SELF-REFLECTION ON TEACHERS CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION According to Robert J. Marzano (2003), teachers play various roles in a typical classroom, but certainly one of the most essential is that of classroom manager. One of the biggest challenges that teachers face is how to handle classroom management. (Meador, n.d.) There are many different classroom management practices and every teacher has to find what works best for them. According to H. Douglas Brown (2007), classroom management includes an abundance of factors from how you physically arrange the classroom, to teaching styles, to classroom energy. For this School-Based Experience, I did an observation of an English language teacher and her practices of classroom management. She teaches in Sekolah Kebangsaan Kuala Merah, Kuala Ketil.

THE PRACTICE OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT BY THE TEACHER One of the simplest principles of classroom management centers on the physical environment for learning is the classroom itself. (Brown, 2007) H. Douglas Brown (2007) had categorised the principles for physical environment for learning into four categories that are sight, sound and comfort, seating arrangements, chalkboard use, and equipment. For the physical environment of the classroom, the teacher makes sure that the classroom is neat, clean and orderly in appearance. Before she started her lesson, she asked the pupils to clean up their places, arrange the tables and chairs neatly, and erase the chalkboard. She also makes sure the air condition is suitable for the pupils for an ideal learning environment. The classroom only has ceiling fans but the air is cool enough for a comfortable environment for the pupils. An expert named Fred Jones said that a good classroom seating arrangement is the cheapest form of classroom management. It is a discipline for free. (As cited in Dunbar, 2004) According to H. Douglas Brown (2007), pupils are members of a team and should be able to see one another, to talk to one another (in English), and not be made to feel like they just walked into a military formation. Communication and interaction between the pupils includes the seating arrangement in the classroom. In the classroom, the teacher makes sure the pupils can see her and other pupils clearly. She makes sure that the seating arrangement is in U-shape or semi-circle so the pupils are not squarely facing the teacher (Brown, 2007) I was quite amazed because she arranges the tables in semi-circle despite of the little number of pupils. Eventually, her interaction with the pupils becomes more effective

as they can have eye contacts during the lesson. The teacher can also observe the pupils behaviour clearly. The chalkboard is one of the greatest allies as it gives pupils added visual input along with auditory. (Brown, 2007) The teacher who I observed used chalkboard frequently during her lesson. The topic was about Like and Dislike. So the teacher express the expression of like and dislike on the chalkboard. She also used the chalkboard to spell out the vocabulary or new words that she introduced during the lesson so the pupils would be aware of the spellings. She allows pupil to illustrate with words and pictures. (Brown, 2007) Another fundamental classroom management concern has to do with the teachers and the messages that the teachers send through the teachers voice and through the teachers body language. (Brown, 2007) From my observation that I conducted during her lesson, she has a very good voice projection and the pupils know how to behave when she raised her voice. The teacher controlled the class by raising her voice. Besides that, she also used body language to react towards unacceptable behaviours. She would glare at the pupils who display unacceptable behaviours. This is according to Canters Assertive Discipline Model where the teachers can respond by showing anger when the pupils do not displaying the acceptable behaviour. Most pupils choose to misbehave but the teacher did not accept that excuse.

THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE TEACHERS CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT The strength of the teachers practice of classroom management is she makes sure that the class is conducive enough to be a place to learn. She makes sure that the cleanliness of the classroom is taken into account before she started her lesson on that day. She asked pupils to clean up their own respective places (under the tables and chairs) and arrange the tables neatly. However, doing this cleaning up activities will take time and teacher might not have enough time to conduct her lesson completely as the pupils would take some time to clean up the classroom. Therefore, the teacher should provide rules such as ensuring the class is clean enough before the teacher come in so that the pupils would be aware of the cleanliness and will not play around before the teacher come in. The teachers usage of chalkboard is good and comprehensible as she expresses some words into drawings, symbols and emoticons. She even spelled out the new words that she introduced by jotting down the words on the chalkboard. However it could be more interesting if she used flashcards to express the words into emoticons or pictures. For

instance, when she introduced the word badminton, she should use flashcards to show the meaning of the word. Flashcards can be pasted to the chalkboard so she still can use the chalkboard. More activities can be conducted if she used flashcards during her lesson.

BEST PRACTICES I HAVE LEARNT FROM THIS SELF-REFLECTION From the observation of a lesson that I conducted, I can see some best practices of classroom management despite of the weaknesses. First of all, ensuring the physical environment is comfortable and conducive for the learners to obtain new knowledge. This is important because non-conducive physical environment could distract pupils attention during the lesson. Dirty classroom would also make students feel uncomfortable to learn during the lesson. Another practice that attracts my attention is her loud and assertive voice tone. Good voice projection will draw pupils attention during the lesson and I noticed that the pupils would automatically behave and display acceptable behaviour when she raised her voice. This attracts me because the pupils behaved without being beaten up or caned because they were scared of the teachers loud and assertive voice tone. Indeed, raising voice is much better than caning the pupils or touching the pupils.

REFERENCES

Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by principles : An interactive approach to language pedagogy. (3rd ed.). New York: Pearson Education.

Dunbar, C. (2004). Best practices in classroom management. (Master's thesis, Michigan State University)Retrieved from https://www.msu.edu/~dunbarc/dunbar3.pdf

Marzano, R. J. (2003, September). Classroom management that works. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/103027/chapters/The-Critical-Role-ofClassroom-Management.aspx

Meador, D. (n.d.). Classroom management. Retrieved from http://teaching.about.com/od/classroommanagement/tp/Classroom-ManagementTips.htm