Class management and role of teacher

Thor Heyerdahl Upper Secondary School, Larvik, Norway

Some challenges at our school

Coming late High absence rate Lack of concentration Games on the computer, mobile phones etc distract from the learning process. Pupils dont deliver their tasks Negative attitude to school Under achievers Low marks, lack of elementary knowledge Many drop outs, particularly on vocational courses. Mixed social and ethnic groups Many non-western ethnic minorities have little or no knowledge of English at upper secondary level

National school policy

All pupils have a right to go through upper
secondary school and receive tuition adapted to their level of knowledge and qualities. The objective of this national policy is to get everyone through the system.

School policy at county level: objectives

The professional leader should: Express clear expectations, give
constructive feedback and change unfortunate practice Communicate well Be a good role model Establish a good relationship to each pupil, see each pupil

How THVS deals with these challenges. Positive feedback: very important, is done too little.
Following school rules: Late coming/not delivering work: 7 marks/comments lead to lower
mark for order. However, this does not have an impact on the pupil. What helps is a dialogue. Absence: after about 15 % absence pupils receive a warning. Not delivering work may lead to the pupil not getting a mark in the subject. (But the teacher has to give the pupil new possibilities to show their knowledge if they have missed out on tests) The principal is responsible for expelling students for eg extremely bad behavior.

Some moves have been made to improve conditions:

The school has also employed a group of social workers
who mix look after, fetch, talk to etc pupils who are at the risk of dropping out. We have a weekly homework help arrangement where pupils are offered help and a warm meal. The helpers are retired teachers and social workers. During the school year 2010-2011 THVS has had a book-reading project going with pupils from the Building and Construction department with the aim to get boys interested in literature. Pupils agree to a written contract with the school.

Class management:
The class contact teacher is responsible for keeping in touch with

the home of the pupils, aged under 18, especially if there are problems. All teachers, not only contact teachers, are required to have a oneto-one dialogue with each pupil each of the two terms. Adapted teaching: pupils with special needs require individual attention. The beginning of a lesson is the most important part. Good idea with some set routine. (Greet each other, information about what is going to happen etc) Beginning of school year: set a standard, create a positive atmosphere. Contact teachers also have a close co operation with the student councilors. These are responsible for mapping pupils abilities and knowledge in the core subjects Math, Norwegian and English at the beginning of the school year so as to enable helping weak students at an early stage. Teachers are expected to be more service-minded. (School is more often referred to in business / trade terms. Customers are always right = students are always right. School results = products.)

Variation in methods
Many teachers try to vary the teaching methods and in this way we can
meet the needs for various learning strategies among students. Lectures: short lectures recommended to keep students attention max 15 to 20 minutes. Usually used to instruct, explain, discuss, sum up or inspire. Lectures or blackboard-teaching are proved to be the most efficient method for increasing the general level of knowledge in a class, but have been disapproved of in recent years by modern educationalists. Group work: Used for oral presentations or brainstorming and to develop co operational skills. To enable pupils to draw advantage of each others skills and knowledge. Easier for students to take corrections from other students. Presentations. Especially power point presentations. Make use of and develop digital competence through use of ICT. Easier to talk with a power point to lean on. Directs more attention away from pupil. Less scary. Written tasks: Difficult for many pupils on vocational courses. Correction programs on computer are a help, however. Reflection and analysis are also difficult for the majority of vocational pupils. Easier written tasks for weak pupils. (eg. Copy a text) Working with films: watching, discussing, analyzing and writing about a film. Good films with interesting topic and appeal to pupils: Forrest Gump, American History X, Freedom Writers, The Boy in striped Pajamas.

Variation in methods
Oral tasks: Difficult to get students to talk or read aloud in class.
One-to-one talks are best, but difficult to organize when you have a large class. A new possibility with ICT is: Audio files: Students can record themselves (at home in peace and quiet) reading or talking and send the file to the teacher who listens and gives feedback. Pair work: Used for oral exercises. Reading aloud and translating for each other. Process (oriented) writing: write deliver, get feedback rewrite, deliver new feedback etc. Vocabulary tests/exercises: Computer programs such as Drill pro, Listen and learn, word search exercises Reading a book: Easy readers available at school library, also books connected to films (also easy readers). Co operation with librarians: come to class to present and recommend books. P Audiobooks: Some of the texts in the schoolbooks are available as audiobooks on the books netsite. We also listen to texts on CD in class while following the written text.

Variation in methods

Interactive tasks: Plenty of sites available on the internet. www.readwritethink.org www.storyplotdiagram.com www.englishforum.com www.tracks.cappelen.no Games: Word search: searching for words in a grid. Keeps pupils active and quiet for a while. Copying texts: makes weak pupils feel as though they are doing schoolwork (which they are of course) and also helps their spelling or language in general. Evaluation: Pupils evaluate their own learning process eg write a log. They evaluate their teacher(s). This can give valuable information when making working plans. Have close contact with each pupil

Which challenges does the teacher have?

Keeping control of: Attendance Noise, disturbances Movement Pupils attention Progress and time Results and quality Conflicts

Which roles does the teacher have / need?

Inspire, organize, create a positive learning environment,
see that rules are followed, make term plans, annual plans, keep contact with pupils homes and school councillors, have close contact with each pupil and give feedback on academic achievements and advice for improvements, give council regarding further career plans. The degree of teachers formal competence less important. More important to have: General intellectual competence The ability to communicate with the class and individual pupils. A combination of competence in subject, empathy and verbal ability. The teacher has the strongest influence on pupils compared to other school personnel and the activities in the classroom are the central tasks of education.