Funny thing about noise

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Funny thing about noise
By Mariella

It's funny how, as teachers, we seem to be conditioned to think that if it's quiet, that's a good thing. Obviously, there are times when kids need quiet to work and there are certain types of work that require quiet. But
I've noticed, travelling from class to class, that often-times, the noise is a part of the learning that is going on. Just today, I was in a classroom (in the morning - partly delivering French to 3 classes and then regular class work to one of those 3 classes - a gr. 4 class) where at various times it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop (okay, I exaggerate) but at other times, the

children were quizzing one another, explaining to one another how to do a particular assignment - I had explained it to the "early finishers" and then gave them the task of helping those who finished later; this works well with these classes because they have a few students who consistently finish much earlier than others and rather than having them rush ahead into something new before the rest of the class, letting them be teacher's helpers challenges them and gives some of the other kids one-on-one. In addition, there are many ESL kids in these classes so pairing one child, who is newly arrived from Korea with another Korean girl whose English skills are better and doing the same for a Hungarian student, etc., works very, very well but it does result in some noise. I do notice, in going into other classrooms (where the regular teacher is) that sometimes it's quiet and sometimes it is not so quiet but that isn't necessarily bad. If I become self-conscious about the noise level, I just shut the door. And if it gets too noisy for students to work or for them to hear me trying to get their attention in a regular classroom speaking voice (ie louder than my conversation voice but not shouting), then I reign in the noise.