Overview

The years since Classroom Management Techniques was first published (back in 2012) saw one of the most significant ever shifts in education. Teachers found that they suddenly needed to teach some or all of their classes online, often without even basic introductory training. Skills acquired in their usual classrooms had to be relearned or adjusted for a very different environment. Language teachers, whether teaching online or in the real world, have also become more aware of differences in learners, contexts and individual needs, which has led to a push for greater inclusivity in our approaches. There has also been a growth in understanding of our responsibilities to the planet and to our children's futures.

As a result, the second edition of this handbook adds a lot of new techniques and ideas to the original text but, most importantly, introduces two new chapters focusing on the core skills needed for classroom management in online teaching.

If your classroom is now (potentially) the world and your students’ desks are in their own homes or offices or far-off schools (and may not even be desks but smartphones on a bus), then there are clearly some completely new management challenges.

I hope this book helps to make some of those challenges easier and suggests interesting or unexpected ways that you can make your classes, whether online or in the real world, as enriching as possible for you and your students.