The TEFLer is an English teacher’s companion written by Simon Pearlman

It’s the middle of October already! We’ve probably spent the best part of a month with our students by now. Hopefully things are progressing as they should but maybe there are some wobbly wheels too. How can we deal with the problems that are emerging in our classes?

What sort of difficulties are emerging in our classes at this point in the year? At this point they tend to fall into a couple of broad categories; the first is often classroom management around the class in general and maybe concerns about individual students are floating around too.

Every class a new opportunity.

Let's look at classroom management issues briefly. The good news is that there is plenty we can do about it. Every class gives us another opportunity to start again, to add nee systems, to press the reset button. Of course, we need to recognise what's wrong and have ideas about how to fix it. We also, crucially, need a clear idea about how we want the class to be. If we know what we want, we have a chance of getting there. How do we want our students to behave? Would we like our classes to be English only zones? Do we want students to be kind and respectful to each other? What about listening to us and each other? Or maybe them thinking a bit more rather than just a knee-jerk “I know” or “I don't know”? Do we want them to put their hands up rather than shout out or maybe we're after something different? Do we need clearer rules and clearer expectations? If things aren't going right, maybe we should ask ourselves these types of questions. Getting things clear in our own heads will help us create a vision for our classes and then we can begin to plan and execute much more effective lessons

Hands down, just think for a moment.

What about an idea which combines thinking time and shifts away from the very public, traditional hand-up response? Ask your students a question, ask them to put their hands down and to think about it for a moment. “Hands down, just think.” Then count down slowly 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. We could then ask them to check with a partner and then we can go into feedback. By doing this we are also including all of our students much more, the thinkers have time to process, the less confident can check with a partner, everyone is practising the language, it's a win-win-win situation. Its a classic, “think, pair, share” approach which can provide great results over time.

And what about instead of asking for hands up, try asking students to put their hand on their bellies and show you a thumbs up if they're confident, thumbs down if not and a wobbly hand if they're not sure? With this feedback pattern we are getting much more information about all of our students with a quick glance around the room as well as establishing that thinking is expected in this class and using pairwork effectively to share ideas and build classroom community. Sounds good, right?

And why not combine the two? Think, pair, share and thumbs up or down can be a powerful two-some.

Please feel free to share your classroom management issues and possible solutions with us here in the comments and we can all help each other or by email if you'd prefer something more private. (training@activelanguage.net)

Something doesn't feel quite right.

Then there are our concerns around individual students. Perhaps there's been some repeated inappropriate behaviour,  or maybe there's a student who just doesn't seem to be following or a student who has barely said a word in any of your classes. Often something just doesn't feel quite right. We're not doctors and we can't diagnose and should avoid labelling students, of course, but we should do something, we're good, caring teachers and we're concerned. What can we do?

We can ask, and perhaps our essential question should be, “How can I help?” We can ask the student themselves. Of course, a noise-sensitive seven year old probably won't come to class armed with coping strategies but we can ask them questions which can help; Is there somewhere you prefer to sit? Is there someone you prefer working with? Is the classroom too noisy for you? Starting with a student-first perspective, where the students are our biggest priority is key, we want what's best for them.

How can we help?

We can also ask this question to our colleagues and our managers. It maybe that our colleague taught this student last year and we can benefit from their experiences or at least share the difficulties. Opening up conversations like this with your fellow teachers can begin to build a mutually supportive and positive space where each and every student matters. We can ask our managers too; if they're good, they'll find ways to try to help. They might know the student, they might ask the admin team or the parents, they might offer to observe a class or offer time for you to talk it through with them. A good manager wants your classes to be going well and your students to be happy, it's in everyone's interest, of course.

So often we can feel alone in the classroom and we feel like we should be in control and know what we're doing. We never do know 100%, nobody ever does. Open up communications, bring people into your concerns and hopefully you'll get ther support you need.

If you're concerned about a student and would like to share it and get more support, leave a comment on the post or email me attraining@activelanguage.net

The wheels might be a bit wobbly but a quick pit stop to reflect and reset will always help. And thinking more deeply about individual students is always better than just hoping it'll blow over.

As always, feel free to contact us for more support or for information about our Teaching Younger Learners and Trinity CertTESOL courses atwww.activelanguage.netor emailtraining@activelanguage.net

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Good luck and happy TEFLing!