In this online course presented by Carrie Flint, she provided a plethora of ideas on how to keep students engaged in class, active in class, and ways to modify negative behaviors when needed.
She started by presenting ways to begin class, allowing students to release energy and interact with each other.
Some ideas included running to music, having exercise partners that take turns leading exercises, and personal interactions like pinky connections, fist pumps, handshakes, high fives, and thumbs up.
She then covered reasons why students may miss behave including: needs not being met, medical issues,
lack of connection, seeking attention, power struggle, lack of confidence, or material is too hard/too easy.
Some student's enjoy testing boundaries to see what they can get away with. Some students will act out if they
feel singled out, on stage, made to perform a skill not refined yet, or if they don't feel a personal connection.
Some ways to help build a positive learning environment, which can help eliminate negative behaviors, were discussed
including: learn each students name, listen to every student, use neutral language, be aware of students needs,
recognize those who have disabilities, and provide accommodations for those who need them.
Some activities were also covered that could help maintain a positive and interactive environment.
Activities such as full body rock, paper, scissors can help resolve conflict. Also circle warm-up activities where students share a ball and take turns leading exercises. Blob dodgeball was also discussed as a way to modify a game some enjoy, but where others may feel single out, so the activity can be experienced with adjustments.
The use of music was discussed as a way to keep people involved, interactive, and energized. Apps such as team shake and Tabata Timer were shared as a way to save time, avoid conflicts, and keep energy high.
The big take aways for me was to continue the use of music to keep energy high in class. I also like the idea of using specific song themes for exercises like jumping during the warm-up or a specific song signaling a particular activity. I also like the idea of small group exercise circles where each student leads with an exercise. I could also see the use of the Tabata exercise countdown timer as a way to keep the warm-up flowing without having to always do the counting.
I found the PD session information, interesting and interactive. It could be a helpful and interesting PD opportunity for other specialists and classroom teachers, as a lot of the material could apply to the general classroom, including good ice breaker and brain break activities.
If you have any questions about this PD opportunity, please feel free to reach out-
David Hay
LSPE
I like the suggestion of the Tabata countdown timer... that makes sense and I love the focus on music to support class energy and this site, TeachRock.org might be worth checking out (Lisa knows more about it if you're interested).