I’ve got a confession to make. I was a rubbish teacher. I never, ever had the full attention of my classes, they quite often misbehaved and generally (I fear) didn’t learn very much. And I was teaching adults… Oh well, that’s what you get for not doing a TEFL course before trying to teach abroad I suppose! So, just in case you want to follow in my footsteps (or perhaps learn from my mistakes), here’s how I made such a spectacular impact in the classroom:

1) Shouting

Students love shouting. It really shows them that you’re calm, collected and totally in control of the situation. Oh, and it won’t give them any clues as to what winds you up at all.

2) Not sticking to the rules

I tried a points system, believe me I did, but it just fell apart, meaning rewards were doled out at random and in no way related to performance. This is an excellent way to motivate students.

This picture is in no way representative of my relationship with my students. In fact it was pretty much the opposite...

3) Making it like the classes I had in school

For some reason (which in hindsight I can’t really fathom), I modelled the majority of my classes on the teaching style of my French teacher at school, Mrs Crowther. Which meant games were out, and a lot of writing vocabulary on the chalkboard was in. I’d like to think that my students adored those classes almost as much as I loved Mrs Crowther’s.

4) Being as unenthused as possible

I find that the best way to excite, energize and inspire students is to appear as bored as possible, preferably glancing at your watch every ten minutes or so. That’s what I used to do on my Friday afternoon lessons and it worked a treat for keep everyone’s attention.

5) Picking on my least favourite student

Oh, poor Neo (he picked his own English name – I had no part in that travesty) – he didn’t like English conversation classes and I didn’t like the fact he spent the whole time chatting. So I used to spend a good few minutes every class berating him. This was wonderful, as not only did it make him love English even more, it also gave the other 32 students a great chance to get on with their work in diligent silence…

So those are my top tips. If you’d like to know how to do it properly, bob over to my esteemed colleague Emma’s blog post: How to Keep Control of Your TEFL Class - she’ll sort you out!

What about you? How do you keep/not keep control of your classes?

 

 

 

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