Working with a motivated but VERY noisy and Rambunctious Class
One of my favorite groups of students, who will be working with me until they are seniors, are a large and very motivated bunch-- the LOVE filmmaking... but they are very "energetic." I have no desire to try and stifle this energy, in fact I want to encourage it. But classes can get very loud and disruptive. I need to get a grip on these students but still maintain that level of energy and passion.
Sara,
I have experience using timer, it has always worked well. I have it on the projector, they see how much time they have left. The only thing is, they have to stop or finish the activity when or before it goes off.
Inesa
Sara,
I think you will like how the timer takes care of the issue and you can still be the director of the learning process and everyone will be on task.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Thank you so much, Mr. Gary for this particular piece of advise. I also have a great group of students and although adults they do tend to go off topic and forget they are in class. I sometimes allow it to go a little more than it should because I know that they need to get these conversations out of their head so they can focus on the work they have before them. I absolutely love the timer idea and will be using it starting tomorrow!
Sara Hymel
Carla,
Establish yourself as a strong learning leader and don't be afraid to stop discussions that go off topic. Another approach is to set some time at the beginning of the class, say 5 minutes to talk about anything. Set a timer so when it goes off then all discussion from that point forward is to be topic based. The reason for the timer is that way you don't have to be the bad person, the timer is. The buzzer sounds and the students soon get trained to know that from there on it is topic time. For those that still go off topic and talk about personal issues you can remind them that you have dedicated time at the beginning of the class for such discussions and then bring them back into the class discussion.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
My class is very activity/exercise based - which is great - but because the students talk a lot during the small group exercises they will often start talking during the more lecture driven portions of the class. Are there specific techniques I can use to quiet them down besides calling attention back to me? Also, a couple of students are chronic talkers about personal issues - how do I handle this?
Courtney,
Good advice to share with other instructors. Students can easily take the course off topic and it takes a strong learning leader to bring it back.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I work with a class now that very easily gets off topic but they are very motivated and eager to learn. The best thing you can do is to address it head-on and let them know that while you really like that they are passionate about the subject and while they may not know it, they tend to be disruptive and impedes on their learning.
Laura,
Good advice because no student has the right to disrupt the learning of others. In addition, they have enrolled in college to advance their career development. Being disruptive is not advancing their career development.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Being honest with the students about their disruptive behavior and setting professional boundaries will help them in your class and in their future employment.
Joseph,
Great group to have but you are right about needing to gain control of them for certain parts of the course. If you can create an understood segment in the class where all attention is focused on your where you can do announcements and share content it won't be long before they will settle right into the routine.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
