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January 4 - February 6, 2022
5. “Now that is how you do it!”
6. “I believe in you.”
So unless you genuinely believe in what you’re saying, it’s best not to say anything at all. But sparingly used and in the right moments, with just the right tone and intonation, and with stripped down, unadulterated, eyeball-to-eyeball honesty, your words can have power.
No, with difficult students it pays to be more subtle.
The idea is to begin building a relationship organically—one based on trust and likability.
I believe in you, Anthony, and I'm proud to have you as a member of this classroom. -Mrs. Ricks
Our greatest calling as teachers is to impact our students for a lifetime, to be that one teacher they'll always remember—who imparted not just knowledge of reading and writing, but of life lessons they can carry with them into adulthood.
27. Why Micromanagers Make Bad Teachers
Powerful Forces At Work Knowing when to back off, observe quietly, and let your students work through and apply the tools you’ve given
them to succeed is a little appreciated and often-overlooked aspect of great teaching. It’s an art form, to be sure, learned over time by those aware of the powerful forces at work when students are made to realize that, in the end, success and failure resides with them.
After presenting sharp, clear-cut lessons, the most effective teachers are quick to recede into the background, because they know that when you micromanage students, when you step in, take on, and interfere with what are their responsibilities, you rip the heart and soul out of motivation, suppress real, inspired learning, and unleash a torrent of misbehavior.
Why Reminders Make Classroom Management More Difficult
IF THERE IS ONE classroom management mistake made more often than others, it is the practice of giving reminders after misbehavior has already occurred. It’s so common, in fact, that it passes the lips of many scores of teachers daily—even hourly—in schools from Fresno to Timbuktu.
It undermines your classroom management plan.
It weakens the power of your words.
Your Words Realized
29. A Simple Way to Improve Listening
Give your directions once. After receiving their quiet attention, give the directions you want them to follow one time, which is the key to the strategy. Speak in a normal voice, erring on the side of too softly than too loudly.
Wait. Don’t move or say anything until they’re finished following your directions and quiet. Pause for 30 seconds or so to let the lesson sink in.
Students become poor listeners when they know they don’t have to listen. You
When they haven’t been forced—or even allowed—to think for themselves, when they’re unburdened by any responsibility to pay attention, they tune out. They daydream. They let life happen to them. It’s human nature.
Habits will change. Maturity and independence will grow. And listening will become a matter of routine.
Although there is a lot you can do to counter the onset of boredom, understanding what not to do is the first step to avoiding its negative effects.
1. Sitting too long.
The more economical and concise you are with your words, the more attentive your students will be.
The most effective teachers simplify, break down, and cut away the non- essentials—making content easier for students to grasp.
So many teachers just talk at their students, forgetting the most critical element: selling
movies and bawdy comedies. They love snowball fights, skateboards, birthday parties, and action sports. They love laughter and thrills, challenge and daring-do. They want to leap off thirty-foot cliffs into murky water below. They want to go on zip-lines, amusement-park rides, and water slides. They want to score the winning goal, hang out with their crazy friends, and eat pizza seven nights a week. They spend their waking moments thinking about, pursuing, or engaging in their desires. And then they walk into your classroom.
Boredom Equals Misbehavior
Four Desires
1. Adventure
your classroom. Organize scavenger hunts and walking field trips and outdoor art lessons.
2. Humor
3. Challenge
Who thinks they can teach the class how to perform the experiment? What group wants to try to tackle this problem? Which pair can do this the best, the fastest, or without making a mistake?
4. Fascination
Teach To The Heart If your classroom doesn’t include these elements, if you’re simply following along with the paint-by-numbers curriculum you’ve been provided, then classroom management will be a never-ending struggle and academic progress will be teeth-pulling slow. When you regularly tap into your students’ natural desires, however, when you speak and teach directly to their hearts rather than into their ears and over their heads, then their eyes will widen, their backs will straighten in their seats, and they’ll be filled with the love of learning.
ONE OF THE MOST common errors teachers make when presenting lessons, providing directions, or otherwise addressing students is to string sentences together with very little gap between them. In other words, the teacher will move from one thought, idea, or bit of information to the next without delay, often filling the gaps with ands, ums, likes, and other meaningless words.
A simple way to correct this problem, and at the same time become a more effective teacher, is to include frequent, and at times even lengthy, pauses in your speech.
They’re predictive.
Anticipating answers and outcomes improves learning, and when you pause, your students will instinctively predict what you’re going to say next.
They discourage misbehavior. Speaking without intentional pausing sounds like droning to students, who are quick to lose interest, grow bored, and misbehave. An occasional two or three second pause breaks up the familiar tone of your voice, keeps students on their toes, and helps them stay checked in and on task.
Like much of classroom management, it is the simple things, when applied consistently, day after day, and perfected over time . . . that add up to great teaching.
YOU DON’T ALWAYS have to make big, dramatic changes to see classroom management improvement. Sometimes it can be a slight adjustment. A small change in the way you do things, in how you speak, move, or relate to students, can make a big difference.
To encourage good listening, and a desire to follow directions, a soft- spoken approach is in order.
When you speak pleasantly and calmly while giving directions, the information goes down a lot smoother. And because it sounds polite, because it sounds like you believe in your students and their ability to listen, you can ask so much more of them.
In many ways a class takes on the personality of their teacher, and if you shout your directions and talk over your students, you’ll have a noisy, chaotic classroom.
Passion and enthusiasm are important to good teaching. So when you’re presenting a lesson, motivating your troops, or playing a game with your students, let the moment dictate the volume and intensity of your voice. Cut loose and be the inspirational teacher you were meant to be.
If, on the other hand, you allow your students to noodle the challenges placed before them without your interference, you empower them.
In other words, by observing more and helping less, your students will become tenaciously independent, even bristling at your suggestions to help.
