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CLASS MANAGEMENT and CONTROL

31.10.2025 Raimo J Leave a comment

Logical order of precedures and control are needed at schools, too.

The teacher is the boss in a class. The students take as much power as they are given! If you do not take the command in class, the students will!

This article is an introduction to this topic and I will start by introducing

10 basic principles on class management and control for new teachers and those who wish to reconsider their ways in class
some ideas to bear in mind when the teacher is starting with a new group and planning the very first lesson with them

Because of its large scope I am going to deal with ‘Class management and Control’ in 7 additional articles under the following headings. There will be some repetition of the key ideas to tie the contents of the articles together and make it a more coherent unity.

Class management and control	Qualities of good and bad teachers
	Class control, how to succeed and fail
	How to avoid being too tolerant or too strict
	Gordon’s principles, a wise teacher
	Gordon’s method, a sample dialogue
	I- and YOU-messages
	Active listening, I-messages and win-win solutions

Many teachers are afraid of applying CLT principles and student-centred methods because they are afraid of losing control in class.

I sympathize with this feeling since I have experienced it too. My advice is to try out the changes gradually and always tell the students what you are trying to do and why. Besides you can always go back to your old systems. I never did, neither did my colleagues.

10 principles for class management and control, a summary on teacher measures

The teacher

is the Queen or the King of the class; group control requires authority
takes the power for him-/herself from the very beginning; otherwise the students will take the power in the class
has clear rules for behaviour, explains the rationale behind them and makes sure the rules are followed
is on the students’ side, helping them in all situations
treats everybody the same way, no matter how good they are as students; the measure of students is not in the grades
is fair in making decisions and when marking papers
makes sure nobody is teased or bullied at school and the working environment is peaceful and safe
gives interesting captivating lessons with a good sense of humour
creates an atmosphere of mutual respect and patience
is interested in students as individuals and helps them to find new ways of learning

Many teachers are facing an authority problem with their pupils or students thinking that they are not supposed to give commands to their students. This is a misconception and problems follow. The truth is that the students take as much power as they are given. It is the teacher or students who run the show in the class and every responsible teacher has to realize that they are the Queens or Kings in the class. It is scary for some teachers at first but the other option is a teacher with burn-out and lowered self-esteem. If the teacher is scared of the students, they sense it and take advantage of it.

This does not mean strict military commanding but the students have to respect the work the teacher has put on the lesson in advance at home. Everything we do in class has to have a purpose, a goal and no time should be waisted on unnecessary hassle. It is perfectly ok to be jealous of time and use it wisely.

The students are dying to know who you are, what your values and principles are but still, be careful not to tell too much. Likewise you need to know about the students’ lives, hobbies and gradually about their worries. This is vital for a healthy teacher-student relationship which is the key to class management based on MUTUAL RESPECT.

Still, don’t try to be your students’ buddy. Some inexperienced teachers may think that being nice is the only thing needed. Wrong. It may easily lead to a situation where some students take advantage of that cozy atmosphere. You are the boss and things run your way. I fell in that trap with one class in the 1980s and learnt my lesson.

Every time we are dealing with a class, any size of class, the teacher has to organize the learning process logically and individual wishes can be taken into account. All this requires a lot of pre-planning and becomes easier only with a lot of experience. There is no room for chaos: the teacher gives instructions, all the students begin with the same task or choose one of the options, work alone, in pairs or groups and the teacher observes that the work gets done. As simple as that.

The teacher is supposed to observe the class all the time helping individuals, pairs or groups when needed. Learn more about differentiation. Learn more about Gordon’s method. In my other articles.

The importance of the first lesson

First impressions count. You are measured within the first five minutes.

You are walking along the school corridor full of noisy students. You are having your first lesson ever with a group of 30 students. “How am I going to cope with the situations”, you think. If you have not thought it out already, you have made your first serious mistake. Always go to lessons fully prepared.

Think carefully in advance what you are going to say to the students and do with them. Practise by saying all the things aloud at home.
Check the classroom and the equipment beforehand and learn how to use them. Find a way to make the classroom a bit cozier.
Greet them at the door personally and establish proper warm eye-contact. A firm handshake * will confirm your silent message: “Welcome to my class, I am the boss.” (* if it is customery in your culture)
Age groups 5 -15: at the beginning of a lesson make them stand and be quiet before they sit down. It means the lesson is about to start, peacefully.
Explain about yourself, your life and move on to your class rules, explain why you have them. As few rules as possible but as many as you feel are needed.
Ask each student to tell you their names and hobbies and write them down. Pulling the hobby-string to establish a more personal relationship with the students is one of my favourite things at school: Hi Janet. How’s your street dancing? Performing for us soon? / Hi, Mark. Scored any goals lately? / Good morning, Susan. I have a new song for us. Could you help me with it today? / Jim, can you come and help me with this programme. Your math teacher said you are the wizard in the class. The message is clear: The teacher cares about ME, not only about my skills in English.
Don’t ask them anything too personal or intimate since they probably are shy to tell about their family and background. Privacy issues can be very delicate.
Finally, explain about your philosophy and methods of teaching English (or whatever you subject is) and why you are using them. Encourage the students to give you feedback at the end of each course.

