Classroom Managment: Creating a nice routine!

Creating a nice routine!

Teaching children is usually taken for granted, but once you teach them you instantly realize how demanding it can be! Children are not only affective, but also boisterous and learning how to deal with so much energy and emotions is an important step before really teaching English itself.

I do remember my first Young Learner’s class and it was a chaos! I struggled a lot with classroom management and I felt so lost! Some questions that hunted me all class long were:

• Why do they always lose focus?

• Why aren’t they looking at me?

• What should I do now?

• Should they really interrupt me in the middle of the class to tell me about their new pet?

• Why do they avoid using English DURING the English class?

Motivating them was a tough task for me, so for the students to learn. They were really nice to me, hugging me, saying that they really like my class, but I knew it as a lie! They didn’t know, but they just enjoyed my presence there, the fact that I was able to listen to them and play sometimes with them. However, it wasn’t planned and I just followed my intuition. Was it bad? No. Was it confusing? A LOT!

Then, I stumbled into an amazing YL Course (that I highly recommend)that totally changed my way of dealing with my kids and improved my teaching style. I’ve learnt great techniques and activities. So, here I am to share with you an important and meaningful strategy when your problem is classroom management: ROUTINE! Routine isn’t a bad thing when doing in a fun and interesting way. You may have several advantages creating a routine with your YL, such as:

• You decrease your TTT

• You decrease your need to use Portuguese

• Students become less anxious
  
• It's easier to manage students

                

Although we show students that routine isn’t something mechanical, but natural, we do have to plan all the stages and make them feel comfortable following the routine each class. Don’t take children for granted, but also let them learn each step on their personal moment and time. Remember: Children learn in different time and moments, don’t force them to follow your or their friends’ learning style. Show them your respect and support their needs.

Furthermore, routine doesn’t mean you are forbidden to change your plan. Kids can come up with something interesting to be discussed or done, so follow their lead! Whatever stage you are, children must be your priority.

Another topic before showing you a sample of a routine, try to use English as much as you can! Children really can use and understand you, you just have to get used to it! Yes, I’m saying that YOU have to get used to it. Usually, teachers don’t trust their pupils enough so they can’t use English. Use body language, go for it! Sing, Play! And of course, use your routine to teach them some basic rules and language.

Here we have a very simple routine line which we’ll discuss topic by topic.

Hello Song

It can be any other song that welcome your students. It can be either your own song or from a website. I usually use from Super Simple Songs. This is a great channel you will find accessing YouTube where you’ll be also offered different songs for different stages and topics in the class.

Make it fun! Dance with them! Sing with them! Do not try to teach them the lyrics, because they will eventually learn while they sing it every day. An important technique here is to look at your students’ eyes and praise them, encourage them to have fun like you’re having.

Using songs with kids is an wonderful strategy to teach them not only the routine, but also grammar and vocabulary. Plus, you can show them English classes go beyond subjects and rules, it’s about learning and developing themselves together.

News Circle

I love this part because it is so effective! During this part you can allow students to use Portuguese and depending on the level and their proficiency they may mix languages. At this moment, students have to tell you anything they find interesting about their week/day. Set a limit of time for this part and let them know it, because in the other hand you’ll spend you whole class doing the Circle Time.

As a transition from Hello Song to News Circle, you can sing a simple song asking them to sit down, so you’re using AGAIN: songs and routine. It’s amazing how they will promptly try to repeat with no need to ask them to do.

I love sitting down on the floor, so depending on the class and the school rules I invite students to sit down on the floor and share their thoughts. It’s also important for you to really pay attention during their talk and if it’s not your first time with them ask about something they have mentioned previously. If it is your very FIRST time, enjoy the activity to get to know your students. Students say a lot both speaking and moving. Pay attention to their body language and so you can perceive something similar or particular to each students or to the group.

Content

After that, you can move on to the class content itself. But remember a good English class is full of opportunity to talk, to practice, to learn and to feel comfortable. Don’t make English a monster, show them how good it is to speak another language and how interesting your class is! Learning just takes place when you feel you have a real purpose. Use songs! Games! Chants!

Password

It’s a good way to check your students’ understanding (accountability), but not just asking them: “What did we learn today?”. We turned into a nice game! Students are allowed to sing the “Bye Bye song”, if they say the PASSWORD! The password can be a word/ sentence/ question or anything they learnt on the class that day. So, once all of them have said... IT’S TIME TO GO!

(Actually, this part of the class I change a lot! But they know I’ll check what they learnt and that’s important!)

Line up

It’s time to sing the Bye-Bye song which is also available on Super Simple Songs, but I’ve created a song myself that matches to my needs. So here it’s what I do when we finish our class:

·         Clean Up song from Super Simple Song (they know it’s time to pack up, so even if they’re in the middle of something, they will stop it and start packing up)

·         My Bye-Bye song:

“It’s time to go!

Stand up, stand up! ( they have to stand in front of their chairs)

It’s time to go!

Line up, line up!

It’s time to go! (I repeat these last two lines until they line up correctly)

  

(voice down and shhhh sound)

Be quiet!

Be quiet!

Because it’s time to go

As I work in building and our classroom is in the third floor,  we frequently go down the stairs singing the bye-bye song or even any other song we’ve learnt that day. But they know although we are singing, we should always be organized.

Wow! I’ve written a lot and I feel like I still have a lot of thing to say. So, I’ll leave them for the next posts, but here are my last few tips:

·         Enjoy your time with your students;

·         Be flexible, we can always change something;

·         It’s not YOUR routine, it’s your students’ routine;

·         Make it meaningful to your STUDENTS;

·         Children love learning new things, so make your classroom the right place for new discoveries;

·         If you think it’s too much for you or your students to do it at once, go step by step, (don’t rush!);

·         Have fun!

Remember: “You cannot force a child to learn. You can only provide a conducive environment, useful resources, and carefully structured input and practice opportunities.”.

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