Startings are always
hard..
Incident
On November 19th
at around twelve twenty , students in 1-C class were wandering around ;
some of them were in front of the smart
board trying to write something;
some of them were sitting quietly
wondering what was happening; and some were just looking at me as if I had to
do something. There were totally seven students and for that number, there was
too much noise. They probably could not understand instructions and did not
know what to do and just went out of control. Teacher was trying to calm them
down, but it simply did not work. They were resisting to sit back and be
silent. They were talking with each other in Turkish and did not follow
teacher’s dictations. In the end, they gave up and somehow they sat back to
their desks, but the teacher was anxious and also glad.
Tutor’s Reflections
The teacher was me. I was very pleased that I had dealt with
this, in the end. It was my first teaching experience. The students were so
young, so active and so energetic. It was hard to control them. At first I was
really disappointed. I thought that I really messed up everything and I was
very unsuccessful. However, co-operative teacher whom I work with trusted me
and told that depending on my first teaching experience, I was fine and I did a good job. I was very glad to hear
that, but still I felt upset because I had expected a better unofficial presentation from myself.
Learning Points
The problem might have been resulted from the way I gave
instructions. I was trying to explain a game that we would play together about
“fruits”. I realised that I did not use simple vocabulary to express the rules
of game. Although the game was a very enjoyable one, I could not get my message
across to students and therefore the game was not effective for me and also for
them. We could not get benefit of it. What I could do actually was to know learners
very well before deciding to teach them. I should have learnt their real
profile, their interests and what they could know and understand. Although I
was not nervous at all during class time, I could not control them. I should
have explained each and every step clearly and slowly. One another probable
reason of such a problem might be because of the fact that I had never worked
with such a young group of learners and did not completely know their needs and
abilities. I should have analyzed them carefully in order not to have come
across such kind of problem again.
Well, first of all congratulations on your unofficial presentation ;) I am sure that it all went well, so don't worry about it.
ReplyDeleteManaging very young learners is not an easy job, and you didn't spend enough time dealing with these kids; that was your first time, and first times are when we start learning from our experiences, so you've made one step towards that.
A similar problem happened while I was observing a class of fourth graders. Their teacher wanted them to play a game, as well. They were to come to the board in pairs, and compete in picking the correct synonym to the word as the teacher provided it. But, all the students went out of control, and they couldn't go on playing.
I think the problem was that the game required pairs to come to the board, and the rest of the students didn't have a reason to watch what their peers were doing there. If the teacher had asked one student to come to the board at a time, and if the play had been designed in such a way that each student's work on the board influenced what others would do next, then the students would have a reason to keep quiet and watch what their peers were doing.
I don't know if your game was like that, or it was applicable to your situation?
You are right, seher, startings are really hard:( First of all, I am really sorry for you for experiencing this but this is not something about you, I mean, most of us will experience similar situations when we start conducting lessons in our practise school and even in our real school in the near future. Kids are really harsh when they do not want to do something, they don't do it. They don't appreciate our effort in preparing and conducting the lesson just because they are kids:)
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, don't feel that bad about it because like you said it was your very first encounter with the young learners!! It could always be better, but the important thing you should keep in mind is that nno matter how much time you spent with them, it is not your class and you are probably considered as a guest, which is why they do what they do when you are teaching..I know it is easy to say those things especially for me who hasn't had any teaching experience, but still I wanted to make sure you don't forget the conditions we have as trainees;)
ReplyDeleteI am sure that as teacher trainees nearly all of us can confront with such a situation.To control students better it is really important that we should know them better. Their interests and abilities can make our job easier. However it is really important that we should learn from our experience. Learning points are really clear and reasonable, I really agree with you.
ReplyDeleteI am also planning to do my first unofficial course with the 1st grades so I hope I don't live the same things but I will probably live as it is so difficult to draw their attention. Each and every minute , teachers are to find a new thing to keep them silent and teach them a single unit.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to us all.
i loved the part that you confessed that you were the teacher! that was great story telling. as your friends said, it's more important that we learn from these incidents. Most of us have similar experiences.
ReplyDeleteWith young learners don't bother to explain the game with words. Just show it!