It’s a common frustration.
You know you’re a good teacher. You’re calm and friendly toward your students.
You prepare interesting lessons and never threaten or yell.
And yet, you’re still struggling.
Your students aren’t terrible, but they’re often rambunctious. They seem immature for their age and are much too dependent on you.
Furthermore, you sense a level of friction between you.
It’s subtle, but it’s there. You can feel it, especially when they complain or seem reluctant to look you in the eye.
Again, this is very common. There are scores of teachers who for years have felt as if they’re doing everything right.
They work hard, set high expectations, and care about their students. They have good days and good moments, mind you, and still enjoy being a teacher.
But it’s never really great. There’s something missing. They just can’t put their finger on what it is.
Today, I’m going to share with you what for many is that missing piece. In my role coaching teachers, this one thing crops up again and again, week after week.
So what is it?
It’s communication.
You see, few teachers provide the information students most need in order to relax and focus on learning. They assume that they don’t need to know—or care to know—certain details.
But they do. In fact, they crave them. So I’ve broken down what students need to feel safe and ready to learn into three simple questions.
1. What’s next?
2. How long will it take?
3. Why are we doing it?
Whenever students are unsure or in the dark about any one or more of these, they begin to feel disconnected, as if education is being done to them rather than being an active participant.
This in turn causes frustration, excitability, and inattentiveness. It weakens their motivation and pushes them away from learning and toward, ahem, other pursuits.
But when you continually answer these questions for them, when you provide this essential information, you eliminate the most common antecedents to misbehavior.
The good news is that it’s easy to do.
You’ll find that giving a preview of what, how long, and why during each transition, whereby breaking the day up into chunks or slices of learning for students, works best.
It makes them feel that they’re important, respected, and tethered to the classroom. It communicates that you know what it’s like being in their shoes and how frustrating it can be floating in space without any control.
Knowing what’s next also prompts a visualization in their mind’s eye performing successfully. Knowing how long eliminates anxiousness so they can listen and concentrate. And knowing why causes them to agree with and go along with your plans.
What’s next, how long, and why—we all desire these.
We seek them out virtually all day long. They make us feel more in control, content, and motivated to fulfill our responsibilities. It’s human nature.
So when we provide these for our students, when we refuse to leave them in the dark, groping for something to hang on to, we draw them in. We capture their interest.
We free them to enjoy learning and being part of our classroom.
PS – The Kindle version of The Happy Teacher Habits is currently available for only $2.99. The special offer ends Sunday (2/17) at 11pm PST.
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I don’t remember my elementary, middle, or high school teachers or college professors telling the class what we were going to do in class every day or how long we were going to do it. I never felt anxious or frustrated in school because I didn’t know what the teacher had planned for the next 45 or 90 minutes of class. This did not cause me to be rambunctious or unmotivated to learn.
Are we really doing a service to students by “mowing the lawn” ahead of every step they take? Isn’t it more likely that real life will cause them to encounter many unknowns? Are we preparing them the respond properly to the unknown if we don’t allow them to learn to control their emotions in new or unfamiliar situations?
First: This is particularly true in elementary school, where the schedule is not 45 minutes but 6+ hours, but being ready to answer (or pre-answering) “Why are we learning this?” is important for all grades.
Second: I’m guessing you were a model student, at least in certain ways. Most teachers are/were. We need to be thinking of EVERYONE, not just the kids who were like us when we were younger.
I agree with you.
By telling students about everything we are not only taking away aNY chance for them to develop self awareness but letting them grow without wings.
Life is not predictable and they need to understand it.
The sooner the better.
Life is not predictable at home for many students we teach. Not like in my childhood. Divorce, job loss, a parent who is not a model parent, a sick family member, etc…can upset routines and sense of security in a child. A teacher can provide this and it makes the learning community better for all. It models the kind of world we need to foster to offset the times we live in today.
Thanks for such an interesting article.
I’ve been an early childhood teacher for over 20 years n yet its always as if the children aren’t interested in learning.
I will use these questions in my next plan.
