No of Journal : 1

Practicum Week : 1

Incident date : 24th July 2016 – 28th July 2016

Title of Journal : Noisy Classroom

1.0 Problem

I teach the year 3 Yakin pupils of SK Tempinis. There are 19 pupils in the class.
I’m having about 8 periods of lessons with them in each week. But for the first week, I just
entered and had ice breaking session with them. I find my classroom as very noisy.
Actually if they pupils make noise or talk a lot that shows their active involvement as well
as their excitement during the teaching and learning session. But, on the other hand,
noisy classroom also displays the teacher’s classroom management, in which it shows
the teacher’s classroom control and pupils dominance instead of teacher’s.

2.0 Analyze the problem

Teacher’s job is to place knowledge and skills inside the noggins the learners.
How frustrating that mission becomes when the teachers are unable to do the job
proficiently because the pupils are engaged in off-task conversations. At other times, it is
the sound of learning that we are hearing, but its many decibels too loud. Thus, I find it
hard to have the control during my teaching and learning session, as the pupils are not
focusing on the lesson but they are chit chatting with each other and they are disturbing
the lesson as well. For example, Aidil is a boy with a very loud voice, thus, he tend to talk
louder and sometimes he even shouts in the class while talking with his friends. I find it
hard to control as there are 22 of them and one of me. But, I know that I should make
sure them to realize that I’m the boss in the classroom and not them. If I give any sign at
all that I’m not in full control, the pupils will sense this and exploit my weaknesses. Thus,
I must project strength and the impression that I will not tolerate any disobedience.
3.0 Ways to overcome

Noisy classroom, in an unnecessary time and manner shows the weakness of the
teacher, hence I think that it is essential for a teacher to find a way to handle with the
noisy pupils during a teaching and learning session. There are few ways that I have
identified based on my search in an online journal written by Rob Johnson, who is the
author of “Magic Classroom Management – How to get the most from the worst kids in
school”. He is Deputy Head Teacher at a special school in the UK and has been working
with challenging young people for 15 years. I found his techniques as efficient and
proactive. Some of the techniques that I think can be adapted for my pupils are:

i) Use catchy chant

Teacher should develop a classroom chant that the pupils repeat when they
hear you say it. They then close their lips and attend to you. For example:
"Hello, hello!" Or else to make it even effective and dominant, teacher can say
“It’s instruction time” and the pupils will repeat “Listen to teacher”. This can
make sure that the pupils know that now is a time for them to listen, just to listen
and they can discuss or talk later on.

ii) Make it a game.

Especially for primary students, if you play "The Quiet Game" with them, they
will quiet down quickly. Give them a few seconds to finish up their
conversations, make lots of noise, etc., and then start playing "The Quiet
Game": the students must be quiet for as long as possible. If you want, set a
timer or tell them that you would like them to be quiet for 5 minutes. If they
make noise or talk, start the 5 minutes over. If students don't cooperate, you
may want to add a small prize/reward/sticker, etc. for the person or group that
stays quiet the longest.

iii) Waste their time.

 Tell them that if they waste your time (class time), you'll waste their time. Every
time the students get too noisy, watch the clock or look at your watch, counting
the seconds/minutes that it takes for them to quiet down. Tell them that they
have to make up those minutes at recess time. You could also simply put strikes
on the board once they're too loud. Each strike represents 1 minute that they
must wait before going out to recess.

iv) Use a rewards system.

Lots of teachers use rewards systems such as marble jars - when kids quiet
down quickly, you put a handful of marbles in the marble jar. When the kids are
noisy and don't listen when you ask them to quiet down, take a handful of
marbles out of the marble jar. You could also take 1 marble out of the jar for
every minute that you waited for quiet. Once the marble jar is full, give the class
a prize, such as a pajama day, watching a movie in the afternoon, going
outside, etc.

v) Award groups.
Put the students in groups and have a tally chart with the name of each group
on it. Tell the students to be quiet, and whichever group is quiet the longest/the
fastest will get a point for their group. You could also award one point for every
minute that each group is quiet for, so that the groups stay quiet for a long time.
Students get really competitive for points and will make sure that their other
group members are quiet. At the end of the week or month, award a prize to
the group with the most points.

4.0 Time frame

24th July 2016 – 28th July 2016

5.0 Further Action

During my next lesson, I will make sure that I make use of catchy chant to captivate
my pupil’s attention when I want to give them instruction. Besides that, I will also make
sure I make use of reward systems to attract my pupils attention to keep quiet as pupils
love rewards and gift, hence I can make use of it to keep the quite during necessary
periods.

Checked by Mentor: Checked by Lecturer:

Signature : Signature :
Name : Name :
Date : Date :

(Journal 1 = Noisy Classroom)

5.0 Further Action

 I tried to make use of the few ways to overcome the noisy classroom which I
researched on. Firstly, I used a catchy chant in which I’ll say “Hello, Hello” and the pupils
will stay quiet and look to me. They know that whenever I said this chant, it is time for
them to listen to me. And then, I grouped them to a few fixed groups, in which I planned
the pupils to be in a group of 4 as there are about 5 to 6 pupils in each of the group. And
I had introduced the “group reward” in which if during the group activity one of the group
won they will get stickers according to their winning place.

6.0 Conclusion

Through the end of the second week, I can see many changes with my pupils as
well as the classroom situation, the pupil’s noise can be controlled with the chant as well
as the group reward system, and I was really satisfied with the way it turned out, as I
managed to overcome my problem.

Checked by Mentor: Checked by Lecturer:

Signature : Signature :
Name : Name :
Date : Date :