Just a little thought for today my friends - when something is not going right in the classroom - go left!
If something is not working for you - flip it and try something totally new! With experience you will learn that you need to give routines and management techniques time to work in the classroom and you get better and knowing when you need a fast change.
Here are 3 tips for helping to determine when you need to switch course in a strategy or teaching strategy in the classroom
- Ask a more experienced colleague - find someone more experienced than you, who you trust, and ask their professional opinion. Do you need to suddenly change or can you give it another week or so. All good classroom culture takes time to develop.
- Observe - is it just your gut reaction or have you had time to pay close attention to the impact your strategy or decision is having on student learning. Learning is often less than tidy and quiet. If your children are learning and engaged you may not need to change a thing - only your expectation for classroom noise or student movement for example.
- Change gradually - if you do decide to make a change in direction - do so gradually. Change one small part with sufficient explanation and support to your class and monitor how things are going. It will be here that you may notice the same issues you had initially and you may be able to narrow down the root cause, fixing that before too much needs to change.
Good luck in the classroom today - and as always, if we can help, let us know!
I love quotes and sayings that help guide me to new ways of thinking or that challenge me to change the way I feel. If you love quotes, you may want to follow my Pinterest board! I create and share inspirational pieces that resonate with me, or that I know will resonate with my followers.
If you were looking for ideas on teaching left and right direction - you can pop over to our other post for some fun teaching tips.