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!