Teacher's challenges in the classroom

Paper

As a long-time classroom teacher, I gained a lot of experience in teaching. Modern times require the teacher to constantly develop. In the classroom work, the teacher must be flexible in choosing strategies and approaches and adapting methods to different students in the classroom. Pupils come to school with different backgrounds and they are also very different in character. Some are very adaptable and obedient, some are hyperactive, some pupils are behaviorally very disruptive. In the field of learning, some students are very successful, some are less successful, and still others barely follow learning goals. Some pupils need special treatment. In the meantime, some strangers appear among these diverse children, who you have to treat and work with in a special way. Pupils with learning difficulties are a great challenge for a good and effective teacher, because each individual is different and therefore also needs an individual approach. Pupils from very different families, as well as from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, come to school. A special group of students are also immigrants (foreign students). These are not children who would have any kind of disorder, yet they are “different”. Slovene is not their mother tongue, so at least at the beginning of school they cannot express their opinions, feelings and emotions, as the language barrier is too great. They move to Slovenia from other countries, mostly from the republics of the former Yugoslavia. Their integration is more or less successful. Some foreign students get involved very quickly, yet others need more time to do so. We need to find a way to approach such a child, how to help him, to prepare adapted differentiated and individualized tasks for him. It is also important that classmates take the child into play, into conversation before and after class and during the breaks, to include him, and even if they do not fully understand him. Of course, they should talk to foreign students as much as possible in the language of instruction, Slovene. Namely, immigrant children should be encouraged to use the Slovene language in various functions and in various activities. Another stimulus for a child's faster understanding of a foreign language is, of course, parents. For a successful progress of a student, there must be as much cooperation as possible between parents and teachers. Motivation, which is an integral part of the quality work of teachers in school, is also of great importance. We can also use any social games or relaxation exercises.