Saturday, April 5, 2014

Stop Talking with Beat the Teacher

It's Saturday, so it's time to link up with my BBB Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching for Spark Student Motivation!
The weeks leading up to spring break were absolutely horrible with chattiness -- talk, talk, talk.  I'm talking about the kind of talk when there shouldn't be talk.  I know the kids were excited -- I was excited -- be we still had some learning to do!

So I came up with this very simple, yet powerful, way to control all of the talking.  I call it Beat the Teacher.
It basically is a game of you versus the students, and who doesn't love a little friendly competition?  The way it works is that when I need the class to quiet down, I start counting backwards from five:  5-4-3-2-1.  Sometimes the count is quiet, sometimes loud.  Sometimes it's fast, sometimes very slow.  Either way, the students have to be listening...

If I get to "1" and there is even one student talking, I get the tally point.  If the entire class is quiet, they get the point.  It is awesome to watch the students try to quiet each other down. Points accumulate through the day (or week) As you can see from our score above, I lost this day.  :)  (But did I really???)  The prize is simply bragging rights....Or it could be a simple class incentive (brain break? extra 5 minutes of recess?)  Either way, we are all winners!

Before I go, I wanted to make sure that you knew about a wonderful fundraiser going on over at Tori's Teacher Tips.  The blogger community has an amazing way of supporting one another, and Tori could definitely use our help right now.
 
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the motivational ideas over at Joanne's blog.  I hope to see you there!

I also hope to see you back here tomorrow for my Sunday linky party, A Peek at My Week, and/or onThursday for Positive Thinking Thursday.

Happy Saturday!!

9 comments:

  1. I love this idea! There were a couple times this week when the chattiness of several students was getting really annoying. I plan on using this idea this week. Thanks!

    Rebecca
    Ladybugs Lounge

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  2. I used this at the beginning of the year, but I need to try it again because my students are super chatty! I like the way you count down for the point-I want to try that (starting Monday!). Thanks for sharing how you use your teacher/student competition Jennifer! Have a great weekend!
    Joanne
    Head Over Heels For Teaching

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  3. My students have gotten very chatty as well - I think it is all the time we spent indoors together over this looooong winter - we are starting to lose it! I may have to try this - we love competition in my class!

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  4. I bought the Spring and Summer Clipart package from Tori's Tiny Miracles. What a great cause!! Thanks for the great idea - I blamed the chattiness on Spring Fever since we've already had our break.
    -Lisa
    Grade 4 Buzz

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  5. I love this idea! I will definitely have to try it out - thanks! :)

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  6. Beat the teacher! Brilliant! I'm passing this idea along to my colleagues who are going nuts right now with "the chatties."

    Ali
    Teaching Powered by Caffeine

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  7. Awesome idea! I totally need this right now!

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  8. What a fantastic idea!! Can't wait to try this tomorrow!!
    Rachel
    A Tall Drink of Water

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  9. Love the chit chatter idea for talking!! I could have used that right before break as well! :) Another awesome idea!
    Ana
    Mrs. Bentin's Blackboard

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