Using Stories to teach

In my experiences, I've always been a fan of explaining things through the use of examples and stories. Though, I'm not exactly the best at doing myself in big groups, I've always liked it when teachers use either stories or really practical examples in their lessons. In particular, stories work really well with teachers who've either had a lot of experience (and thus have lots of examples to work from), or teachers who have done a lot of interesting things in their life. For example, one of my english teachers in high school had worked extensively overseas in Europe and elsewhere in the world. As such, in his classrooms he was always relating things in class to his explorations in greek caves, and adventures driving across Italy. Though, I don't exactly have the experience, or breadth of worldly knowledge that these teachers had, it is my hope that one day I can use these teaching techniques myself.

Modeling

Most of my teaching experience so far has been through private music lessons and a strategy that I think is really effective for me is modeling on my own instrument and playing along with students. I like to explain to students that playing as a duet is like playing in a really small band; as soon as you play with another person you have to start thinking about such things as keeping a steady rhythm, balance, blend and tuning which are the things we work on in our band classes. It gives students an opportunity to focus on these concepts and begin to think musically. It is also very beneficial for auditory learners to hear how something is supposed to sound as well as read it from the page. I realise this is a musical example but I think the idea of modelling is important in any subject area, certainly it is important to demonstrate how to properly execute a lay-up, or to give demonstrations of a specific technique in art class.

Assessment for Learning

After taking assessment in the arts with Dr.John Fawcett I must say that my eyes have really been opened, and my philosophy really changed. The assessment for learning movement is new, exciting, and just makes sense. I don't think I really realized how to properly assess and evaluate in a way that's fair for the learner, and really shows their achievement of the learning outcomes. I want to encourage anyone who hasn't been involved with the assessment for learning experience yet to get out there and read up about it. I've really changed my teaching style and philosophy I believe for the better, and have a clear understanding of how important assessment can be and how it can be a hugely negative or positive affect on our teaching.

Teaching Strategy - work habits mark

My sponsor teacher has a particularly mis-guided grade 11/12 class. She decided part way through the semester that she would give them each a mark out of 3 for every class based on their work habits that day. She told them her plans and then implemented it right away. At the end of each class she would go around and tell the students what mark she gave them. Surprisingly, most students agreed that the mark she gave was accurate. Although my teacher can't put these marks into their grade, she can use them for reference when doing the G,S,I part of the report cards. Also, it made the students feel like their work habits were more important in the grading process and made them reflect on, at least momentarily, about how they behaved each class. I don't know if she has kept this up since October but I will be interested to know if it has helped the overall behavior since then.

Bonus Stickers

For many of us our Assessment of the arts class had completely changed and confused our thinking on how we are to evaluate and assess our students. We have been told that bonus marks are a huge no no because they skew the representation of the student's achievements. For myself, and probably some of you bonus marks were a part of my high-school experience. Now that I have been shown "the error in my ways of thinking" I have decided that bonus marks do not have to be a bad thing and if used correctly will not skew student progress. Bonus marks were a huge incentive for me and I still want to offer that for my students. I think that by changing bonus marks to bonus stickers or bonus "insert non mark related incentive" is a great way to engage your students. So instead of giving bonus marks on a test or bonus marks for doing some extra special project, or for great participation that we instead give the students bonus stickers. Make up a chart on poster board and give students bonus stickers then you can have a prize at the end of the year. It could be something you buy (if you want to spend the money) or you could set up an incentive with the class that if everyone can accumulate X number of stickers by the end of the year you will have a pizza party or it could be as simple as handing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place Bonus Sticker Awards (do them up all fancy on nice paper etc...). Or maybe you could buy a trophy and have a large plate that every year the winner gets their name engraved on it, or whatever you can think of). I think this is a great way to incorporate bonus "marks" into the learning without having it cause misrepresentation of the child's achievement.
This was just an idea I came up with the other night during our last Assessment class and I wanted to share it with you. Do with it what you will.
Good Luck on practicums and Merry Christmas

Teaching Tip!

