WHEN THINGS GO WRONG IN CLASS

There was an internal disturbance:

I think it was because children were excited as I was. There were a couple of girls fighting at the back, 3 boys singing a song, and also there was a girl crying because she was angry. Unfortunately I did not know how to manage the situation so, I asked to the responsible teacher for some suggestions and she told what to do.

I had extra time:

It was because the activity that I planned did not work at all children were not interesting on the topic. In the spur of the moment I had to look for another activity and we went to the soccer field to play basketball, I made two teams, girls vs boys. It was a suitable activity because I could make all the students participate. I realized when children had to do activities such as color and trim it took us too long time so sometimes, I just told them to stop and bring that task as homework assignment for next class.

There was an external disturbance:

The other problem was the noise outside the classroom. The problem was that the children did not have a specific room to receive the class, so they received the class between the cafeteria and the soccer field. So, it was easy for them to lose the attention because when the children were receiving the class the older students were on the break. It was pretty difficult to me because I had to speak out aloud even though, children did not pay attention to me. In that moment I had to stop the class and move to another place. 

I followed some of the tips presented in chapter 8 because they were really helpful to me. For example for each class, I made a lesson plan in order to have more knowledge about what to do in class, how much time I spent in each activity and so on.

By: Rosa Marilena Henriquez Henriquez 

There was an external disturbance:

That happened in a Friday’s class. My pupils and I were reviewing colors and shapes; they were very interested in the class because they were working in a worksheet coloring some shapes. Suddenly some kids from another classroom were playing with some balloons outside of the classroom we were. My kids got distracted; in spite of, I was trying to get their attention again, so I considered taking advantage of the situation, and I asked them for the colors of the balloons the kids outside of the classroom had. In that way they seemed to be interested in participating in the class. Then I asked them to go back to their sits and asked the children outside to move from there.

Some activities took too long:

That happened in almost every class because the activities that the book suggested me were kind of laborious. Sometimes what I did with that was to assigned those activities as homework, and sometime I left them for continuing working in the following class.

I had extra time:

Once I work with the last two activities from a lesson plan that were the free practice and the wrap up activity. We last developing them like 30 minutes, so I had like 10 minutes free, so what I did was invite children to sit down on the floor and start passing some things like crayons, pencils, bottles of glue and other things and ask them for the names and the colors that those things have. In that way I took advantage of the time available that we had making them feel enthusiastic about practicing the language.

By the way, I tried to use some of the tips that in the chapter 8 suggests, but also, I did invent some others. To be sincere, those things I did helped me a lot when things went wrong in class because sometimes I did not have idea how to control the group. However, through the experience I learned that I have better have a plan b under the sleeve; like pre-planned activities.

By Tatiana Elizabeth Hernandez Herroes

There was an internal disturbance:
During my classes, I had to face that situation in more than once. My pupils started to fight in one of my classes, so I took them to the teacher who was in charge of the classroom and then make them sit in different places in the classroom. In other class they started to play with a toy that a kid brought from home, so I had to say that I would take the toy and give it back at the end of the class.

There was an external disturbance:

The problems that I faced in my classes were when the children heard the bell sound; they thought that it was the break time for them, but it was not. In the kindergarten school, they always were the last group to have the break time, so the bell was a distraction. For that reason, I tried to ask them how the sound of the bell was. What color the bell has? And so on in order to relate it to the topics I was explaining at that moment.

The class when out of control:

My classes went out of control more than once, but I tried to use some emergency activities to calm them down. I did not do great activities, but at least I tried to motivate them with singing their favorite song, playing with the toys of the classroom and giving them a good grade if they could finish the task.

An activity took too long:

When I was teaching the topic about numbers, I provided them a worksheet to draw some pictures on it. This activity took too long so that I just told them to draw the picture, and at home they will color them patiently. Most of the activities I provide in my next classes were just to color, to match or to paste something, but not to do more than one task at the same time.

