The ability to get your students’ attention anytime you need it is critical for good teaching. Because . . . It saves time. It allows you to give further instruction. It’s a sign of a well-behaved class. The signal you use is unimportant. It … Read more
It’s critical that you create a culture conducive to excellent behavior. Indeed, and of course. That’s what we do here at SCM. We teach exactly what you need to do to cause students to want to listen, learn, and behave. Much of this work … Read more
More and more teachers are allowing students to listen to music in class. Perhaps not during direct instruction. But once students are let go to work independently, in go the earbuds. It’s odd to me, to be honest, that anyone would think this is … Read more
Here at SCM, we’ve covered a lot of listening strategies over the years. We have a category dedicated to the topic. But we haven’t yet covered the most effective listening strategy of all. The reason is that it fixes a whole host of classroom … Read more
There is a phenomenon I see again and again in the classrooms I visit. As attention starts to wane . . . Eyelids droop. Fingers tap. Bodies sigh. . . . the teacher will speed up their instruction. They’ll talk and move faster as … Read more
We’ve covered the topic of speaking so students will listen extensively here at SCM. We’ve talked about the importance of not repeating yourself. We’ve talked about volume and pacing. We’ve talked about timing, pausing, brevity, clarity, and eye contact. But what we have yet … Read more
Okay, so I’ve got this strategy I’ve been using a long time. But I’ve been reluctant to share it. Because, you see, it can, potentially anyway, be an eensy-weensy bit dangerous. Like stepping into the shower or walking down a flight of stairs. So, … Read more
It’s demoralizing. You plan a great lesson. You give it your enthusiastic best. But your students don’t respond well. At all. They’re distracted and sleepy. They’re bored and slouched in their seats. They’re uninspired and blase’ about what you have to teach them. When … Read more