SEETA Week Day 7

Today is my last day with SEETA.

I would like to thank everybody for taking their time and joining my discussion forum :)

SEETA Week Day 6

Today is my SEETA week Day 6 and the issue discussed is NESTs and NonNESTs.

Click here to join in :)

SEETA week Day 5

Today is my SEETA week Day 5 and we'll discuss Pair and Group Work in EFL classes.

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SEETA Week Day 3 and 4

My SEETA week Day 3 - Rules, Procedures and Routines

My SEETA week Day 4 - Fast Finishers

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SEETA week Day 2 - To praise or to punish?

Today is my Classroom Management SEETA week Day 2 and the issue I'm going to discuss is: To praise or to punish?

If you want to share your ideas, click here to join.

*Coming up tomorrow - Rules, procedures and routines.

SEETA week Day 1 - Getting students' attention

As you may remember I'll be hosting a SEETA week from 14th till 20th of May with the topic Classroom Management.


Today is Day 1 and the issue discussed is getting students' attention.


If you feel like sharing ideas or leaving a comment, join in now!


*Coming up tomorrow - To praise or to punish?

Blowing my own trumpet

A few months ago, Zarina Markova, whom I met at the BETA Bulgaria conference in May 2009, asked me to host a SEETA week.


For those of you who have never heard of it, SEETA is a  collaborative on-line community of eleven Teachers' Associations in SE Europe run by volunteers.


I feel honoured as some of the former hosts invited to share their ideas on the website were Scott Thornbury, Jamie Keddie, Nik Peachey and Philip Kerr among others.


From 14th to 20th of May 2010 I'll be there discussing all possible issues related to Classroom Management.


Hoping that some of you will find time to join me :)

A webiste review

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/more/management/contents02rewards.htm

There are many ways that help us reward our students.
Some of them are useful and some, though effective, negate the very idea of teaching.

The ones I particularly dislike involve ‘bribery’ i.e. offering students sweets, toys or stationery in order to reward good behaviour. Obviously, if we promise a 7 year old a toy for being good, the chances are he will do everything to get the prize. We must not forget however that methods based on behaviourism can lead to a dead end. Namely:

• The student will learn to get a prize for anything good he does and will expect it all the time.


• In case a prize is not provided, a teacher may encounter tantrums or any other outbursts of negative behaviour (in my view, fully justified)


• The child’s focus will be on getting something material not on appropriate behaviour or educational objectives


• Any attempt to change the system into more humanist oriented type of rewarding will have consequences as the ones mentioned above


• It is an unnecessary expenditure as there are other ways to maintain good behaviour in class


Most of us have heard of the Star and Smiling Faces types of rewarding good behaviour. They are easy to implement and require minimal preparation on the part of the teacher.

Some of the attention-grabbing ideas I have found on the website discussed are:

• Behaviour Ladder
• Behaviour Train (similar to the ideas I have discussed earlier but more elaborate)
• Class Celebrity
• Peacock Targets (with a downloadable sheet)

Have fun using them in your classes!

Classroom management - In or Out

In or Out works best for kindergarten students i.e. the ones who cannot read or write yet and who respond exceptionally well to visual ways of explantion and instruction.


The basic idea behind the game is that if you are good, you are in the same group with the teacher and other students; if you are naughty, you are out of the group.

Apples in a basket:

During the first week (month) of the school year, the teacher has to prepare a big paper basket and paper apples for every student. They will later colour and write their names on them with the help of the teacher who will have an apple of his/her own as well. Next, all the apples will be placed in the basket hung earlier on the classroom wall/ bulletin board. If one student misbehaves, he is taken out of the basket and put next to it. If his/ her behaviour changes, the apple is placed back into the basket.

The activity has many variations. The teacher may decide to prepare, for example:


• bees and a beehive
• stars and a model of univers
• clouds and a sky
• flowers in a garden
• wagons of a train
• animals in a forest/ jungle
• fish or frogs in a pond
• starfish or other sea creatures in a sea

Classroom Management - Football English

The Football English activity works best with older students who have at least some idea about football. It works particularly well in classrooms where the kids are mainly boys.
To make it work you need to prepare a set of YELLOW and RED cards.

You set up the activity by explaining the rules:

• if a student talks, interrupts, refuses to engage in an activity etc, s/he will be given the first YELLOW card
• s/he will be given one more chance but in case s/he continues to misbehave, another YELLOW card will be given
• if the situation continues,  a student is given a RED card
• a RED card means extra homework, detention, a talk with the principal etc.

The students will realize immediately that the game is similar to football with one exception i.e. the players are given two yellow cards instead of one and the second yellow card does not automatically generate a red card.


A problem that might occur while you try the activity out is the students themselves. They will most probably start writing on the cards or damaging them in some way. In such a case, a good solution might be using colored chalk. Instead of giving the cards to naughty students, mark their desks with red and yellow chalk and you will get a very similar effect. It will also save you time on preparation of the cards.

Classroom management ideas

During my career as an ESL teacher I have come across plenty of teachers who dread teaching children. Because they are naughty. Because they cannot concentrate. Because all they want to do is run around and make a lot of noise. Having taught kids for a few years now I wholeheartedly agree with all the aforementioned complaints. It takes however a few things to bear in mind to make your YL classes work like magic.

Teamwork, games and the sense of competitiveness

Students love competitions and YL are no exception. The only difference is that they love them even more! Hence you should take every opportunity to turn any activity into a contest. Start up by dividing the class into two or more groups.

Give each team a name e.g. oranges and apples or red and blue. You can use the vocabulary you have recently taught to provide some extra practice and give your students an opportunity to encounter the new words again.

Very YLs tend to forget which group they belong to so use colored chalk to mark their desks. Always check that the students know which group they are a memeber of by making them raise their hands and see who else is in their group.

On the blackboard write each group’s name and give them an equal numbers of points for a start. Warn the students they you will erase their points if anyone from the group shouts, walks around, keeps talking, does not raise their hand etc. Tell them that points will be added if group members speak English or complete tasks successfully.

With very young lerners, not being able to use L1 may cause loads of unnecessary stress. My kids, therefore, are allowed to speak their mother tongue only if they whisper to their partners and if they don't do it very often.

Reward the kids for every positive thing they do. Keep in mind that rewards have a much more encouraging and motivating effect than any form of punishment.