In a classroom, there is always room for a distraction to occur at any given time. Students often times would love nothing more than to completely derail a class and send the teacher into a side tangent that lasts the entire class time. This is seen as a good practice for students to do as it makes the class more enjoyable due to the lack of material being presented. However, there are very few teachers that are unaware of this, and thankfully have come up with ways to combat such circumstances. The main teacher that was observed for this class was one such teacher, and the techniques that he used to maintain control of his class were interesting as they did not call for a complete removal of these side tangents. This is interesting as most often one would think that teachers would need to be on guard for any opportunity that students may take to throw said teacher completely off schedule. This is not necessarily the case here, as the teacher was still able to present the material he needed to, despite the occasional side tangent cropping up here and there.
The fact that he was able to do so was due large in part to a very efficient way of planning. If a teacher knows that students will attempt to do this every chance they get, then planning for such cases will be extremely beneficial. Sometimes, as observed, these distractions are almost impossible to avoid, and this is alright if the teacher has planned for it. Since it appeared that the teacher here did plan for such scenarios as he let them occur in the first place. Added to this theory of planning ahead is the fact that, once the teacher had let the conversation go on long enough, he was able to draw the class right back into the lesson with ease.
This ability to draw in the class like this was based off of a mutual respect it seemed. The fact that the teacher allowed this side conversation to occur was a respect for the student as students do indeed grow tired and bored in school all day long. The respect was, in turn, reciprocated as the students knew that he was not an unreasonable teacher. This type of respect can only come from such careful planning; otherwise these students would have been able to throw the class off schedule frequently. Yet, they did not because of such careful attention to how he was able to commence doing his lesson.
Even when the side tangent had gone on long enough, he was able to reign in the students’ minds with a loud, but fair voice and drawing attention to the PowerPoint. Such ability only comes with practice and experience. However, out of all the observations noted previously, this case was the most effective in obtaining and maintaining the attention of the students. The teacher would stay in the front of the class when such cases were happening, he never let them lose sight of him as doing so would create the idea of an environment where he was not present, and therefore the students could do whatever they wanted. He still maintained control, and due to the mutual respect mentioned earlier, the students knew when the time had come to return to business. Of course, there were times in which one or two students would get carried away, but even then it was never to the point where it disrupted class. The teacher was able to talk directly to the particular students in a manner that demanded their attention. This demanding of attention was the final word, and the students knew this as well. There was never a need to truly demand anything, though, as respect had taken the place of such practices.