Give Me 5

I have been incredibly busy this summer going after any and all jobs I can find. This led me to the constant thought process about the best answers to questions that schools could ask. The one thing I am most proud of during my student teaching is the use I got out of the classroom management method, Give Me 5. I try to work this in as much as I can when I talk to principals and teachers interviewing me. This is not something I came up with on my own, however, if I had never found it I don't think I could have gotten through the rest of my student teaching. My university mentor (wonderful woman!) explained it to me on a tough day. Basically, it is a quick way to get your students' attention. First, you need a stop watch. I just keep mine around my neck so that it is handy at all times. Next, put one hand up in the air with all five fingers extended.  As you say each expectation you have of the children to be good listeners put a finger down. The expectations are: eyes on speaker, ears are listening, hands to yourself, feet are still, and mouths are closed. These can be altered to meet your specific expectations. By the time you are done saying the 5 expectations you should have a fist in the air and all of the students should be ready to listen by doing all of the expectations. Unfortunately, not all of the students will be ready to listen. This is where the stop watch comes into play. Hit the start button as soon as you are done saying the 5 expectations. When all students are listening, hit stop. You can use the accumulated time as an incentive to listen. I used the accumulated time as time away from my students' second recess. This made the students want to listen so that they can have the most amount of time to play. Usually I feel bad taking time away from recess because I feel strong about giving them plenty of time to release their energy. However, it does not take much time for the students to realize that it is time to listen, so the stop watch typically ends up with between 1 and 3 minutes. Now that I will most likely be subbing for the upcoming school year I need to find a better way to get student attention that is more flexible.