Teaching

I am teaching science and social studies in the afternoon which is very difficult when it is hands on.  I am realizing that these students do not focus and listen well when doing hands on activities.  This frustrates me because in school we learn how we should always try to do hands on things with the students because it is fun and will help them really learn and retain what is being taught.  I love to plan lessons like this and I write a thorough plan that prepares for passing out materials, giving directions, and dealing with behavior problems.  It's frustrating to plan so thoroughly and have a lesson still not work very well.  I planned a social studies lesson on landforms using playdough.  There were directions and expectations clearly given at the beginning of the lesson.  As I predicted, the students became very talkative and were not following directions and I went through all of my strategies and they did not work at all!  And yet when I look back and try to think of what I could have done to make the lesson go better, I can't think of another idea.  I do think having a different discipline structure would be best, but since it's not my class that is not an option!  I also think the students have gotten into bad behaviors because they were not stopped immediately at the beginning of the year.  If transitions and hands on lessons were introduced with expectations and those expectations were enforced right away I think these problems would be less difficult.

I will say with the class that I don't necessarily think they will be 'easy' even with these suggestions.  There are quite a few very distracted children in the class and 2 with IEP's.  Many have difficult home lives and many live with only 1 parent.  The entire class is just talkative.  It's not a few particular child, it is everyone!  So I'm not saying that these students will be the easiest class that never causes problems (there won't be any classes like that) but I think the behavior and talking issues could be solved.

I also notice that directions are repeated many many many times.  It's very difficult to get students to follow a direction so I want to see if the teacher has any strategies she uses so that directions are followed quickly.  I haven't noticed any while observing her and I here her repeat all the time, and that just can't go on constantly!  It takes 5 or 10 extra minutes to finish activities because the directions cannot be followed the first 10 times they are given.  This is definitely an issue I need to work on because the students are not learning as much as they could be because so much time is being wasted!