Dealing with your class

Sometimes you can have problems with the people in your class. This may be a personality clash between you and them or it may be that they are disruptive or even they do not want to be there. Ways you can help avoid this is always to be friendly to people. If you are friendly, it is sometimes harder for people then to be disruptive to you. Listen to your class. Try and identify what sorts of problems they are going to be having and questions they have and look at what their first impressions of the class will be. Leave your problems at the door. Do not bring them into the class. In other words, if you have any personal issues or problems, then you keep them out of the class, do not discuss them with the class and always be professional. Include everyone in the class as a whole group, do not just pick on people or just talk to certain numbers of people. Talk to everybody. That way everyone can feel involved and then if they feel involved with something, then they may be less likely to cause you problems. Address any issues quickly. Do not let things fester as the course goes on. If you find that there is a problem, it could be anything from the heating or the environment within the class, resources, try and deal with it straight away. Have regular breaks. Try and set key times so that lunch break is for half an hour or an hour between 12:30 and 1:30, then a break in the morning and in the afternoon, but set times for them.

It is quite easy for people to extend these, so a 10-minute break can easily become 20 or 30-minute breaks. Be careful not to accidentally upset or offend somebody. There is a fine line between having fun or gently picking on someone as part of the banter within the class to offending somebody. So be really careful what you say. If you do say something wrong, then obviously apologise. Always speak clearly. There is nothing worse than your learners or people you are putting a presentation to sitting in on a lesson and they can not hearing what is being said. Make sure you speak clearly and directly to the whole group, not talking to the board or the PowerPoint with your back to the group. Think about what sort of complaints you could get and address them before they happen. These can be things that have happened in a previous lesson. Keep an ear out in breaks. Often people on your course will talk in the breaks about issues, then you can address it before it becomes a major issue. And finally, learn from your experiences and learn to identify possible problems and deal with them before they arise.

Sometimes you can have problems with the people in your class. This may be a personality clash between you and them or they may be disruptive or even they don't want to be there:

• Be friendly
• Listen to your class
• Leave your problems at the door and don't bring them into the class
• Include the whole group
• Address any issues quickly
• Have regular breaks
• Be careful not to accidentally upset or offend someone
• Speak clearly
• Think about what complaints you could get and address them before they happen
• Keep an ear out for chat in breaks, thus can indicate problems if delegates talk
• Learn from your experiences and learn to identify possible problems and deal with them before they actually arise.