Happy Sunday! In my endeavor to consistently post content on my blog, I’m succeeding…barely. I’m writing my 2nd post in over a year and it’s a challenge. It’s like going to the gym for the first time in years. You have those muscles that you forgot existed, but now ache as you put them to work.
Writing has always been a joy for me…at my own pace. I love writing when I want to, but the structure of this blog is really pushing me to reflect on my teaching and remind myself to share what I’m doing in the classroom. If this was one of my student’s writings I would tell them it is rambling and needs to get to the point.
One of the things I’m hoping to highlight in the next few weeks are the teacher moves I make every day in the classroom. We all have them. If you’ve been teaching for any length of time you have those moves you make when you are planning or in the middle of teaching a lesson. Often you don’t even realize you are doing them until after the fact. Those are the things I think teachers need to highlight more. Those things that help make your classroom successful without realizing you are doing them, those 2nd nature moments.
One teacher move from last week occurred in my lesson planning. I have my students transitioning to a new activity or taking some sort of break every 10-15 minutes. On this particular day I knew I needed my kids to work in groups for the next activity. I also knew that the kids would take 5 minutes to get to their next rotation if I let them (sometimes I’m ok with that, because it becomes one of our breaks).
On this occasion I needed them in their groups quickly, so I threw out a question that I knew they would want to talk about. I can’t remember what the question was, but they rushed to their groups to talk as soon as I said it. It wasn’t a complex teaching strategy. It wasn’t something I read in a brain research book. I just know from experience that kids want to talk or argue and will hurry to an opportunity to talk or argue about something they care about. Once I had their attention in their group I was able to introduce the next activity.
The teacher move can be summed up this way:
- If I want kids to hurry I give them a discussion question or challenge statement I know they will rush to talk about.
- If I want the kids to have a break I give them 5 minutes to get with their groups.
That’s all I have for this week. What are some of your favorite teacher moves?
Until next week, book it forward and be awesome!
