Wake up! Students!
By Jasmine Park March-15-2010
'As a Student' taken by Allen Park
Are you aware of the fact that all your students are calling you ‘lullaby’? What if your students are describing your class as uninteresting hour that they fall asleep? And, you may now notice that your students are not listening to you anymore. What would be the ways to get their attention in the class effectively?
1. Make use of index card – you may require your students to submit the index card with their brief profile. And, instead of calling on the hand-raisers you will need to pull the card and give him/her chance to answer your question. It will make you to be able to stop ignoring those silent and shy students. Also, every student will pay attention and never lose a tension during your class because they might be called. And, the students will give creative answer because they know that they should not repeat other students’ answer.
2. Use body language and the tone of your voice – If your student is making some noise during your class walk to him/her, stand by them and ask quietly to be quite instead of yelling out his/her name loudly. It is more effective because you can get her/his attention without embarrassing her/him. And, you may use your non-verbal communication to make your class more serious and important like dressing up professionally.
3. Allow students work as a group – even number of the students in one group is recommended. It will let lazy student to be motivated by their classmates and it also promotes students to work collaboratively. And, it is more effective when you assign following tests and quizzes. However, the activity or the project should be done in the class hour; otherwise, the students may have schedule conflict for meeting outside of the classroom and will have a hardship.
With only these tips, you will be called as nice teacher every in your school. And, you will never hear students saying that your voice is like lullaby. Remember, “A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron” said Horace Mann.
