|
Wiggle, Giggle or Gross Them Out |
|
|
|
 If you are interested in learning while being entertained, Donna Whyte would be the presenter of choice. The IRC featured Donna Whyte in three different sessions. Shana and I were able to attend two of the three and found her ideas to be quite innovative and inspirational. I will attempt to point out a few of my favorites.
"Wiggle Them, Giggle Them, or Gross Them Out" is a favorite quote from Donna. She started one of her sessions with some statistics about the attention span of the children in our classrooms. The standard is to add their age to 3, which then indicates the number of minutes equal to their attention span. For most of us primary teachers, that is a very small time span and we then need to make some serious adjustments to our expectations. Keep things moving. Keep things changing. They need to “wiggle” or redirect their focus.
“Can’t teach a class that you can’t manage.” Work on fun management skills.
She suggested using a glitter filled baton as a behavior modification tool. Two pictures are attached to the top of that baton, one of “Willy the Wanderer” and the other “Wanda Whiner”. When either of these behaviors is occurring within the classroom, the picture is flashed at the “culprit” and then the baton is turned upside down. The child has until all of the glitter settles at the other end to avoid consequences for their actions. This is a very inexpensive tool that could be used in a variety of ways to meet the specific needs within your classroom.
Another inexpensive classroom management tool is the construction paper stoplight. Her idea was different than the usual use of the stoplight. She suggested that this tool be used during reading groups to let students know
when the teacher is open for business. A clothespin clipped to the red light indicates that the teacher cannot be interrupted. A clothespin clipped to the yellow light means that the teacher is only available for a quick question. When it is moved to green, the teacher is open for business.
Donna also mentioned one of her books, “131 Ways to Use Film Containers” and pointed out a few ideas from the book. My favorite would be the film container that holds a pipe cleaner with pony beads attached. The child could use this tool as a quick “calculator” or “skip counter” or “abacus”. No supplies to drop but provides the child with a manipulative that is so useful when learning math
processes.
If you ever see the name Donna Whyte on a list of presenters, run, don’t walk to get a front row seat. But in the meantime, use this simple question that Donna
called the essential question when preparing each lesson of your day, “What is it you want every child to know?”
Donna Dintelman - HelpMeRead.com
|
|
|
