VI. When Things Go Wrong in Class

Look at the list of things that can go wrong in a class.

• There was an internal disturbance.

• There was an external disturbance.

• The class went out of control.

• An activity took too long.

• You had extra time.

• An activity did not work

• An activity was too difficult.

The most common problem to face at the teaching practicum is:

“The class went out of control”

The worst situation that can occur in the classroom is losing control. It is the fear of every teacher since what teachers expect is that students behave in a polite way and without making a mess during the class. It is very difficult to calm students even more if we talk about kindergarten. They lose concentration very quickly, and their attention is very limited. Therefore, the activities carried out must be as creative as possible to capture their attention and keep them active and wanting to continue learning. In this way, the class will run without problems.

An external disturbance

     Relating to the object, person, or people that are out with the topic that we are studying might be an option to deal with this situation. An illustration of this could be the topic of professions. Imagine that there is an emergency outside, in which an ambulance with doctors or paramedics and a motor bump with some firemen are involved; subsequently, we as teachers can point out those people and use those professions as an example of the topic of “professions”.

An Internal disturbance

            

If some child starts to cry or fight with another child, what we can do is to take out the pupil or pupils; but you may ask what you can do with the other pupils. Well, we can do the following: the teacher can make a question in which the pupils have to think for some minutes; therefore, the teacher can use those minutes to solve the problem, but he or she must do it as quickly as possible. In the end, when the teacher already solved the problem and entered the classroom, she or he must ask for some answers to the previous question.

The class went out of control.

    The most common situation that a teacher can face is losing control of the class. The important thing is to know how to calm the circumstances and how to be able to control it. A point to start would be how to arrange the desks to avoid a future disorder. It is essential to have them in the best position in which the teacher has control over everyone and can see what happens. For this, position 'A' is the most appropriate, and it is the one recommended to use to be able to see all the children, it also solves doubts from children. Besides, the advantage of being in the middle allows the teacher to move through the entire room. If at any moment the class gets out of control, what you should do is to identify who are the ones making a mess. In the beginning, we suggest calling their attention gently to calm down. If they do not, the teacher could sit in the middle of the room and then could see everyone with a face of disappointment that they understand that what they are doing is not correct. They will know that they are not doing things well, and when they begin to calm down, act again, and put order back into the class. Then, they are told that what they did is not correct, but without raising your voice. Try not to scream, when this happens, it is necessary to see what the factor was that caused the class to get out of control (the children were not paying attention, they were doing something else, two children were fighting or bothering). If it was a fight that started everything, the best thing to do is separating them and sitting them in different parts of the room for the next class, and it will avoid a future problem in advance.

An activity took too long.

            Sometimes when we do an activity or a dynamic in the classroom that involves the pupils, that activity can take too long because it is sometimes difficult for children to understand what we want them to do, or it’s difficult for them to become familiar with the activity that we as teachers will carry out. Therefore, we must find some solutions to deal with this situation; for example, when preparing our class script, we could have an extra activity and perhaps an easier one; thus, the children will probably understand the activity. Besides, we can use our spontaneity so that the activity does not take too long.

You had extra time.

            We believe that this situation is one of the most common that we face because sometimes we as teachers can finish our class much earlier than expected and some of the things we can do to take advantage of that extra time are that we can invent activities in the place to keep kids active. We can also take the kids to the soccer field or the kindergarten playground for outdoor activities; also, the kids probably have not had their snack time, and we can use that extra time for that if we can. On the other hand, the tips that are in the book we are reading have been useful for us to prepare ourselves when we are in a real classroom.

      

An activity did not work.

           In order to take some action when this situation comes to the table, it is necessary to identify what the problem was. An activity could not work because of many factors. One of these factors, and maybe the most common one, is a lack of understanding between the teacher and the students. Maybe the directions were not clear, or the students are not at the level to understand the language used. Also, the problem might be caused because the students have not reached a particular level to develop the activity fluently and productively. Whatever the problem or reason is, two options can be done: pausing the activity by canceling it or pausing the activity to reformulate it by making the needed changes so the students can understand it and do it. All of this must be done taking into account the correct identification of the problem and its causes.

An activity was too difficult.

            

One of the constant tasks of teachers is measuring the level of skill development that their students have. The purpose of this is especially related to this kind of problem. If an activity resulted to be very difficult for the students, it is because the expectancies or the skills required for it are not fully developed in the students. In such a case it is necessary that the teacher realizes this, and could modify the activity so that the student can develop it according to their abilities, or could also change the activity completely for a better understanding of the student. The activity cannot go on as it might cause an effect of frustration in the students as they would be trying to do something difficult or impossible for them. Therefore, there is nothing left than quitting the activity as frustration must be totally avoided when learning a language.

• How useful can the tips be?

        They can be very useful. It is always good to know what to do as a teacher, especially when it is your first class, and when it comes to kindergarten children even more. As we know, at this age children tend to be very sensitive. Their attention is limited, and it can be lost very easily. For this reason, it is important that when we teach them and solve doubts, we do it in the best way, and as the book says, a very important piece of advice is that when they make mistakes, it is not appropriate to correct them immediately. The best thing is accepting what they say. The perfect time to correct happens when you are working on a guide or exercise. Do not get angry about a mistake that can be made since we all make mistakes. In the same way, teach them that we all make mistakes and that it is good to do it. That is how we learn. If we take these tips into account, the classroom environment will be pleasant for both students and teachers, and kids will see us as their ideal teacher.

These tips teach to take advantage of the problems that arise when teachers are teaching. In other words, you can use the tools you have in your hands even if they were not planned.

The tips presented in the chapter are also very useful as they prevent the beginner teacher from some inconveniences such as the impossibility to use body language in the writing activities, as it is possible to do it in other skills like the oral activity and the listening activities. These facts or issues might be a bit obvious for experienced teachers, but they may also be a real headache for beginners, so having them as a warning comes very handy if what teachers want is not to have any surprises during their first class.