Nurul Amalia (175110507111002)

Fauziyyah Yovian NI (175110507111007)

Fikky Aulia Novianti (175110507111010)

Antrika Ayu Wulandari (175110507111015)

Ervina Etika Handayani (175110507111040)

The Skill of Being a “Snake Charmer”

1. The skill of being a ‘snake charmer’.

Teachers play many roles in their career. The aim here is to give you a picture of some alternative
roles that you might find yourself playing when you progress in your ability to manage a class.

 Waiters, When you first begin teaching, you are trying to understand the subtleties of all
those demands and comments which students make. Consequently, you respond to what
they want rather than what is best for them. Initially, the students may determine many of
your actions because it is difficult for you to take the initiative and drive the pace of work
forward yourself. You engage in the role of ‘waiter’, moving from group to group of
students or from student to student, responding to what you perceive as their needs. This is
a very exhausting style of teaching because you are not exactly in control of your life. You
need to move to a style to which the students respond and where you are dictating the pace
more frequently.
 Plate spinners, Once you become someone who feels that your role is to respond as fast
as you can to students, you can find yourself turning into a frantic plate spinner. In this
model, you try to keep everything going by literally dashing from child to child giving
them an extra spin, as if they were plates on bamboo canes. This can happen if you are
trying to rescue children’s collapsing clay pots or limp papier mâché. The materials cause
the inevitable panic. More usually, it means that you have transmitted to students the tacit
message: ‘Nothing we do here lasts for more than two minutes.’ If you are dashing round
keeping plates spinning, then your students are not themselves engaged in sustained pieces
of work. They are dependent on you. The same plates seem to fall off the bamboo canes.
All the students are likely to do, if they find you so available, is to demand even more.
Watch an experienced teacher and you will see that they make clear decisions about who
to talk to next, who to send away and who to keep waiting.
 Lion tamer Thankfully, this model is on the decline. In this mode you are very defensive
indeed. Psychologically you keep such a distance between yourself and the students that
they rarely break through the defence. Lion tamers can be heard cracking the whip and
shouting ‘Right, right then!’, stalking round the room while students push pens on paper.
More subtle versions of this are to make your style of teaching so mistrustful that you have
 Nurul Amalia (175110507111002)

Fauziyyah Yovian NI (175110507111007)

Fikky Aulia Novianti (175110507111010)

Antrika Ayu Wulandari (175110507111015)

Ervina Etika Handayani (175110507111040)

to put a desk between yourself and the students most of the time. Even if there is no desk,
children will be heard to say: ‘Well, school’s all right but you have to do everything their
way and we can’t choose anything.’ The style is so rigid that the lion tamer simply dare
not for a moment give any responsibility to children.
 Tennis player Here you move around the tennis court (classroom) and are capable of
asking questions of students who are on the baseline (the area farthest from you) as well as
at the net. You can use the occasional drop shot, half-volley and move to dominate the
centre of the room. You can take risks and generate a good working pace by being in a
number of different areas of the classroom. If you do not believe this can be powerful, try
standing at the side of the room and making students come to you rather than going over
to them. Bat your questions over the imaginary net and be ready for replies. This style is
an antidote to the waiter model. Its main feature for students is that it encourages you to
use your voice in different ways. A real trap is to develop a habit of becoming so absorbed
with individuals that your teacher-talk is never made public. If you spend the whole time
going round whispering to students you actually have little presence in the classroom.
Bring down the noise level so that you can talk across the room and be heard encouraging
students publicly.
 Snake charmer, This is a style which some teachers see as an ideal. You appear to be
playing exactly the right kind of music and students come out of their baskets, do their
work and go back again for the night, having tidied up. Although this is a stereotype, your
aim is to generate a balance of responsibility and cooperation such that you do not actually
need to discipline your class. The snake charmer happens when the tasks are so engaging,
the students so motivated and the teacher is so in control that they can relax. Naturally, you
need to find your own interpretation of this generalized stereotype. There are many other
roles you can find yourself playing, from ‘secondhand crockery seller’, ‘pleading vicar,’ to
‘screaming maniac’ or ‘pest control officer’. Invent your own, and recognize the comic
side of teaching if it helps to get an impossible job back in proportion.

2. The sample of the case.

Lion tamer by default

 Nurul Amalia (175110507111002)

Fauziyyah Yovian NI (175110507111007)

Fikky Aulia Novianti (175110507111010)

Antrika Ayu Wulandari (175110507111015)

Ervina Etika Handayani (175110507111040)

Student teacher Mark had a difficult session with his class one Tuesday afternoon early in his
practice. By Thursday he had decided that it was vital to concentrate on discipline or the children
would play him up. Consequently, he was standing no nonsense at the start of the lesson and spoke
to the children in short clipped commands, sounding businesslike and efficient. He wanted to
explain how to draw a plan view of an alarm clock and this would be followed by the children
attempting to draw their plan as they had been shown on the board. Rather aggressively he
quietened the class and persisted in his aggressive control statements (‘Sit still, Shane!’ ‘That
means you!’) until he had silence. A good feature was that he made sure, even through five or six
attempts, that he got silence. Unfortunately he did not lower the volume of his voice, be less
aggressive or give praise to anyone. He still sounded annoyed and maintained the ‘no nonsense’
efficient tone of voice, stopping children as soon as they tried to speak. He told the children how
to draw a ‘top view’ and a ‘plan view’, illustrating this on the board. No child was asked a question
unless there was only one right answer which could be given. The lesson proceeded with threats,
some silent working and further tickings off for not continuing to draw the plans well enough,
inattention or being off-task. Mark sat at the desk at the front of the room and children brought out
their plans for him to check. A queue soon developed. So did the noise and children who were
obscured by the queue began to flick pieces of paper. Mark began to lose his temper and imposed
silence again. Everything depended on Mark’s ability to keep students working and pounce on
every deviation from his set plan.

3. The solution given.

Mark could have involved students at an early stage in devising criteria for what makes a good
plan drawing, discussing this in small groups. Also, he could have made one of the criteria
‘working well in a group’ thereby emphasizing self-responsibility, awareness of others and
learning to be polite enough to listen to the other children’s ideas.