Dealing with Distracted Students in My English Class, Guangxi, China

Day 3

This was the third day of our teaching. Most of the volunteer instructors have started to get to know the students in their classes. The students in all the classes are polite,  respectful and eager to learn.

We can get so much more done in our classes as we do not need to spend much time dealing with disciplinary issues. It is a delight to teach these motivated students!

However,  this morning I noticed something was very different. Kirito, the most lively and vocal student in my class, was constantly looking at his cell phone. This was the first time I had a problem in my class.

















After checking his cell phone for a while, he lost interest in our activities and hardly participated at all which was quite uncharacteristic of him. I told him to put away his cell but he still kept at it. He ignored my instructions a couple of times.

This was a classic disciplinary issue facing teachers in many classrooms.


Upset at my students' behaviour,  I  still kept my cool; I was glad I did. Remembering my experience from my teaching days, I needed to find out what was going on with this student, who, a couple of days ago, was full of enthusiasm and motivated to learn in my class.

What caused the change in his behavior?  I needed to find out before I could deal with the student. I went over to his desk and talked to K. in a very gentle and soft voice so other students could not hear me. I asked him what was wrong.

He told me right away that he just found out his grades on his final exams from reading the results on the cell phone. Disappointed about his grades, K. was upset and seemed to have given up learning in class.

At times teachers need to let go of their original lesson plans & modify them

He was not the only student being disappointed by their published academic results, there were a few in my class that had the same experience. Many students were upset and distracted by their results.

Students enjoyed the change of activities

For the rest of the day, my teaching partner and I had to do a lot of encouraging for our class in order to keep them interested.




 Sometimes, when dealing with disciplinary issue, you just have to throw your lesson plan out of the window and modify your plan.

Putting up their crafts work outside the classroom

We did some fun activities instead and taught the students some crafts activities which they certainly enjoyed.

R.T.
Guangxi, China