Teachers – as the captain inside the classroom – had to be proficient in the groundwork of everyday classroom instruction and management. It is their sole responsibility to counter all odds in such a way that the students can be molded to become learned, well mannered and faithful citizens.
Anticipation and being aware of the situation at hand are the first and foremost thing to do as the teacher prepares himself. Well-written lesson plans are not enough to handle the class situation smoothly. Well-taught lessons are not the guarantee for students to become “learned, well mannered and faithful.” More to that, a teacher who can handle fully well the classroom towards a humane environment can foster a growth development for the students to be so.
Anticipation and being aware of the situation entails a teacher to build his own personal classroom management style. Next, as he sees it fit, this style must be upheld into, since after all, we have to plan our work and to work our plan, diligently.
Corporal or spiritual discipline?
Scientific inquiry and journalistic probing abound the issue of discipline. The dawning of moderate classroom disciplinary procedures brought by the Juvenile Act presents in itself a flaw. Witness how children nowadays neglect their duties, worst they lodge protests to parents and even cast rebellion to authorities. They even commit crime and trumpet it, since after all they are protected by the law and social welfare.
However, corporal punishment, as a way to counter these moral quandaries, is like injecting more violence in already violent peccadilloes.
To show dignity and respect in his own self, the teacher has to plan ways on how to deal situations like this gracefully even how pressured he is. If successful, the teacher who was able to handle untoward situations harmoniously can be viewed as a matured moral agent. The best example of which was the late President Cory Aquino and Pope John Paul II. The former was made known of her kindness and compassion shown under her administration which was riddled with nine coup attempts authored by savage cronies of the late dictator. Indeed her yellow regime is the antithesis of the red. The latter after he was almost assassinated in St Peter Square by a Turkish citizen immediately had forgiven the suspect and even personally given the Holy Sacrament of Reconciliation. The supposed suspect was later freed.
This must be the kind of discipline which we must emulate. Ultimately this is the kind of discipline we have to strive harder to attain.
Cleanliness, orderliness, organization
A clean environment rewards a healthy living; order, a peace of mind; and, organization, a sense of sustainability. The teacher, if he wishes to have a situation where there’s no place for chaos, sickness and turmoil, must provide a sense of cleanliness, orderliness, and organization. Otherwise he eventually kills opportunities of learning; and we do not wish this to happen inside the classroom. The thing is how we can provide a classroom that is conducive for teaching in a cramped classroom setting due to the small size of the room and the huge population congesting in it. Ironically, we expect much in the education while the government is investing less – the sad state of education in our country.
The teacher then has to be innovative; good thing is we are known to be so. In our part, we must let the students understand the situation and then we have to imbibe to them the value of cleanliness, orderliness and organization. That despite of being filthy, we have to be clean; that despite of chaos, we have to be serene; that despite of turmoil we have to be graceful. It is the virtue we must plan to attain in our own selves and to share to our students.
Seat plan: a way to avoid trouble
One way to uphold cleanliness, orderliness and organization
is to have a well-planned seating arrangement that will accommodate students of all heights, sights and rights.
Fashion a way that will allow taller students to sit at the back while shorter ones at the front. Students with visual impairments not more than simple near-sightedness or blurredness must be allowed to sit near the board. Important as well, is their desire to be seated maybe at the front to listen very well to the instruction, or near the window just in case your classroom is not well-ventilated or maybe far from the toilet to avoid odorous discharges from it. This is also the best way to avoid exchanging/copying answers during examination and for bullies not to take advantage of their well-mannered seatmates.
Interpersonal relations
Effective teachers know well how to handle societal demands of simple chit-chat, of refusing temptations of liquor or eavesdropping and avoiding gossip which are in nature unhealthy.
However, to balance between interpersonal and intrapersonal relationship is difficult. Sure, building rapport to students, colleagues and superiors is necessary, but have you tamed your inner you? Or have you built a relationship with the Lord? We have to consider this.
One way is to forge an environment which tolerates healthy relationship that fosters sense of humor and genuineness to each other. An environment which tolerates gossiping and crab mentality is built in sand, that whenever a storm passes through, the foundation will easily give way. A relationship founded in God is built in bedrock.
Presenting and preparing the lesson
The basic role of a teacher is to teach the lesson and he must teach it correctly. Other roles can be secondary but to teach the lesson is the primary objective that whenever he fails to do it, he failed miserably and would better pack his things instead to apply for other jobs for the good of his students
The knowledge being shared by the teacher is as important as how he exploit it for his students to see and hear. Thus an instructional material is a must for all teachers who wished to provide an effective learning environment. This could be done by earnestly aspiring to do all things necessary be it in a selfless way just to achieve the desired goal. Provide an IM and make sure that what is written in it is error-free since it is prepared nights before the presentation. And groom yourself!
Communicate
The best way to teach the lesson is by speech and bodily gestures which are not irritating but meaningful. One thing the teacher must plan is to proximate his voice in such a way that it will be clearly heard by all of his students only inside the classroom, not anymore the adjacent room! Further, gestures, which shows emphasis, not shudders nor causes nuisance, had to be shown to prove the point like in the case of science lessons.
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