Table of Contents
Tip 80: Class Decoration
Make your class a nice place to be. Spend time on classroom decor. When students come into a classroom, the first thing they see is going to be their first impression, so make sure that your classroom is colorful, with lots of examples of work on the walls and the relevant topics that you will cover in class.
A student’s environment has an effect on how hard they will work and whether they respect their teacher and their subject. Students will find it difficult to find inspiration in a dull classroom, so it’s up to you as a teacher to create an inspiring classroom.
Create a pleasant environment, especially for younger learners, to study in. We should make it colorful. Use some projects that you’ve done before, have pictures of icons in your subject on the wall, so the subject that you teach surrounds the students.
It is also good for when parents to see examples of the students’ work when they come to visit your classroom.
It will also encourage the students to respect their environment. Remind them to keep their areas neat. They should be proud of what they’re putting out into the world. It will also be good for you to have a nice classroom, so make sure that your desk is tidy and that you expect the same from your students.
Tip 81: Classroom Jobs
Create classroom jobs. Make one student a host to greet adults when they enter. Have a class captain, or in some schools a class monitor to oversee the class. Let the students clean the class or, if it is not customary in your school, at least let the students tidy their desks before leaving.
By giving students duties, you teach them responsibility and that will help them grow as students and as individuals. If they take these jobs seriously, they will enjoy that responsibility.
You can even make a chart so that students share or rotate responsibilities and do it at different times. Great leaders delegate and outstanding teachers should also delegate responsibilities. That way, you don’t have to do all the small things and you don’t have to constantly ask them to do something. So, make sure you give students classroom jobs.
81.1 Duties of a Class Monitor
The appointment of class monitors varies depending on the country or school culture. Class monitors are either appointed by the teaching body, the class teacher, or they simply get elected by the class. The monitor is the channel between teacher and class; they represent the students; they maintain discipline in the class when the teacher is absent; collect homework; distribute marked papers, and lead classmates in school activities.
Tip 82: Classroom Rewards
Reward students with stars, opportunities to have fun, or whatever they value most. You could hand out candy once a week, but don’t do it every day because then the students will feel that they are entitled to it.
If you hand out stars or give out opportunities to have fun, make sure that they have earned it because students will otherwise start to demand rewards and work just for that reward and not build that intrinsic, natural motivation for them to be working hard.
They shouldn’t need rewards, but it’s a nice extra for students to feel like to receive recognition for hard work. Rewards can be for individual performance, for a group, and for the class. A good idea is also to ask your students what they would want if they have worked hard. Give them the opportunity to watch a movie or perhaps read books or do something interesting, play outside once a month.
There are many rewards that you can pick, talk with your students, with other teachers, and find some interesting ways to reward them. But I want to emphasize that working hard shouldn’t depend on the reward, because then that’s all they want. Make sure they understand that you want to build up that intrinsic reason for them to do it.
