The teaching profession brings along a lot of responsibilities and set duties that all teachers have to perform. With secondary and senior secondary students, teachers can teach and perform their responsibilities well because students are mature enough, accountable, and cooperative too.
But in the case of primary students, teachers have to face many challenges to teach effectively and perform other duties because the kids are very young to understand the rules and follow them with consistency. Let us read some challenges faced in a classroom by primary teachers and some ways to overcome them.
Challenges faced by teachers in primary classrooms
- Mood swings
This is one of the major challenges that primary teachers face in their classes. Tiny toddlers often have mood swings. Some days they are very excited to come to school while many times they are reluctant to come to school. Crying and showing stubbornness are part of their different moods.
- Catching the attention of toddlers
Young minds find it difficult to focus and concentrate well on learning. They are not mature enough to understand the importance of concentrating in classes. And because of this, they get distracted very easily. Making them learn, memorize, write and recite becomes challenging for teachers. Catching their attention for longer is a tough task for teachers. And tackling a group of such students becomes more hectic and formidable.
- Present pandemic times
In the present pandemic times, all schools are shut, and physical interactions are not possible. All education is being carried out via online teaching platforms. And carrying students’ attention through mobile and computer screens is also difficult. Since teachers are not able to meet them physically, making them learn in these covid times is also a challenge.
- Behavioral issues
Inappropriate behavioral issues are also common with students. Being respectful, generous, and kind, such skills are less present in students. Being angry, missing their parents, crying, or getting upset and disturbed on any small thing happens with toddlers a lot. All these challenging behaviors have to be tackled by primary school teachers.
- Teaching discipline and organization
The primary students are quite young to understand and follow the rules, regulations, and other disciplinary measures. And giving punishments, and being strict with them can also affect their growth and development. Dealing with such organizational and discipline issues in class also becomes challenging for primary teachers.
Overcome the classroom challenges: tips for primary school teachers
- Be creative
You can make secondary and higher education students read and learn from textbooks and printed pages only. But in the case of primary learning students, this won’t work. And hence teachers need to avoid monotonous lectures and be creative. For teaching alphabets A to Z, use real objects and demonstrations or make colorful charts and catchy pictures. For teaching numbers and figures, playing abacus, counting objects, and other such activities will help.
- Be technology friendly
Today’s kids enjoy technology a lot. So using them in the classrooms is a great idea. Making students learn from attractive picture cards, flashcards, educational videos, poems in the forms of audio and videos will surely help teachers. These visualization tools make classes interesting and fun for kids. This will make students understand, respond and learn better.
- Be patient to tackle different student behavior
As we discussed before, ers are not mature enough to understand the discipline and behavioral qualities of the classroom. Being strict and rigid with them can cause further problems too. But with patience, teachers can deal with different student behaviors better. With patience, comes love and affection too.
And with all these qualities, teachers can make students understand, follow and cooperate with all the classroom rules, regulations, and good habits. In this regard, reading about child development and pedagogy will help. This will help teachers to understand emotional, social, and behavioral types in students and teach them accordingly.
- Proper planning, preparation, and presentation
Don’t go to classes without any planning. Without proper planning, teachers cannot manage classrooms well. And spontaneous activities are not that effective either. Therefore, teachers should plan in advance what they have to teach in the next class. Along with this, prepare charts, interesting activities, and picture cards too, to present them to kids for fun and exciting learning.
- Practice chorus recitation and learning
As we know, creativity and unique learning are best to make tiny toddlers learn effectively in classes. Making them sit on their seats and write in notebooks won’t work that well. The best way for this is to practice chorus recitations in class. Make students repeat after you all together with the interesting rhymes, poems, alphabets, and much more.
Conclusion
Every classroom brings several challenges that teachers have to face and bring students on track to learn better. The above mentioned are the challenges that teachers face in preschools and primary classes. We also discussed some effective tips that all primary school teachers can follow to make students disciplined, more interested, and efficient in classes.