Jennifer Jackson's List: Classroom Management

• An effective teacher is aware of the looks on the faces of students, the  squirming, and general disinterest. These teachers are always scanning the class  for signs of learning fatigue and know what to do to ameliorate the problem.
• For middle school, the rule could easily be reduced to the 15-Minute Rule.  Teachers cannot expect middle school students to stay in a favorable learning  state for more than 15 minutes without intervention. A maximum of 20 minutes for  high school students and probably most adult learners, including those in  graduate school, is appropriate.
• As you experience an outstanding presentation from a gifted speaker, make mental  notes to see how often the speaker changes the learning state. It may be a  change of voice, a joke, a gesture, a storytelling, or a relocation of the  speaker -- anything that allows the participants to change their state!

1 more annotation...