Teaching Elementary School

When it actually comes to teaching elementary school students, a teacher will need to find ways in which they can keep their students’ attention focused on the subjects that they are being taught. Unfortunately young children have a lot of difficulty in actually be able to remain attentive to what someone is doing with them if they find it boring or uninteresting.

In this article we will look at some ways in which elementary school teachers can help to get the attention of every child within their class.

The first thing that you could do is buy an ordinary pack of playing cards or a set of index cards and then on to each one write the name of each child. You then shuffle the cards. From now on what you will need to do is when you ask the students a question, pull a card out of the deck and have whatever child’s name is on it to answer the question rather than those that have raised their hands.

The great thing about using this particular technique in the classroom is that it:-

1. Prevents favoritism as no longer will a teacher have to call on those students who are always putting their hands up.

2. It prevents a teacher from ignoring those students who either are silent or those shy kids who will simply not respond to a question that you have asked them.

3. It is a way of making sure that each child is paying close attention to what you are asking and what their classmates are responding with. This is because they never know when they will be called upon to answer a question. They should not be allowed to repeat an answer that someone has already said. This means that they are actually having to think for themselves rather than relying on their peers constantly to provide you with answers.

Using this technique actually makes all the children feel more equal and helps those who are unsure. However what you must never do when using this method in teaching elementary school students is to place the cards at the bottom of the pack but instead slot them in the middle of the pack instead or at the top even. This way then none of your students will be able to just sit back and think that they will not be called upon again any time soon to answer another question that you as the teacher have asked them. It may be an idea to actually get the same child to answer some questions one after the other to show the other students that they are never safe from being asked a question.