I just realized I forgot to post this last week…

My friend Marjan Glavac from TheBusyEducator.com (the same guy who interviewed me last spring about teacher interviews) recently released his latest interview with Harry Wong. It is fairly long (about an hour and twenty minutes), but very good.

I suggest downloading it to your ipod and listening to it at your leisure…but make sure you have a pen/paper because he provides many resources you will want to jot down and visit
later…

Here is the link to listen to the interview:
http://www.thebusyeducator.com/wong.htm

Hope you enjoy it…

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It has never been easier to learn the proactive approach to
classroom management!

Adam Waxler, a full-time social studies teacher and adjunct education professor, has developed a FREE 5-part

Classroom Management e-Course…

Learn simple classroom management strategies that will result in an immediate and definite decrease in classroom management problems

To sign up for this FREE course visit:
www.Classroom-Management-Tips.com

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As you know my last few posts have been about how teachers can handle minor classroom management issues…I plan to turn this into another e-course sometime in the near future (this fall)

However, as I start thinking ahead to the new school year as well as teaching my classroom management class at MCC this fall I began think about some of the causes of classroom management problems and how best to handle them.

One of the areas many teachers struggle with is transitioning from one activity to another…

I started to jot down some notes about this and then turned into the article below…

I hope you find it helpful

How to Handle Classroom Management During Transitions
Copyright © 2007 Adam Waxler

Every quality lesson has students transitioning from one activity to another, or, as I like to say, from one mini-lesson to another.

Mini-lessons are a great way for teachers to address student attention span and teach their content without the students getting bored. And, if students are not bored, teachers will face less classroom management problems.

However, the transitions from one activity to another can also be the cause of many classroom management problems. If the transitions are unstructured, teachers can guarantee themselves an increase in classroom management issues.

Therefore, the best defense is a good offense – in other words, teachers need to make sure every transition in the classroom is structured.

Here are some simple, but effective classroom management tips for transitioning between mini-lessons…simply follow the steps below:

1. Signal

Teachers must have some type of signal to bring student momentum to a halt. In my experience nothing works better than a simple egg timer. On the very first day of school I teach my students that when that timer “beeps” that is their signal to stop what they are doing and listen for the next set of directions.

2. Be Specific With Directions

The fact is students’ cannot read a teacher’s mind. Therefore, the more specific a teacher is with the directions the better it is for everyone.

Let’s look at an example where a teacher is transitioning from an activity that involved the students completing a worksheet to an activity that involves reading from the text book. There is a big difference between, “Put the worksheets away and open up your text book to page 323” and “You have 1 minute and 30 seconds to put the worksheets in your folder and open your textbook to page 323 without talking…when the timer beeps stop what you are doing and listen for the next set of directions.”

See the difference?

If you want to take it a step further, it would be a good idea for the teacher to then write the textbook page on the board.

3. Check-for-Understanding

As with any set of directions teachers need to “check” to see if their students actually know what to do. Teachers should simply call on students at random to repeat the directions. “Johnny, what are you going to? Sarah, how much time do you have?” etc.

4. Model

Depending on the complexity of the transition teachers may need to actually model the procedure. For example, if students need to move into new groups then the teacher may want to demonstrate how he expects this to happen. Remember, students’ cannot read the teacher’s mind.

However, modeling can also be used for simple tasks such as putting the caps back on the markers and putting the markers away in their proper place in the classroom. Again, if you want it done, you must teach it.

5. “Go!”

After completing the above steps the teacher simply sets the timer and says “Go!”

Having a few different activities within a single lesson is essential to being an effective teacher. However, the transitions can also be the cause of many classroom management problems. By following the above steps teachers can transition from activity to activity without any classroom management problems.

******
It has never been easier to learn the proactive approach to
classroom management!

Adam Waxler, a full-time social studies teacher and adjunct education professor, has developed a FREE 5-part

Classroom Management e-Course…

Learn simple classroom management strategies that will result in an immediate and definite decrease in classroom management problems

To sign up for this FREE course visit:
www.Classroom-Management-Tips.com

*******

Share

My last few posts have focused on the “Law of Least Intervention”…how a teacher can effectively stop disturbances without stopping instruction.

The next step of least intervention is… **The Look**

**Do not underestimate the power of this simple teaching tip**

Every teacher has one…the look that tells the student, “I see what you are doing…now stop.”

A teacher’s “look” only takes a second to deliver and can been done so without ever disrupting the lesson. In fact, if students are working in small groups and a couple of students are involved in some minor off-task behavior, a simple look can stop those students while the rest of the class never even noticed what happened.

While a teacher’s look is similar to prolonged direct eye contact (mentioned in a previous post), it takes things a step further…the look conveys the message “I mean it!”

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A new school year is right around the corner…will you be ready?

To gain an arsenal of effective teaching tips that will help you increase class participation, increase academic achievement, and definitely decrease classroom management problems…make sure you read

52 Teaching Tips @ www.52TeachingTips.com

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The next step of least intervention…The Pause

Sometimes scanning the room, making eye contact, and/or moving to the proximity of the disturbance are not accomplishing their desired goal stopping students from talking when then shouldn’t be.

This can be quite frustrating for a teacher and often times leads a teacher to raise his voice or even yell at the students to stop what they are doing.

Well…may I suggest a different approach…do just the opposite.

That’s right, instead of yelling (or even raising your voice) the teacher should simply pause.

A teacher’s prolonged pause in instruction will most likely lead to an immediate silence from the class. In fact, when a teacher pauses during the lesson the students will actually police themselves by quietly telling their classmates to stop talking.

Don’t believe me? Well…give it atry and see for yourself. A “pause” is much more effective than a “yell” and you don’t lose the respect of your students…in fact, you actually gain the respect of your students.

It is simply amazing how quickly an effective teacher can quiet down a room of students without saying a word. Once the students are re-focused, the teacher can then continue with the lesson…again, with very little disturbance to the lesson.

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A new school year is right around the corner…will you be ready?

To gain an arsenal of effective teaching strategies that you can start applying to your very next class read eTeach: A Teacher Resource for Learning the Strategies of Master Teachers @ www.TeachingTeacher.com/

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