Keeping students focused as the weather begins to warm up can be a challenging issue for all teachers. Keeping students active and engaged in their lessons is important and very possible despite the extra challenges spring fever brings to the classroom. Here are some ideas to help.
Mix Up the Daily Schedule
One great way to keep students focused, when they would rather be outside playing, is to mix up the daily routine. Instead of starting with math, start with language arts, or move social studies to right after lunch instead of at the end of the day. This will keep the students on their toes and turn a boring routine into a fresh learning environment.
Allow Students to Teach the Class
Group students together and provide information and materials for them to teach the class a skill or concept. Allow each group to pick a topic or skill that they are interested in teaching, and then meet with them a couple times before their lesson to ensure that they have all the correct information. Some ideas include:
Teaching Poetry: Assign each group a type of poetry to teach. Students in each group should learn the history of the type of poetry, practice writing their own poem in the correct style, and come up with an activity to teach the class. For more ideas on teaching poetry, read Valentine's Day Writing Lesson ideas.
Teaching Social Studies: Assign each group an individual from history to research and present to the class. Teachers can also assign a state or country for each group to present. Other ideas can be taken directly from the school curriculum as long as the topic is easily split up between each group.
Add Outdoor Activities to Lesson Plans
When students are desperate to be outside, instead of fighting for their attention, give in to their desperation by taking them outside. This does put a new twist on classroom management, but the benefit is, students will enjoy being outdoors, so teachers can use the location of the lesson as motivation for eliciting good behavior. Lessons that lend themselves well to an outside location include science experiments and other lessons that involve student movement. Do not attempt to have students sit and focus on books while outside.
Mixing up the schedule, allowing the students to teach and taking the class outside for lessons can help keep them focused when spring fever hits. Teachers need to be sure to remain calm, and not let the behavior issues that come up because of the warmer weather get the best of them.
Read more information about managing classroom behaviors and other lesson planning tips.
Jennifer Wagaman - Jennifer is a mother of 2 and has both public, private and administrative experience in the education field.
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