My new friend is my classroom timer.
It was taking my kids forever to transition from one thing to the next. Asking them to put a book in their cubby and bring a folder back to their seat was like asking them to travel to Pluto and back. "See you next year, Ms. G!" In the morning they'd come into the classroom, walk to their cubbies to put things away and get out their materials, but then they would just stand around their cubbies and talk, yell, and push each other. I would stand by helplessly trying to herd them to their tables like sheep. Or goats. Can you herd goats?
But now--
Now I set a timer. "YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES TO PUT YOUR LITERACY FOLDER IN YOUR CUBBY AND MEET ME ON THE RUG. THE CONSEQUENCE IS DEATH BY STONING."
Ok, so I'm not actually allowed to stone my students, but I do take away recess if you're not where you're supposed to be when the timer makes it's ear-piercing, incessant, beeping noise. Suddenly, my kids are zipping around the room with a purpose. The trouble-makers try to chat with my good kids, and they ignore them or tell them, "Don't talk! I don't want to miss recess!" I love it when they keep each other in line.I'm thinking of trying out the timer trick in my own life. Could it get me to clean up my room a little faster? But what do I take away if I don't get recess?
2 comments:
I actually DO use a timer for myself these days. It started one day when I decided to prep ALL of our dinners for the week on Sunday. With things going in and out of the oven, I had the timer going all day- and I enjoyed that I had 45 minutes between each dish to do reading/papers- but would get a break after 45 minutes. It helps me because my life is relatively unstructured right now- even though I have a VERY long to do list. It's easy to let 2 hours go by without doing anything productive- but keeping my breaks spaced out helps me do work in reasonable chunks. (Um. Like the LONGEST COMMENT EVER?)
That's a good idea! I'm going to need to try your timer trick when I have to get stuff done that I don't really enjoy doing!
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