10 Ways to Sabotage Your Classroom Management

By Jennifer Gonzalez You know the basics: Establish clear rules and consequences, be consistent, keep students engaged. But even with all that in place, the small things you do could be wreaking havoc on your whole system. Here are some habits you might have developed that are messing with your classroom management, along with more effective alternatives. 1. Smiling at the Wrong Times This was a big problem for me. Alternative: Make a conscious effort to hold a neutral, “on-task” facial expression when you need your class to be focused. 2. Addressing student misbehavior in a public way risks embarrassing the student, and if she is prone to being oppositional, she’s likely to talk back and dig herself into a deeper hole. Alternative: Whenever possible, address off-task behavior in private. Others just speak in a quiet voice by the student’s desk or call the student up to their own. 3. So many behavior problems start with students simply not understanding what they are supposed to do. 4. 5.

Eva's Blog: Proud to be an EFL Teacher - Classroom Decor Hello Again! I am sure that everybody is getting ready for the new school year: planning, organizing and working on new materials, and preparing your welcome-back-to-school bulletin board. This year, I am lucky to be at a school that has a fairly decent English classroom, that all the English teachers share. The wonderful thing is that we are working together to create an inviting learning environment for our students, and we are planning to carry out some raise funding activities to buy all the things that we need. For starters, my colleagues and I will be working on the bulletin board and getting things organized there. As I was looking for ideas for the welcome-back-to-school bulletin board, I found beautiful and very creative BBs. Hope you find the pictures inspiring (they definitely inspired me (Click on the image to read how to create this BB). Another idea: There are also an awesome bulletin boards here That’s all for today (well, unless I find something intersting Eva