REINVENT YOUR CLASSROOM

Teachers are often prone to get overwhelmed with school activities, lessons and everything else in between. When teachers are faced with meeting deadlines, completing the syllabus and all one will agree that all these can make a teacher develop patterns and routines to ensure that all these are accomplished.Also, there is the issue of lack of sufficient time allotted to the numerous school ‘must dos’. So, you find out that some teachers become experts in routines and gradually lose the ability to be creative.

Good news!!! You can reinvent your classroom every once in a while by disrupting your routines and procedures without losing focus. There are simple ways you can add fun and excitement with or without technology. I do this regularly and the pupils always love it.

WAYS TO REINVENT YOUR CLASSROOM

        Introducing games
·         Use of music
·         Dance
·         Movement
·         Talk
·         Activities unassociated with the subject, etc((The teacher has to be creative, purposeful and thoughtful about this)

WHEN CAN YOU DISRUPT YOUR CLASSROOM ROUTINE

•   Before school assembly in class

• Before the first period of the day

• After the last period of the day

•  Somewhere in between your lesson

•  The transition from one class to the other, etc.

Disrupting your classroom has more advantages than disadvantages. Some teacher may begin to think of time, disorganized class and all. But, these things are important for different reasons.

•  It relaxes the students.

•  It makes a lesson or day memorable

• It helps learners (especially the kinesthetic) to connect the activities with the lesson and remember more easily

• It eradicates boredom.

•  It creates excitement that makes students interested in learning.

EXAMPLE

A teacher just concluded an hour of a Numeracy lesson after which the pupils are expected to immediately begin another one hour Social Studies lesson. A simple activity either teacher can do at the end of the Numeracy lesson or the beginning of Social Studies. Tell every child to:

• Stand

• Walk ten steps north of the classroom

• Turn around and walk towards the east of the class and touch the wall

• Finally, touch one more end of the class that they desire.

Then the teacher says, ‘who will be the last?’ The next reaction is always amazing. The movement awakens them, makes them more ready for the next class and all. The first time I did this, the students loved it and asked for it again. However, I am careful not to use it too often so it does not lose its ‘magic’. There are some I do once and that is it. The most important thing is to add excitement to your classroom as often as you can Regular is boring!    

Wait Time: A Priceless Teaching Technique for Teachers

Wait time! So simple yet so powerful.

Many times, teachers unknowingly make students come up with hasty conclusions by the way they ask questions and demand for the answers in class.

Scenario

The teacher asks five-year-old pupils to mention major landmarks leading to the houses. And, in less than three seconds the teacher is breathing down on them to supply answers. Before you know it the teacher begins to get angry when the pupils cannot supply him/her with reasonable answers.

The next time the teacher does the same thing and so you see a cycle where pupils are trying to meet up with a teachers expectation of ‘prompt’ but ‘poorly thought out’ answers.

Try out Wait time!

It is a learning tool used by teachers but if well understood and utilized by the teacher it will largely contribute to developing one of the most important 21st-century skills, critical thinking.

How does it work?

• You ask a question.
• Tell the student to think about it by weighing other options before arriving at an answer.
• Give the student quality time to think about the answer (the teacher decides the length of time, based on the nature of the question).
• Prompt the students when it appears they are not getting the answer as quickly as they should, the problem may be with your question.
• Listen for qualitative responses from the students.

Result

•  It will increase the child’s ability to think in class.       It will increase the chances of a child to transfer the skill to his/her personal life.
•  The child will come up with better decisions and answers
•  The is most likely to solve problems easier and more frequently than a child who does not think though question.
• This will ultimately prepare that child to become an influencer as he/she will become a problem solver.

How well do you use this tool in your classroom?