Teacher Discussion Forums

When I intially started teaching high school (September 2004), I was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the class and forced myself to be an extrovert to combat the noise. I was teaching high school and now realize that although the students had fun, I didn't discipline them at all and so, by the time...

While I haven't experienced this situation, as yet, I always find it helpful to speak to other teachers in my staffroom to find how they handle any problems. They have the years of experience to deal with such situations and could probably offer solutions you haven't thought of. In my opinion, why n...

I've also taught large groups of high school classes, so I emphasise with you, it is certainly a challenge! Why not split the class into smaller groups, say, 6 groups of 10, hand each group a piece of paper with a topic written on it and they have to spend the next 5 minutes thinking up an answer. E...

Thanks for the tips! We did a speaking exercise last week where I would write two names on the board and those students would come to the front of the class to do a conversation. I included Sun, the disabled students and suprise, suprise, his English is quite good! It was also good to see him involv...

I teach middle school (12-13 years old) and in one class of 40, I have a male student without arms. He sits at the back of the class (with the 'bad boys') and is rarely involved in this lesson, except to be noisy. He can't write but he's not short on intelligence. I'm looking for ways to involve him...

Hi, I'm a first year teacher at a Chinese high school. Its my second week of teaching and I've just changed my approach to make classes more interesting for the students. I'm asking them questions about sport, eg. What is your favourite sport and why? I draw pictures on the board and ask them to gue...

Hi, I'm a first year teacher at a Chinese high school. Its my second week of teaching and I've just changed my approach to make classes more interesting for the students. I'm asking them questions about sport, eg. What is your favourite sport and why? I draw pictures on the board and ask them to gue...

So, if you can accept that teachers are not Gods, and that they are not ultimately morally superior to the kids in their classes, you might end up convincing your charges that you care not only about English, but also about them too. Ultimately, though, I guess you have "laid your cards on the tabl...

Hi, I think that discipline is important if you want the students to respect you, otherwise they will walk all over you and ruin the class for students who want to learn. Sometimes, discipline is not required, especially if the class is well-behaved and willing to learn. But it is essential for diff...

Hi, I'm a first year teacher in a Chinese high school. Most of my classes are well-behaved but I do have a few classes that are troublesome. How do I manage classes of 77 students, about 15-17 years of age, who continue talking without pause? Possibly they have learning difficulties but the underlyi...