EP178 How to act (rather than react) and stop wasting class time when kids are off-task

Are you constantly losing instructional time to off-task behavior? What if you shifted your focus from eliminating misbehavior and interruptions to maximizing learning time?

The goal is to engage every student, but not necessarily all at the same time, and certainly not every minute. At any given point in your day, at least a few are going to be tuning out and allowing their minds to wander.

Since we know that off-task behavior is normal and expected, we can plan our responses in advance instead of reacting out of frustration.

When the goal is to eliminate interruptions, you feel like you have to address every single one so it never happens again. When the goal is to maximize learning time, you can choose a more constructive response that keeps the majority of the class on-task.

This approach will reduce the wasted class time spent on lectures about the rules and arguing with kids over what you’ve told them to do. Here’s how to plan your responses in advance so you’re not constantly exploding in frustration over minor things.

Join us in October for an online book club and month of focusing on “fewer things better”: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FewerThingsBetter/.

Click here to read the transcript and participate in the discussion or, join our new podcast Facebook group here to connect with other teachers and discuss the Truth for Teachers' podcast episodes.