Welcome to the Middle School Book Life newsletter, a weekly newsletter for middle school teachers who want to figure out the best books for teaching their students. Join us as we chat about Book Clubs, whole class novels, classroom libraries, and independent reading.
1 tip for creating a quiet(er) classroom
Welcome to the second edition of The Problem Solving Teacher. I’ll keep it short this week because I know that the days leading up to break are fueled by bonus coffee and candy canes. Keep reading for a quick tip on managing your classroom’s noise level.
The Problem: Does your classroom ever get too noisy?
A Solution: A noisy classroom is not necessarily bad. Noise can mean students are vigorously discussing, experimenting, practicing—in short, learning. And yet, there’s a moment when the noise level crosses a threshold and your students’ vigorous learning is now bothering the class next store, overwhelming quieter students, and giving high-energy kiddos an excuse to amp up their noise levels even more.
Then as the noise level rises, you, dear teacher, are stuck because many of your usual attention-getters can’t cut through it all.
Enter in Bouncyballs.org. Project the website for students to see. As the noise level rises, the balls start to bounce faster and higher and when the noise hits a certain level, the site lets out a nice “shhhh!”
I like how this transfers the responsibility of managing noise level from the teacher to the class. The bouncy balls serve as an objective metric and students can practice self-regulation. You, as the teacher, can conserve your energy for better uses. Win-win!
For your classroom library: Serwa Boateng's Guide to Vampire Hunting by Roseanne A. Brown is an engaging middle grade action-fantasy adventure "about a pre-teen vampire slayer with a strong helping of Ghanian folklore." An enjoyable and meaningful read.
A resource to check out: I've long been a fan of Spark Creativity's "Hexagonal Thinking" strategy, as it cultivates open-ended thinking and connection making. Try it in pairs or triads to leverage the power of student talk.
Have a good one and learn everything you can!
Hannah
PS: If you use Bouncyballs.org, will you reply and let me know how it goes?
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Middle School Book Life
Welcome to the Middle School Book Life newsletter, a weekly newsletter for middle school teachers who want to figure out the best books for teaching their students. Join us as we chat about Book Clubs, whole class novels, classroom libraries, and independent reading.