Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified in Pennsylvania? Are you interested in teaching English in Big Run, Pennsylvania? Check out our opportunities in Big Run, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English in your community or abroad! Teflonline.net offers a wide variety of Online TESOL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Here Below you can check out the feedback (for one of our units) of one of the 16.000 students that last year took an online course with ITTT!
From this unit I have learned that classroom management is much about understanding who you have in your classroom in terms of personalities, ages, language levels, etc. and also being mindful of how the way you set up the classroom or organize activities needs to make sense with what you are trying to accomplish. For example, a horseshoe shaped class can be good when the class size is smaller to make it more intimate, and to make the teacher appear less dominant, which will increase rapport and hopefully reduce the likelihood of misbehavior. The teacher has to be mindful of making sure the students can clearly see their mouth though, so they can follow along with what the teacher is saying and see the gestures as well.
When I become a teacher, I will be sure to create cards with student's names on them for them to display on their desks, and do icebreaker activities every now and then so the students can get to know each other better, and I can learn names and know the students better. This way, when I put students in pairs, they will hopefully work together better, and when I am asking the class questions, I won't only call on the students whose names I know. I also thought it was a good point in this unit to keep the student's name at the end of the question and to not call on students in a certain order, so that the class is kept on their toes and they will pay attention more.
I also learned a good ways to reduce "dead time" with board work, because I shouldn't be speaking while writing on the board and with my back to the students. I like the idea of writing on the board beforehand and covering it up, or asking students to volunteer to write on the board, because this gives them practice in writing in English as well.
I knew maintaining eye contact while teaching is important, but was interested to learn in this unit all the ways eye contact can be used, for example, as a nonverbal form of discipline, if students are speaking to each other and not listening. It is good to know that I should try nonverbal discipline first, as well as ways to reduce the likelihood that students will misbehave. For example, it's important to always be fair, to be punctual, to build rapport with the class, and to be prepared.
