My class is really struggling with following directions and listening in general. Help! AND, it seems to be rampant up and down the elementary hallway. Anyone else seeing an increase in problems with following directions and listening skills? Any insights into how to help these students....and their teachers?!!
My old teacher used to count the seconds that we weren't following directions and make us sit quietly for that many seconds during our recess or snack time. It worked pretty well.
For paying attention, you may want to try a change of your approach. Shake things up a bit. Get the students moving. Lets say you are doing division, have four kids in front of the class, four divided by two is two. Things like that. Use manipulatives if you don't already. Find a way to auditorily and visually engage.
I thought for sure with that title you taught K so I had a whole bag of tricks. Won't quite work for you. Lol.
I think it is also important to talk to the previous grades about behavior management. When I pop into first grade classrooms, I realize that the expectations of the first grade teachers are very different from our second grade classrooms. So it's really tough for the kids to transition into second. I think that if you are concerned with an increase in this problem, it would be worth looking at as a whole staff.
