Teacher Tech: Rookie Management Mistakes

Allowing Students to be Inattentive

It was like something out of an old movie: the teacher droning on while spit wads, paper airplanes and a student (David, my ADHD boy) wandering behind the teacher blithely unaware that she was presenting a lesson.

After her lesson, I asked Betty, my student-teacher, how she felt the lesson went.

            “Oh it went well,” she said,  “I covered all the material.”

Betty determined her success based on how far she got through her notes.  Clearly I had failed as her mentor teacher if that’s how she judged success.

In order to help Betty, I had to examine my own behavior.  What was I doing so my students would stay with me, behave themselves and learn so well? 

The first thing I noticed was that my attention was intensely focused on my students.  I kept asking myself if every student was engaged.  If one or two students had their attention wander off, I instantly changed something to bring them back. 

For Betty to get control of the class, she would need to turn her focus on the students.  The first time a student’s attention wandered off, she would need to bring that student back.

Six Ways to Bring a Student's Attention Back to the Lesson

These are in the order in which they should be tried: from the lightest touch to heaviest.

1.              Give a look at the student who is not paying attention.  This need not be a mean look; it can be one of benign interest.  It can say, “Are you done doing that now, because I need you to pay attention.”  This can be more effective if you interrupt yourself momentarily so the student notices a change and looks up at you.

2.              Make a non-verbal gesture toward the misbehaving student.  For some reason, students do not seem to count non-verbal messages as corrections.  As a result, students don’t feel they lose face among their classmates if a teacher uses a non-verbal correction.  These corrections can be a head shake, a touch to the student’s desk, a finger to the lips, pointing to written directions, pointing to the student’s paper or standing next to the inattentive student. 

Sometimes you need to make a small, attention-getting noise before the non-verbal.  For example, you might snap your fingers or clear your throat, then when David looks at you, then you point to the directions.

3.              Praise students who are following directions.  “I like the way the students in this table group are listening.  If you are following directions, you are doing what these students are doing.”

4.              The first three corrections are the softest.  They usually don’t result in a hit to a student’s self-esteem.  The rest of these carry a cost.  If you use one, you need to find a way to return self-esteem to the student by citing him or her as a model, or some other positive stroke.

Call the student’s name softly.  If you say, “David.” Then when he looks at you, give a little head shake to show him you disapprove, other students will see that it’s not yet time to relax and socialize.

5.              Ask a question.  “Are you following directions?” forces a student to evaluate his behavior and can bring him back to the lessons.  It's usually a mistake to repeat directions.

6.              Give a choice to the student.  For example, Betty could have said to David, “David, you can either return to your seat, or sit here beside me.”  This should always be two choices you and David can both live with, but one choice should always be the conventional behavior that the rest of the class is doing.

Unlike all the student-teachers before and after her, I was never able to lead Betty to the place where she could judge her success by observing her students vs. looking at her lesson plan.  Presenting a lesson while watching her students proved to be beyond her abilities.  Perhaps this was a failure on my part.  Fortunately, Betty decided not to be a teacher.  Some people are not cut out for the job.

Teaching requires a person to multitask.  Perhaps the most important task off all is to keep the attention of the class.