“One, two, three—eyes on me!”
“One, two— eyes on you!”
With this teacher-student exchange, I would begin another joy-filled day withmy ninety-plus third-grade students I taught for two years in a Government Primary School. Seeing their level of compliance and enthusiasm during our learning time,an outsider would never be able to guess that my students came from extremely poverty-stricken families, and that months ago, these very students lacked any sense of discipline and eagerness to come to school. I still remember my initial months’ battle to create even an alpha position for myself, making me want to quit every day. It was the commitment I made towards my students that ultimately forced me to brainstorm and formulate adaptive teaching methods that would be most relevant for the situation of my pupils. I share my most effective strategies below.
Teamwork is the best way to work
Initially, my classroom was arranged with rows of benches lined up, with no walking space, and I was struggling to control ninety-six students by myself. I learned to put an end to this jumbled architecture by designing a planned seating arrangement. Instead of having students sit in separate benches, I joined their desks to form groups, with eight students each and one assigned group captain, who would be in charge of maintaining discipline amongst the others. The captains would have to report to me with their accounts on the others at the end of the day.
Now, I had more control over students’ behavior, as my responsibility over ninety students was divided among the captains. Also, a lot of physical space emerged,giving me the opportunity to teach from anywhere in the class, not just the front, and by being able to assign group activities, I could teach my students to work collectively and to engage in discussions. The team spirit was always at an all-time high.
My students came from extremely poverty-stricken families, and that months ago, these very students lacked any sense of discipline and eagerness to come to school
Rules are not meant to be broken
Controlling such a large number of students was still tough, and I realised that I had to set strict boundaries before the students took charge of my class.I designed child-friendly classroom rules and hung it up in the class. Our rules were: raise your hand, no fighting, keep the classroom clean, share materials, and show ‘thumbs-up’ when work is done.
Additionally, I was rewarding the students with exceptional behavior with stickers, and for every twenty stickers, they would earn a prize. This became a source of healthy competition, motivating students to work towards a goal. As for those who broke rules, I would make them go through a ‘ladder of consequence’, with having to forego recess as the final resort.
Having class rules made my expectations clear to the students, making it easier to hold them accountable for their behavior; and by maintaining strict consistency, I could easily reinforce my authority.
Now Hiring: Young Leaders
Maintaining a classroom means an incredible amount of duties are to be fulfilled and that responsibility typically falls on the teacher. What we do not often pay attention to is that some of our students have an inherent knack for doing tasks, just as well as adults. Also, many of my restless students, after quickly finishing their classwork, would often cause disturbance just to release their excess energy. Hence, my classroom had two situations: chores to be taken care of and students with pent up energy.
I merged these two circumstances byintroducing student jobs, naming the group ‘young leaders’. Available posts in my class included: librarian, paper distributor, office helper, teaching assistant and queue maintainer. Every month,we voted to determine the new young leaders. Having students perform jobs around the class let them build leadership skills, which is crucial for a child’s self-development, and as a bonus, this system directed the naughty ones’ focus towards positive work; there was also a continuous flow of tasks being done around the class without anyone being told to, taking off a lot of weight from my shoulders.
“Learning can be all fun and games”
With the students’ behavior management taken care of through proper routines and regulations set in place, I could now effortlessly channel my students’ attention towards my lessons. However, since my students were young, lectures always failed to retain their attention. Therefore, I had to step out of the box and search for new and innovative ideas to conduct my classes, and that is when I started to design activities for lessons.
Having class rules made my expectations clear to the students, making it easier to hold them accountable for their behavior
When introducing a new topic, I tried to design associated games and activities, with clear learning outcomes. We learned verbs by playing charades, we practiced spelling through BINGO; we used sticks in geometry, pebbles in arithmetic; in Science, we used posters to study different countries; we engaged in dramas to portray the various forms of pollution. Every student paid more attention when we were engaged in activities, and were keen to be involved. More than that, the joy in our classroom was exceedingly high when we played games; some students would even want to stay back to play and learn more. It does take a lot of research and preparation to design activities for lessons, but the outcomes are totally worth the effort.
These were only someof the many strategies that helped me survive as a teacher in such a challenging environment. When these methods began taking form, I started loving teaching, but mostly, my students could learn more effectively, and that is whatreally matters. My students, though having grown up a lot now, tell me that they still use our procedures in their current class.
We often tend to blame external factors on our ability to teach, even going to the extreme of shaming students. However, the adaptive teaching methods I used, blended with the urge to fulfill my responsibility over my students, made me realise an important lesson: no matter the family background, the social status, or even the situation of the learning environment, every child can learn.
The writer is an Education Program Officer at Abinta Kabir Foundation School. This article was chosed as a Best Entry at A Paper for Progress, an international essay contest organised by Edge, the Foundation in Bangladesh. Discover the complete work onEdgethefoundation.com.
