Towards the end of each school year I always stress the importance of allowing your students to evaluate you as a teacher.

Let’s face it…who else would be better to evaluate you than the ones you’ve been teaching for the past 180 days or so?

You have nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain by having your students fill out a simple evaluation sheet.

Here’s the one I’ve been using for the past several years:
http://www.teachingtipsmachine.com/TeacherEvaluationForm.pdf

Feel free to download it, print it, and pass it along…

Best Wishes,
Adam Waxler
Teaching Tips Machine, LLC
www.TeachingTipsMachine.com

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Hi,

Last week I sent out an email about Rob Plevin’s ‘Take Control of the Noisy Class’ classroom management resource and the feedback has been fantastic!

Well, here’s some good news for those of you who have been sitting on the fence…Rob has given me permission to give a small sample from a section in the ‘Take Control of the Noisy Class’ program titled ‘Attention Grabbers’…

Here it is…
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Attention Grabbers & Silencers

If you think about it, virtually ANYONE could stop a classroom full of troublesome students from talking and get them to listen – even if only for a few moments.

A sufficiently dramatic outburst such as standing on the table screaming would almost certainly do the job. If that didn’t work perhaps putting a huge, colourfully wrapped box (complete with colourful ribbon) on a table in the centre of the room, with a sign saying ‘I’ll open it when you’re quiet’, would create enough intrigue to shut them up long enough to remove the wrapping paper.

Or how about issuing everyone with a raffle ticket and writing ‘There is a mystery prize up for grabs – when you’re quiet I will draw the winning ticket’ on the board.

Or … well I’m sure you get the idea.

The point is, getting their attention is not the problem.
Getting their respect, getting them to respond positively to your instructions and getting them to engage in the rest of your planned activities – they are problems. We’ll deal with these topics throughout ‘Take Control of the Noisy Class’ but for now here are a few tried and tested ‘silencers’…

Attention Grabber #1: Use the ring leaders

Many of the most challenging and difficult to manage pupils in school tend to be those with leadership potential – the ringleaders. You can use this personality trait to your advantage and get them on side by giving them a responsibility such as setting up/taking part in a demonstration, quietening down a particular group of students etc. They respond well to responsibility.

Here are two things to remember when giving responsibilities to students (particularly challenging students):

i) Always speak to them out of earshot of the others…

“Ryan I’m going to need you this lesson. The other kids look up to you so I’m counting on you to help me get their attention.”

ii) Make sure you give them clear instructions as to exactly what their job will entail because it would be counter-productive for you to award a responsibility only to have to then challenge the student for doing something wrong.

Give them a brief ‘action point’ checklist or a list of ‘dos & don’ts’ for their particular job. Better still, spend a few minutes demonstrating exactly how you expect/need them to behave in their particular role. The Needs-focused Approach is about giving kids every opportunity to do things RIGHT – give them clear tracks to walk in and they are less likely to stray off the path. Sometimes they need more guidance than we might think.

Attention Grabber #4: Start with a choice

Choices are powerful motivators. They give students a sense of autonomy and a feeling of increased possibility of success. By simply changing our language and offering pupils a limited choice we take some of the pressure out of our requests and create more willingness in them to take part.

On test papers, for example, the questions which give a choice – “answer two from section A, two from section B, and two from section C” are less threatening than those which offer no choice at all.

Instead of saying “Turn to page twenty and get on with the exercises; when you’ve finished those you can complete this worksheet”, try “I’ve written some choices on the board. You only have to do five from the ten choices, and in any order you like.”

The choices could include all the exercises from page twenty and all the questions from the worksheet, together with some extension activities. The difference is the way they are presented to the students.

Attention Grabber #5: Start with a challenge

I’ve often heard it said that there are two ways to get disinterested students engaged – bet them or pay them. I don’t want you to be out of pocket so let’s rely on the first one. Challenge is a universal motivator.

To use challenge in the classroom effectively we have to get both the context and the level of challenge correct. In terms of context, the challenge has to appeal to the students. A physical activity will only appeal to physical students, a sports challenge will only appeal to sporty students and a technical challenge will only appeal to technical students. Finding the right context to motivate disengaged students requires getting to know them so that you can base the challenge on something which interests them.

Silencer #8: I’ve got my ‘Eye’ on you

Bags of toy plastic ‘eyes’ can be bought very cheaply in craft and hobby shops. They move, they look silly and your students will love them!

One eye on a table = “I am keeping an eye on you”

Two eyes = “I’ve got both my eyes on you – be careful”

Third eye = a consequence.

IMPORTANT:
Always remember that any attention-grabbing strategies will have, at best, a temporary effect on the group. While they will certainly get most of the group’s attention, it might only be for a few moments.

During those few moments it is crucial that you have an activity planned and ready to roll, a demonstration set up, a video ready to play or at the very least some clear instructions written on the board or fixed in your mind as to what you will do once they are attentive and listening. If you don’t, you’ll lose them again and getting them quiet a second time will be much, much harder.

