My new favorite phrase is: oh! I see that you are doing ______ because you need my full undivided attention.
Then I went over and stood by the student in question and gave them my full undivided attention.
I have never seen students get back on task so quickly in my life. It really only took a couple minutes of staring at them before everytime after that they got quickly on task.
I'm not sure how well this will work for a long term strategy, but it sure worked today.
I've been trying to do the same sort of thing the past few years - and not only with kids but with grown ups too, (although I don't quite say it that way,) and I really think that transparency helps everyone - Say it like it is.
ReplyDelete