I am currently undergoing my formal education as a teacher of English and German as a second language, but I’ve been a full-time private tutor for 5 years. I’m not supposed to teach in a school yet, but due to the state of the education system in my country, there was a lack of teachers and I got invited to teach in my former high school. I teach a group of 11 thirteen-year-olds 6x45 minutes on Mondays and Tuesdays.
I felt like I was doing quite well, but today devastated me. We had our second lesson in the canteen (due to lack of available classrooms) and it was a disaster. I try my best to plan engaging, exciting lessons, so after a short vocabulary test they were due to write, I asked them to go around the classroom and ask each other some questions related to our new unit, I even made and printed them a spreadhseet with their names that they could fill out. They started asking each other for the information in our native language, no matter how many times I asked them to speak in English, and after the time was up, I could not, for the life of me, get them to settle. Half of them were shouting and chatting, the other half were eyeing me, waiting for my response. They are generally quite lively, but today was the first time I could not get them to settle.
Now, I never yell. I do my absolute best to respect everyone, just like I promised them the first time we met. However, I asked for their respect and cooperation in return and I can see that faltering. They got used to me, got bored with me, I don’t know.
Initially I thought I would have more problems with the boys, but they are okay. It’s the girls, they mature faster so they are already these moody teenagers. I can’t get them all to do their homework, even by giving them bad grades for it, can’t get them to engage, put away their phones, nothing. I tried interesting debates, topics, but it doesn’t work for more than 5 minutes. Nothing I’ve seen in movies, experienced as a student myself works anymore. They don’t have the attention span. They are under- and overstimulated at the same time and cannot sit still, but cannot do a stand-up activity in an organised manner, it turns into chaos.
Academically, they are bright and have a very good level of English thanks to video games and movies. They do fairly well in tests, but they won’t improve unless I manage to get through to them. I have some rules in place and I stick to them, so I have given them a few bad grades, etc. but I don’t feel like it’s enough.
For information, I’m barely taller than them and I’m a 25-year-old, younger looking girl so I’m not very intimidating. I’m also not mean-spirited and never talk down to any of my students, but I realised I need a modified approach to teaching in a group compared to teaching privately.
I would appreciate any insight or tips on how to achieve a calm and disciplined environment in which I can actually use the fun stuff I work hard to prepare.
I don’t have much to add but being respected (and getting your class to do the assignments) is a matter of confidence 😁
Confidence does not mean being harsh or a hardass. This might be lost on 13yos however so that’s why I said I can’t add much.
But it means that you project an air of being untouchable. I think one way to help achieve this is to have principles that remain coherent. If they know what to expect from you; that they can still ask questions, that they can still rely on you to be a teacher, but that you’re going to hold them to some standard… you will be able to make them see you not as the barely taller, 25yo younger-looking girl you call yourself, but as sort of an untouchable authority figure. Remember that people see you differently to how you see yourself.
I think we’re moving away from the teacher being a final authority whose word is law and being more of a guide or mentor, getting students to do things because it’s in their best interest, not because you said so. And one job the teacher has is to help students realize that what you’re doing is ultimately helping them, even if you can be tough on them sometimes. But you’re the teacher here and I say this now as an adult.
Some of the teachers we laughed and joked around with as a kid were the big bald guys, and some of the teachers we knew to take seriously were the 50yo moms.
Thank you, this is a very important aspect of the issue indeed. I did lay down some basic principles during out first lesson and I hold myself to them. But now I think maybe I was too set on being liked that it’s like I hoped being respected would come along, but it’s the other way around. I need to focus on being respected and being liked will come along.