Be as tall as New York skyscrapers in your class. Proud and persistent about the things you do in your class.

Class management

Qualities of good and bad teachers

31.10.2025 Raimo J Leave a comment

Golden or rotten memories of our own teachers will never disappear!

The golden memories of the teachers that we used to look up to will never fade away. Maybe we even tried to copy the ways of teaching of that person at the beginning of our career.

My favourite teacher happened to teach history. Later on at the university I realized he had five essential qualities:

He was … credible = he meant what he said and was a convincing , there was no pretending
He was … reliable = he followed his principles and rules consistently, we mostly knew what his reaction would be like
He was … empathic = he was on our side and fair in all situations
He had … emotional intelligence = he could sense our moods and emotional states and knew which strings to pull
He was … knowledgeable = he knew what he was teaching us and had the skill to get the message through to us

I always looked forward to the lessons since he had the ability to make the lessons fascinating with his stories, explanations and big cardboard pictures or slides. He had a great sense of humour and the first exam question was always a joke. He also played the guitar in a band and we sometimes sang songs in his lessons too.

Thanks to him I still believe that lectures can be an effective way of learning. Sad to say but good lecturers are hard to find. Lecturing is a skill most of us don’t have. Besides, students of today are often too impatient to listen to someone talking too long. That is why I always recommend student-centred methods which also guarantee better learning outcomes.

Pictures of this kind were the ones that stirred our imagination in the 1960s and 1970s. No computers, no overhead projectors. Some bad quality slides occasionally.

In spite of his old-fashioned teaching methods of the 1970s we enjoyed the captivating lessons and loved our history teacher because …

he gave us clear rules of behaviour and we knew exactly what we could do and were not allowed to do in his lessons, he even told why he insisted on those rules
he actually managed the class well and we felt the discipline was not harsh, we felt safe with him
he treated all of us the same no matter how good we were in history, he had some magical way of knowing if a weak student knew the answer and encouraged that student to reply
he was interested in us as individuals and kept on advising us while he was going around the class while we were working
he made clear from the very beginning that there were no bad answers and no-one was to be bullied or teased no matter what
he had a great sense of humour and the stories and jokes helped us to remember the big picture too
he was patient with us, guided us to grasp the main points of the lesson
he respected us and our opinions and raised his voice very seldom and

Above all we felt he was on our side, always ready to help us. Secondly, he was fair in his decisions and marking.

It is sad if the lesson means walking on thin ice!

Unfortunately we also had some bad teachers whose memory will never vanish either. In brief, what I am trying to convey to you is that in the end we teachers are measured at many levels and it is most unfortunate if we are remembered in such a negative light as I still after more than 50 years remember some of my teachers.

My worst school memories are from elementary school at the age of eight. I started to dislike my woodwork teacher because …

he beat me in front of others when I accidentally dropped a plane (a tool used for levelling wood) on the floor
he had very strict military-like discipline in class and he kept on shouting at us
he lost his temper easily and mocked students in public, he was a bully himself in modern terms
he controlled us with fear and used verbal or physical abuse
he believed in the power of physical punishments, sadly enough I did not dare to tell my parents about this incident
he told us once what to do and ignored our questions if we did not understand what to do or how to do it

Another bad memory concerns my class teacher at the same time in the elementary school.

she favoured one boy in many ways and we thought it was wrong but had no guts to tell her so
she got rid of a boy representing a minority group because he could not resist eating our colourful crayons, we never got to know his destiny

In the final year in the sixth form we had a hopeless physics teacher.

he had no authority in the class and the whole lesson was always a chaos
he entered the class, started talking and kept on talking even if we were not listening or learning anything
he did no care if we followed the lesson or learnt anything, the noise was awful and some of the boys were playing cards to pass the time away
he had no respect for us and neither did we for him, I shut my ears and read the physics book to learn at least something

The teacher can help us to build our tower of knowledge and behaviour or smash it down!

Class management

Four types of learners, implications

29.10.2025 Raimo J Leave a comment

Are you a green, blue, grey or a red learner? What about your students? Are you able to take learner profiles into account in your lessons?

Source: many ideas modified from a http://www.pedanet.com/rauma article in Finnish on differentiation ‘Eriyttäminen’

I have already dealt with the first two items below so in this article the focus is on learner profiles and the ways we can take them into account in our lessons.

