Hello, and welcome to Module One, looking at teaching and learning. We're going to start with classroom management. Now I always say that the teacher in the classroom is a manager. He's as much a manager as anybody in industry. He's managing time he's managing content, he's managing discipline, he's managing the fact that he wants everybody to have an active parts, etc, etc. So it's a I'm saying he, by the way, because I'm a man, not because of anything sexist, and I'll wherever possible I will try and be gender neutral.

But basically speaking, the teacher in the class is the manager of all that goes on there now. That involves mutual respect. It involves assuming that everybody can be the best that they can be. Everybody likes to be praised. Everybody that but people will recognize when the praise is genuine. So ensure that it is genuine.

And the teacher that goes into class, not well planned or organized is likely to come to grief very soon. It's hugely important that students recognize that the teacher is a as an individual has a personality. He or she is not a robot. Otherwise, why bother? Let's let's have robots doing our teaching. And I think it's very important to have a class identity.

So the class recognizes that they're special, they're special to you, they're unique working with you. And then you'll get the best out of them. strategies that we can employ in a classroom well levels of dominance, we'll have something to say about dominance in a minute, and cooperation and individual student needs. Some students are going to be more needy than others, we need to recognize who they are this business of dominance. In the old days, you go back 100 years or so, and the teacher was the boss and the teacher could be very fierce and could be very dominant, it could be quite tyrannical. I don't think we want to go back to those days, but there has to be control.

And establishing the level of control is important. Similarly, the amount of cooperation that goes on. I always say teaching and learning is a two way street. It's a one way street. If all content is coming from the teacher and nothing is being fed back, then education is not really taking place. So we have to be wary of cooperation.

Let's have a look at this dominance thing again. We expect to the best of our students we should expect the best behavior from our students and they must be aware that you know, anti social behavior or anything that is not excellent Trouble, will have consequences, as long as they know that they're likely to adhere to them. And coming back to that expectation, it's also important to be clear what they're going to be learning. There's no point going in and having sort of vague idea of what's going on in there there should be clear learning objectives in every lesson. And then this body behavior this this this business of language and body language or movement around the classroom, and you should make clear that the focus is teachers or students, student to teacher, Austin did students or students we should encourage that wherever possible. levels of cooperation?

Well, the learning goal should be flexible. We should involve students in that learning process. So we encourage them to take ownership, asking their opinions. If they feel that they're actually taking part in what's going on, they're going to learn much more quickly and much more effectively. personally interested in students, it's terrible to go into a class as I have done when I've observed teachers and found that the teacher didn't know that students by name. We can't be expected to learn 30 names straight away.

So when you have a new class, make sure you have a seating plan. Make sure they take a piece of a4 paper or full scaffold, whatever. Fold it in half, so that it forms a triangle, and then get them to write their names on this bit and then put it on the desk. As long as they sit in the same seat every time you'll soon remember their names. Nothing worse than the teacher to say, Yes, you. What's the answer to this question?

Much better to say, Mary or Fred or Sheila or john or username. And if they make if you make sure they sit in the same seats every time then you'll soon get to know them. Their seating plan names when they come in positive classroom behaviors. eye contact, I make an appointment when I'm in the class to make sure that I make eye contact on a irregular but frequent occasions with all students in the classroom, keep looking around the room, keep making direct eye contact with individuals. Make sure each student gets a chance to contribute and allow them time Don't rush them. They've got to have time to respond to questions and stimulate.

It's very rare that you have a class of people who all have the same ability levels. Very, very rare. So most classes are mixed ability. Some classes will pick up new things more quickly than others. Some some students will be slower to pick up things. That's just the way we learn Some people me for example, a quite slow to pick up new concepts in mathematics.

It's not that I'm a bad mathematician. In fact, I'm quite a good mathematician. But it takes me longer to learn something new, whereas other people get it straight away. We have to be very aware of that. And each student will have individual needs and problems, issues, whatever we need to be aware of them. Students have different learning styles.

Some students learn, are very, very keen on having visual learning styles. Some like auditory ones. Some students like a lot of attention from the teacher, some don't like much attention from the teach. We need to be aware of who these people are and what they want. So, consider your own teaching now for a moment or a teacher whom you have observed. I want you to think of an example of good classroom management for somebody that you have observed At an example of poor classroom management of somebody you've observed, or maybe yourself, we're not perfect.

Think of an example of a time working with difficult students who had problems and issues that you couldn't deal with immediately. And conversely, an example of working with someone who was was very, very easy to work with, because he he was very gifted, very easy to work with understood the concepts that you were trying to put over very, very, very rapidly. And take five or 10 minutes to consider your responses. And that concludes our first session on this course. I hope you've enjoyed it. I hope you take something away from it.

There will be some handouts and extra reading to go with it. But until then, I'll see you next time.