My older sister is teaching grade 11 and 12 chemistry and I asked her the other day, her best teaching tip that she could give me. She said that over her 2.5 years of teaching, she realized that you need to establish a solid routine. You should not let your students get away with inappropriate behaviour. If you let the inappropriate behaviour slide once, everyone will expect their bad behaviour to slide and everything will just be chaotic. She said that you almost need to train your students ex. in her class, when its a lab day, the students know to bring a pencil/pen and that is it. You have to stick to your rules/guidelines.

Cellphones in schools

For those of you who are also in Tatianna's class, my group included one of these videos in our presentation. Both of these videos are about the use of cellphones in schools and the problems that have arisen from students using cellphones during school hours. The use of technologies such as cellphones, laptops, and iPods are going to be issues that are very relevant to our future teaching career. We are going to need to think about and decide how we are going to handle the problems that come with the use of these technologies and for me personally this will be an interesting topic considering I use and own all three of the technologies and use them in my everyday life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny5Aq2G3770

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIjbnfYCDFk

The boy with the incredible brain

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=4913196365903075662&ei=0CQkS_DWJYGmqQPygsRQ&q=the+boy+with+the+incredible+brain&hl=en&view=3&client=firefox-a#

I'm guessing that everyone in Phil's class is also in Tatiana's ED-D 430 class. Anyway, I'm not sure if both classes are going to/have watched the video on Daniel Tammet the British mathematical savant, but if you haven't you definitely should. After watching the 10 minute clip Tatiana showed us in class I went online and found the full 48- minute documentary “the boy with the incredible brain” and watched it. If you're up for feeling intellectually inferior, this is an awesome watch. Enjoy!

Old school classroom management at its best

How To Maintain Classroom Discipline - Good And Bad Methods Training Educational Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHzTUYAOkPM

I was looking on Youtube and I found this funny old school classroom management video from 1947. Despite it being 60 years old, it represents a lot of good points, which I think are still relevant today. It basically shows two different versions of the same classroom scenario, one where the teacher has terrible management skills and the other where he has pretty good skills. One thing that kind of surprised me was how much it taught about humour and its importance in the classroom. Maybe I have a blurred perception of what teaching was in the 1940s but I thought that things would have been a lot more authoritarian, then this video shows. In addition to its usefulness it's also a pretty good laugh as well- the acting is so terrible!!

Teaching Strategy

I know lots of people think that "think-pair-share" is lame, but I think it's pretty effective when done right. I think it will apply really well to English, where often there is no "right answer" to a question and it gives students the chance to discuss ideas with each other and build on them. For anyone who doesn't know what the strategy is, you give students a task or question to complete on their own. They write down their response, and when they are finished they find a partner and they each share their ideas with one another. The activity can continue further by having each pair share with the rest of the class as well. I think this is a really good way to get students thinking on their own and not just banking on other student's ideas, and also provides a way for students to share ideas in a way that is less intimidating than raising a hand in class and sharing an answer in front of everyone.

Entertaining Story!

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-naked-school,0,6345652.story

Just a little story I found that is pretty interesting- a teacher caught texting and calling a student repeatedly, accused of having a fling with a different student- then later, two more teachers at the same school found naked in a room together. Ridiculous! What are people's thoughts about having students and teachers in contact by text and phone? What if the teacher is a coach of a sports team and has contact information available for athletes, who may happen to be in their classroom? Is this ever an appropriate way to communicate with students?
As for the two naked teachers in a class together, I won't even go there.

Fun History Activity

At Oak Bay, I was observing a history class and had the opportunity to see the final product of projects students had been working on for months. I am not in social studies, but I could see it being easily adaptable to English, my other teaching subject. Each student was to create a 3 minute slide show that included 50 images that went with their theme. They were each to pick a historical time period or event they had studied in class that semester, and find 50 images that related to their chosen topic. Along with the 50 images, they were to find a song that is relevant to the time period, so the slide show could be put together with music. Each student also had to submit a written assignment where they explained each of the 50 pictures they chose, and were required to reference their pictures properly. Some of the slide shows were wonderful to watch, and they were even more entertaining because music went along with them. I just thought this was a great idea- the students seemed to have put a ton of effort into them and the result was amazing.

