The Timer
“How much time do you think you need for the warm up? Six questions, five you have to copy… six minutes?”
“Seven.”
“Five.”
“Ok, six.”
- The Timer
In my class, almost every activity, except the reading/discussion, is timed. In the upper corner of the lcd projection, there is always The Timer. It is such a part of what we do, that when I forget to start it, I hear about it.
“You forgot to start the clock.” (Followed by a chorus of shushing and “Why’d you tell him?”)
The Clock keeps us all moving right along. It allows them to set a pace that gets them done in time. It prepares them for standardized state tests and suchlike. Etc. Etc. But the best part is, The Timer plays a sound when you start…and when time is up. Any sound (.wav file) you want. And that’s where the fun begins.
Right now the start sound is a silly, high-pitched sort of teeheehee giggly thing. It actually sounds like the laugh of a student I had a few years ago. Everybody that year thought I’d taken the sound from her. But it’s the sound at the end that makes it fun.
I have pretty decent speakers attached to my class computer, so when the volume is up, and I choose, say, a screaming man sort of sound as the alarm at the end…well, the result is one of the unheralded perks of teaching middle school. They’re working away on the warm up, and don’t notice that time is running out…and then: Scream! The first few times, early in the year, I’ve had some fall out of their desks. There are inadvertent squeals (from boys too), screams, and almost all of them jump, if I have chosen the right sound.
Earlier this year we started doing more of our warm ups “one-at-a-time,” with the CPS clickers, and the clicker software has a countdown on the screen, so we haven’t been using the Timer as much. But lately we’ve been going old-school on our warm ups (no clickers!), so there isn’t the built-in clicker countdown, and I’ve been breaking out the Clock more often. Maybe it’s because we hadn’t used it so much recently and their immunity was wearing off? Maybe I just found the right alarm sound for this crowd? Anyway, their reactions have been an endless source of enjoyment of late. The collective scream today in one class was much louder than the alarm itself. Almost rivaled our Pledge of Allegiance scream. I really thought I was going to need a mop in another class.
After a while, everyone gets to know who the jumpy ones are. Sometimes we try to warn them a few seconds before the end, so they can gird themselves (that only works about half the time), sometimes we just watch, and wait.
“We’re in the red zone now (the clock turns red when you’re under a minute), so those of you who are more… sensitive… might want to prepare yourselves.”
(40 seconds later)
“What did you say, I wasn’t lis…”
SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAM
Hahahahaha. I never get tired of this.
Every year, before Back to School night, the kids make me promise I’ll use it on their parents. Our BTSN consists of 10 minute periods where the parents follow their student’s schedule, and we give our spiel. I tell the parents that I’m setting a timer so I don’t run long.
Yeah, that’s it.
Click on the picture of The Timer to go to a listing of files. Right-click on each one and save them all to a folder called timer (or whatever). Read the “Read Me” file for how to change the sounds.
I like to change the sounds at random intervals. Keeps them on their toes.
Here’s my stash of sounds for the Timer. Right-click on each one to save as.
(Originally posted @ TeachingtheOutsiders.com.)
Be the Alpha (Tips Part I)
First in an occasional “series” of tips for teachers of junior high – sorry, middle school. Because we all know that middle school is different. From almost anything.
1. Be the Alpha. Middle schoolers in groups are, in many ways, like dogs in a pack; they are always looking for the Alpha, and there’s chaos if there isn’t one to be found. Or worse yet, one of the kids will assume the role. Remember, MS’ers crave structure (no matter how they protest that they don’t), and they hate the wishy-washy even as they take advantage of them. Don’t try to make them like you. They will anyway. Eventually. It’s sort of like how hostages sometimes fall in love with their captors after a long time. 
2. Learn the word NO, and use it frequently. (This one is sort of a corollary to #1.) To paraphrase Huck: “becuz (they) don’t give a dern for a thing ‘thout it’s tollable hard to git.” Where I teach, for some of the kids, this class is the first place anyone has told them no.
3. Don’t make it too easy. Their biggest fear is boredom, not challenge. Huck’s words are true for this one too. But, it shouldn’t be a macho thing, as we’ve all seen in some (ahem) high school (and above) teachers – “I always give lots of homework…every mistake lowers you one grade…I never give A’s…”
Challenge them, don’t beat them down. (Though you might feel like it sometimes.)
4. Enjoy it. The kids know when you’re phoning it in. You can’t do this job right if you don’t like it. If it’s just a job, quit now. Really. I always tell my students, “You’ll know when I don’t enjoy this any more, because I won’t be here.”
I don’t see that happening any time soon.
(Originally posted @ teachingtheoutsiders.com.)
Raffle King
(Sung — way off key, and sort of warbley — to the tune of ”Oh Christmas Tree.”)
I guess we need to talk about the King.
On Wednesdays, after we go over the vocabulary homework, and discuss the words, I give them a vocabulary pretest. If they ace it (100%), they are exempt from the vocabulary portion of the Friday test. I used to have one of them flip a coin to decide whether or not I let them use their “cheat sheet” — the homework page we just went over and corrected — on the pretest. What they don’t believe when I tell them — even though it’s true — is that, on average, their scores on the pretest are lower when they use the cheat sheets, and fewer of them get an exemption. But they like to think it’s a security blanket, so I play along.
Then I discovered the King. I would give you the URL of his creator’s web site, but he has some other, shall we say, inappropriate shtuff. (You can do a Google search if you really want to check it out.) So I took the liberty of “cloning” the King. If you click the picture above, you too can experience decision making at its finest, without fear of filtering. Make sure you have the sound on, because that’s 3/4 of the fun. Projected 8 feet high with the LCD projector… Well, it’s just inspiring.
We now consult the Raffle King for all kinds of decisions. When we get to our 120 Seconds Presentations, the King decides who is next. He decides about cheat sheets on Wednesday. And today, he was to decide whether today’s quiz on chapter 3 would be open mouth or not. I actually wanted them to do it open mouth stylie, but the element of chance always makes it more fun.
In first period, he said si! (That Raffle King likes to think he’s bilingual.) But in the next class, he said no. So we tried again, and this time added “Please?” to the first box. Still no. Pretty please? No. Pretty, pretty please? Still no. And so, for the first time in recent memory, I had to overrule the King. Luckily, he was amenable to the idea for the rest of the day.
The kids are always trying to come up with ways to influence/appease the King.
“I brought an offering of Sharpie pens.”
“We love you Raffle King.”
Some bow down and suchlike.
Some sing. Badly. Desperately.
Every year, after the first time we consult the King, there’s always a whole buncha kids who go home and, well…
“I played with the Raffle King for an hour and a half last night.”
“Raffle King got me out of doing the dishes last night!”
“I used the Raffle King to decide what I should do to my brother for…”
“Lucky for you the Raffle King said I should do my English homework last night.”
No, it’s lucky for YOU.
(originally posted @ teachingtheoutsiders.com)
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