In this past changing world, all things change including the students’ behavior and attitude. Every day is a tough battle for a teacher to face this challenge of how to get students’ attention to make the learning process a successful one.
Some teachers become too frustrated because of dealing with this difficulty. Many are suffering from too much stress especially if the students are too much disruptive.
In my 3 years in the service, I have tried many techniques just to help me surpass this kind of challenge in a life of a teacher, until I found this “stress reducing technique,” which I still found to be very effective.
If the students are too noisy as you enter the room, just don’t mind them for a minute. Look at them or have an eye to eye contact with one or two of them. Simply raise your hands but “add a twist.” Start counting from one to three with your fingers only, no voice.
With this, you can prove that the silence of a teacher still means something to students. Through this simple technique, one will tell the other to “keep quiet” as well as the others will do the same thing. After 30 seconds or 1 minute, you will see the result.
Peer pressure is also working. The students will surely follow his classmate as he says, “huwagkayongmaingay, nariyannasi mam,” because he doesn’t want to be teased during break with “kasiingaylangnagalittuloysi mam.”
This will help us to even control our blood pressure, since it is calming in part of the teacher.
With a kind of students we have nowadays, we should not get tired of trying different techniques in teaching our students.
Yelling is not always effective; it may only increase the noise level inside the classroom. Remember that silence is, as in all communication, a most important element to communicate with one’s heart.
By: Ms. Aida C. Villanueva | Bonifacio Camacho National High School, Abucay, Bataan