Student's Criticism of teachers

Another issue- this time on my two week observation at Lambrick Park, where I will be doing my full practicum. My sponsor English teacher does not seem to be well liked by students. Some days I would arrive to the teacher's classroom before I got there, and kids would start bombarding me with comments about how they don't like this teacher, how students think hes racist, sexist, rude, a jerk, bla bla bla... I was absolutely stunned that these kids were openly sharing all this with me without me uttering a word. Now the problem is, I have to agree with the kids on some of the things they were saying, but I would obviously never engage in the conversation with them. How would I deal with this situation? I was terrified the teacher was going to walk in and hear them speaking about him, but at the same time wasn't sure quite what to say to them???

PDA in hallways

I just remembered something that occurred during my two week practicum at Oak Bay, and I remember I had no idea what to do about it. There was one senior student, a male, who was in a class I observed a few times, so he knew who I was. However, every time I passed him in the hallway when he was with his girlfriend, he would make eye contact with me, then drop his hand onto his girlfriend's butt and start caressing her butt or squeezing it or something along those lines, then he would look back at me again. This honestly happened like 5 times in the hallways- I feel like the student was definitely egging me on to see what I would do, if anything. Is this even an issue, or should I ignore it? Side note- the butt caressing was definitely excessive, not just a little love pat- seemed inappropriate for a school setting.

Teaching Tips

One tip for the music classroom that I have learned from observing other master teachers is don't give the kids time to misbehave, especially in big rehearsals. We have probably all been in large rehearsals where the director is obviously frustrated with the level of chatter that is going on in the room and proceeds to spend a few minutes lecturing the class on how they need to stop talking in order to get any work done, blah, blah, blah. The most effective strategy that I have seen in large rehearsals is to have every minute of the rehearsal so well planned that students don't have even a minute to stop and talk. When they do manage to sneak some disruptions in, call their name out, bring their attention back to the front of the room, and continue singing or playing. This requires a very high energy level and a lot of focus from the teacher, but I have seen it work very effectively on many occasions.

humor situation

I thought I'd share this as an example of using humor as a management tool. This works probably best with young kids because, well they just don't know any better or think about how truthful something can be. When I was on the visit, I was teaching grade 6 exploratory. The rule in the band room is no one is on the stage (we have a stage in our room) unless directed to. There's tons of things for students to hurt themselves on or damage, that's why no one's allowed up there. Well 4 grade 6 boys decided to hoof their butts up onto the stage. Of course if I say guys get down there's stuff up there, they're gonna want to look. I decided to tell them really up close "guys you can't be on the stage, you might open the trap door". They looked at me stunned and in awe... "but why Mr.K? where does it go?!" "Well if you accidentally open the trap door it goes to the basement of the school, and we can't get you out for three days". Needless to say the kids looked stunned "we won't do it again mr.k!!". Obviously this is a little playing off how they're still young, but I know they won't go on that stage again, and it was pretty funny. The grade 8's won't fall for that, nor the grade 7's, but hey, while it works for the younger guys, why not?

Life after school...

I just want to say congrats to everyone. We are a week and a half away from our lives at the University and ready to enter the 'real world' and or public schools. For weeks I have been thinking about how handing in papers, and assignments is coming to an end. Then I think instead of doing assignments we now get to create them and then mark 30+ of them :D Its a funny trade off I guess. I was wondering if people wanted to share where you are planning to go and what you want to do when we finish in April.

I'll start... My husband and I are moving to the smallish town of Hinton Alberta where I hope to sub for a couple years before going into a full time teaching position. I really want the T.O.C experience and I am excited to be able to explore and learn new things through being immersed in various different classrooms and grades. I have been working within the confines of music, which has been great, but I am interested in the opportunities to look further at my other interests such as History and Art. I will probably also look for part time work in a youth centre, daycare, or special needs centres. And thats the plan:D

Tip

One thing that I find really useful is have an educational game in your back pocket for those days right before christmas holidays or right before a break from school. Kids are usually pouncing off the walls, depending on the grade, or maybe its so for all grades, anyway have some kind of "game plan" in case your lesson goes out the window. Or perhaps think of a way to turn your lesson into a fun game for the students. When you are willing to adapt and throw things out the window for a little fun (Once in awhile/ in a blue moon- when appropriate), and if you have a good relationship/ management established in your class, the kids will love it.

