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Case: Boys Will Be Boys There must have been a baby boom of boys a few years ago! Our fourth grade classes are majority boys. In my class, I have 7 girls and 18 boys. This dynamic has been difficult to balance. I have noticed the boys are very talkative and playful (sometimes very disruptive). How can I tailor my plans to appease the boys as well as the girls interest? What are some daily techniques I can try to get the boys more focused and less playful? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) Standing desks, integrating movement, and researching classroom arrangement are all great strategies. I'd add a technique that my own 4th grade teacher used as well: the silent minute. Integrating movement is fabulous, but what about when you are trying to read a chapter to the class, or when you need them to focus on a video? My teacher had her read aloud time right after we came in from lunch and recess, so we would be all worked up and crazy. Her management technique was to have us all sit down on the floor, in our places for read aloud, and she would say cue us by holding up her hand and looking at her watch. We knew what this meant: it meant that we were to sit silently and raise our hands when we thought a minute's time had passed. She'd keep her hand up for anywhere from a minute and a half to 3 or 5 minutes, depending on our rowdiness. At the end she'd tell us who was the closest guesser. That was it! There were no rewards other than the pride of being the closest guesser, and voila, we were settled down and ready to listen. |
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