It's all clicking into place

I have just started at a new school this academic year and it has challenged me more than I expected. Although I work at an international school, the majority of the students are Egyptian Nationals. When I first got here, staff told me that these students are a chatty bunch and that will be your main challenge. I didn't think much of it because students always talk and I thought it was like any other teaching setting. OH I was wrong!

I have been really tested on my classroom management in this school. Usually, there are about 1/4 of the class that need managing in terms of low level disruption, however in this school, it was the other way round. I had to manage low level disruption for around 3/4 of the class and the other 1/4 were fine. That was something I was not used to.

The reason I'm writing this blog was last week was 'the week' where everything clicked into place and 'persistence' is the key word here. It's almost taken 2 months to get the students to the standard I want them at, but we are there now, granted it's taken longer than I expected. I now get that warm fuzzy feeling when I'm teaching.

How did I get there? What did I do? The answer for me was to be patient and persistent. That does not mean that you be stubborn and don't change the way you do things, because sometimes the same method doesn't work in a new setting. However, at least give it a chance. I remember during my teacher training, I was teaching in the gym, which had really bad acoustics, and my mentor told me to use visuals to get attention from students, because my voice was just bouncing off the walls. I remember trying that for the first time. I stood there with my hand up and students didn't notice. I felt and looked like a fool, but I stuck with it, and a few moments after (which felt like an eternity), the whole class were quiet and ready to listen. That's exactly what it felt like getting procedures and standards in place with my classes. I even doubted myself, thinking that my usual techniques were not working, but with patience, my classes are where I want them to be.

You have to remember that these students have lots of different teachers with different procedures. As you're a new teacher, they will test you, but like I said, stick to your guns and you will get there. It may take longer than expected, like it did for me, but you will get there.

I will list out the things that worked for me, but remember they may not for you, depending on your context and setting.

1. Cones - I always place 4 different cones out that are the same as their sports houses. They straight away put their water bottles in a given area, and are sat down in their houses, ready for the register.

2. Count downs - When I need to speak to them, I countdown from 5 to 1. This may take longer when you first start out, but give them the forfeits for being late, and they will soon get the idea.

3. Discipline - Be consistent with your procedure. Let student's know the procedure first and then implement it. I am very strict with this initially and then ease off once I know my kids. My procedures are 1. verbal warning, 2. stand up/move, 3. time out, 4. detention.

I ensure that I take my time implementing these strategies when I first teach a class. Sometimes I don't even finish the lesson I planned, but in the long run, this is a worthwhile investment. Now I'm only dealing with minor issues, mainly conflicts, where I have now implemented conflict corner (taken from @thepespecialist), which I will later blog about.

It would be interesting to find out what your procedures are when you first start with a class.

#Wholeschool