My tip

Read aloud!
(This is primarily for the English classroom but could transfer to other courses).
When your class is reading novels, poems, plays, other texts, take the time to read aloud. This will help students who have difficulties with reading follow along and if you read with enthusiasm and passion this can help students become further engaged with the text. It sounds simple and it is!

Grass roots

One thing I think that's important to remember as we get ready to leave here kind of, is where we all came from. The other day a second year music education student was really struggling with an assignment for a music ed class. I didn't like seeing this person's despair so I decided to try and help them get to their end goal. I pulled out all my resources, used some good probing questions, and even allowed that student to borrow some of my resources to read through and help get the brain moving. Obviously no spoon feeding happened, but rather a guidance toward some thoughts that would help. That student now has a greater understanding of the topic and apparently really wow'd the prof with their presentation. I hope that when we all leave and become big people teachers we remember to come back and help present opportunities for those in the up and coming at the universities, because they need guidance too and we've got some special tips and experiences for them. Just a little experience I thought I'd share.

tip time with Josh

Well teaching tips and strategies, I'll give two brief ones:

Tip: one that's saved my butt several times is having not only a back-up, but a back-up back-up part of my lesson plans. Having that extension in the case that they cover everything you have is great, but also having an alternate cover is helpful as well. For example if something really bombs, and they're not working with it today, switch to Plan B for the day, reassess plan A and try it again later.

Strategy: Finish each day with an assessment, for me mostly formative, of what was learned that day and ask students if they're comfortable with what was covered. Assessment drives instruction. One of my favorites is the thumbs up/thumbs down with eyes closed to show how comfortable students are with something, or eyes closed show a 1,2, or 3 amount of fingers for level of comfort.

To everyone: good luck out there, love what we're all doing because it's the greatest thing in the world, and happy holidays.

tippity tippity tip tip tips!

Teaching tip #1: Sick of seating arrangements? When the kids enter the class have them pick a number out of a beaker (... or something meaningful to your class!) and that number corresponds to a seat around the class. PRESTO. Each student sits in a different spot every class, no one worries about who they're going to sit with, and everyone gets a chance everywhere. Just keep your students with poor eyesight or hearing in mind!

Teaching tip #2: Play some music. When the students are entering the class, when they're working, when they're leaving the class. Just make the class FUN dammit. Or play 5 min of a movie at the start of every class...what better way to get them to class on time ha.

Teaching tip #3: Smile, and mean it. This is my biggest complaint about teachers new and old... they forget to really genuinely smile.

Have fun on your practicums and have amazing teaching careers you crazy crazy bunch of teachers!

Thank you Pro-Year!

I already gave my teaching strategy and tip at the beginning of the semester when I described PACE marking in a PE setting (Check back on it if you are interested!). I just wanted to use this last blog post to say something to you guys:

I think you're awesome. I look around the classroom and I see so many teachers with so much potential. I think that we are all going to offer something different and unique, and I hope that when things get rough and we get stressed we remember that we are capable. Sounds lame, but it's true. We will all be doing things differently and may not see eye to eye on some fundamental teaching styles, but that's what makes us appeal to a range of unique students! I am so excited to see where we all go and what we do with our practicums and the following years.

All the best to you guys. I'm so glad I got to know you all!!! Thanks for keeping me going!

Teaching Tip - Don't give them a chance to act out

One of the best classroom management strategies I've seen is simply keeping the pace of the lesson fairly quick.

By moving at a fairly quick pace, you're not giving the students a chance to stop, get distracted, and act out.

diy

My teaching tip is to do it yourself. This can be in terms of what you do and also in terms of how you do. If you're asking students to go for a run, run with them. If you're asking students to write a poem, write your own poem. If you're asking them to show you respect, show them respect. I think this is really powerful in PE, although I think that it can be really effective in other areas if students see that you are doing it too instead of just standing and blowing a whistle or sending an email while they do the work. My PE sponsor teacher last year would always do the runs, strength, etc. with them and when he injured his knee he would roll out an exercise bike so he could still be active while they were. He said it made a huge difference in their effort level to have some old guy running laps around them (his words not mine!). My English methods instructor this term has also said she uses this strategy. Her example was that when she asks them to do some type of poem writing - she'll write one up on the board in the same way so they can see the process that she goes through as she writes.

