One of the toughest things about coming off of spring break is just that -- coming off of spring break! I took a little time to find out what education author Julia G. Thompson was thinking about keeping students engaged while they are being distracted by "spring fever." This post my be aimed at teachers, but it's worth reading for parents, too.
Thompson has been a public school teacher in Virginia for more than 30
years. Her most recent book is, “Discipline Survival Guide for the Secondary
Teacher.” For more educational tips from Thompson, click on her web site at http:juliagthompson.com.
Here's one of her online posts from the "Teaching Community."
Rare would be the teacher who is not affected by spring fever
during the month of April.
Your restless students are certainly no exception. Instead of
trying (probably in vain) to fight the phenomenon, spend a little extra time
planning lessons that will make class enjoyable for your students during this
time.
Here are some suggestions to consider:
- Be careful to build in relevance to make sure students are aware
of the benefits of what they are learning
- Consider using multimedia in your presentations to engage student
interest. Music, art, video clips...whatever your students enjoy can be used to
snag their attention
- Sometimes tangible rewards can help students pay attention when
they may otherwise be distracted
- Challenge your students to beat their personal best on
assignments
- Challenge your students to beat each other in friendly
competitions
- If your subject or grade level is appropriate, arrange for your
students to participate in a WebQuest project. To learn more, try
www.webquest.org
- Plan plenty of review
sessions at the end of class so that students can see the relevance of what
they are learning as well as the progress they are making.
- Allow more wiggle breaks when students are restless. A 30-second “stretch”
break every now and then is preferable to a loss of 30 minutes caused by
distraction and boredom
One sure way to make your classroom a livelier place during the
month of April is to present a silly fact each day for your students to think
about, dispute, talk about, research, write about, and enjoy.
For example, did you know these strange-but-true facts from
www.amusingfacts.com?
- In 1982, Larry Walters tied 24 weather balloons to his lawn chair
in Los Angeles and climbed to an altitude of 16,000 feet.
- In the spring of 1975, a baby in Detroit fell 14 stories and
landed on Joseph Figlock, who was walking below. A few years later it happened
again. Figlock and both babies survived.
- The Canadian province
of New Brunswick had a bloodless war with the U.S. state of Maine in 1839.
