Experiences of Classroom Management as a Learner and a Teacher

1. Think about your own memories of school. What was the classroom environment like?

The classroom environment at my school when I was a teenage student was very different
from what it is nowadays. First, we as students of public schools used to respect, obey and
even admire our teachers because we knew the trajectory and the impact they have
caused on many generations of students before.

In my case, I would say I’m so lucky of being working as an English teacher for the same
public high school were I got my bachelor’s degree.

My partners used to be clever and collaborative while the environment in class was
peaceful and easy for learning and working.

The teachers used to be respectful, strict and smart and I still have a great friendship with
most of them, despite the fact most of them are retired teachers now.

2. As a teacher, how you do usually manage your classroom? Think about activities, as well as
seating arrangement, interaction patterns, use of audio-visual resources etc.

I start every school period by setting classroom rules together with the students and
making them compromise on respecting these, in order to create a good environment and
maintain discipline in the classroom.
In public schools you usually deal with a high number of students per classroom, between
thirty five to forty five teenagers depending the educative sublevel. This way it is necessary
to plan your activities to engage and motivate the whole class, grabbing everybody’s
attention and interest as much as possible, making them express themselves and
participate in a natural way and finally giving everyone the opportunity of detecting and
correcting mistakes that occur during every class session to develop critical thinking and
self- assessment.
About seating arrangement, due to the huge number of students and the lack of space
plenitude, it is the usually classroom setting we have in any traditional school, by rows and
columns but, as much as possible, I try to take my students outside of the classroom to
have reading sessions for example because a changing of environment is positive for their
active learning process. On the other hand, I also work for the International Baccalaureate
program that my school offers, in this program we have a maximum number of twenty-five
students per classroom, these students are highly pressured on their performance in order
to obtain the different certifications and diploma from this school program, having more
class hours per week and due to the fact, they are less students that in a regular classroom
it is possible to do different classroom seating settings like rounded seating or small
groups to keep them engaged and participating actively. Only these group of students
have the facilities of English laboratory and technological devices like projectors, laptops
tablets and internet service afforded by them and exclusively for their use in classes. Most
of the regular classrooms lack even of electricity, so for working audios with the regular
groups we as teacher need to afford devices like Bluetooth speakers, laptops among
others, it is usually impossible to work activities that involve videos with the regular
students in class so as much as possible these activities are sent home for their developing.

3. What do you remember about rules and discipline when you were a student, and
how you maintain these aspects of your own classroom as a teacher?

In my opinion discipline is based on respect. If you show respect to your students and treat
them respectfully, that is what you will receive. Let’s remember that respect is not a
synonym of fear but appreciation. It is necessary that your students build confidence in you
and themselves. Once you reach this, you will have a participative class with positive
attitude and the confidence of your students to tell you what they expect from your classes
and the confidence to let you know when they are not understanding something or
suggesting other methods and approaches for the raising of their learning process.