5. Stop Disruptions with a Little Humor

Sometimes all it takes is for everyone to have a good laugh to get things back on track in a classroom. Many times, however, teachers confuse good humor with sarcasm. While humor can quickly diffuse a situation, sarcasm may harm your relationship with the students involved. Use your best judgment but realize that what some people think as funny others find to be offensive.

6. Keep High Expectations in Your Class

Expect that your students will behave, not that they will disrupt. Reinforce this with the way you speak to your students. When you begin the day, tell your students your expectations. For example, you might say, "During this whole group session, I expect you to raise your hands and be recognized before you start speaking. I also expect you to respect each other's opinions and listen to what each person has to say."

7. Overplan

Free time is something teachers should avoid. By allowing students time just to talk each day, you are setting a precedent about how you view academics and your subject. To avoid this, overplan. When you have too much to cover, you'll never run out of lessons and you will avoid free time. You can also fill up any left over time with mini-lessons.

8. Be Consistent

One of the worst things you can do as a teacher is to not enforce your rules consistently. If one day you ignore misbehaviors and the next day you jump on someone for the smallest infraction, your students will quickly lose respect for you. Your students have the right to expect you to basically be the same everyday. Moodiness is not allowed. Once your lose your student's respect, you also lose their attention and their desire to please you.

9. Make Rules Understandable

You need to be selective in your class rules (no one can follow 180 rules consistently). You also need to make them clear. Students should understand what is and what is not acceptable. Further, you should make sure that the consequences for breaking your rules are also clear and known beforehand.

10. Start Fresh Everyday

This tip does not mean that you discount all previous infractions, i.e. if they have three tardies then today means four. However, it does mean that you should start teaching your class each day with the expectation that students will behave. Don't assume that because Julie has disrupted your class everyday for a week, she will disrupt it today. By doing this, you will not be treating Julie any differently and thereby setting her up to disrupt again (like a self-fulfilling prophecy).

Exercise 3: Read the text below. What do you think of the suggested methods to maintain discipline? What methods did you refer to keep the class under control during your student teaching?

Modern Methods of Maintaining Discipline

School discipline practices are generally informed by theory from psychologists and educators. There are a number of theories to form a comprehensive discipline strategy for an entire school or a particular class.

• Reality Therapy involves teachers making clear connections between student behavior and consequences in order to facilitate students making positive choices. Features include class meetings, clearly communicated rules, and the use of plans and contracts are featured.

• Discipline with Dignity supports the idea that good discipline starts by keeping student dignity intact by providing practical strategies for teachers to share responsibility for discipline with students themselves by tailoring discipline to each individual. Created by Drs. Richard Curwin and Allen Mendler.

• Positive Approach is grounded in teachers' respect for students. Instills in students a sense of responsibility by using youth/adult partnerships to develop and share clear rules, provide daily opportunities for success, and administer in-school suspension for noncompliant students. Based on Glasser's Reality Therapy. Research (e.g., Allen) is generally supportive of the PAD program.

• Teacher Effectiveness Training differentiates between teacher-owned and student-owned problems and proposes different strategies for dealing with each. Students are taught problem-solving and negotiation techniques. Researchers (e.g., Emmer and Aussiker) find that teachers like the program and that their behavior is influenced by it, but effects on student behavior are unclear.

• Transactional Analysis works for students with behavior problems to learn to use terminology and exercises to identify issues and make changes within the context of counseling programs. The notion that each person's psyche includes child, adult and parent components is basic to the TA philosophy. Research has been conducted (e.g., Cobb and Richards) has found the TA counseling approach beneficial (McIntyre, 2005).

• Assertive Discipline focuses on the right of the teacher to define and enforce standards for student behavior with clear expectations, rules and a penalty system with increasingly serious sanctions are major features. Research (e.g., Mandlebaum and McCormack) is supportive, but inconclusive about the effectiveness of the AD approach (Emmer and Aussiker, Gottfredson, and Render, Padilla, and Krank) (McIntyre, 2005). Developed by Lee Canter.

