Dear Colleagues,
I gave a talk recently called the “M Factor” and when I got home my 14 year old daughter asked me what I did with my day and I told her I gave a presentation to teachers. Straight away she said to me “I hope you told them to be not to be so moody all the time”. Resisting the urge to point out when it comes to this issue if Mood was an Olympic sport, she would win a Gold Medal for the UK this summer, for once we are in agreement.
I have believed for some time that Mood and Motivation are the basic concepts in successful teaching and learning. Reading and setting the mood of the classroom and being able to interpret and change the mood of specific individuals are vital to successful classroom management. However it is often three aspects of mood that you will have to focus on.
Number one is your mood. When you are in a good mood you can handle most people and most individuals. However if before you have gone into the classroom you have had a difficult journey into school or are not feeling that well, then what might be little irritations on most days might really annoy you especially if presented by a specific student that you don’t really click with. Also certain individuals may be able to “smell” the fact that you might not be at your best and some students or “players” will pick away at you just to stir things up.
The second mood to manage will be those of the more challenging individuals in your class. Can you read their mood when they first come in, have they had a difficult last class or they really not ready to learn. Do they need some time to settle? have they had enough sleep the night before? Can do detect friction amongst certain individuals coming into the room?
Finally, take another look at the “players” in the class because if they become easily bored, they are likely to set up the more “incendiary” individuals as this will be entertainment for them.
Once you have the mood sorted then you need to focus on the Motivation of all individuals in the class.
William Glasser has identified Motivation as having 3 components which are as follows: Belonging, Power and Fun. How you interpret this is will be crucial to classroom success.
In terms of Belonging every individual must feel that the classroom is a safe and secure place. They should value their time there and most of all feel valued by their teacher.
In terms of Power every individual should feel that they have status and opportunities to present their skills in ways that add value to the overall class dynamics. This could be whether it is terms of presenting learning knowledge themselves or helping others to learn.
Finally let’s remember whether you are 3 or 93 everybody likes to have Fun. Let’s make learning fun in terms of the whole experience, mix up the format once in a while. Play games, quizzes, role play, use ICT creatively to present information or review learning.
Mood and Motivation are the keys to successful learning outcomes as any student would tell you ………not in those words probably…… as it would be more likely that “my best teacher was fair and he/she made the classroom fun as well”
Fin 26th Jan
PS Check out my website on www.fintanoregan.com on the home page for my new ADHD resource Pack