I think this might seem to be common in PE classes, but in English it's not something I've ever really thought of. It's also important to do this in your general attitude, which is something that we've seen a lot, but you need to model the behaviors you expect of your students. Respect them if you want them to respect you, and so on. This is something that I think is more common sense but it's good to always keep it in mind.

My Teaching Tip

One teaching strategy that I observed during my 2-week practicum last year was the use of music in the PE classroom. It was used as a reward and it is one that the students really seemed to value. And it's super easy to implement and you don't have to get into the whole tussle of do I give them candy or don't I because let's be honest they're not gonna really give 'er for a carrot but they will for some candy. But then you have the dilemma about health. Which is why I thought that music was awesome. So all they would do is play music in the background when doing other activities. For instance the class I observed they were playing 'Dodgeball' (don't tell Sandy and Viv!) and when the class started to get a bit rowdy they would just remind them that if they didn't behave they wouldn't get music and they seemed to straighten up their acts. Then they would play the music while they were playing and then if they had anything to say they would quickly turn the music off, expalin or say whatever they needed to say, and then turn the music back on. So quite an effective tool in my opinion.

What Makes a Good Teacher?

http://www.casaaleadership.ca/mainpages/resources/handbook/examples-of-leadership/good-teacher.html

Here's a little resource I found online, which is designed to rank the characteristics deemed most important for a good teacher.

Read the following list carefully and try to determine what characteristics listed below are most important to be a good teacher. Put them in order, the most important No. 1 and so on. Place the ranking on the blank in front of the statement.

Teacher's ability to:

_____ communicate effectively with students
_____ understand feelings of students
_____ listen to other people's opinion
_____ dress neatly and attractively
_____ keep order in the classroom
_____ be fair when disciplining
_____ be informed on the latest information in subject area
_____ use many different methods (videos, overheads, books)
_____ expect high levels of achievement from students
_____ be liked by students
_____ cooperate with students' wishes
_____ communicate effectively with parents
_____ admit to error if a mistake is made
_____ keep good records

I by no means feel that this is the be all and end all of what makes a good teacher, but I think it tells a lot about what we personally value in a good teacher.

The Great Facebook Debate

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/09/08/bc-north-vancouver-facebook-teachers-guidelines-students.html

I don't know if anyone else has bumped into this article, but it deals with facebook in the classroom and how it should and shouldn't be used. Reading through I found many of the points to be quite valid and in a lot of ways common sense. The interviewer and interviewee basically talk about how teachers and student should not add each other as friends in facebook (big surprise huh), but instead if they choose to use it should create profiles dedicated specifically for school uses. Another interesting thing in the article, actually mentions that it is school board policy in the Vancouver and Langley school districts which bans teachers from adding students as facebook friends- something that I'm sure is going to become more and more prevalent in boards across the country as time goes on.

Despite the obvious risks and personal boundary crosses associated with student/teacher facebook communication, I still see facebook as a powerful academic tool. If dedicated pages and accounts are created for academic purposes, I think a lot of useful information exchange can happen if used properly. In university for instance (which I know is completely different from high school), one of my profs used facebook as a means of passing on important dates, and other information to us in class. In many ways this worked great, the information got out to us really fast, and we were able to comment on it, suggest new dates, ideas and all sorts of stuff in a really efficient manner. Granted none of us bothered to create specific academic profiles, which I'm sure we wouldn't have check as often as our regular profiles, but in theory I think it can be used as a really great teaching tool- again if used properly.

Teaching Tip: Be Your Own Teacher

I was surprised by the number of teacher who've told me to "Be your own teacher." It sounds great. But what does it mean??? Be genuine in your interactions and don't apologize for yourself.

For example, one of my sponsor teachers is a successful poet (at least by the Canadian standard), so she spends approximately 6-8 weeks on this subject, and manages to incorporate it into every novel or play study as well. I found this prospect intimidating because poetry isn't what interests me about English. Her response to my concern: "just don't." Teach what your passionate about. End of story.

