Teaching place, eye contact and body language are the most important points of teaching.

We
discussed this week about them from different perspectives. If we plant our feet in one place during
the whole lesson, if we don’t look into each of our ss, and if we don’t use any body language, then we
are not a teacher but a person who is talking to themselves. We also talked about making ss use
English and their learning. For instance, to keep them spaeking English, we collect lots of ideas from
each other. Some of them are;

T should behave as if s/he is deaf when ss speak in Turkish.

T should ignore the mistakes to encourage them to speak English.
T shouldn’t make fun of them.
To play enjoyable games, and
To understand each other better, T should use body language with the sentences in English
( e.g. : when saying open the door, s/he shows this opening the door.)

We played silent movie, also called charades, to examine body language. It was really funny. I cannot
use my body language so often, but I learnt many expressions, at least I can use them any more.

Classroom management is another important issue for this week. We can divide it into two as
classroom itself and the teacher. Comfort, light, sight, sound, seating arrangements, equipment and
blackboard use are physical elements. Voice, giving instructions, body language are about the
teacher.

These physical elements are related to “classroom energy”. If everything is OK, class is ready to the
lesson. But if there is a problem among the ss, if T cannot reach all the ss, if there is noise coming
from the outside, or if material cannot be seen by all the students, teaching and learning atmosphere
are effected negatively. The same as the physical arrangement, if T speaks with the voice
continuously up and down which irritates ss, again these effects learning negatively. And of course
your face.. It should reflect optimism and brightness. And giving instructions, we should articulate
clearly and check the instructions.

And we also talked about “the unexpected situations” during the class. We discussed some
unplanned events. We get some solutions. One is that honesty is the best policy. Another and most
valid solution is that one extra activity must be in our pocket, calle “B PLAN” :)

I should pay attention to the body language. I hope I will be effective by using it. I hope  Also
whatever mistakes ss do, I never criticise and make fun of them. I love them. :)

Zeynep Türksoy