You had extra time:

I just had extra time in one or two classes. Then I used some activities that were joyful for my students, activities such as: singing the hello song, playing with the teddy bear and doing a short review about the whole class.

An activity did not work:

One of the activities I developed did not work very well because some of my pupils could not buy a yellow page. Then I asked the teacher if she could have had some color paper and fortunately she had some yellow pages available. Finally I could carry out my activity. Sometimes some students cannot afford to buy some material in every moment, and as teacher, we must make sure of the resources that we can use to carry out our classes as I the example of my problem.

An activity was too difficult:

In this case, the activity during the class about means of transportation was the most difficult because I made them write the name of three means of transportation on their English book, some of them did it well, but the majority did not completed. Therefore, I changed a little bit the activity into another one in which they could have to write one word and color the others drawings only.

By Jorge Alberto Diaz Duran

There was an internal disturbance:

There were two boys that they didn't like to work with anyone in the classroom. It was difficult because most of the time I needed students make groups or worked in pairs. I asked the teacher what happening with those boys and she said they couldn’t make friends easily besides they have grown without siblings. Some of them started fighting and I decided to tell them if they fight again, I will take them out of the classroom. I hoped they didn't do it again and it worked.

The class went out of control:

In most of the case, students were hyperactive and anxious. Some of them used to fight with their classmates and they made disorder in the classroom. It was something very hard because they distracted others that were interest in the lesson. I tried to be in front of them in order that they could be calm. I had to work in students' attitudes because of some them were influenced by their classmates to play and they lost interest about the class. I focused about students could participate in the activities because I wanted to avoid behavior problems. I think parents need to support the teacher in order that students could show a good behavior.

When the children were looking outside the classroom I moved from the place I was, and I tried to speak louder for them to hear what I was teaching them. Sometimes, I called some students to go to the front to do a game or to play a game. Also, when the teacher was not there, the students liked to walk around, but I had some penalties for them if they did not obey what I said, so they were afraid of it, and they liked to help me at the moment we were in the class.

I knew that children had more energy and enthusiastic than us. So, the students and I enjoyed at the moment we were in the class. When they are enjoying the class, they are able to learn in a better way and in a faster way. Also, when I planned the class or activities to develop during the classroom, I planned everything, and it was easier because I knew what I was going to do in the class. 

By Diego Alexander Pineda Hernandez

There was an external disturbance:

While I was teaching ¨Numbers from 1 to 10¨, the principal came into the classroom and announced the students that some visitors from “Casa de la Cultura” were about to came to the school to perform a story. The students got excited immediately and got out the classroom to see if they had arrived. Later, the half-an-hour performance started. All the school was happy that when it finished, they didn’t want to continue attending classes. It was difficult for me to make them be ready to continue taking the English class even though they were very interested at the beginning. What I did was to ask them about the number of characters of the performance, and in that way I made them mix both, the topic that they had been studying and the performance they just had seen. A good strategy help me not to stop teaching that day.

There was an internal disturbance:

Once while I was teaching, a boy started to cry because he wanted to be with his mother. At the very beginning, I did not know what to do because his crying seemed uncontrolled, and as it was school hour, his mom couldn’t be there. Finally, what I did was to solve that disturbance by telling him: -Hey babe, you know what, someone has just told me a nice story about a little duck. Would you like me to tell you about it? I started to tell the whole class ¨The Ugly Duckling¨ tale. I continued with the class then.

An activity was too difficult:

When I taught my students ¨The English Alphabet¨, I asked them to work on an Alphabet chart that I bring that day; however, as they were K5 children, they were not able neither to identify nor to recognize easily all the letter as I had expected. So, I change that difficult task with another one that was about vowels to make the class meaningful for everybody.

As the disturbances occurred in the spur of the moment, I didn’t have time to think about follow any of the tips presented in chapter 8; however, those tips could have worked to deal with any of the situations. 

By Sandra Jeanmileth Hernandez Rivas