Kid Whisperer Nation Teacher Tips #76-80

Kid Whisperer Nation Teacher Tip #76

EFFECTIVE MONITORING PART III

TEACH FROM THE DANGER ZONE

A classroom’s “danger zone” is the area where negative behaviors are coming from. This usually is where a couple of difficult kids are seated. Before, or right as, problems are beginning, slowly walk over to where the problems are, will be, or are just about to be. Simply teach with great enthusiasm from the danger zone.

Kid Whisperer Nation Teacher Tip #77

EFFECTIVE MONITORING PART IV

MONITOR WHILE PLAYING IT COOL

Find one to three spots in your classroom where you can lean or sit casually while seeing every kid in your room. Have a drink in your hand. Have a smile on your face. Yawn. This shows that the behaviors of your students are not your problem. For example, I probably spent an hour a day sitting on a ledge in the back of my classroom drinking coffee and eating oatmeal.

Kid Whisperer Nation Teacher Tip #78

MOVE IN ON KIDS LIKE A SLOW, OLD, NICE, CONFUSED PERSON

When you use an intervention that requires you to approach a kid, do it slowly, with a smile, and or a confused or weird look. Shuffle your feet. This will keep kids guessing about what you are thinking, it will create thinking, and it will tend to make the kid not feel threatened, just wondering what your deal is.

Kid Whisperer Nation Teacher Tip #79

EFFECTIVE MONITORING PART VI

STAND ON TOP OF ‘EM

Okay, not literally, but when you stand directly behind a student, you can actually see their eyes without them seeing you. It also stimulates student thinking. NOTE: don’t do this with extremely explosive students. Feel free to review EFFECTIVE MONITORING PART I, POSITION YOURSELF BEHIND THE EAR for a strategy that is better for those kids.

Kid Whisperer Nation Teacher Tip #80

EFFECTIVE MONITORING PART VII

DON’T BE OBVIOUS

Make sure that you are doing something else while monitoring. This should be easy since, if you are a teacher, you will always have to be multitasking. Monitor while doing the billions of things that you have to do. Never look like an angry, stern, or nervous overseer who stares at kids with their arms crossed. This will actually cause more problems than it will solve.