• Adlerian approaches is an umbrella term for a variety of methods which emphasize understanding the individual's reasons for maladaptive behavior and helping misbehaving students to alter their behavior, while at the same time finding ways to get their needs met. Named for psychiatrist Alfred Adler. These approaches have shown some positive effects on self-concept, attitudes, and locus of control, but effects on behavior are inconclusive (Emmer and Aussiker). Not only were the statistics on suspensions and vandalism significant, but also the recorded interview of teachers demonstrates the improvement in student attitude and behavior, school atmosphere, academic performance, and beyond that, personal and professional growth. (Efficacy of Class Meetings in Elementary Schools, Ann Roeder Platt, B.A., California State University, Sacramento. The University of San Francisco, The Effectiveness of Alderian Parent and Teacher Study Groups in Changing Child Maladaptive Behavior in a Positive Direction). Jane Nelsen

• The Student Responsibility Center (SRC) discipline process was evaluated for effectiveness in five participating K-12 public schools. SRC was evaluated in terms of meeting the six systems-thinking criteria, the number of suspensions and/or expulsions, the number of discipline referrals to the SRC classroom, and the perceptions of the Learning Community concerning the use of this discipline process. Examination of data collected from the one-on-one interviews and school staff questionnaires suggested that the SRC discipline process did result in a decrease in suspensions and expulsions and discipline referrals. In addition, the analysis of data indicated that there were positive Learning Community perceptions concerning the discipline process. The finding are congruent with effective schools research and school sites should continuously assess, intervene, and monitor the discipline process to ensure the Learning Community is consistently following the processes’ elements and characteristics to accomplish the goal of reducing disruptive behavior overall. (Dunlap, 2007).

Exercise 4: Learning and teaching

Did you ever work in groups? What sort of work can be done in this way? What are the advantages? And the disadvantages? How is the role of the teacher different?

Exercise 5: Answer the following questions. Make use of the Active Vocabulary and Additional Texts.

1. What surprised you most during your first day of student teaching?

2. Were you happy with the school you were appointed?

3. Did you like the class you were assigned?

4. Were there any unexpected things at your first lesson?

5. Was pupils' level of knowledge of English high or far below the level required for a particular form?

6. Did your pupils realize that you were but a student teacher or did they regard you as if you were a regular teacher?

7. Did the regular teacher or the institute supervisors give you any useful recommendations about helpful teaching techniques?

8. Did you ever feel at a loss at a lesson, why?

9. Did you manage to write good plans of your lessons or were you up a dark valley sometimes?

10. Did you use the suggestions that you were given in the course of methodology?

11. Were the pupils in your class alert, attentive, responsive, willing to learn or were they restless and inattentive?

12. Did you have any troublemakers in your class (who, for instance, was talking back, chatting all the time, was jabbering, was calling out, was making silly remarks, was fooling around, in fact, was creating a disturbance and was a general nuisance)?

13. Did you ever experience during your student teaching that you couldn't control your feelings? Did you yell at the pupils?

14. Did you often have formal observation lessons? Were there many people to observe you? Did you regard your observation lessons as an ordeal or did you look forward to them?

15. Did your supervisor or your formal teacher, whoever the observer might be, criticize you on many points? Was the criticism justified as a rule?

16. Were there any disheartening episodes while you were observed?

17. Did you try to be a tyrant of a teacher or were you a softie?

18. Do you believe you are now familiar with all the teaching techniques or do you think you still have much to learn?

19. Do you think you managed to apply practically all the theoretical things you were taught at the Institute?

20. Have you acted as substitute-teacher? Can you enumerate pros and cons of substitute-teaching?

21. Did your student-teaching come up to your expectations?

22. What advice can you give to your fellow-students concerning student-teaching?

Exercise 6: Think of some good advice to give to a young teacher in the following situations:

• you’ve got 10 - 15 minutes left till the end of the lesson and you’re short of tasks

• you’ve got trouble makers in class causing serious discipline problems

• a few minutes before the lesson begins you find out you’ve left all your books and notes at home

• you’re to submit the outline of the lesson to your supervisor / the assistant principal

• one of the pupils is constantly late for your lesson with no serious excuse

• today you have a formal observation lesson but you’ve overslept

• the greater part of the lesson is based on the use of visual aids (a video-cassette recorder / CD player, TV) but the technical equipment is out of order

• the class you’re assigned is far below the level of knowledge required for this form