One easy thing you can do to improve your teaching is to get students to move. I’m not talking elementary and middle-schoolers who should be moving a lot more than sitting but even college-age adults. Find a pretext to have them get up and move around, and you’ll see a completely different level of engagement after that.
Example. I needed to do an overview of formal and informal commands. I could have brought worksheets and bored everybody to death. Instead, I told students to break up into teams, walk around the department and translate the numerous announcements and notices we have posted around the place. The team that translates the most and with the best quality wins. Immediately, everybody started running around, looking for notices and announcements, laughing, enjoying themselves. In the meantime, I came up to each team and practiced with them individually. “So how would you say “don’t bring beverages to the lab?” How do you say it formally? How about informally? How about in the plural? And in the singular?” This way I identify everybody’s individual weakness – which can be completely different from one person to another – and help them in a targeted way.
As a result, everybody practiced without even noticing, received individual attention, and had an opportunity to move and oxygenate their brain. This was yesterday, and the engagement on Friday mornings is usually not great. But with this activity literally zero people snoozed in the corner while others pored over worksheets.
Clarissa's Blog 
With all due respect, madam, as a substitute teacher if I tried an activity that had the kids get up and move, it would be chaos. Any time I was given an activity where the kids in a classroom were supposed to move around, the kids started running about, fighting, yelling, throwing stuff, and trying to run out the room. These sorts of activities only work if kids are behaved and can control themselves, otherwise they’ll use them as an excuse to fight and throw stuff and yell
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Ideally, they should be outside. It almost never happens unless the kids are very rich but they should be outside running around all day.
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Perks of homeschooling. Kids not paying attention: OK guys, out. Find me three different members of the mint family and bring me specimens.
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I agree, but I work at a lot of schools in poor districts where the playground is just a bare concrete area with no playground equipment or grass. They often get only 15 minutes of recess and only the little kids play, the older kids and teens are on their phones or talking, so recess is kind of a moot point. It would be great if there was more recess time and an actual schoolyard, with a concrete parking lot there isn’t much of a recess
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Controlled choice and directed movement.
Also identifying the bellweathers and finding a way to bring them on board.
I will give this some thought, and perhaps check back with you. My high school students this go round are very much as you describe.
Miss Clarissa has always had useful insights on these matters.
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Controlled choice and directed movement.
Also identifying the bellweathers and finding a way to bring them on board.
I will give this some thought, and perhaps check back with you. My high school students this go round are very much as you describe.
Miss Clarissa has always had useful insights on these matters.
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Also, the male coach who the boys respect, and a younger female teacher who the girls admire take them on brisk walks. No phone allowed.
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