Newsletter (2017-2018) February 2018 Newsletter | Page 13

in the oracy and literacy course is that it is nec-
essary to put the learning materials into context,
so that you can actually expose your students to
English in the real world. For instance, if they
were to learn the grammatical structure of “I
want to be…so that…” or “If I become…I need
to be…”, as a teacher, I could ask them to prac-
tice the grammar with “dream jobs” as the main
topic. The context could then be asking them
to write a diary entry about their dream career
or have them do a drama activity where they
must use the target grammar. Context is just as
important as content when teaching a language
because when you have a real context, students
will find its purpose easier to understand. It also
strengthens interest and productivity.
Classroom management is also one of the chal-
lenges of being a teacher. Three years ago during
my part-time job teaching in a primary school, I
had around seven to eight students. I was hap-
py about it because it seemed easier to teach a
smaller class. However, there was one boy who
would rarely stay still in his seat and listen to me.
He was not very strong academically, but he was
definitely talented in other aspects especially in
athletics considering his regular participation in
the Taekwondo club. Whenever he entered the
classroom, he would cheerfully greet me and be
playful around his classmates. I should also add
that his upbeat attitude really brightened up my
day; one of the reasons why I look forward to
being a teacher is that I enjoy seeing positive en-
ergetic students!
and just walk around his table. I would have to
call out his name and gently tell him to stop and
sit back on his seat. However, I would then lose
his attention again every 10 minutes. I thought
I should attempt to scold him, but I do not be-
lieve in the practice of scolding and yelling at
students. I was also already playing an inter-
active matching activity with the class and did
not want to disrupt the other students. Each of
them were given a picture of a particular food,
and were tasked with matching it to the corre-
sponding photo on the board. The boy, to my
dismay, still did not listen. I admit this frustrated
me very much. What was I really doing wrong?
How could I get all of my students to pay atten-
tion? If I could not have everyone pay attention
to me, then did that mean I failed as a teacher?
In terms of classroom management, I remember
my children’s literature professor giving all of
us a tip on how to get a noisy classroom’s atten-
tion, because we were all being chatty that time
during class. She demonstrated a rhythmic clap
and said that would definitely capture students’
attention. There are also other ways that teach-
ers can do so, such as praising students that are
quiet individually, counting from four to one, or
even simply having a snack break (something
I interestingly observed in England and what I
hope to bring to Hong Kong’s classrooms some-
day!). I wish I knew these techniques back when
I had that specific teaching experience with the
student who did not listen to me, because now
I’ve been using those methods in my teaching
and they have made classroom management
Nevertheless, when I finally started the lesson, easier to handle most of the time.
he would often misbehave, get out of his chair
I also took a service-based learning course that
required us to teach in a primary school and as-
sist students with special needs. This was my
first time teaching a class of only SEN students,
all of whom were academically weak and were
falling behind in English. They all had different
needs. Some of them had a very short attention
span, were very quiet or really, really hated writ-
ing. One thing that I came to realise is that when
teaching these groups of awesome students, it
helps to really make teaching materials and ac-
tivities diverse and enjoyable. For example, if
students are learning food-related vocabulary,
they can be given a food list and find their items
The materials that Ella prepared to teach her stu-
around the classroom as if they were in a super-
dents about food.
market. Another thing they can do is to interview
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FEBRUARY 2018