Clapping for silence

[thechillandthedamp]

SLTs latest

We clap three times. The students clap back three times then fall silent.

Fucking get me out of here.

Piggywaspushed

Sorry 😂

God, I hope my school don't start pulling us up for lack of a smile. My year 7's would smell blood if I smiled. The death stare is my go to.....coupled with silently writing names on the board if they haven't noticed after a minute or so. The shocked gasps of the other kids usually finishes the job. Of course, this method heavily relies on SLT following up with the school behaviour policy as the kids accrue sanctions in class.

But that's what they need to learn earlier, then, isn't it? The adult, the person in the room giving the instructions, is talking. They shouldn't be

Have you never watched a speaker trying to get a room of adults quiet at training or a conference?? Even in a lecture theatre full of grown up teachers there will be a significant number of people who are so self-important they feel like they should finish what they are saying to the people next to them, even when the speaker at the front is very obviously waiting.

God, yeah, teachers are the worst!!

Lowdoorinthewal1

So again, those people needed to be taught better manners at an earlier age.

But if teachers- who spend their lives getting other people to do it- won't do it, what is it you have to do to 'teach' them??

Lowdoorinthewal1

It's nothing to do with 'teacher' versus others. People have either been taught good manners - by parents and yes, their teachers - or they haven't. To teach my students how to behave, I use a range of strategies, including praise and punishment.

pengggwyn I agree with you that children need to be taught that they shouldn't speak while the teacher is talking. However, if my year 6s have been given a task that needs discussion - with a partner or a group - then I need an audible signal to bring 30 children to silence again swiftly, so we can move on. I use a bell, followed by 2 ‘thank yous’ to children who have fallen silent immediately.

I might try goose duck duck with my undergrads.

the do this at the local infant school - its very amusing as if you are at the park or pool and clap clap clap and all the kids that went to that school stop talking momentarily and a fair few clap back - up to about year 6ish. Its like pavlovs dog - they cant not do it.

Kids need to be trained into classroom routines like shutting the hell up while the teacher is talking. I guess at primary it’s easy as you have the same class all day every day. At secondary it’s difficult when kids are shuttling between so many different teachers, all doing things differently. I guess what this school, and the school on the other thread with the handshakes are trying to do is introduce consistency.

The problem is that they didn’t consult staff first. Teachers aren’t all extrovert performers who are happy to touch, clap, whatever. If there is going to be an agreed whole-school signal for quiet (which is a completely reasonable idea) then it needs to be something that all staff are happy with.

And crucially, it needs to be backed up with an effective behaviour policy with escalating sanctions and the support of SLT. No point in agreeing with ‘3-2-1 quiet’ if the kids keep talking and nothing happens. There has to be a sanction for continuing talking.

But like Beavers where we put our hands up and beavers eventually follow :)

Bit!

I note with both the handshaking and the clapping, they have been introduced md-year. Because that makes sense...

On that programme where the parents go back to school the teacher says 'Class Class' and they reply something. I guess the idea is if they have to say those words they can't be saying anything else, so I do see the logic in it. You'd have to be confident they heard you saying 'Class Class' though!!

In secondary? In my day they just lobbed a blackboard rubber at us and told us to shut up or we'd be held back.

It just works. And if they did it at primary, they have a Pavlovian response to it. They just clap and shut up so you can get on with teaching. Something like that has always existed. Our teachers used to say: Hands on your heads, eyes front. Nothing happened until everyone had their hands on their heads. That was almost fifty years ago.

I’m trying and failing to picture my Y9s chanting in unison some call and response thing. They are too cool.

I don’t know how schools like Michaela who use call and response as part of lesson scripts do it, tbh.

We do silent signals with guides or up a couple of decibels with the whistle. OP shout if you prefer but others save their voices.

Have you never watched a speaker trying to get a room of adults quiet at training or a conference?? Even in a lecture theatre full of grown up teachers there will be a significant number of people who are so self-important they feel like they should finish what they are saying to the people next to them, even when the speaker at the front is very obviously waiting.

One of my uni lecturers (back on my "need to go to uni what can I do that facilitates me getting drunk and dossing about for 3 years" degree rather than my PGCE where I was actually seriously focused about what I was doing) was about the only person I've ever seen who could completely and totally pull the "just wait and they'll fall silent" thing off. I've seen umpteen people try it since then but no one pull it off the way he could in a room full of rich arrogant tosser 18 years old and think they know it all undergrads (I went to one of "those" unis)... he had an incredible charisma and presence though and was also just fucking awesome.

I do like the fact the kids' school have the consistency of windchimes - just the leaping little TA that cracks me up every time! And oh god the "Class Class" one was annoying me so much the other week I turned the telly off.

We used to just have to duck flying board rubbers (with their little chalk dust comet tails) and then our primary teacher was very fond of reminding us the cane was still up at the top of the board and how she wished she was still allowed to use it! (I bloody hated primary school for some strange reason) Also liberal applications of threats of hellfire and brimstone and eternal damnation.

To teach my students how to behave, I use a range of strategies, including praise and punishment.

Well, my students all have HFA. I don't even let them put their hands up in class because it's really important to me that they learn to judge for themselves when they can and should speak (or not) in a group situation. I have to do a lot of incidental teaching around it and they need a lot of practise. In mainstream, somebody stood there with their arms folded and eyebrow raised would mean f all to them without direct teaching, they wouldn't naturally stop talking in response to that.

I would argue that 'hands up' is deskilling in the same way as an overt signal for silence.

I say that only to make the point that I do understand that people need to be taught the skill of knowing when to shut up and when to speak in a group- and I do it.

However, I suspect some teachers just expect a class to be able to pick up when they should be quiet, without knowing whether they have been taught or not, and blame the Primary school declare them rude yobs if they don't.

the do this at the local infant school - its very amusing as if you are at the park or pool and clap clap clap and all the kids that went to that school stop talking momentarily and a fair few clap back - up to about year 6ish. Its like pavlovs dog - they cant not do it.

LOL A friend of mine is a teacher and if he does that voice when we're out in a group then we all shut up - we can't help ourselves unless we are drunk

To be honest, when I did assembly with 420 kids (and nattering form tutors) there was no point in any ritualistic symbols or clapping or trying to shout. I just stood centre stage : it did work. Didn't have to sweep in in a gown or anything but that would have been cool. Sometimes an additional hands to lips or an 'I'm still waiting' was needed but not that often.

@Lowdoor I’d appreciate some ideas if you have any!
Current Year 8s think (and have done so since the start of Y7) that if you pause to take a breath that’s their signal to start chatting. No amount of “no talking until I tell you to talk” or detentions seem to make a difference. They are great, but the talking is driving me absolutely bonkers.

So, I introduced clapping to my year 10s today by way of an experiment. Lovely class but don't always go quiet as quickly as they could when moving between tasks. They thought it was hilarious. It worked the first time, although the boys did want to be silly. The second time , only a few of them clapped back but they did go quiet. The third time, it just didn't work and they told me to go back to just nagging telling them to be quiet (4 times approx. before it happened!)