Teacher Tech: Three Ways Your Feet Determine Your Effectiveness

You might wonder what your feet have to do with your effectiveness as a teacher.  The truth is, where you put your feet has an enormous influence on your success.

The Doorway

If you put your feet by the door as students enter your classroom, you have a chance to greet each student.  This goes a long way in establishing an emotional relationship or bond with your students.  It gives you an opportunity to say something nice to each child and receive their greetings. 

For fragile children, this relationship will help them exert self-control when in danger of yielding to a negative impulse.  This bond can give confidence to a timid student who desperately needs to take some academic risks in order to move forward. 

One way to manage this greeting is to establish a routine whereby students have an independent task to complete each time they enter the class.  Maybe there’s a question on the board to answer, a worksheet on their desk, or assignments to copy down.  This way, you can remain at the door for the greetings and your already-greeted students have something constructive to do.

The Powerspot

Teachers may not know it, but they tend to have a place in the class where they deliver information or carry out discussions.  Typically this is near the document camera, white board or lectern.  When the teacher approaches this power spot, students are hard-wired into expecting to listen and learn.

Teachers should avoid standing in this spot unless they are delivering information to help keep its integrity.  To foster novelty in the your class, you can tell the class that today’s discussion will be held in the back on the floor, and students will enjoy the freshness of the venue change.

The Roam

I watched this happen: Mrs. Brown completed her instruction, verified that students knew what to do, then asked the class to begin their practice.  At that point, the elderly teacher could have gone to her desk to take a load off her feet.  Instead, she wandered past every student desk making sure students were on task and understood their assignment.  She often stooped and whispered encouragement or advice to students throughout the entire practice period.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more on-task class. 

Would this have happened if Mrs. Brown had sat down to correct papers or called a small group back for instruction?  Not likely.  Sometimes teachers need to perform small group instruction during class independent time and risk the decay of attention that happens when teachers don’t roam. 

Next time your students begin to enter the class, prepare to participate in instruction or begin independent practice, pay attention to where your feet are.