Classroom routines
Hello and welcome!
Today I’m going to write something about classroom routines. This week I’ve been focusing on it and maybe I found out something that might be interesting and useful for us, young teachers.
The first lesson in the school begins always with bringing students to the classroom from the common-room where pupils wait for the teacher. If someone is late for the class, they usually come with parents to the door, then enter the classroom alone saying “Sorry I’m late”. If the teacher starts his day later, they just enter the classroom before the break ends, take over and starts the lesson. Important is that younger students are not allowed to travel around the school during the break, they spend it in the classroom with some exceptions for bathroom or school shop, so students don’t leave the classroom during the lesson. There is also no bells, which makes it more difficult for teachers as they have to make sure to start and finish the lesson on time.
The official beginning of the lesson is when the teacher asks the students to stand up and greet. Then, two students go and prepare books, give them away, and the actual lesson is about to begin.
One interesting thing that could be noticed is that in grade 1 there is a “lucky duck” idea. One student picks one card with a name of the other student without looking at it so that only teacher knows who was chosen this day. Each lesson there is one lucky duck. The idea behind it is that the lucky duck is observed during the lesson and if he behaves well teacher writes a note for parents to praise him. If not, there is no note and a feeling of a wasted chance. Students enjoy it a lot. It's a great way to make students control their behaviors. Both students and parents are really interested in getting and reading such note, but from the pedagogical point of view in this way, the teacher gives students control over themselves and feeling of responsibility. Personally, I love the idea and I would like to try it out in my classroom.
After this, there is always some warm-up. A song, game, some questions to make students aware that the learning time has started and now they should use English.
The teacher uses some attention signals during the lesson. One of them is a rhyme that students know and tell together when they hear it: “One, two, three, look at me. One, two, three, listen to me. One, two, three, shhhhhh.” It works quite well. When students are too loud teacher counts to 10 or covers her mouth and put the other hand up and waits for students to get quiet and repeat her action. If a student needs some help during the lesson they usually put up their hand and say “teacher….” Continuing with what the problem is. Then the teacher comes closer and explains.
At the end of the lesson, students know that it’s over when the teacher asks to put the books away and says that now they can play.
As far as I noticed there is no homework policy. That’s the best thing with having an English lesson every day. They have regular contact with the language and can it can happen that something is unfinished. So they can come back to it during the break, later during the day or next time, but till now I didn’t notice any examples of unfinished work.
That's everything for today, hope you enjoyed this post. See you again next Sunday!
Today I’m going to write something about classroom routines. This week I’ve been focusing on it and maybe I found out something that might be interesting and useful for us, young teachers.
The first lesson in the school begins always with bringing students to the classroom from the common-room where pupils wait for the teacher. If someone is late for the class, they usually come with parents to the door, then enter the classroom alone saying “Sorry I’m late”. If the teacher starts his day later, they just enter the classroom before the break ends, take over and starts the lesson. Important is that younger students are not allowed to travel around the school during the break, they spend it in the classroom with some exceptions for bathroom or school shop, so students don’t leave the classroom during the lesson. There is also no bells, which makes it more difficult for teachers as they have to make sure to start and finish the lesson on time.
The official beginning of the lesson is when the teacher asks the students to stand up and greet. Then, two students go and prepare books, give them away, and the actual lesson is about to begin.
One interesting thing that could be noticed is that in grade 1 there is a “lucky duck” idea. One student picks one card with a name of the other student without looking at it so that only teacher knows who was chosen this day. Each lesson there is one lucky duck. The idea behind it is that the lucky duck is observed during the lesson and if he behaves well teacher writes a note for parents to praise him. If not, there is no note and a feeling of a wasted chance. Students enjoy it a lot. It's a great way to make students control their behaviors. Both students and parents are really interested in getting and reading such note, but from the pedagogical point of view in this way, the teacher gives students control over themselves and feeling of responsibility. Personally, I love the idea and I would like to try it out in my classroom.
After this, there is always some warm-up. A song, game, some questions to make students aware that the learning time has started and now they should use English.
The teacher uses some attention signals during the lesson. One of them is a rhyme that students know and tell together when they hear it: “One, two, three, look at me. One, two, three, listen to me. One, two, three, shhhhhh.” It works quite well. When students are too loud teacher counts to 10 or covers her mouth and put the other hand up and waits for students to get quiet and repeat her action. If a student needs some help during the lesson they usually put up their hand and say “teacher….” Continuing with what the problem is. Then the teacher comes closer and explains.
At the end of the lesson, students know that it’s over when the teacher asks to put the books away and says that now they can play.
As far as I noticed there is no homework policy. That’s the best thing with having an English lesson every day. They have regular contact with the language and can it can happen that something is unfinished. So they can come back to it during the break, later during the day or next time, but till now I didn’t notice any examples of unfinished work.
That's everything for today, hope you enjoyed this post. See you again next Sunday!
I found your post very interesting, especially since the routines during my observations were very different! The ‘lucky duck’ idea sounds very interesting as I have never encountered the idea that students monitor the behavior of other students. I feel like this activity not only gives the children some control, but also teaches them honesty and cooperation in a fun way.
ReplyDeleteI also like the "Lucky Duck", which can help teacher to manage the classes well, I might send this suggestion to my mentor teacher to try it out. or you can tell me more after you try it our in your class.
ReplyDeleteAlso, no homework policy, then children can enjoy the lessons without worrying about their homework, which is great, and they can have more time to decide what they want to do after class, like reading books or practice their writing.
thanks for sharing, looking for more interesting things from your post.