Blog #5

Communication in the Classroom

• Make sure there is an identity as a group
• invent ways to get to know your students better
• Share feelings about teaching
• have classroom community communication
• Make communication easy for the classmates
• have different strategies for communication in the classroom
• tell the students how you feel about class each day (good or bad)
• invest time and energy to make the class effective
• model for the students the kind of thinking you want them to do
• make the class excellent
• learn your students complete profiles
• know strengths and weaknesses
• support growth in weaker areas
• discover new interests
• create a profile sheet for each student
• have students review and extend the sheet as the year progresses
• create a phrase that has meaning to a student and helps them to understand the task and that it should be done the best way they know how
• praise students when they do something well, but make it something other than "good job", maybe something like "pat your brain.
• ask students if their windshields are clear, this is a question that helps the teacher to know if the students are understanding what is being taught or if they need some help
• use words that elaborate on an idea: verify, amplify,diversify.  These words can be a measure for the student's own thinking.
• lose your peace and quiet for excitement with the students
• set up goal setting conferences to show students progression and help them strive for something they want to do each time.
• use dialogue journals for teacher student conversation
• incorporate talk groups into the lesson to talk about the content and discuss further the lessons