Being a teacher is hard and can be very stressful.
There are students who always cause trouble and are very disruptive. Teachers
are forced to stop teaching the class to deal with them, taking up valuable
class time. Teachers have the risk of being threatened by their students and need
to develop strategies and tactics so students don´t interrupt the class and can
give the class with no problem. Either the teacher is feared or loved when he
or she implements these tactics and that´s exactly what we are going to talk
about.
The first one is fear. There are some benefits in
having a fearful classroom environment: the classroom is quiet, people can
concentrate, students can know that there is little to no time taken away by
disruptions, and there is less stress for teachers and some students. A quiet
classroom is a hardworking classroom. In a fearful classroom, students know
that any student who causes disruptions will be punished. A fearful classroom
environment reduces stress to teachers and some students. However, in addition
to the pros, there are cons in having a fearful classroom environment. It´s not
always good for group work, there is limited emotional involvement of students,
class seems to drag on for a long time and starts to get boring and difficult
to understand, students can fall asleep easily, and finally, most importantly,
students may feel threatened.
Also, students won´t ask questions, which means they
might have difficulties and the learning process is going to be affected. Finally,
the worst result from having a fearful class is the fact that students might
leave or drop out the school.
A loving classroom, on the other hand, it fosters good
rapport between students and teachers, interactions and communication,
listening skills, more relaxed environment, students may genuinely care about
the teacher, and it is a free-spirited classroom environment.
A good rapport between students and teachers means
that the students feel more comfortable in the classroom. With a loving
classroom environment there are more interactions. Interactions with other
students cause students to view different perspectives and create a better
understanding of their own. In a loving classroom, the environment is more
relaxed. This type of environment is ideal to help students develop
communication/listening skills. Students in a loving classroom will be less
hesitant to speak.
Therefore, more ideas will be thrown out into the open and
students hear those ideas and determine whether they are appealing. This type
of environment is good because the students feel as though their opinion
matters when the class has discussions.
Of course with the pros of having a loving classroom
environment, there are cons: Because the classroom environment is looser and
less strict, students may have to be told things more than once. In these
instances, teachers have to repeat themselves to get the class’ attention.
Being a loving classroom environment would normally be viewed as good, but
discussions may get off topic. This means the teacher has to pull the students
back into the original conversation which takes up class time, even though the
off-topic discussions may teach about the “real world”; so it is not
necessarily a waste of time.
Many distractions may occur in a loving classroom
environment. So the teacher has to stop
what they are doing and manage the
distraction. This is for me the biggest issue, since it can be really exhausting for the teacher and needs to find a good way to manage these difficulties.
So teachers, which one works the best for you? The
military and fearful classroom or the loving and cute classroom? Please write
on the comments sections your thought regarding this topic and if you have a
preference for one of these styles or if you implement a combination. Thank you
for reading this post!
References
Barton, R. (2013,
Febreary 25). Indyependent Reader. Retrieved from Indyependent Reader:
https://indyreader.org/content/love-or-fear-classroom
In my opinion, it’s better to be a caring teacher: a teacher who corrects whenever it’s necessary and sets limits, but who also creates an environment where students feel loved and secured. Nowadays, many students do not feel cared at home and look for it at school causing problems in order to catch everybody’s attention. That’s they way to asked for limits that they see as love, because at home they do not have them as parents work all day and buy that time with a limitless attitude. Thanks for sharing!
ResponderBorrarI can’t choose between the military and fearful classroom or the loving and cute classroom, it’s difficult. I think the respect and the persistence are the key. At the moment that you see a bad behavior in the classroom you have to correct it immediately because if you just ignore it, another kid or kids can get out of control and copy the same behavior because at this stage they usually see and copy. Also, I think you have to motivate your students and catch their attention with interesting activities so they cannot be distracted doing other things.
ResponderBorrarTHANKS =)
Very easy for me to decide, I have never been able to be a teacher to which they are afraid, although sometimes it is necessary to be energetic, it is not the same thing that they come to fear.
ResponderBorrarMy personality does not allow it, so in preschool it is very easy to get an emotional between the teacher and the students.
As they say "I feel like a fish in the water" working the emotional part at that stage of their lives is important, to achieve the goals you have established, by winning the affection of children you achieve more results.
"You achieved more with honey than with gall"