The teacher “pause”

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.

******
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/

*******




Comments (2)    Posted in Teaching Tips    

Subscribe RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or Trackback from your own site.





2 Responses to 'The teacher “pause”'

  1. jonteach - July 19th, 2007 at 4:49 pm

    I love the “pause.” The path of least resistance is so often the best way to go. Yelling, as you say, not only loses you the respect of students and further disrupsts the class, but I think it is potentially abusive and could have grave affects on students, especially those who already experience psychological abuse at home. I am currently enrolled in a teaching licensure program (haven’t taught yet) and it is quite helpful to read such advice from practicing teachers. As one of our texts points out, “Research clearly demonstrated that individuals respond better to positive reinforcement thatn they do to punishment” (Larrivee, 1999). In that sense, it is not only moral but practical to use methods such as the “pause” instead of aggressive or authoritarian control methods. When what’s right and what works intersect, it is a beautiful thing. Thank you for your ideas.

    Larrivee, B. (1999) Authentic Classroom Management: Creating a Community of Learners (Ist Edition). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn&Bacon.

  2. awaxler - July 19th, 2007 at 7:10 pm

    Thanks…unfortunately, teachers often escalate a problem by their own actions. Something that was a minor disturbance is turned into a huge ordeal when it didn’t have to be…then the entire lesson is disrupted as well.


Leave a Reply