If you haven’t done so already, please join us. The good news is that by avoiding the common mistakes listed above, you can keep boredom at bay and inspired learning in the spotlight. The ability to concentrate over time is a critical and often-overlooked aspect of learning, and so pushing the time-on-task envelope is a good thing.Īnd when students cross that line and into boredom, misbehavior is sure to follow. Other times, you’ll simply move on to something else. Sometimes all your students need is a moment to stretch their legs or say hello to a friend. Regardless of what you’re trying to squeeze in by the end of the day, or how important it seems, the moment you notice heads wilting, you must make an adjustment. Moving sharply and purposefully forces students to stay on their toes, their minds engaged. As soon as one objective is met, it’s on to the next without delay. The day crackles and glides cleanly from one lesson or activity to the next. Good teaching strives for a focus and efficiency of time, movement, and energy. Instead, rely on sharp, well-taught routines to keep your students awake, alive, and responsible through every transition and repeatable moment of your day-while you observe calmly from a distance. This is not only remarkably inefficient, but it dampens enthusiasm for school. Most teachers are in constant motion-directing, guiding, handholding, and micromanaging students from one moment to the next. Directing too much, observing too little. It’s about doing and following through and holding students accountable. Effective classroom management is about action. They revisit the same tired topic over and over, much to their students’ eye-rolling chagrin. Teachers who struggle with classroom management tend to talk endlessly about behavior. Talking about behavior instead of doing something about it. So many teachers just talk at their students, forgetting the most critical element: selling it. It’s your job to give them a reason to care about what you’re teaching. In fact, many assume, based on their learning experiences in the past, that it’s boring. Most standard grade-level subject matter is interesting, but your students don’t know that. The most effective teachers simplify, break down, and cut away the non-essentials-making content easier for students to grasp. Our job, if we are to do it well, is to do the opposite. They take it to mean that they need to make their instruction more complex, more involved, more verbose-which is a major reason why students don’t progress. Many teachers misunderstand the oft-heard mandate for more rigor. The more economical and concise you are with your words, however, the more attentive your students will be. It communicates that you don’t trust them, teaches them to tune you out, and causes their eyes to glaze over. Talking too much is especially smothering. Students need room to breathe or they’ll form an unspoken mutiny and turn your classroom upside down. Good teachers are observant and thus learn to know precisely when to switch gears and get their students up and moving. Sitting too long.Īlthough it’s important to increase your students’ stamina for both paying attention during lessons and focusing during independent work, if they’re made to sit too long, you’re asking for trouble. What follows is a list of the most common things teachers do to cause boredom.īy steering clear of these eight attention killers, your students will spend more time on task and be far better behaved.Īnd you’ll be a more effective teacher. When students get bored their minds drift.Īnd while some settle on daydreaming, tile-counting, and general inattentiveness, other students are drawn to more…ahem…destructive pursuits.įor where there is boredom, there is misbehavior percolating just under the surface, ready to pounce.Īlthough 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.
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