Teacher Discussion Forums

Ok. So I´m here in Peru teaching kids english. I have no teaching experience really, or certification, but I´m doing the best I can. I am reading a lot of suggesitons on here and on eslkids.com but the thing is, most of the games on these websites require kids that are well behaved. If the game involves moving around, inevitably someone gets in a fight. Yesterday we drew pictures and a few kids crumpled up each others pictures. Its not like the kids are devils or impossible to control, or to get back under control once they get a little crazy, but its something I have to consider when I´m planning the lessons. These are impoverished kids that come from violent homes and go to a school where the teachers also hit them. We, obviously, where I work, dont hit them, but its an uphill battle.

Any suggestions on how to make learning fun and keep them involved without mayhem?

In my first school job in Korea my students were always getting into umbrella fights (ouch!) on rainy days, and grabbing pencils and erasers at every opportunity. And they came from relatively rich, cushy backgrounds.

My response was this:
1) all potential weapons are left in a basket at the door. This includes umbrellas, scissors, knives, etc.
2) kids sit at least a foot or two apart from each other.
3) only one or two kids are allowed out of their seats at any given time.
4) lots of Simon Says and other "follow-my-commands-or-else" games at the beginning of classes, so kids get used to doing what you say.
5) if one kid seems to be pushing everyone else around, enlist his/her help to keep everyone else in line (nonviolently).
6) have kids regularly practice the difference between yelling (they love this part), whispering, and regular, quiet voices. This way they know exactly what you're talking about when you tell them "quiet voices, please!"

Good luck to you.
-EH

Well, same problem with children from "rough" villages where people scream instead of speaking, fight for no apparent (to us) reason and children behave as if they're out there with their sheep. If you include very low educational level, drug dealing and domestic violence, you've got the picture... Oh, I forgot the guns thing.
To cut a long story short, I usually avoid activities where they stand up, move around and kick their mates on the way back; also team games because they usually end up swearing at each other or cheating. I 've seen that drawing and colouring activities calm them down (be careful with scissors). For example, we had a lesson on TV programmes and instead of pairwork which would end up in disaster, I told them to make their own TV guide (just a colourful page with the names of chanels, times and programmes). I prepared a sample page and put it on the board. It worked and they made a nice poster with their TV guides in the end. No, it was not an easy thing to do and of course there were moments of chaos in the classroom but I was interested in the final result and in the end, everyone was happy...
They also like coming to the board and write or put flashcards in the correct order. For example, the lesson included a boy's day routine so I prepared some pictures and the relevant sentences and they had to put them in the correct order on the board. They usually like such things and do not misbehave. I always tell them sadly "Why should you come to the board? Are you a good boy? Look what you're doing" or sth like that. I don't know why but this sad and serious look has worked so far.
There's so much to be said about this issue. I think you should go through Activities and Games + Elementary Education Forums to see what websites are recommended by other teachers (I've seen about 10-15 so far). onestopenglish.com has interesting suggestions about Teaching with limited resources (since you mentioned Peru + impoverished families). Also keep in mind that lots of activities which include moving around etc can be adjusted without the moving around part.

IMHO teaching is about learning to be a responsible human being and passing this on to others. It doesn't matter if you "take" ten minutes from the lesson to talk about a problem in the class because in the end it will make things go much more smoothly. We always have two types of teaching going on: one is regulative teaching when you are telling the students what you want them to do and how they are to do that in your class. We often are pressured into thinking we don't have time for this part of the course and just jump into the second mode. The second mode is called instructive when you are getting down to the content, in this case English. At the beginning of your classes there will much more regulative teaching and hopefully by the end it will be mostly instructive. But avoiding the problems isn't helping them learn how to get along. It is just making things somewhat easier for you in the meantime. Do they grow up to be reasonable human beings then? or is it worthwhile to help them along this path? You can speak in English while you are doing this along with lots of pictures and actions to make clear what you want. I don't often use the sad face and guilt because I remember how badly it made me feel when I was young, but it does work of course and in desparate situations it seems to be a good answer for the short term. Humour is great too and I found it last longer in the end. I usually post the signs "Be Nice" and "Work Hard" at the front of the classroom with translation at the beginning of the year and when they don't do one of those point to the sign. Students will sometimes do what the sign says when they wouldn't think of doing what the teacher/mother says. Often myown children went off to bed when the "clock" said it was bedtime. Takes the focus off the power struggle. Making up rules as a class with specified restrictions for those who don't follow along helps at the beginning with wild classes. Take all the time you need to follow these up at the beginning. It is not wasted time by any means and letting children work is groups is more and more essential these days as they will be doing this in the working world. But we need to "teach" these skills as much as we need to teach the words that go along with them. We shouldn't be frustrated because they didn't learn them at home or with the previous teacher because the rules are different everywhere and they need to know that. You can say, "In my classroom, we don't hit, pinch, poke, trip, crumple, tease, and so on but we do have fun, support one another, be nice and work hard."