Many other teachers have given me similar advise about achieving control in the classroom. As the teacher, you are responsible for creating a safe, productive classroom atmosphere, but the way you achieve this learning community is left to your discretion. Teenagers and children have an innate ability to sniff out what Holden Caulfield calls "phonies." If you're faking, you're wasting their time. For this reason, it has generally been recommended to me that the best method of establishing a productive classroom environment is to be genuine. Hopefully you are in the teaching profession because you care for and respect students, and if this is the underlying feeling in your class, students are more likely to respect you, to seek out your approval, and to want to participate positively in your classroom community. If you are very orderly, it might work for you to keep a very orderly classroom; if you are very relaxed, it might work for you to have a more co-operative classroom. If you try to crack down hard on rules you don't believe in, student's won't respect you--equally if you let students do things you don't believe in, they won't respect you either. The main point here is to make a person to person connection with students first, then both learning and order will come naturally.

Remember, there are lots of test going on in the first 3 weeks of term, and it's you who's being tested.

Micro Lesson- Learning strategies

This strategy is for the music people. It's called 'echo-reading' and is usually used in an English class. It is a call and response type deal where the teacher will read through a line of literature and the students will repeat. However in a musical sense, for a choir, the piano can replace the teacher and the student can sing the line the piano plays. It is a strategy that we have been teaching for many years. But its a great way for students to learn music.

Teaching Tip-Using music to start class

I have observed the following in action:

As part of the active living curriculum organizer in PE, students develop goals in relation to a 20 minute run which they complete every couple of months. To work towards this goal, the students run at the start of every class for about 6-10 minutes. It makes up a portion of their warm up as it is the first thing they during the formal part of the lesson. At a set time a few minutes after the bell has rung and the students are supposed to be changed, the teacher starts music on the gym speakers. Students know that this means it is time to start running. Since this is an everyday routine, students expect it and are comfortable with it. It seemed to be an effective way to get class started quickly without wasting too much time, and it (mostly) cut out any opportunity for the students to complain about running. It also increased efficiency by allowing the teacher a bit of time to take attendance without using students' time which could be spent actively. The PE department had a large selection of music so the students weren't bored hearing the same thing all the time.

Teaching Tip

So i thought i would ask a Dr. in Education what is their best tip for entering the practicum?
"BEST TIP.....have solid lesson plans (doesn’t have to be fancy).....be thoughtful.......AND set limits to your work....although the practicum is demanding it isn’t meant to kill you. All makes sense to me and it is simple if you think about it.

A teaching idea**

When assigning projects, allow students the option of how they want to express their knowledge. For example, in a socials class they can write an essay, do a painting, write a song, write a poem, etc etc... as long as they meet the learning outcomes. Usually they KNOW the content but may not be able to express their knowledge in the specific way we're asking them to. By offering our students these options, we allow them to shine in their areas of strength.

Teaching Strategy

With your problem students (those that act out, or get off task easily) set up a signal so that you can privately let them know when they are off task or out of line. Often this can be the teacher holding up a certain number of fingers that correspond to a particular rule.

Teaching strategy

I was at Oak Bay for my 2 week practicum way back when and saw an interesting strategy that they used to help teach socials. They were focusing on the trial of Louis Reil and each student was given a task to accomodate their learning. Students had to sign up for a part in a mock trial. Firstly everyone was involved and everyone had to do background research (for homework). The trial was filmed and all the participants could use any means to back up thier part. Louis was then put to the jury at the end and the verdict was given according to the evidence given.
I really like this strategy as the students were involved in their own learning and were encouraged to learn from the other students involved in the trial. The assessment was easily done as the teacher could sit and listen to what was said, they could also refer back to the video. Students also felt a connection to their role and put more time into their learning. This strategy also taught a little on the justice system and the respect that is given to each speaker. It also works well for students who dont normally talk in class and for those who love the drama.

