5 classroom management techniques every teacher should know

Ah, classroom management techniques. These are key to keeping the house in order. No matter how good you might be at teaching new vocab or explaining the past perfect tense, you’re going to have to have some skills in the old behavior and ability management quarter. Cue this guide, which runs through five popular ways to ensure your teaching goes smoothly…

Be something to imitate

It goes without saying that you can’t ask the kids to be well behaved if you’re not. That’s why one of the golden rules of classroom management is to act as you’d like your students to act. Try never to take your phone out of your pocket to send off a few texts during lessons. Maintain eye contact whenever you talk to other students. Oh, and ALWAYS speak in the target language (that’s English, by the way!). It’s not so much that you want your students to mimic you. It’s more that you can’t ask a class to act in a certain way if you don’t follow your own rules.

Class-sourced rules and learning targets

Research has found that setting rules and learning aims without involving the students themselves can actually alienate some learners. One way to get around that is to spend just a few minutes at the start of every session asking your kids what they want to be the target for the day’s lesson. That way, classes are more likely to feel in control and involved in their own ESL curriculum. The same goes for class rules. Start the term by asking each student to come up with one rule that they think is fair. Go through the whole thing as a group and then pin it up so there’s no getting out of it!

Don’t be the formidable teacher

There’s no question that some teachers get by on a diet of strictness is best. But that requires a certain type. Overzealous detention giving, punishments, sendings out and the like can actually harm the rapport you build with students. That, in turn, will make them less likely to follow your lead and can have serious impacts on the learning experience. A better way to go about things is to nurture a friendly, professional relationship with the class, one that’s based on well-worded requests to behave or to listen while you’re speaking.

Positive feedback

It’s no secret that a bit of positive feedback can go a long way. That’s especially true in the English classroom, where a lot of ability is based on the confidence to use the language that’s been learned. It might not seem like it to you as a full native speaker or a near-native tutor but mastering a new tense or having the boldness to make use of new vocabulary is actually a pretty hefty step. Remember to congratulate students when they get things right, while also not shying away of small corrections. A rewards scheme can work very well with younger kids, in the form of gold stars or merits, perhaps.

Fix the fragmented classroom

Mixed-ability classes are the reality of today’s ESL teaching world. From Thailand to Colombia, you’re going to find that different children will be at different stages in their English language journey, yet still in the same group. That presents a problem for the teacher because what usually happens is that similar-ability students coalesce together, thereby stopping any sort of peer-to-peer push to get better. A way around that is to organize your classroom into specific groups. Put the able students with the ones who might be struggling. That can give the better ones more confidence in using the language they already know and spur on others to improve faster than they normally would.

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These are just a few of the top classroom management techniques that we think every TEFL teacher should know about. If you have any more to add to the list, be sure to drop them into the comments below. Alternatively, if you think it’s time to get TEFL qualified and teaching, head over to our courses page right now.