Accreditation International TESOL

Discipline in the classroomI have chosen to write my article about the discipline in classrooms all over the world. This for me is a very important subject that I feel very strongly about. Young and upcoming teachers sometimes have the issue of discipline in the classrooms. One of the scariest issues for teachers is dealing with confrontational students in the classroom. Even though confrontation does not occur every day in every classroom, the teacher will have to deal with a student who is acting belligerent and speaking in out in their classroom. All classrooms have a handful of those students and need to be dealt with on a regular basis. Classroom discipline can be defined as a teacher's routine for rewarding, punishing, and maintaining desired behaviors. A teacher cannot begin to teach without an acceptable level of classroom discipline. Maintaining the classroom discipline will feed the learning process. Classroom discipline comes first as no class will be able to function without it. Establishing a good level of discipline in the classroom is very important. The teacher should be in control of the classroom at all times. A classroom is a place of education. Some students might want to be there and other might feel they don’t want to be there but they have to be there. Whatever the case the classroom should be the one place where students feel they really can learn more every day. The level of discipline is different in every school. The bigger city schools struggle a lot with discipline in comparison with the smaller town schools. In South Africa discipline is a big issue. Students of a younger age have more discipline due to the fact that they are still scared of the teacher, but as the students get older they seem to lose respect for the teacher. There are various factors that could cause this type of behavior. This is where teachers need to be well educated with the possibilities of why a student would react in the why that they do. The teacher must be aware of the student’s background by getting to know all her/his students. Some students have a strange way of calling out for help. One of these ways is to act out in the classroom. We as teachers don’t always realize that not all students come from the same background. This creates endless possibilities for why students will misbehave. Some students might come from a very difficult background and struggle to cope in life, not knowing how to handle everyday difficult situations whether it big or small. Where other lack in discipline at home thinking that they may act in the way they do. It is not easy but it is very important for a teacher to keep a level head at all times. They must stay calm and assess the situation very thoroughly before they decide on a course of action. Each student has their own personality and different situation and need to be handled in their own individual way. Speaking from a personal point of view and a small amount of experience, the discipline in South african classrooms has gone downhill a lot since the time that I was still in school. The students seem to get away with almost everything as the teachers don’t know how to handle them anymore. As a new soon to be teacher in a different country then what I’m used to, I am aware of the fact that there will be plenty of upcoming and newly presented challenges that makes me slightly anxious, I will make it a very important day to day task to get to know the students and to help them in the best way possible. Creating a relaxed and safe learning environment where the students will feel comfortable and won’t feel the need to act in a disrespectful manner. This will help discipline come naturally.