Learning styles: auditive, visual and kinesthetic or a combination of them. THIS ARTICLE is an expanded view to learner styles!
Learning strategies: each of us finding the best ways we can improve our language skills; i.e. what techniques to use to learn new words or how to become a better speaker, etc.
Learning profiles: due to our personalities and personal characteristics we respond to situations in different ways – something that both we and our teachers should recognize

All students are different and they also learn in different ways. Consequently, one starts to wonder how on earth we can teach them in the same class if they all have their own style of learning.

In CLT methology we believe that the answer lies in

student-oriented methods and practices in class
well-planned lessons even if the teacher remains in the role of organizer
and above all the students being taught and becoming aware of what kind of learning styles, strategies and profiles there are
then it is up to the students to choose the best ways for them to learn the language better

In other words, we first teach our students these things and then the students will try out any methods, styles or strategies that appeal to them and seem to work for them.

After all, the students themselves are the best judges in how they learn best but they need to know what options/choice they have.

The means how we learn a language does not matter that much but the final practical outcome does. In my school years I learnt more English from songs than ever at school. Everybody’s route is a bit different.

Still, it is very interesting to consider for a moment what the four learner categories below have to offer and how we could take them into account in class.

Read through the learner profiles and think if you have students like it and if you have been able to take them into account in your everyday teaching. Maybe you find yourself in one of the profiles. I found myself to be mostly a red learner with some blue characteristics. In reality we may all be a different combination of these features.

My own conclusions on how to apply this information are at the end of this article.

Green learners …

learn by doing and experimenting
lose interest if the content is too theoretical
get irritated if there is too much pondering
like to move about in class, holistic learners
learn well from models and practical applications
need an adult to guide them
like action as well as pair and group work
can organize practical things
need very clear instructions
like to work with their hands

Blue learners ...

like to discuss and argue
demand to have reasons and justifications for everything
can learn new things even if they talk at the same time
noise does not bother them
are active and quick in actions, like pair and group work
like to move about in class but do not disturb
learn if they are allowed to talk a lot
like to work and sit on a sofa, on the floor but not at a desk
are verbally skillful and alert all the time
are critical about the tasks given

Grey learners ...

observe others and stick in the background
ponder upon issues from many angles
are visual and learn from pictures and drawings
do not like to be in the centre of attention or in a hurry
do not like noise, need peace and quiet around them
are conscientious and careful with their work, good imagination
need a lot of time, lack of time makes them anxious
get nervous in exams and are under-achievers in exams
are slow in raising their hands due to pondering on various views
like learning in small groups with students who are like them

Red learners …

are theoretical, analytical, systematic and logical
want to know exact details, ask; why? what if?
question, ponder on and analyze information
find it difficult to describe feelings
are perfectionists who like to work alone, self-directed
learn best when solving problems or in doing projects
thinkers who are often deep in their own thoughts
demand very clear and logical instructions
appreciate discussions and clearing up background information
like to have order and safety around them

Practical implications of applying learner profiles

The principles below are derived from the CLT methology and from the learner profiles. See if they make sense to you as well.

I always have my instructions on the screen in addition to saying them aloud.
I use a lot of pair and group work because of effective learning and to allow discussions and to encourage the shy ones to interact socially with the others to boost their self-esteem. Laughter and humorous comments in class are music to my ears.
I constantly justify and give reasons why we are going certain things in class. At the same time I reveal my beliefs and the students can challenge them.
I randomly vary the composition of the groups to make it possible for the students to get t know each other and to allow them to move about to another table and hope they will express their feelings a lot.
I go to help the students who seem to need my guidance even if they are in a group. I follow eagerly even heated discussions in groups and say my own opinion or point out a new thing to them or acknowledge not being an expert in the matter.
I control the volume level in the classroom and sometimes allow the students to go and work in the corridor or school library. I let my students listen to music using their headset while working individually.
I explain grammatical terms and theoretical terms in layman’s style and I am pleased with low-achievers if they can express themselves in speech or writing using a model which they more or less simply copy.
I use visual stimuli (photos, videos and youtube), recorded textbook or internet materials to serve auditive learners and try to keep the kinesthetic learners busy by giving them minor chores and allowing them to move about in the room every now and then.
I insist little by little that every student comes in front of the class with his/her group and says something during the presentation: one sentence leading to a five-minute talks on their own.
I always tell the students how much time they have for a task, warn them when the time is running out and tell them not to worry if they did not finish the task. As long as they work hard I am pleased.
We practise for all exams in a special lesson so the students know what kind of questions will be asked and they have a chance to ask me to clarify things they have not understood. All of this to relieve exam anxiety.
I tell the perfectionists that the grades are not the measure of man and that failing is normal in life, not something to be ashamed of.