Employability skills

3. Echoing (repeating everything that students say).

4. Giving feedback on errors and good language after a speaking activity.

5. Giving a running commentary of everything the teacher is doing (e.g. 'so now I'm just going to... hang on a sec, where is my pen? I can't find my pen. Ah here it is! Ok so give me a second and I'll write this on the board...')

Seating & Interaction

• The way the seating is organised in the classroom can play a key role in creating a student-centred classroom and getting students talking as much as possible.
• Compare the following seating plans (T = teacher, S = student, the board is at the front).
• Which is more student-centred and why?

Online Learning

• Obviously, as online classes are not carried out face-to-face, the teacher has no control over the seating.
• Therefore, extra care and attention must be made regarding how the teacher selects learners to speak or participate in a task, with careful monitoring and encouragement.
• This is definitely one of the more difficult areas of classroom management for online classes.

Monitoting

Monitoring is a key classroom management technique but what exactly is it?

Basically, this is when the teacher listens actively to students while they are doing an activity. There are many reasons why and how a teacher needs to monitor and it depends very much on the aim of the activity.

When does a teacher monitor?

A teacher may:

• monitor to make sure students understand an activity and are on task.
• monitor for students' accuracy e.g. during the Practice stage of a PPP lesson.
• monitor for students' fluency e.g. during the Production stage of a PPP lesson.

How does a teacher monitor?

• At some stages of the lesson, the teacher will monitor and help and talk to students, intervening if needs be e.g. if students don't know what to do in an activity, or make a mistake with accuracy. At other stages, the teacher will monitor from a distance, probably taking notes for feedback later.
• A good seating arrangement will also allow you to monitor more effectively in a face-to-face classroom.