In my work, I often visit multiple lessons, one after the other. This affords the opportunity to compare the way teachers in the same school interact with their classes. Quite often I seen common strengths; I also observe variations. Some of the variations can be found in the way teachers hold the room, focus attention, reinforce expectations, notice students who seem distracted or who are not participating and create a sense that every student is involved and is seen.
I’ve often sat back to evaluate this. When a teacher seems to have a strong read on the room, holds attention and creates this fully involved, engaged atmosphere – how do they do it? On the flip side, when a teacher seems not to notice off-task behaviours, peer chat, or that students in the corners are not remotely involved.. what is it that they’re not doing that they could be?
I think it comes down to this: the teachers that sustain focused attention successfully, all around the room, make a point of checking and scanning the whole space at regular intervals, minute to minute. They take stock. And to do this, they give themselves a moment to do so; they take a beat. They pause. (I know – the blog title is a spoiler!)
Where teachers lose this sense of full engagement and fight against the off-task hubbub, they often don’t allow themselves the time to notice… never mind the time to intervene. They move from one thing to another without stopping. They don’t pause, scan, check and insist on expectations being met or to see who might be mentally checking out. They don’t fully read the room and seem to just hope that students will follow the ideas or the instructions; they have to assume that things they say are being heard because they’re not giving themselves time to check, all around the room.
