Special tips to

Being a successful teacher

-Song Hyang Jung(Ann)

"  You can’t teach a man anything,

you can only help him find it within himself."

- Galileo

The importance of learning English is not just recent phenomenon. Leaning English would be considered worth in our time. When many students start to learn English, there many unexpectable problems happen teachers may face. As a teacher, it is important to how to handle discipline problems in the classroom. To make a teacher  effective, let's study what quality of teacher need to be done to cope with some situations.

Firstly, teacher would face 'one' policy in classroom - which is 'English Only' policy. Whether students are willing to follow that policy in the class or not, it's totally up to you as a teacher. Because that's considerable students rely on your influence of getting students to do. Before you tell the policy to students,  we need to look into some reasons why there need 'English only' policy. Let's start to find out.

When you learn language that there are many benefits to having only English spoken in classroom. Most importantly, requiring students to speak only in English will help them  become more comfortable and confident. But expressing themselves in English and communicating through English seems not to be easy for students. For example, when I learned ESL English course at Billy blue in North Sydney (Jan~March 2008), there were policies 'English only' like that, That meant every students should eliminate their native language and replace it with English. It was challenge for me to follow that policy at that time. First time I should speak everything in English, it seemed to be impossible. Because at that moment I could express only 1~2 simple sentences in English.

That was obviously tough experiences, but surprisingly, I got into the habit of thinking everything in English one by one. Of course a lot of time can be spent though. After all, 'English only' policy helped me develop my ability to use it.

So, if I teach English in the future, I will create atmosphere where students can practice English as much as possible and encourage them to do in many ways. Even if they speak slowly dull, I will get them motivated to use English. If students put their great efforts into practices every day, they will acquire the way of using language.

Another problem to handle with for teacher is that frequent tardiness and frequent absences of students in the classroom. Due to tardiness and absences, a tardy student may disturb the class and miss the lesson. In my own experience, when I took a class, if someone was late to class, I couldn't concentrated on class and  either teacher do.

Then, how can I enforce frequent tardiness and absences of students in my class?

When I was in ESL course at Billy blue (Jan~ March 2008) in Sydney, there was my teacher, named Margaret, locked the door after class began 8:30 am til break time. Late students could not come to classroom in the middle of class. As long as students be on time, they were guaranteed whole class without any interferences.

How can I minimize the negative impact of someone´s tardiness like that?

I will try to start each class with some warming-up exercises like game etc. Or talk to students ask them about interesting topic, etc. After that if someone is 10 or 15 minutes late, this student will not miss anything.

The other solution is if someone does come too late, when we have already started going through, I will explain that students what we´re doing something in a simple words. If they still have no idea,  I tell them to come to me during the break or  after class, which is no one likes doing. So they will try to come on time in order not to miss explanation. And I need to distinguish what is excused or unexcused reasons for tardiness or absence. Once the rules set up, the rules should be apply to them without exception.

Lastly, there are something to teach important skills for students which is to give a presentation. That is important communication skills at work in the future, but some students do not prefer that. For example, when I was in EAP2 class at UEC esl college, (April~june 2008) which was located in Pitt st in Sydney, my teacher, John, gave us a presentation in a team. The topic of our team was on organic food. Fortunately, three students were in a group including me. we divided up the presentation in three parts and each student prepared each section separately. Each student was supposed to speak about 10 min, that is much easier than by myself. First time when teacher gave us presentation, which was challenge for me. But my teacher, John, helped us by giving us some information how to organize and what to speak when we presented. Through that presentation I gained confidence and experiences.

As you see above, presentation is important skill for students. When teacher assigned to do a presentation, it might be nervous for students. However, it give confidence to students and opportunities to speak in front of people more when they have take a class. Therefore, If I was a teacher, I would give students as many opportunities as  presentations to develop their ability. If I found some students afraid of doing presentations, I will explain why presentations may be need for them and persuade them to do it. If students have no idea what they are going to say, I will set up the guideline about presentation, provide students with methods to help them.

After presentation, the students may be encouraged and then I will give some feedback.The thing is that I encourage students to do presentations and help them find confidence.

Teach philosophy 101 http://www.teachphilosophy101.org/Default.aspx?tabid=160

In conclusion, in order to make an effective classroom management, teachers constantly put their efforts into care about students. Teacher should be trying to creating atmosphere where the students can use English until language habits will get established through the way of 'English only' policy. Teacher should not only provide students with knowledge of subject, but also manage the tardiness and absence of students in an effective manner. This can only be done by care about students and observation.