Great wesites:Learning Disabilities & tips for new teachers

"The World's leading website on learning disabilities and ADHD"
www.Idonline.org

it even has Rick Lavoie on it ;)

Under "LD TOPICS" on left hand side offers hundreds of articles and resources for educators, parents and others concered about children and adults with learning disabilities and ADHD.

Example Topics:
classroom management
reading & dyslexia
nonverbal LD
special education
gifted & LD
IEPS

Tips for new teachers: www.teachervision.fen.com/new-teacher/resource/6495.html?detoured=1

Teaching Tip: Using your voice for control

I'm not saying this will work for every group of students...
To get your student's focus, start talking really quietly- most kids will catch on and will be really quite so that they can hear you and your next instruction.... The kids that are trying to listen will sometimes pipe up and tell the noisy kids to be quiet (peer pressure) OR the noisy kids will figure it our that it's time to listen when they are the only one talking and they quickly become quiet. Next time they don't want to be embarrassed by being the only one talking.
Even my university prof uses this technique because her voice is so quiet. The only way you can hear her is if you are absolutely silent! It can work really well with some groups. You can change the tone of your voice from loud to quiet and visa versa to sell the major points of the lesson...try it out...my younger kids I coach really buy into it. If you (the teacher) are excited, it can transfer the energy to the kids.

Be wise when you try to implement this technique, you wont get the music student's attention if the room is loud with belting music if you just start whisper ..and the same in a noisy gym

What makes a good leader? It is a wee bit long, but applicable.

These 10 core competencies comprise good leadership

Visonary
Good leaders create a vision, a picture of the future, of where they want to take their organizations. Leaders can improve both the quality and acceptance of the vision by partnering with their peers, executive team, key employees throughout the organization or outside consultants. To get the best vision you need lots of ideas, and people support what they help to create.

Inspirational.
Once a vision is established, great leaders can inspire everyone in the company to get onboard. Employees in great organizations are passionate about what they do. This inspiration extends to customers, investors, suppliers, boards of directors and all other stakeholders.

This doesn't mean good leaders have to be charismatic or great public speakers, though some are. Leaders may inspire by example or in low-key ways. Every word and action demonstrates their passion for the vision.

Strategic.
Strategic leaders are clear and directly face the strengths and weaknesses of their own organizations, as well as their external opportunities and threats. They think in terms of leverage, fishing where the big fish are and partnering to gain market advantage. While interested in one sale, they would rather create pipelines and strategic alliances that generate thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of sales.

Tactical.
Wired like businesspeople, good leaders are bottom-line oriented and extraordinarily committed to results. They thrive on facts, figures, numbers and data. They're interested in ROI, ROE and EBIDTA. If not numbers-oriented themselves, they surround themselves with strong financial talent.

Focused.
Once vision and mission (a brief, clear statement of the reasons for an organization's existence) are established, good leaders achieve what they set out to do before launching new initiatives. By contrast, poor leaders may have dozens of conflicting programs and priorities. Leaders with 20 priorities essentially have no priorities.

Persuasive.
Not necessarily salespeople, good leaders can bring others to their point of view using logic, reason, emotion and the force of their personalities. They motivate by persuasion rather than intimidation. The key here is the leader speaking from his or her heart.

Likeable.
Good leaders are people-centric. They may be scientists, engineers or technical experts by background, but they recognize interpersonal skills are paramount. They display high degrees of emotional intelligence, and thrive on finesse and likeability.

They want to be liked -- and they are. Again, the key is what's inside the leader. Likeability comes from the inside out.

Decisive.
Sometimes shooting from the hip, good leaders can make decisions quickly -- often with incomplete data. As Theodore Roosevelt said, "In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."

Rarely is a leader able to get 100 percent of the information needed for a decision. Typically it is "60 percent and go" or "80 percent and go."

Ethical.
Good leaders are direct and straightforward. They set clear performance expectations and hold people accountable. This requires being direct and truthful, which can be difficult but -- more often than not -- is natural for the principle-based leader. Good leaders know it's hard to beat the truth.

Open to feedback.
Good leaders are open and dedicated to lifelong learning. They seek feedback about their performance through direct conversations and objective tools such as 360-degree reviews. Seeking continuous improvement in their companies, they also seek it for themselves.

The direct link to the complete article by William S.