We're All Still Kids . . .

So, I haven't gotten back to my reading experiments yet. Last week I tried to give a one-sided interview, and the students had to read the passage to find the answers. It was okay, but my students are really just not into reading at all. Then, this week I tried cutting the story up into paragraphs, and having them fill in some of the blanks with their opinions. Even with the shorter reading assignment, I know several didn't read much at all. They are good at scanning though! So . . . we will continue on the journey to find a profitable way to make stubborn students read.
However, I must say that I had a very enjoyable lesson today. I was teaching airport language. I teach 18-22 year olds in a University Prep School, but rearranging the room into an airport and airplane was one of the most effective things I've done recently. Maybe it is just the change of pace, but I can finally get my students to calm down and listen to me, and at the end of the lesson in the review time they did awesome with their retention. So, all that to say, just because they look big, doesn't mean they don't enjoy old fashioned pretend. Pretty sure I'll be looking for more ways to incorporate this into my classroom.
On a side note, just because my students are stubborn, doesn't mean they aren't logical. In teaching airport vocabulary, we obviously went over take off. I loved when I asked what it was when the plane was coming down, and got the excited answer "take on!" Of course! Why not?
I love when my students make me smile.

Shut Up and Teach!

Well, this has been an interesting week. First off, I'm glad to be able to write again - for a couple of days blogspot was blocked. So, sorry for the delays. Secondly, I've been sick most of this week . . . and this has led me to contemplate practical ways to effectively lower my teacher talking time in the classroom. I'm still a rookie teacher, and it is hard to get past the instinctive, "If I'm not talking, I'm not teaching." But, this week, I was driven to find ways to get my students to do the talking for me, so I could save my voice. I wasn't extremely successful, but it made me start thinking again.
Here are a few of my ideas:

1. Have students organize teams and groups. Give them a number, and have them put the other students into groups for you.

2. I often have to repeat what I am saying for my students several times as they are not listening or paying attention to me. If I have one student listening, I then tell him to give the instructions to his classmates. This serves as a bit of a rebuke seeing as a classmate already knew what they should, and the offender didn't. (I realize this is opening up my need for more work in the classroom management area, and I will not deny that in the least! Please send any ideas my way!)

3. Brainstorming. I love having students brainstorm vocabulary words for a certain topic, and then let them decide whether or not the word fits the vocabulary topic.

4. I printed out the vocabulary words in a graphic organizer on one page, and then the list of definitions on the other page. I then gave both pages to the students, and they were to find the definition for their specific word. They could then share that definition with the rest of the class, and I only had to expound as necessary.

I have many other ways to implement this, I know. But, I was thankful for the opportunity to start thinking about it some more and coming up with more ideas. Please send me your thoughts on this topic! I'd love to hear how you've successfully lowered your teacher talking time in class!