You can’t wait for things to go wrong before deciding what to do about them. As you read all these ideas, ask yourself two important questions … “What would I do next?” and “What will I do if this has no effect?”
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This classroom management resource is a MUST for any teacher who struggles with the problem of settling very difficult groups of students and controlling noise levels/constant chatter.

Please remember this is a strictly limited offer and the price will go up as soon as all the places have been filled – this may be your only opportunity to get access at this low price.

For more information on this great classroom management resource
go to:
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=3728833

Best Wishes,
Adam Waxler
Teaching Tips Machine, LLC

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As an 8th grade social studies teacher I have my students do quite a bit of content reading in class. Unfortunately, as we all know, much of that reading can be quite dry, or dare I say…boring. Therefore, I am always on the look out for reading strategies that are easy to implement in the classroom.

One reading strategy that I have always had great success with are Anticipation/Reaction Guides. These guides can be easily created and can be used for any type of reading.

All the teacher needs to do is create 5-10 statements based on the text the students are about to read and ask students to agree or disagree with each statement. Next, have students work in pairs or in groups to discuss their responses. All of this is done prior to reading. It is not until after students have discussed in their small groups that they can begin reading.

After students have completed the reading, the students then revisit the 5-10 statements and determine once again whether or not they agree or disagree. And, of course, students then share their response in their small groups followed by a class discussion.

I usually set up my Anticipation/Reaction Guides with three simple columns. The first column is a “before reading” column to agree or disagree with the statements, the middle column is where the statements are actually written, and a final column is for “after reading” for the students to, once again, agree or disagree.

This activity can address lower-level thinking skills or higher level thinking skills by simply changing the statements the teacher creates. For lower-level thinking the statement can simply be a true or false statement. This works well when the teacher just needs a quick activity to spark student interest and yes, this really does spark student interest as the students are eager to read just to determine if they were right. However, if the teacher would like to address higher-order thinking skills then the teacher simply needs to create statements that provoke discussion and initiate critical thinking. In other words, statements that do not necessarily have a right or wrong answer.

Either way, what’s great about these Anticipation/Reaction Guides is that it makes my students actually want to read, and as any teacher knows, that is more than half the battle.

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If you want to make your lessons more engaging, more interactive, more cooperative, and more fun then make sure to check out Rob Plevin’s Needs Focused Lessons. Rob’s Needs Focused Lessons can be used for any subject matter and you can sign up right now for just $1. Yes you read that right! Plus you get two great bonuses for FREE! For more information visit: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=3728832

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Teaching vocabulary is something that every teacher needs to be doing regardless of the content being taught. The Word Sort Reading Comprehension Strategy is a simple reading strategy that effectively teaches and reinforces vocabulary. Words Sorts have students find meaning in vocabulary words by having them group the words based on some common characteristics.

The Word Sort reading strategy really only has three simple steps to follow:

1. The teacher makes a list of words from a particular lesson, unit, or reading passage.

2. The students then work in pairs to discuss the terms and organize the terms into different categories. The categories can be set up before hand by the teacher, but it is better to have the students create their own categories. For example, a unit on the Civil War could have the students creating categories such as Causes, Major Battles, and Effects.

3. Have students discuss their reasons for categorizing the way they did.

Word Sorts can be used before reading in order to pre-teach vocabulary and tap into students’ prior knowledge about the subject, or after reading as a closure activity or reinforcement activity. Words Sorts can even be given as homework assignments. Regardless of how you decide to do your Word Sort, it is a great strategy to use when it comes to teaching vocabulary.

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As a history teacher my students must deal with lots of opinions. As I tell my students, “There are not always right and wrong answers in social studies…what is important is how you back up, or support, your answer.”

By having students make an argument and support their argument, they are not only addressing higher order thinking skills, but it is also a great way to spark student interest in a topic. As teachers know, sparking student interest in a topic is extremely important, but can also be a great challenge.

Fortunately, it is sometimes the simplest teaching strategies that can provide students with the most success. A great, and simple, teaching strategy to help students support their opinions with facts is known as the Two Column Opinion-Proof Chart. This simple teaching strategy will address higher order-thinking skills as well as spark student interest in a topic. Not only that, by the Two Column Opinion-Proof chart can be a great tool to improve reading comprehension as well.

A two column chart can be easily set up by having students fold a piece a paper in half vertically (hot-dog style). Have students label the left column “Opinion” and the right column “Proof”. The teacher can then assign an opinion or have the students choose an opinion for themselves and write it down in left column. Students must then support their opinion in right column using whatever resource or resources the teacher chooses such as textbook reading, internet, video, or newspaper.

Not only does this teaching strategy help improve comprehension and spark student interest, but students can then use their Opinion-Proof charts to write persuasive essays, newspaper editorials, letters, or even set up classroom debates.

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Are you looking for more teaching tips?

For effective teaching tips that you can start applying to your very next class make sure read 52 Teaching Tips @ www.52TeachingTips.com

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