an idea that works for me

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Home : 2003 : September : 27

an idea that works for me
By Judy

I too have a chatty class. I started this the 2nd week of school and so far it has worked. When we are too talkative I say ok take out a sheet of paper. I have one student write on the board,

Sometimes we have to do
things we don't want to do, in order to get things we have to do done.
Then I say ok it's three times or 1, 2, 4, 5 depending on the level of noise. The next sound will make it 4. Ok now it's 4. One more sound and it's 5. By then they have shut up and noone will dare talk again while we're writing. I don't start class until all students have finished. And I mean I really don't start

class until I have collected the last paper. Also the task lasts until the last student finishes, so if we're on 3 and while we're waiting for that last kid someone talks then it goes to 4 and everybody has to write it 4 times. This means that I don't get done with all that I want to do, but really would they have gotten much out of my lesson if I hadn't stopped? one word of advice though, start with a low number because it does take some time and I really do want to teach. However, once we do this the rest of the periods are great. Sometimes I have to do this twice a week, but no more and I'm hoping that I will soon get a week without doing this. We've only been in school 5 weeks, so next week may be the week.