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Simply Ieva

Episode 47 – 5 Ways to Reset Your ESL Classroom Management

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The Holiday Season can be hectic both at home and at school. No matter the age group you teach, it can be a challenge to figure out how to teach and manage everything during this time of year. Much like a computer sometimes needs a reset, your classroom might need one too, and the New Year is a great time to do it. In today’s episode, I will share with you 5 ways you can reset your classroom anytime of year.

The first one is to revisit classroom expectations. My students have been so distracted and it is difficult to bring them back once they are off task. So I started to ask myself, “what are your expectations? Are they clear?” It is okay, when the classroom starts to feel out of control, you can stop and ask yourself and your students questions like these to make sure expectations are present and clear.

  • How do we begin a class. Show me what the students do and what the teacher does.
  • When do we talk in class?
  • When do we go to the bathroom?
  • How to we ask for help?
  • What is your responsibility if you are absent?
  • What does group/individual work look like?

Next is goal setting – I talked about this in Episode 46. Ask students to think of one word to encapsulate their focus for the rest of the school year or the entire year. Another way is to make them more tangible by creating  a weekly goal tracker where students can reflect regularly on their progress and process. 

Number 3 is to be honest with your students. I want to know that I’m human and can often relate to things they are going through. Connection requires and element of vulnerability, but it is so important to creating a solid classroom management culture.

Number 4 is make activities easy to manage. There are a lot of distractions in classrooms these days, so activities need to be simple and easy to stay focused on. One of my favorite classroom strategies is a choice board that includes one “must do activity” and a few other optional activities. Another strategy is to break down lessons into manageable pieces. With any strategy, it is essential to explain and model as often as you need.

The final tip for a classroom reset  is to “clean up and change up” your space. Classrooms can get cluttered and messy during the business of the day to day. Taking the time to pick up, organize, and give your space a little makeover can really refresh the room and change the energy.

Do you do a classroom reset? If so, what do you do?

What you will hear about resetting your ESL classroom in this episode:

  • Revisiting expectations and the questions you can ask yourself and the students
  • Activities you can do to check for understanding
  • The importance of setting goal and being honest with your students
  • Tips for how to make assignments simpler and easier to understand
  • How resetting your physical space can reset the energy of your classroom

Resources

As mentioned in the episode, I am linking some useful resources!

You may also be interested in: 

Reset-Your-ESL-Classroom

2 thoughts on “Episode 47 – 5 Ways to Reset Your ESL Classroom Management”

  1. Barbara Boone
    Thank you for your ideas to reset the classroom. I have found that it is necessary to do some resetting in January. The students talk to each other a lot in Spanish sometimes to explain to each other what my directions are and sometimes to simply make jokes. I want them to speak more English this semester and only speak Spanish if I need someone to interpret for me by my calling on them to do so. I do not speak any Spanish which is a great disadvantage for me. I do use google translator but it takes time to speak into that and get an interpretation. I plan to use many of your ideas in January. Thank you very much.

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