Section 3: Classroom Etiquette

Chapter 21: Using Your Resources Properly

As you become established as a teacher at your school and learn what you have access to, it is time to start using your resources in the most efficient way possible. The first priority that you should have is to find out what you will be basing your curriculum on: Do you already have books for each class? Do you have to make your own course materials? Is each lesson you have a free-for-all where you are given no guidance or help whatsoever? Knowing what you have access to is very important for your teaching as it opens up more flexibility and allows you to fall back on other resources if you ever have a problem with one of them. Do you have access to a printer? Is it a color printer? Do you have a laminator? Do you have an assistant teacher in the classroom with you or helping you? Have your coworkers already made games and resources for you to use? Do you have freedom to order things that you need for your students? Each one of these questions is a huge deal in teaching English because having or not having even one of these things can totally change up the way you need to teach or approach your classes on a daily basis. 

Having access to a printer means you can constantly print things like arts and crafts or even worksheets on a daily basis for your classes which can help ease up on lesson plans and help supplement your lessons in a meaningful way. Not having a printer means that you will have to be very careful with your lesson plans and you will only be able to fall back on games or other things that you have made by hand. However, having access to both a printer and a laminator gives you a great chance to make permanent games and resources that can be used and reused in the future. Having something fun such as a game or old activity that students enjoyed in the past as a fallback plan is an amazing thing to have in the English classroom and very helpful to you as a teacher. 

For schools it varies, but in some teachers have access to an assistant teacher who is usually a native speaker of the country's language. Having an assistant teacher can help greatly in situations where the students need to communicate something that they cannot understand or convey at all or when there is a problem an assistant teacher can easily help by conversing in the native language. It is nice to have assistant teachers in the classroom, but it is important to know and remember that they are usually only there to help with the basics and will usually not be contributing to your lessons plans or doing much or any actual teaching during your class hours. Always remember that class responsibility will always fall on you at the end of the day and not your assistant teacher. So, try to use your assistant teachers strategically and not in a way that will cause problems or make your supervisor approach you.

With each school if they are well established or if they have been open for a long time and they have resources to make materials, you can often find games or other resources that teachers have made and constantly use. You should always look to your coworkers and try to see how they go about organizing themselves when it comes to available resources. You should also discuss with your coworkers if you are able to order things that you need for your classroom and classes and if you are able to, then how you are able to go about ordering them. It is very important to understand what things you have access to and can make your life very easy knowing what you can and cannot do. It is highly recommended that you talk to your coworkers about available resources and what you can use in the classroom on a daily basis. Always remember that the more resources and materials you have access to, the easier your life will be when it comes to planning and teaching classes on a daily basis.