Making the Most of Classroom Time & Nonverbal Interventions

Weinstein Chapter 8: Making the Most of Classroom Time

Time! Time in the classroom seems to be something that is a major concern and everlasting battle on where the most time should be spent in terms of curriculum. Some say that more time of the school day should be spent in areas like gym, art, and music while others think that students should spend most of their time in reading or math. Where students spend the majority of their time will always move from them using their time to be more creative or more logical. Either way in which curriculum sways, it’s important to utilize as much instruction time within the constraints of the school day. Teachers need to be aware of how the scheduling of their school day affect the amount of instruction time they have and also how transitions affect the amount of time you have to be productive.

In this chapter it discussed ways to make the most of classroom time by maintaining activity flow, minimizing transition time, holding students accountable, and also managing pullouts efficiently. Maintaining activity flow is the most evident way to making the most out of your time with your students in class. This would include avoiding flip-flopping between subjects, over dwelling on a topic and fragmentation. In my classroom, we have the classroom schedule on display for the students to be aware of and let them know ahead of time whenever that changes. Over dwelling on a top is something that doesn’t happen often in our classroom since we do have this schedule and need to move on. If students still do not grasp the task we are asking them to do, we pull them and work with them individually when -the students have more free time during centers. The book also talks about stimulus-bound events that may cause a disruption in the flow of the classroom activity and student engagement. My classroom, is not effected so much by stimulus-bound events. I think that it may be due the fact that the class size is so large and they are used to disruptions from students. Our class is in an area where we get a lot of traffic so the students are used to people walking in and out so some stimulus-bound events are not an issue for my class.

The next tip that the books provides teachers who want to make the most out of their instruction time is to minimize the transition time in the classroom. I think that this is one of the things I need to work on as a teacher. It has a lot of do with behavior management and having the students focused on the directions needed to transition quickly and efficiently. I see that whenever I takeover a lesson, it is difficult for me to transition as efficiently as my teachers. I think it may be due to the fact that my students don’t see me as their teacher or main authority in the classroom and just as a helper so they are less prone to giving me the respect that they give their main teachers. It may also have to do with me not being consistency or clear with my directions when I am trying to have them transition which can leave the students all over the place. The book suggests that as teachers we have prep students for transitions, have clear routines, and have clean beginning and ends for each activity. This includes announcing the transition, having everyone attentive to your directions, and monitoring their transition. What I try to do in my classroom is to let the students know I am watching them as they transition to see “who can do it best” and challenge the remanding students to see if they can transition more quietly and efficiently than the other group.

Throughout the day, almost in every subject, we have students being pulled out from our classroom for a variety of reasons. The book suggests that teachers set up a system for students to catch up on lessons and assignments that they have missed when they are pulled out. In my on classroom, we have not established a system for students who get pulled out of the classroom but just expect them to catch on since the units go on for weeks at a time. I think it would be better to see what subjects each students are pulled out from and create a system in which students are caught up with the rest of the class.

References

Weinstein, C. S., & Romano, M. E. (2015). Elementary classroom management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Using Nonverbal Interventions to Influence Students to Behave Appropriately

In this chapter of Levin and Nolan, we discuss how to deal with students that exhibit surface behaviors that may be disruptive or interfering with their or others learning. I under stance surface behaviors is anything that the student is doing outwardly. This can include making noises like humming, calling out, or whispering or any other vocal or verbal interruptions. Verbal surface behaviors occur often in our first grade classroom. The students are still being accustomed to following rules and getting accustomed to the classroom culture. They often call out of excitement and engagement with their self-connections to the lesson. Some off-task behaviors that students may exhibit would be passing notes, daydreaming, or sleeping. Then there are the physical surface behaviors like sitting on desks, fidgeting, playing with other students, etc. All the behaviors are usually a sign that the student is not engaged so it is the instructor’s job to redirect their attention back to the lesson or activity. There are two ways to intervene in the students behaviors using nonverbal forms of actions which are proactive interventions skills and remedial interventions skills.

Using proactive intervention skills is a way to influence student behavior in a positive way so that students are more likely to comply and exhibit more positive behaviors. My first graders are still in the primary stage, so they are still interested in people pleasing especially their authority. When you focus on their positive behaviors, it boosts them up because they know that their actions are pleasing to their teachers so they will want to repeat those positive behaviors to get that positive praise. Removing disturbing objects in the classroom and changing the pace of classroom activities can also be proactive strategies teachers use. The way you structure the classroom has a lot to do with how well students behave in the classroom. I think of it as a type of Zen; the classroom must be placed strategically so that everything can flow optimally. In my last interning classroom, I think that the classroom environment did conflict with the students learning since it was often cluttered and not visually appealing. Changing the pace of the classroom activities kind of shakes things up for the students and makes them have to pay attention the new pace of things. I think sometimes in my classroom, some type of change in the schedule or pace has to happen on some days but I think it is still vital for them to maintain as much structure and routine as possible until they become more independent in their secondary grades.

Remedial intervention skills are things teachers can do when inappropriate behaviors are taking place or have already occurred. These types of interventions should only occur in the classroom when proactive intervention skills are not effective with some students. Some remedial intervention skills include planed ignoring, and different types of interference techniques. To be truthful, when a student is really being defiant and is only acting out to get a reaction out of me, planned ignoring is usually the best thing I can do to maintain my calm. Sometimes student will showcase a negative surface behavior just to get my attention or get me upset. When they see that this is not affecting me in any way, they will usually ask me an irrelevant question since they think I am supposed to answer all their questions. I simply remind them that they should ask their peers first or one of the assigned leaders in the classroom before interpreting me when I am with another student. The three different types of interference strategies include signal, proximity, and touch. I use these as proactive interventions as well. Sometimes I think it’s important and sometimes necessary pat the students on the back when they do well or show affection when the students prompt it. For remedial intervention, touching a student when passing by them to show them that you are aware they are not paying attention is a form of behavior interference. It is a really indiscrete way to solve a behavior problem in the classroom while maintaining the flow of your lesson. I think that for my next connected lesson, using these interference strategies will help me with my behavior management. Often times I stay in one spot when I am teaching then move around when the students are doing their work. To move around the entire time makes the students more aware of you because they do not know if you would be heading towards them next.

Levin, J., & Nolan, J. F. (2014). Principles of classroom management: A professional decision-making model. New York, NY: Pearson

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