Johnson art teacher, Kristi Hancock, does an amazing job using the Time Out signal in her classes. Her students know that what Ms. Hancock is about to tell them is so important, they need to give her their full attention.
Think about this:
- Do your students know what your TO signal is?
- If you are not getting 100% of your students to respond to the TO signal, what do you do? AFFIRM those that have responded? Tell the class what % of the group you have? Tell the group what % of the group you still need?
- How long do you wait for everyone’s attention?
- Have you thought about incentivizing this tool? Could it be a race? “Hey, 3rd period, can you beat your time for last week? Instead of timing out in 50 seconds, can we time out in 40 this week?”
- Do you encourage your students to check/remind those that are not timing out?
- Have you referred to your social contract in relation to your Time Out signal? “Class, we agreed to treat each other _________. Are we exhibiting that behavior when I consistently only get about 80% of your attention when I time you out?”
Remember that each teacher needs some type of attention-getting signal. If our goal is to create self-managing community of learners, this tool is critical!