When you are teaching, you are speaking just to hear yourself speak? Sometimes that's how I feel with my boys. So yesterday, I taught the science lesson, and neither boy could answer things that I just read two sentences ago. So after their school day ended, I gave them the science book and had them read the pages that we studied. They were like "but Mom, school is over". My reply "You messed around on my time, and now you can study the lesson on your own time"
Yep! In fact right this minute I am here on the computer so I would scream at my kids. They are wasting time acting silly. I told them I will make lunch as soon as they are done with page they are currently working on. They can decide how long that takes and I walked away. I haven't tried this before and it doesn't look like it is working very well, but ...
Maybe they aren't auditory learners? I'm 36 and as much as I try to pay attention, I don't retain hardly anything when someone reads or lectures UNLESS I take notes while they lecture, even then, I get distracted by sparkly things or my own doodles and miss parts. LOL How old are they? Can they take notes? If they are too young to take notes what works for my kids is coloring a page that is related to the topic I am reading on. Or, If I can't find any, I hand them paper and paint or crayons or hand them play-doh and have them draw or make something related to what I am reading about. I also find, stopping every paragraph or two (maybe more often for harder texts) and narrating it in my own words or re-reading a sentence and asking questions about it. (This is how we cover voacb in our house, I reread the sentence and have them guess what they think the 'big word' means. We discuss the context, etc they try to figure it out)
Yes! My son has autism so I've gotten use to him not looking at me, even though I know he understands me. That's always hard. But lately he doesn't even look up at the board! I told him, "I know you don't like to look at faces, but when I'm pointing on the board, you're just going to have to look up!" Ug! I agree with Josie, maybe they zone out because they are not auditory learners. I bet if you had them take notes on what you were saying, it would help. There is a worksheet I've seen that helps kids learn to take notes, I just don't recall where I've seen it. But, they fill in the grid - maybe if you sketched out some notes, and had them fill in the rest, it would help bring in some visual to the learning.
Yes and it's why I struggle to consistently teach science/art/history. I cannot stand to feel like I'm wasting my time and breath. My oldest learns really well reading things for himself. So I really try to do minimal teaching out loud and have more books on the topics we're learning about that he can read for himself. He seems to retain more that way.
YEP! I deal with this with my youngest all.this.week. I finally told her that if she does not start paying attention then all her electronic devices would be mine until further notice.. that changed her attitude! There are some great ideas above maybe on of those will help you...
My son is ADHD, so this is a regular occurrence. It is also what I am accustomed to have happen in the classroom on occasion. My solution is to have my son or the class stand up and shake. Yes, I've done this with high school students. They are so shocked that a grown man would have them do this, that the older students tend to pay closer attention, just to see what I may do next. Another strategy I use is to go completely off topic. By the time the realize that I'm in another world, they are stunned, because I'll be talking about the most off the wall thing I can imagine at the moment. Then they start cracking up, and are ready to pay attention.
I never made my kid learn about anything she wasn't interested in. I know that sounds horrible, but it's the truth. If she wasn't into it....we picked something else. Too many other things to learn to worry about it. Worked out ok
YES! It is taking some getting used to to have my son acting like I am killing him when I am trying to teach him a new concept. I get that or he sits upside down on the chair (think Mork from Ork if you are familiar with it)!!! It is so frustrating to feel as though they don't even care. I know for a fact he would NEVER act like that in his old school. He did everything to impress his teachers. Not me. Sorry it happens to all of you too, but happy I am not alone.
