Class Management

SAMPLE LESSON

ENGAGEMENT: STUDENT HABITS

A habit is an ingrained neurological pathway that is activated unconsciously. By using one of the four habit types you can intentionally connect the brain to the body to achieve engagement.

PROBLEM:

Distractions

OBJECTIVE:

Engagement

The Brain to the Body Connectors:

Mirroring Behavior
Surprise
Making Decisions
Pattern Recognition

Mirroring

Mimicking the actions or behavior of the instructor or students. The power of MIRRORING is that it build rapport. One way to know if you have someones attention is to see if they mirror your behavior. This is the easiest way to get all the students involved. Additionally when your class is disruptive it is often due to students mirroring unproductive behavior.

Ground Warm-Up uses mirroring by having the instructor demonstrating what the students are going to do.
It is easier to teach when some students already know what to do, this way new students can mirror correct behavior.

Asking students to freeze on the trampoline while demonstrating the freeze position.

Giving students eye contact when speaking to them and requiring eye contact when they speak to you.

One major error made in class is having a warm up that does not reinforce mirroring of behavior. Remember the "warm-up" sets the tone for the rest of the class experience.

Surprise

Create familiarity and then introduce an unpredictable element. The power of surprise is in the brains fight or flight response. Any surprise is first perceived as a threat which triggers the brain to ignore distractions and focus on the surprise. Due to students already knowing class is a safe place to learn their fight or flight mechanism is less alert, so tone, sense of urgency, pacing, disruption, competition etc.. all play a vital role in triggering the students to drop any distraction and focus on you the instructor.

Keys to Success: Utilize surprises to change tempo of class, catch students off guard, and force students to pay attention or be left behind. Examples of this:

In the middle of a sentence as everyone to freeze or stop what they are doing.
Count during warm up and switch to the next exercise before you are done counting
Surprise students by asking everyone to line up and repeat the exercise and do it again.
Highlight a students effort and surprise them by making them feel significant

Key Pointers:

Repeating the cycles leverages anticipation to capture students attention
The surprise should require student participation
Break up the rhythm or monotony
Get students excited about something new or different

HOW TO FAIL: Using surprises to create anxiety or worry in an unproductive way. Such as saying, if we have a great day we will climb the rope, while you are aware the class is never going to meet the expectation. It would be better to never discuss the surprise and gift the students then to have a conversation around the issue that is not achievable. A surprise that cannot be delivered on feels like an empty promise. IT IS DEFLATING.

Decision Making

Contributing ones own ideas creates a sense of identity and ownership to the process. When the instructor presents opportunity for the students to make decisions the students are more likely to buy into the process.

Keys to Success: Ask open ended questions that lead the students towards the outcome.

Ask students to explain what you are going to do next.
Ask for a demonstrator to show what you just explained.
Ask for students an "this or that" type of question.
Ask someone to repeat what you just said.

Key Pointers:

Ask open ended questions (i.e. "what color is this wedge?") creates opportunity for students to participate

Helps students feel significant
Creates purpose in engaging

HOW TO FAIL: Ask leading questions such as, "do you understand?" The obvious answer is yes because what student wants to admit they are confused? Ask yes or no questions that leave no room for pushing the conversation forwards.

Pattern Recognition

The brain learns by identifying patterns and applying meaning to the patterns. The easiest way to teach is to create patterns and place meaning to the pattern. The power behind patterns is that once a pattern is learned class management decreases significantly.

Keys to Success: Create easy patterns that everyone can follow. A pattern is only as affective as a students memory and implementation.

Ask which students remember the sequence.
Ask students if the know where to go next after the rotation.
Use a demonstrator to show students what to do and see who can mimic it (mirroring is pattern recognition).

Key Pointers:

Introducing formality keeps consistency within the class increasing students participation
Improves class learning efficiency
Patterns set up for a surprise which then breaks the pattern
Increases class efficiency

HOW TO FAIL: Only perform a sequence once and fail to test if a student remembers. Inconsistency breeds unpredictability and this increases the amount of class management required.

Scenarios

How would you apply theses tools individually/ or combined?

The class is beginning and students are not listening to you when you call the class out.
A student will not stay in their space during warm up.
A student keeps interrupting you when you speak.

A student is not following the vault circuit and they are moving through the equipment however they like.
Your class is having a side conversation while you are explaining what to do at an event.

EXAMPLES

Sit in a tuck sit and ask, "who can get in this tuck sit first?

Mirroring: the instructor sits in a tuck and asks students to sit in a tuck
Decision Making: Students are prompted with a verbal question that needs a physical answer.
Surprise: "who can get in ... first." creates a competition and puts a sense of urgency on the need to get into the right position quickly. The outcome, or winner is the surprise.
Pattern Recognition: The instructor is in a tuck and the students will be in a tuck, so the students are using visual cues to recognize a patterns and then mirror.

STRONG USE OF TOOLS

Students are goofing off during the event and the risk is elevating. The instructor says, "everyone freeze, line up."

Mirroring: If the instructor demonstrates the freeze position then there is mirroring with the instructor.
Decision Making: Students are being asked to listen however it doesn't create any desire to follow directions.
Surprise: Why the yelling of "freeze" might come as surprise it requests compliance then provokes compliances.
Pattern Recognition: Everyone is in a freeze position, and everyone will line up on their dots, both of which are formalities.

WEAK USE OF TOOLS

Students are goofing off during the event and the risk is elevating. The instructor says, "Time for something new, everyone freeze! First we need to line up."

Mirroring: If the instructor demonstrates the freeze position then there is mirroring with the instructor.
Decision Making: Students are now being asked subliminally, "do you want to learn something new? If yes then go line up quickly."
Surprise: While before the coach was suprising the students with "freeze" this time the surprise is "something new," this increases the value of the surprise.
Pattern Recognition: When students learn that "something new" is a phrase that means it is time to progress, they are more likely to comply with little effort.

STRONG USE OF TOOLS

While you are trying to explain the event students appear to be distracted so you ask for a demonstrator.

Mirroring: Notice how many students all want to be a demonstrator, they are mirroring the same behavior. This also applies if you have a group of students who do not want to demonstrate.
Decision Making: "who wants to demonstrate" is open ended enough it allows students to own their own decisions.
Surprise: There is scarcity in that not everyone can be a demonstrator so it means "surprise" you better act quick or lose the opportunity.
Pattern Recognition: By using a demonstrator you are asking students to observe and then perform.

MEDIUM USE OF TOOLS

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse