I started teaching in 1990 at a local school by teaching English to class II (6 to 7 years olds). The initial years were really tough and I made a lot of mistakes. Here is the story of those mistakes.
On the first day of the meandering journey, I entered (or boarded) the class with enthusiasm, thrilled with the idea of engaging with the class of 56 learners. I did not realize that teaching is not as simple as I thought it was. The students behaved well, beyond my expectations, the first day and I concluded, from what I experienced,
But later they started testing my patience with their free and untamed energy. Their energy level increased day by day and my level of patience slid down, with every passing day. Being a novice teacher, who had graduated from a Teacher Education Institute but had forgotten most of the classroom management principles, I was quickly caught in the vicious cycle of the Reactive management.
I completely forgot that all learners are prone to break rules sometimes, that they test the teachers' patience, they have to be motivated to learn, they have to be intellectually engaged at all times, there should be contingency plans for emergencies, rules that are made by involving students work best, etc.
Reactive Management took me downhill and the condition of my class was not at all conducive to learning. Depressed and upset me, made more mistakes.
I started shouting above the learners' voice in an attempt to get their attention. Even when their voices lowered mine remained high.
I punished the whole class for the mischief of a few rowdy students.
I made hundred and fifty rules that were broken every second.
The classroom activities became mundane and boring for my learners and for me.
I would make them copy from the board for more than 30 minutes at a strtech as this was the only way to keep them silent.
If I got their full attention ever, I would use the previlige to lecture them on their behaviour and use the remaining time on long explanations.
My teaching lost all its enthusiasm and became a one-way traffic. I transmitted and assumed that my students have recorded everything in their computerised brains.
Thanks God I learned from the concequences and my advice to all aspiring teachers is to avoid all of the above mistakes at all costs.
My previous articles were:
Let's Make Dictation Fun
The Carousal Story Writing Activity