I grew up with folk singing parents, so whenever someone says to me "Slow down", I sing the first line of this Simon & Garfunkel song. "Slow down, you move too fast." I rarely get to the feeling groovy part, so you will have to forgive me for the cheesy 70s song and hopeuflly can let my message resonate with you. Slowing down can be a benefit for both teacher well-being and students’ academics.
Teachers are constantly rushing around: lesson planning, marking assignments, photocopying, enforcing discipline, supervising extracurricular activities, checking in with students, preparing breakfast and lunch programs, it goes on and on.
Many teachers arrive at school at least an hour before classes begin, work through lunch, and don't leave until hours after students have gone home. We want the best for our students, so we pour our hearts, souls, and every ounce of energy into our work. This wears us out. We need to learn how to slow down and still be amazing teachers. Here are some suggestions on how to accomplish this: Teachers: 10 Tips for Slowing Down
But we don’t just need to slow down by taking time for self care and not over scheduling ourselves. We also need to slow down in our classrooms to give our students time to think and respond.
On average teachers wait 0.7 to 1.4 seconds after asking a question to pick a student to respond or responding themselves. 0.7-1.4 seconds! Go get your iPhone or tablet or even a good old fashioned stopwatch and time it. It probably took you longer to read that last sentence.
How can we expect students to hear the question, process the information, reflect and think, and prepare a response in that amount of time? It seems like an unfair expectation to me.
Increasing that time to at least 3 seconds can dramatically make a difference in your classroom.
Check out this article that discusses the benefits of think-time and how to use silence effectively in your classroom. Using “Think-Time” and “Wait-Time” Skillfully in the Classroom
Good luck!
Commenti