when I �m doing a game or something that they �re really eager to play, I say "Who �s sitting nicely?" and the kids that are sitting nicely get their turn first. Maybe you could do the same, but say "Who �s sitting nicely and quietly?"

 

Of course, it �s essential to have activities that will draw them in. If you have these you have many options to make them listen to you. For example, if you �re teaching what �s this and you put a mystery object in a bag and they have to feel it (with their eyes closed) and guess what it is, well to draw them in you can pretend to look in the bag and put a really suprised expression on your face and say "Oh, what �s this?" in a whisper. If you have already grabbed their interest they will really want to hear what you have to say and if you speak in a whisper then they will have to quieten down to hear you. I find activities like this really work.

 

So do having chants or physical signals to get the students to do what you want. For example, if my students are getting a bit out of control I say "Let �s sit down" or "Let �s make a circle" (I work in spaces without chairs with my younger kids as I �m a conversation teacher not a regular one) and clap my hands in a beat at the same time and they soon all join me. If they �re too noisy you can raise your hand. When they notice you they have to raise their hand too and be quiet. Soon it will catch on and everyone will be quiet, though of course you have to practise it with them a bit first.

 

Making class rules together - so that the children feel their voice is heard and appreciated - also works rather well. I do it in the form of "we promise to..." Then you can remind them of  their promise when their behaviour is unreasonable. Some teachers don �t like to but I also have a kind of penalty system. I have a picture of a traffic lights on the wall. For each "bad behaviour" they move one step up. If they get to red they get a small penalty. (In my case they lose one point for that day on their merit chart). As I have small classes I do for each student individually (I have made cars and laminated them and write their names on them and move them up the chart). But you could do for the whole class rather than indiviudal students and if they reach red, for example, they lose 5 minutes of their break, don �t get a sticker or something similar.

 

Just a few ideas for now but hope they help.

 

Good luck - it �s horrible when you have a class that doesn �t go well, I kow, but we all have them sometimes so don �t feel alone.

 

Julia

Our classroom is on the first floor, so I always make them line up in twos.

We go upstairs and I stop in the corridor outside the classroom door until they are in an orderly line again.

I let them into the class in small groups so that they go in and sit down quietly.

I go in last, and by then they are all sitting quietly and orderly.

The lesson is ready to begin

 

If they gets noisy during the lesson i hold up my hand and count to three, using my fingers.  I pre-warn them that there will be some sort of punishment if I get to three and they are still too noisy.  I only usually have to get to two before there is silence again.

 

Another more fun way to do this is to make a yellow card and red card like in football.  If a students is misbehaving, they get a yellow card warning.  After their second yellow card, it red card time where you give them whatever punishment you feel appropriate for their �sin �!!

 

In other words you have to teach them to respect you as a teacher, to respect each other and to follow the rules so that you lessons can run smoothly and be enjotable for everyone.

 

For some people I mighht sound tough but I can garantee you the kids love me to bits, and I think it �s because when we have such guidelines everyone knows where they stand.

Hope this helps

 

And good luck with your classes

 

Well, as you can see, we all feel your pain.  My mom is THE super teacher and found this idea in a teaching magazine years ago: Silent Walker.  We also made another game to be played at the same time: Silent Worker.  

The idea is to tell the students you have picked one to be the Silent Walker of the day and one to be the Silent Worker.  The students do not know who the Silent Walker and Worker are and will not be told until the end of the day.  If the students that are "picked" do a good job, the whole class may receive stickers or some other little treat at the end of the day.  We have stickers with smells that students REALLY like here.

Throughout the day, you can remind them about the Silent Wa and Wo as they are walking back and forth to recess, doing independent work, basically anything they may have trouble with being silent.  

I �ve said things like "Oh, the Silent W �s are doing excellent work" (it straightens up the others if they �re talkative or not behaving) or "Oh, I �m a little worried, the Silent Worker isn �t making a good decision right now." It can be used in many ways:-).

The Silent Worker and Walker feel super special at the end of the day and the students are happy.  Of course, if it �s a bad day, you can give them a pep talk and remind them what to do better the next day.  I usually picked students who behaved well throughout the day, I didn �t actually pick specific students in the morning.  I never mentioned the students by name who misbehaved, as the kids usually know anyway.

Another simple idea is to write a special game or activity on the board, such as KICKBALL.  Every time the class gets too loud, erase a letter.  You can also just pick up the eraser and increase the drama of erasing:-). If they get quiet quickly, you can put it back down. If the students have enough letters (you decide, it can be 1 or 4 or whatever) at the end of the day, you can play/do the activity.

Overusing ideas usually reduces their potency, so you may want to mix ideas up or alternate days.  As another teacher mentioned above, speaking in a whisper voice also really gets them curious and quiet:-).  Also, you can tell them to use their "whisper voice", "6 inch voice" or an equivalent metric value, or their tiny voice, etc.

Good luck!!!

 

lizsantiago had a great idea.  I do something similiar but I use the website http://www.moneyinstructor.com/wsp/playmoney.asp to make my bills.  I was given this site about a year ago from another member here on eslprintables.  Here you can attach your  own photo to a bill, save it and print out as many copies as you like - and it looks very real.  My students love it and as LIZ said, you can use it to trade in for an agreed upon prize.  Good luck to you!