I teach freshmen in health and juniors/seniors in a class called, "Individual Family Living". Managing the classes can be a super challenge for me, especially for the older population.
In all my classes, I do a lot of walking/moving around, making sure I offer myself to as many individuals, or groups, as possible as I speak, as they speak, or as they work. I use a lot of eye contact. I make facial gestures towards them like scrunching up my face, or turning my palms upside down and giving them a "really?" look. I try to use humor first since I have a "you be cool to me and I'll be cool to you" mantra that I remind them of constantly. These strategies work for excessive talking or chatting when it's not appropriate, or when they should be listening. When they don't listen, I shift into a more serious tone, and I tell them that every minute that they are disruptive is a minute that they lose after the bell rings. If they try and get up to line up before the bell rings then I have them sit down and wait, and if anyone is up then everyone has to sit until everyone is seated before they can leave. They hate this. I try to have my "withitness" with me in class everyday, so I can react immediately, give constant feedback, and stay on top of my special needs students, who number 7 in all five classes, and are all ADD with IEP's.
Strategies work for me with the freshmen. They don't work as well with the juniors and seniors. I have a LOT of kids who "don't care" or have extreme apathy. Considering some of the problems they have with their home life and the law, if I can keep them at school, I'm winning half the battle. I don't assign homework and I try to do group work that involves higher order thinking skills like solving problems through case studies. I also have great guest speakers, like AIDS patients and teen parents. I find that they are attentive to the more serious real-life stuff, and since we don't have any district sanctioned curriculum for IFL, I can pretty much do what I want with them. It's been a great learning experience.
