Teaching in Uganda always has its adventures. Especially in the classroom management department, I have 75 students who can’t always pick my accent and are used to being
disciplined with a cane which, makes it hard sometimes when I go into the class
trying to use a positive behavior system I didn’t always get respect from the
kids. They thought, since she is not going to cane us we don’t really have to
listen to her. It took me several months of brain breaks, fun call and
responses, and showing that the kids will get rewarded if they behave to get
them to respect me and listen. I am realizing more and more that it's going to be so interesting head back and teaching in the states and cutting my class size to a third of what it is now. It's going to be a challenge to adjust for sure. However, I am always up for the challenge. To be able to manage 75 students you have to be creative, energetic, and active.
With all that being said, I decided that it might be fun to share with you all how I use
classroom management in a class that large. There is a lot of singing and brain
breaks that’s for sure. I try to start and end every lesson with some sort of
energizer. My student’s favorite is Banana Unite, it cracks them up and I think
they just like to go bananas. I usually switch the energizers up with head and
shoulders, stretching, or some yoga poses. I am currently in the middle of
trying to create new energizers that fit together better culturally. That being
said I spend a lot of time on Pinterest. It’s probably one of my biggest uses
of data.
While I
am teaching my lessons I make sure that I am constantly upbeat and extremely
energetic in order to constantly keep the kids engaged. I also try to ask a lot
of questions and I walk around the classroom in order to make sure that the
students are always paying attention. Another thing that I do to constantly insure
that my students are engaged is teaching with songs. Not only do songs help
keep my students extremely engaged but it also helps them memorize and learn
new things. Another thing that I do during lessons is I utilize break breaks,
while I am teaching I am constantly evaluating the class and I can easily tell
if my students need a break because they are sleepy, or if they are just
getting confused and need to refocus. Once I notice something like this
happening I will have my students stand able and take a wiggle break, stretch,
do some sort of exercise, or do a quick energizer. Some teachers give me a hard
time for my use of brain break but you do not understand how important they can
be for a student and how quickly it can and will refocus and make your class
pay attention better.
With
large class sizes you have to worry about side conversations because they can
get noisy very quickly. In order to keep the side conversations to a minimum I
use a variety of attention getters. My students favorites are “1, 2, 3, all I
on me. 1,2 eyes on you” and “Hocus Pocus, everybody Focus” this gets the class
quiet and paying attention to me once again. IT takes me a while to introduce
new attention getters because my students are English learners they have to
practice a lot. So I am trying to introduce a new attention getter every three
weeks. That way they have the attention getter down pat before I teach them the
new one.
Another
thing that really helps my classroom management with large class sizes is
giving a whole lot of praise. I constantly praise my students when they are
listening, participating, and thriving in class. This makes my students work
even harder and because they want to be praised. My praise always involves
participation from them which always them to shout and move for just a little
bit at any given moment.
And
lastly, for my older students I use a positive behavior system. We have a list
of classroom expectations and as my students follow those expectations they get
stars. They can earn up to 3 stars in one class. When they earn 30 stars they
get a class period that is filled with phonics games and a dance party. The
students can lose the stars they earn during the class but once they are put up
onto the poster they cannot be removed UNLESS they hit another student. When
that happens they lose a star from the poster and can’t earn stars for the day.
This has been doing wonderful for my students and their behavior has greatly
improved and their level of respect for me has gone up.
Well,
there you have it, all the ways that I manage my large class sizes. It’s hard
most days but honestly it has allowed me to become such a better teacher for it
and it has forced me to become more creative. I am so excited to continue to
grow as a teacher here in Uganda so when I go to the states and have my own
classroom I am going to be able to crush it even more because things will be
just a bit easier.
As
always feel free to ask me any questions. I might even turn your questions
into a blog post.
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