their eyes long before they tell you that
there is a problem.
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9. 4. Don’t ask “Do you understand?”
It is not good for you to do so, it is rare
indeed for students, particularly older
students, to admit that they don’t
understand. To solve this effectively, it is
teachers’ job to anticipate difficulty and
misunderstanding in order to make it as
easy as possible for students to show their
difficulty without any embarrassment.
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10. The first thing to do is that teacher should
keep eyes contact over students while
explaining something as it is possible to
see when students do not understand,
and even to see the point at which they
become lost or confused. If it is necessary
to ask, this should be done by asking
specific questions about the information or
explanation you have just given.
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11. 5. Admit your ignorance
It is true that no teacher know everything.
English is a huge subject, and no matter
how much you have studied it, or how long
you have been teaching it, you will still
come across points you have never
known before. The solution is
straightforward—admits that you do not
know, consult the colleague or look the
answers up. Make sure that if you say you
will tell them in the next lesson, you do
actually say something about it—even you
cannot find the answer.
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12. 6. Use back of your hand to point
If you point in the conventional (normal)
way, it can appear aggressive and inhibit
(making students feel embarrassed and
less confident) students. Using the back of
your hand to gesture is less intimidating
(making worried and less confident), and
conveys an invitation rather than a
directive.
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13. 7. Don’t commentate
Even though it is essential to involve
students in learning process by
discussing classroom activities, a teacher
keeping up a more or less non-stop
commentary on his own activities is too
bad as too much introduction would both
lead students to confusion and waste
students learning time.
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14. In the end, students never know whether
what the teachers are saying is important
or not. So make sure that any commentary
should be helpful to students and should
not be used to reassure yourself or simply
fill up silence.
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15. 8. Keep your language to a minimum
when students are doing something
If you speak, students will usually listen. If
you want to encourage your students to
use language, it obviously means that
once you have introduced an activity and
made clear what is wanted, you must be
prepare to keep quiet. For example, just
imagine! What happens if you instruct
students to do an activity _an exercise_
and you just keep talking while they are
concentrating on that exercise?
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16. We have already noted that you can
reduce the amount of unnecessary
classroom language by using your eyes
and hands. These are several important
implications:
-Do not interrupt students unnecessarily
while they are preparing something.
-Do not dominate discussion yourself.
-Do not tell students what they want to
say.
-Do not use more language than
necessary to direct and control classroom
activities.
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17. 9. Be explicit (clearly and directly)
It is the teacher’s task to structure the classroom
carefully. This means planning the lesson well in
advance_ what is to be done and how it is to be
conducted_ and it also means doing this in
details. Here is the truth! If the teacher has a
wooly (not showing clear thing) idea of what is
required, the pace of the lesson will drop and
students become either bored or confused
because they cannot catch up with the
explanation full of too-long or too-short
comments, and without showing the exact point
he wants to say.
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18. Classroom instruction should be simple,
precise (exact), and explicit.
In conclusion, the more explicit your
instruction or explanation are, the easier it
is for students to concentrate on the
content or meaning, rather than the
organization of the activities.
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19. III. Verbal and Gesture Reinforcement
Verbal Reinforcement:
Words
Correct! Yes! Great!
Right! Uh-huh! Fine! Beautiful!
Good! Very Good! Excellent! Nice!
Acceptable!
Nearly!
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20. Sentences
• Well done!
• That’s good work!
• Well thought out!
• Keep it up, Tevy!
• You should be pleased with that!
• You have caught on very quickly!
• You are on the right track!
• I’m pleased with that!
• You’re doing better!
• I’d like the way you explain that!
• You should be very proud of this!
• That’s interesting!
• That’s very clever of you, how good!
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21. Gesture Reinforcement
Face
Smiling, Laughing, Whistling
Raising eyebrows, wrinkling the nose
Body
Pointing (with the back of your hands)
Signaling OK, Raising arms, Clapping hands
Shacking the head, Nodding, Thumping up,
Shrugging shoulders
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22. Proximity (state of being near)
Standing along side
Walking nearby, Advancing towards
Direct Contact
A pat on the shoulder, Shaking hands
Token
Food and candy, gold star, ticks
Written comments on books, test papers
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23. IV. Knowing your students
Name
Being able to address your students by
name is a sign of good teachers.
Moreover, it will give advantages to
both teachers themselves and students.
For teachers, this will avoid all kinds of
confusion; it generates a friendly
relationship with students, and many
other. For students, it produces a more
secure atmosphere.
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24. 3. Draw a plan of the classroom and write
the names of the students. Ask students to
sit in the same seats at each lesson, at
least for the first few weeks. Keep the plan
on your desk during the lessons until you
know all the students.
4. If your school asks students to provide
photographs of themselves and you can
make copy of them, label the photos and
learn the names at home.
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25. Backgrounds
Even though it is helpful to know
something about your students’
backgrounds, you should not let class
activities lead you or students to pry (to
find out details about someone’s private
life impolitely) into someone background
and don’t force students to reveal things,
about themselves which they do not wish
to reveal.
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26. To make this happen, try one of the
following:
2. Ask students to write their names on
pieces of folded paper or card which can
stand on the front of their desks of every
English lesson until you know everyone’s
name.
3. Buy cheap labels and ask students to
print or write their names on the labels in
large letters and wear them.
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27. To avoid making students feel
embarrassed by your questions relating to
special circumstances such as family
tragedy, financial problems, etc, you may
check such information or student
confidential records if your school keeps
this and if are allowed to do so, or you
may try to naturally understand through
unexpected conversations between
students and students, and so on.
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28. Interests
Your students will find their English
lessons more stimulating (exciting,
interesting) if someone of their English
work is concerned with things that interest
them, so you will want to find out what
these things are.
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29. V. Conclusion
So, you can see, through the lesson,
clearly that classroom management is an
important part of a good teaching. No
meter how good your teaching is, your
lesson would be less effective if your
classroom management strategies are
poor.
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