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I am happy to share with you the secret to my success in teaching English in the American,
Greek and Japanese classroom. I am so confident with this formula that I would venture to say
it should work in any classroom, no matter what the subject is. It took me a few years to work
it out by trial and error, but it is pretty polished now. There are four basics to orchestrating
and balancing a group of students to create a positive learning atmosphere in a classroom. I call
them the Four Fs because they all begin with the letter 'F' The four Fs are: friendly, firm,
fair and focused.
If the teacher is only friendly, the students will take advantage of him/her. If the teacher
is only firm, the students will resent the strictness. If the teacher is only fair, the class
will lack variety and punch. And if the teacher is only focused, the students will lose interest.
But if the teacher can balance friendliness, firmness, fairness and being focused, then the
atmosphere in the classroom will support positive experiences. In addition, the students will
gravitate to the teacher, to each other and to the subject matter.
Now, what you have to do as
the teacher is find how you can make these points clear to your students. If you speak to them
in their native language, then you can do an orientation at the beginning of the school year to
go over what the rules are, what exceptions are acceptable, what your expectations are, etc.
But if you do not speak to the students in their native language, then you need to develop ways
of letting the students know about your expectations by showing these four Fs in the way you teach.
For example, you can be friendly when you greet the students and say goodbye. You can be firm
by not permitting them to speak Japanese in class or insisting on good manners in your presence.
(After all, they are guests in your domain when they come to your class.) You can exemplify
fairness by lending students a pencil, a dictionary or scotch tape, but let them know they need
to be responsible for their own materials and to come prepared next time.
And you can be focused by teaching at an even tempo, getting everyone involved and by giving
students the right amount of time to succeed in each activity you create. Insist on the attention
you need to teach and give them the same attention to show you what they can do! A balanced
combination of all four are the foundation of creating good experiences in the classroom, and
will open the door to the secret fifth F, fulfillment.
Helene Jarmol Uchida
Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum
development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan.
She is the director of the Fukuoka-based
Little America English Schools
and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the
LATEM seminars every year
in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book',
an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese
elementary school students.
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