Every strong teacher needs to understand the importance of keeping his or her students busy. Teachers who let their students have that occasional free time have found out the hard way what happens when students are unengaged and bored- trouble!
Good teachers make smooth classes seem effortless and seamless. Much of that success comes from keeping the students occupied the entire class time. How do you do this?
1. Plan your lessons effectively. As you get more experience teaching, you will be better able to gauge how long your lessons will last. But for now, make sure youve planned more than enough to do for each lesson so that you wont have any of the dreaded free-time left at the end of class.
2. Put the most critical parts of class first. That way, as the class progresses, you can speed up some tasks while cutting other, less crucial tasks short if necessary. This flexible planning strategy will ensure that you dont have any extra time left at the end of class.
3. Watch the clock. This sounds obvious, but too many teachers fail to manage their daily class time well. If you notice that the students are going to finish a task earlier than you had thought, be thinking ahead. What can you have your students do in order to fill those last five minutes of class that you hadnt planned for?
4. Have something engaging you can always turn to in a time emergency. I love the book Lateral Thinking Puzzlers by Paul Sloane. It has hundreds of challenging little scenarios for the students to figure out. For example, "Romeo and Juliet are lying dead on the floor in a puddle of water. How did they die?" The students ask you yes or no questions until they figure out that Romeo and Juliet were really goldfish whose bowl had been knocked over. Definitely this one is for older students, but it works great at using up extra minutes at the end of class.
5. Keep your flexibility. If you notice that your students are totally unengaged and uninvolved in what you had planned, try moving them on to something else. A good teacher is always thinking on his or her feet! Avoid getting stuck on your old lesson plans. Try something new in order to engage your students.
Keeping your students busy everyday they come to class will actually minimize the amount of disruptions you see over time. Eventually, even the most disruptive students will find other less engaging class to disrupt since you havent given those students the time to get others off task.
And doesn't that sound good? - 16928
Good teachers make smooth classes seem effortless and seamless. Much of that success comes from keeping the students occupied the entire class time. How do you do this?
1. Plan your lessons effectively. As you get more experience teaching, you will be better able to gauge how long your lessons will last. But for now, make sure youve planned more than enough to do for each lesson so that you wont have any of the dreaded free-time left at the end of class.
2. Put the most critical parts of class first. That way, as the class progresses, you can speed up some tasks while cutting other, less crucial tasks short if necessary. This flexible planning strategy will ensure that you dont have any extra time left at the end of class.
3. Watch the clock. This sounds obvious, but too many teachers fail to manage their daily class time well. If you notice that the students are going to finish a task earlier than you had thought, be thinking ahead. What can you have your students do in order to fill those last five minutes of class that you hadnt planned for?
4. Have something engaging you can always turn to in a time emergency. I love the book Lateral Thinking Puzzlers by Paul Sloane. It has hundreds of challenging little scenarios for the students to figure out. For example, "Romeo and Juliet are lying dead on the floor in a puddle of water. How did they die?" The students ask you yes or no questions until they figure out that Romeo and Juliet were really goldfish whose bowl had been knocked over. Definitely this one is for older students, but it works great at using up extra minutes at the end of class.
5. Keep your flexibility. If you notice that your students are totally unengaged and uninvolved in what you had planned, try moving them on to something else. A good teacher is always thinking on his or her feet! Avoid getting stuck on your old lesson plans. Try something new in order to engage your students.
Keeping your students busy everyday they come to class will actually minimize the amount of disruptions you see over time. Eventually, even the most disruptive students will find other less engaging class to disrupt since you havent given those students the time to get others off task.
And doesn't that sound good? - 16928
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