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Discipline

TEFL, Greece and Discipline

Discipline! Mine or the students’? I was told, when I first started doing TEFL in Greece, “Don’t smile until Christmas!” This was August. I didn’t heed that advice and it took me until Christmas to get a decent amount of respect and order in the class.

Greek kids are not naughty: they don’t carry knives, sniff glue or look to stick drawing pins on the seat of your chair. They are much more likely to want you to come to their family barbeque, take them for a coke at the local pool bar or ask for a ride on your 50cc ‘papaki’ (small motorcycle called a duckling).

Getting the students to quieten down and take notice of the lesson, I eventually discovered, was more down to me and the way I did my lessons than anything else. All I can say, is preparation is king, always know what you are doing next and have your instructions for activities clear in your plan. It keeps things flowing and at a pace, which means less time to talk about last night’s basketball.

Preparing lots of different TEFL activities is also key. Keep activities up your sleeve for when things finish early. Make sure your activities engage all the class, so you don’t have some students who find it too easy or too difficult. This is a recipe for boredom and an excuse for a discussion on last night’s basketball.

Shouting! Makes you feel better, sometimes it has to be done, but the moment you lose your temper, is the moment you have lost the class. Don’t do it: it has a very limited, short-term benefit. Be firm, yes. Talk directly to the students, yes. Use the students’ names, yes. Roar like a lion, thump the desk or run out of the class, no! If you do need to inflict some punishment, then I would suggest keeping it in line with the system of the school. In Greece, I would send them to the office and they would get a phone call home, but this was last resort stuff.

Different cultures have different outlooks, TEFL teachers reading this will have different experiences (would love to hear them). Greeks are lively, the French are cool, the Japanese I have taught were very quiet (which brings its own problems). Just be prepared for the fact attitudes will be different from what you are used to and you just need to adapt your lessons accordingly.

TEFL schools abroad are very different to the ones in the UK. Students want to be at school: they want to learn English. They need to learn English. I spent six years teaching English in Greece, then a further two years in France and taught in the UK. Every student was different, every day different. Without challenges like discipline, the whole experience wouldn’t haven’t been half as fun.