My pleasure, Denise.
Hi. I am trying to purchase the kindle version but it still says that it is unavailable. Thank you for this article. You completely read my mind as I had a terrible two weeks with my students and had no idea why. On Friday my students actually asked me why we are using our current textbook… they are definitely disconnected and need me to fill them in on why we are doing what we’re doing in classes. We haven’t had any time for good lesson planning and it’s reflecting in their behavior. Thanks again!!! Next week is a new week 🙂
You’re welcome, Paige! Evidently, the promotion is for Amazon.com (US) only.
Great column today. It was written for me! Thank you. I’m most certainly going to work on this. I’m struggling this year….new school, new grade and one particularly very difficult student who rules the class. I’m reading every email you send and I so appreciate your guidance through them. Thank you for your work.
You’re welcome, Kirsten.
This sounds good. I’m interested in the details of exactly how to do it as I’m a little unsure…
How often a day would you do it? At the beginning of the day, at the start of every lesson, or before every part/task within every lesson?
How much detail about the ‘why’ would you give? Could you please give an example of a ‘why’ that you would say?
We post a schedule at the beginning each day for our primary students. This outlines the subject we’ll work on for each 40 min block of the day. I’m trying to work out if I can simply adjust what we do already or if it will need more than that.
Many thanks,
Kristen
Hi Kristen,
I’ll be sure and go into greater detail in a future article.
I am also very interested in “why” part and how to implement it each day. Correct me if I am wrong, but steps 1.2.3. should be performed every lesson, and in this case how to explain “why you need it”every day seems to be unclear as can be treated very broadly. If you please elaborate on this, I would be highly appreciate.
I do this in my class every day. Most of the time, it works but you still have a number of students who still push buttons. I even have a visual timetable on the board the whole day so children are in the loop. Like someone said above, real life isn’t always so rigid. This can happen quite spontaneously. I hope we prepare students for the unpredictability of real life and not always soft-cushioning them.
Great reminders to help students to focus! As the teacher, it’s easy to forget to communicate what we already know about the lesson or activity. Letting students in on the plan is like telling them how much further on the road trip until we reach the destination.
Thanks for your article. I always connect my teaching with their prior learning and tell them why they are learning the particular topic and how it will help them in real world. I am accounting teacher . Yet this year I have one challenging class where few students always disturb the class in the middle by doing fun. How to solve this. I took lot of behaviour actions and it is ofcourse working. But still I am frustrated as one after another is doing this and it seems never ending. Please advise.
This sounds good. I’m interested in the details of exactly how to do it as I am unsure what it would like.
Hi Frances,
Will do in a future article.
Thanks for most enlightening article. Must work on this in future.
Alright! Gonna try this out starting tomorrow
YES!! Thank you! I personally enjoy when people tell me these details. It helps me understand the bigger picture. I do it all the time with all age groups that I work with, 5 to 80 years old. Brilliant, yet again. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Sonya!
Kylo,
I teach middle school 7/8th and I post the daily agenda on the board. Students can see what is going to happen ahead of time…1. 2. 3. 4…….I don’t post the times it will take because I don’t know when I write the lesson. I could write down 10 min, 15 min for each agenda point though. I will try this.
Great Stuff!!!
Each of these three things matter differently to different kinds of kids. The how long aspect that others mentioned is important for those kids that are just trying to make it through the day, and like you said, it breaks class up into more manageable chunks. I know there were many times growing up (and still in life) that knowing how much time I had left made the task more bearable. Thank you for your continued wisdom. It has helped me become more consistent, and feel less guilt in kids earning consequences.
Thank you for sharing it.
I am a middle school teacher and yes we can engage students with their intrest
Your information is informative and thought to be a good method by me as a substitute teacher. Students are/should often be asked why is it important or necessary to the know how of a concept. They can and will tell you. Sometimes they will relate the concept to things they want to learn to do (to tell the time on a clock) or to things in later times such as in a career job. Most all students want to be able understand the importance of learning Who, What, When, Why and How
about almost any concept brought about.